Smart Chicago provides programs and convenings on supporting the development of the civic innovation sector of the technology industry. We also create our own applications that make lives better in Chicago through technology. Here’s a chapter of the Code for America book, “Beyond Transparency” that lays out the Chicago civic innovation ecosystem in some detail.
ACCESS
We work to increase access to ideas, data, and technology for all Chicago residents while leading the nation.
SKILLS
We run programs that help developers all over the country learn their craft and push policy forward.
DATA
We provide free technology infrastructure that helps developers create new websites & build the industry.
COMPLETE LIST OF PROJECTS UNDER OUR ECOSYSTEM PROGRAM
Array of Things Civic Engagement
Array of Things Civic Engagement is a series of community meetings to discuss the University of Chicago’s Array of Things project and introduce concepts around how the Internet of Things can benefit communities. Our partner for this project is the University of Chicago and their Urban Center for Computation and Data (Urban CCD) , which is running Array of Things . Here’s how they describe themselves: “The Array of Things (AoT) is an urban sensing project, a network of interactive, modular sens…
Chicago School of Data
There is a Chicago School of Data emerging—one that places data at the service of the people. The Smart Chicago Collaborative has been researching Chicago people & organizations who do this work. Over 200 organizations have already added their voice and described their use of data. We conducted the Chicago School of Data Days conference to meet & share with each other. You can see lots of documentation of our conference in recorded sessions , shared meeting notes , and images . …
Cook County Open Data
The Smart Chicago Collaborative has a partnership with the Cook County Bureau of Technology to assist them in the creation and publication of open data in the context of the County’s Open Government Plan Ordinance and Open Government Plan . To see more about the genesis of this project, see the blog post, “On our Partnership with Cook County to Expand Open Data “. HowTo One of the core principles of Smart Chicago is openness. This extends beyond the details of the work we do and into a …
CUTGroup
The CUTGroup is a community of over 1,000 residents in Chicago and all of Cook County who get paid to test websites and apps to help create better technology. In Chicago, we have reached people from all over the city– all 50 wards, all 77 community areas. We continue to do outreach in Cook County to grow our diverse group of testers. The premise is simple: Fill out a CUTGroup profile and sign up to be a tester, and we’ll send you a $5 VISA gift card If and when you are chosen for a te…
Developer Resources
As a central part of Ecosystem work, Smart Chicago offers free developer resources for qualifying projects. All of our offerings— things like web hosting, text tools, map hosting, and user testing— are designed to stimulate the civic innovation sector of the technology industry to serve the needs of the people. Here’s what we’ve got: Web hosting and configuration on Amazon Web Services , Heroku ,and Mapbox . We also have Compose.io , which includes MongoDB, Elasticsearch, RethinkDB, and Redis….
Documenters
Our Documenters program is an essential tool for us to add new thinkers, generate ideas, and expand the field for civic tech. Christopher Whitaker , a longtime former consultant to Smart Chicago, was our original documenter. We trained, equipped, and edited him for more than three years. We worked with him to develop our livestreaming program , test new equipment and methods , and spread knowledge in the sphere. Read a collection of his work in The @CivicWhitaker Anthology . As…
OpenGrid
Smart Chicago created a service layer to plenar.io , a spatio-temporal open data platform, to support the City of Chicago in their launch of OpenGrid , a citywide situational awareness tool using open data. In 2012, the City of Chicago’s Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT) developed WindyGrid , an enterprise geographic information system . In January 2015, the City published OpenGrid, an open source version of WindyGrid to encourage adoption and further development of this code…