Month: April 2015

Join the Mass Pacer Postcard Campaign

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On this Friday, May 1, 2015— Law Day— the Smart Chicago Collaborative is joining with colleagues across the country to participate in “An Appeal For Postcards”.

We’re asking law students, lawyers, and anyone who cares about the law to write a brief note about why they think that access to PACER is important. Come to John Marshall Law School, 315 S. Plymouth Court to complete a postcard and get your voice heard.

Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an electronic public access service that allows people to obtain case and docket information online from federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts, and the PACER Case Locator.

There are a multitude of issues with PACER, many of which are detailed here at Yo.YourHonor.Org. PACER is a complex, cost-filled, and technically primitive system that unnecessarily impedes the free flow of information about our courts and our law. “This is about access to justice, about innovation in our legal system, this is about basic principles of due process and equal protection in our democratic system.”

Here’s our plan for Chicago:

This program is a part of our Justice program here at Smart Chicago. The beginning of May has had a long and proud history in Chicago, serving as a day of action and reflection about the role of the masses in society. We’re proud to be a part of this national effort. Please join us!

Law School, Night

Law School, Night

Speakers announced for this weekend’s Civic Design Camp at Smart Chicago

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rvprofileSmart Chicago and Code for America are pleased to announce our first two speakers for Civic Design Camp. Civic Design Camp is an annual event designed to bring together government employees, nonprofit partners and professional designers.  This year’s event is being held in Chicago on April 25th at the offices of kCura.

Our first speaker will be Raphy Villas from 18F’s Chicago office.

Raphy Villas began his public service as a Presidential Innovation Fellow working on MyUSA, a platform for accessing government services. He is now a product manager and co-founding member of 18F. Raphy lives in Chicago with his wife and two kids.

Villas will speak about the work of 18F with examples of how their using design thinking to transform government.

Our second speaker is Sonja Marziano, Project Coordinator at Smart Chicago Collaborative.

CCT Headshots-380-editedIn this position, Sonja manages projects including the Civic User Testing Group (CUTGroup), the Chicago Early Learning Portal, Expunge.io “Plus,” and the Chicago School of Data. Before Smart Chicago, she worked in customer service and community programs at the Chicago Children’s Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Sonja has a Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies from Allegheny College.

Sonja will speak about the methods and processes of the CUTGroup, and how CUTGroup is a new model for UX testing, digital skills development, and community engagement in civic tech.

You can register for Civic Design Camp right here on our SplashThat Page!

Civic Tech Hero: Scott Robbin

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Scott RobbinSince October 2013, civic tech pioneer, Chicago web developer, and good friend Scott Robbin has been working with Smart Chicago as our lead developer. If you have worked at all with us since then, you have benefitted from his work. Let’s take a look:

This is a ton of work. But at Smart Chicago, we’re not all about the technology. Scott has been a patient mentor for developers, teaching them how to use our resources, advising them on how to build their sites. He’s helped us work with non-technical consultants to keep them on the path to being bona-fide Web project managers. And he’s generally shared his vast knowledge in a patented, gentle, learned way. Scott Robbin is a treasure.

On a personal note, I’ve known Scott for many years, and we’ve worked on a volunteer basis on all sorts of projects. Most recently, we worked together to scrape, display, and make available for download every Comment on FCC Filing 14-28, Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet. We work. All we care about is work.

All hail Scott Robbin.

Primer for Experimental Modes Meeting

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Here at Smart Chicago, we’ve always had three areas of focus:

  • Access to technology and the internet
  • Digital skills for all
  • Meaningful products from data

This focus keeps us on the right path— one that requires us to lay practical groundwork before delivering cool apps— to put people first. We’ve done this since day one.

On a personal note, I’ve been a worker in community technology for a long time. I love it. In the early 2000s, I started a side business to help people get an internet life. I learned that nearly no one goes beyond default configurations, or even knows they can.

Internet Life Services

In 2004, I conducted bilingual computer training at my church to teach people how to post to our blog. I learned that everyone has a thirst to express themselves.

Bilingual computer training

In 2006, I taught a 6-week course in websites for small businesses. I learned that people love certificates.

Websites for small businesses

I’ve also been a part of a parallel path, which started taking off right about this time: the open data and civic tech movements. As a co-founder of EveryBlock, one of the earliest examples of a site that sought to use civic data in communities, I helped shape and build things like the 8 Principles of Open Government Data and  Open Gov Chicago, a gathering of technologists in the field started in 2009.

EveryBlock Launch Screenshot

We like to think these worlds— those of community technology, grounded in the needs of the people, and civic technology, driven by the most technical people, are aligned. When we’re at our best, they are. Very often, however, they are worlds apart.

This is why Smart Chicago exists. Our mission, grounded in our areas of focus, situated directly in the community (as we work here at the region’s community foundation), based in community technology research (lead by the MacArthur Foundation), and fully engaged with the governments and institutions that serve the people (including the City of Chicago, one of our founders)—this is us. This is why we’re here today.

We designed this project to fit under a larger area of work that Smart Chicago: the Knight Community Information Challenge grant awarded under their Engaged Communities strategy to the Chicago Community Trust “as it builds on its successful Smart Chicago Project, which is taking open government resources directly into neighborhoods through a variety of civic-minded apps”.

Materials for today:

There is no other organization in the country that is more qualified to lead this thinking. I am proud of where we are, and steeled for the work ahead.

Tomorrow: Convening on Experimental Modes

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Tomorrow Smart Chicago is hosting a convening at The Chicago Community Trust as part of our Experimental Modes of Civic Engagement in Civic Tech Project.

The gathering, led by consultant Laurenellen McCann, brings together people who provide community leadership in the creation of technology. Each participant works in different contexts, with radically different types of technology, but what unites us is the degree to which our work is done with, not for, the communities we serve.

Here’s all of the research and synthesis that led us to this meeting in one handy PDF:

Here’s live meeting notes— follow along starting at 9AM Saturday, April 4, Central time.

Here’s the form we’ll be using in our Case Study Sprint: https://smartchicago2012.wufoo.com/forms/diy-case-study-civic-engagement-in-civic-tech. Fill it out!

All are welcome to participate in the meeting notes, to complete your own case studies, and to hang out of Twitter— @SmartChicago and @elle_mccann are good places to start.

The Chicago Community Trust

PACER Cards + Letters Campaign for National Law Day

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Pacer CupAs part of our Justice program, The Smart Chicago Collaborative, along with a number of friends from around the nation, is conducting a cards + letters campaign to ask Chief Judge Ruben Castillo of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Illinois to look into issues with PACER, the system run by the federal judiciary that provides access to court dockets.

PACER is difficult to use, has a complicated and onerous fee structure, and is otherwise an impediment to the sharing of information about the decisions and actions of our federal court system.

The impetus for this campaign can be found in the text of “In re: PACER” by Carl Malamud of  Public.Resource.Org. Carl has long been a leading protector of the public domain and this pamphlet is a marvelous primer on the topic.

We are organizing our campaign around May 1, 2015. Among other things, May 1 is Law Day, which is “meant to reflect on the role of law in the foundation of the country and to recognize its importance for society”.

Right now we are searching for partners in our campaign. We are looking to connect with law schools, law firms, and regular residents of the district to write cards + letters and get their neighbors to do the same.

Are you interested in helping change the relationship between the people and their courts? Hit us up at info@smartchicagocollaborative.org.

In re: PACER homepage