Author: admin
Rakesh Dubbudu: My stay with Smart Chicago Collaborative
Editor’s Note: The following post is from our international fellow Rakesh Dubbudu. Rakesh spent a few weeks with us learning about civic innovation in Chicago. Rakesh works as an open data advocate in India as one of the co-conveners of the National Committee for People’s Right to Information.
Before I arrived in the USA, I was unsure of the learning & exchange during this trip. Though my interest centered on good & effective governance using technology & data, I was unclear about the specifics. During the orientation in Washington DC, I came to know that I would spend three weeks in Chicago with the ‘Smart Chicago Collaborative’. It was time for a quick google search to check what Smart Chicago was doing. I understood a little about Smart Chicago’s work.
Recap of OpenGov Chicago: Park Advisory Council Edition
Last Thursday at the Chicago Community Trust, the OpenGov Chicago Meetup resumed after an extended summer break. It was the first in a series of meetups that will focus on learning about and helping microdemocratic groups that interact with official government functions – starting first with park advisory councils. Here’s the raw meeting notes.
Key Takeaways and Raw Responses to Chicago School of Data Census Form
As part of our post- Chicago School of Data Days work, we are doing lots of analysis of the data we’ve collected and the artifacts we created together.
One key dataset, especially for the consideration of gaps in data provision and skills development, are the answers to the census form we’ve been working on for months. We’ve got 246 responses to date. Here they are, with identifying information and end-matter (re: how they want to be contacted, participation in the project, etc.) removed.
Takeaways
The census form was a key part of the Chicago School of Data project and the conference. We took responses from this survey to better understand how data was used by organizations and responded by creating themes that defined the conference sessions and discussions.
Here are the themes that we came to:
Complete Info on Chicago Park District Advisory Councils
The next meeting of Open Gov Chicago(-land), set for Thursday, November 20, 2014, is going to do a deep-dive on Chicago Park District Advisory Councils. Here’s a description:
Our next meetup will be the first in a new series that focuses on learning about and helping grassroots groups that interact with official government functions.
First up is the Park District Advisory Council. There are 194 advisory councils covering the entire city, and they are populated by regular Chicago residents who care about their neighborhoods. We will hear from people who run these councils, find out what kind of data and technology they use, and figure out we can help.
As part of this new series, we’ve done some research on councils. We’ve taken a look at it from a technology view, hoping to kick off some thoughts in the civic tech community on how we might be helpful.
Humboldt Park Formal Garden
Use 311? Want to make it better? – Comment here!
The City of Chicago is currently in the process of revamping the 311 system. The 311 system is what the city uses to coordinate and dispatch city services. Every year, this system takes millions of calls regarding potholes, graffiti, food poisoning, street lights being out, rat sightings, and more. The 311 system currently in use is pretty old for software – almost fourteen years. The City recently put out an request for proposal to build a new 311 system that will focus on improving the interaction between residents and city government.
To do this, the City is using an app called MindMixer. Mindmixer allows you to submit ideas as well as vote up ideas that you also like. For example, Steve Vance has suggested increasing the number of service request types.
The feedback period closes in two weeks – so visit the site today and give your feedback!
Join us at the next OpenGov Chicago Meetup: Chicago Park District Advisory Council
The OpenGovChicago(-land) meetup is back with a return to its roots.
The next meetup will be the first in a new series that focuses on learning about and helping grassroots groups that interact with official government functions.
First up is the Park District Advisory Council. There are 194 advisory councils covering the entire city, and they are populated by regular Chicago residents who care about their neighborhoods. We will hear from people who run these councils, find out what kind of data and technology they use, and figure out we can help.
If you serve on a Council, or know someone who does, let us know in the RSVP— the more, the merrier. More details on speakers and agenda to follow. As always, we’ll be streaming the event on our YouTube Channel.
Foodborne Chicago and Flooding the Box
It was interesting to see on Twitter a discussion started when Foodborne Chicago was clumped with the Boston’s Streetbump app. I jumped in a bit, but I’m not much of a Twitter convo person, as I use it more to make art (first tweet!) than anything else. So I thought it write a bit about our conceptual models for creating software.
First off, at Smart Chicago we have a software philosophy:
We believe in making the smallest amount of software to be useful to the largest amount of people in connecting residents to their government, their institutions, and each other.
In the longer explication of that philosophy, we have this:
It also means that we acknowledge and use the immense World Wide Web for what it is, rather than what part we own. An example of this is Foodborne Chicago, where, instead of making a new place for people to post messages about food poisoning, we go to the place where people are already talking about it.
I really wish that more developers published their philosophy of software. It helps guide things, and helps us understand that when we make things, we aren’t just publishing code to be forked, but models to be emulated and improved upon.
Flooding the box
One of my favorite conceptual models for software is “flood the box”. Flooding the box for us means making it easier for regular residents to kick off an official process.
Expunge.io floods the box for the long and complicated juvenile records expungement process. Foodborne Chicago floods the box for the process of investigating possible instances of food poisoning.
In each instance, there are many other routes to the “box”. Our goal is to use the smallest amount of software to connect more people to those processes, to those boxes.
If someone chooses to call 311, which they do hundreds of thousands times per year (take a look at the staffing plans, call volume per shift, efficiency rates, and other stats here), they can do that. If they saw something in the paper and it stimulates a service request through the Open 311 system in Foodborne, that works, too. More routes to the box.
Then the CUTGroup comes in. We watch what happens as people use the software we made. We design tests to elicit feedback on what we see are the current flaws in our system, and we talk with people in public libraries and computer centers all over the city.
Then we look honestly and directly at the results. We use qualitative & quantitative data and we make changes to our software in order to increase our effectiveness at direct connections between people who need help and the people who can help them.
Moar
In the context of our Knight Foundation deep dive project, we are working on new models for working directly with real residents, wherever they are, to find new boxes, and new floods. Always open.
Here’s analysis from our Foodborne Chicago CUTGroup test. It includes 74 pages of raw data and the complete text of every response from all 17 testers. As an aside, 71% of our 840 CUTGroup testers— drawn from every ward in the city— answered “yes” to the question, “have you ever called 311?”.
Sometimes its the simplest things. And always we find value in the process. When coupled with our software philosophy and sound conceptual models, it leads to work with integrity. More to come!
Find your polling place on the Cook County Data Portal!
If you live in Suburban Cook County and haven’t voted yet, you can find your voting location on the Cook County Data Portal. If you forgot to register to vote, you can also find places where you can do same day voting registration as well.
Josh recently released data sets for early voting locations and polling places on the Cook County data portal. The County had previously released early voting locations in 2012, and so Josh updated the data set for this election season.
You can get more information on Cook County elections by visiting the Cook County Clerk’s website. You can also see how the county is doing in early turnout by going here. For information on elections within the city, you can visit the Chicago Board of Elections website.
Attend the Next Meeting of the Digital Divide Elimination Advisory Committee
The next meeting of the Digital Divide Elimination Advisory Committee of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is coming up. Details as follows:
Digital Divide Elimination Advisory Committee
James R. Thompson Center 100 W. Randolph
St. Ste. 3-400
(Director’s Conference Room)
Chicago, IL 60601
Thursday, November 6, 2014
10:00 am – 11:30 a.m.
Dial-in # 1-888-494-4032 Access #2828938287
Here’s a folder of documents relating to the Committee’s work since I became chair. And here’s some relevant documents for our meeting:
Meantime, here’s a photo I took when I was in Springfield recently:
