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Digital skills training has been an important part of the Chicago technology landscape for many years. A comprehensive strategy for digital excellence was laid out in the 2007 report, “The City that NetWorks: Transforming Society and Economy Through Digital Excellence“.

Hundreds of professionals have labored in dozens of programs across the city, doing the daily work of teaching residents how to take part in the digital revolution to use the Internet, get jobs, and participate in civic life.

Connect Chicago has information on many different ways to gain digital skills:

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El entrenamiento en informática ha sido una parte importante del panorama tecnológico de Chicago durante muchos años. En el informe de 2007, “The City that NetWorks: Transforming Society and Economy Through Digital Excellence” (La ciudad que se conecta: transformación de la sociedad y economía a través de la excelencia informática), se presentó una estrategia integral para la excelencia informática.

Cientos de profesionales han trabajado en una gran cantidad de programas en la ciudad, enseñando diariamente a los residentes cómo formar parte de la revolución informática para usar el Internet, conseguir trabajos y participar en la vida cívica

Connect Chicago cuenta con información sobre muchas diferentes maneras de recibir entrenamiento en informática:

Nauka Czytaj więcej »

Szkolenia z umiejętności informatycznych od wielu lat stanowią ważny element krajobrazu technicznego Chicago. W roku 2007 naszkicowano wszechstronną strategię doskonalenia sprawności informatycznej, “Miasto w Sieci: (The City that NetWorks): Transformacja społeczna i gospodarcza dzięki cyber-umiejętnościom“.

Setki fachowców od dawna intensywnie pracują w ramach dziesiątków programów na terenie miasta, i codziennie wtajemniczają naszych mieszkańców w arkana udziału w rewolucji informatycznej, korzystania z Internetu, znajdowania pracy i szerszego udziału w życiu zbiorowości.

Connect Chicago służy informacją o rozmaitych metodach nabywania cyber-umiejętności:

学习 – 阅读详细信息

多年来，数字技能培训一直是芝加哥技术领域的一个重要部分。在 2007 年题为“网络城市：通过数字技术卓越进行社会和经济变革”(The City that NetWorks: Transforming Society and Economy Through Digital Excellence) 报告中提出了一套旨在促进数字技术卓越的综合性策略。

有数百名专业人员在芝加哥市的数十个相关计划中辛勤耕耘。他们的日常工作就是辅导居民如何参与这场数字革命，以便使用互联网、找工作以及参与市民生活。

Connect Chicago 所拥有的大量信息能够告诉您获得数字技能的诸多不同方法：

  • 社区培训：遍布城市各地的社区技术中心提供数十个相关计划
  • 在线课程：注册数字技能培训，并按照自己适应的进度来学习
  • 在线培训图书馆：您是培训师？您可以随意浏览并下载各种课程，以便在您所在的场所使用
  • CyberNavigators：该长期计划在 45 个图书馆场所提供现场帮助
  • 数字技能动议：在 30 个场所提供密集的现场培训

Home page – About

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Connect Chicago is a loose network of more than 250 places in the city where internet and computer access, digital skills training, and online learning resources are available—for free.

The work of these people in libraries, colleges, community centers, workforce development centers, and public housing help create a vibrant culture of learning, making Chicago more globally competitive and an all-around better place to live and work.

Connect Chicago is here to help all Chicago residents get connected— no matter where you are in the city, on the skills continuum, or in this universe of access and training providers.

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Connect Chicago es una red descentralizada de más de 250 establecimientos en la ciudad en los que el acceso a Internet y a computadoras, el entrenamiento en informática y los recursos de aprendizaje por Internet se encuentran disponibles de forma gratuita.

El trabajo de estas personas en las bibliotecas, los colegios comunitarios, los centros comunitarios, los centros de desarrollo para el trabajador y las urbanizaciones ayuda a crear una cultura dinámica de aprendizaje, haciendo que Chicago sea más competitivo a nivel mundial y sobretodo un mejor lugar para vivir y trabajar.

Connect Chicago está aquí para ayudar a todos los residentes de Chicago a conectarse; sin importar en qué parte de la ciudad estés, en qué nivel estén tus habilidades o en dónde te encuentres en este universo de proveedores de acceso y entrenamiento.

Informacia Czytaj wiecej »

Connect Chicago to luźna sieć ponad 250 ośrodków na terenie miasta, świadczących dostęp do komputerów, szkoleń informatycznych, szlifowania cyber-umiejętności oraz sieciowych zasobów dydaktycznych—bez żadnych opłat.

Praca tych ludzi – w bibliotekach, uczelniach, ośrodkach osiedlowych, ośrodkach kształcenia zawodowego, sprzyja tworzeniu pulsującej kultury samokształceniowej, dzięki której Chicago zyskuje globalną konkurencyjność – i atrakcyjność jako miejsce pracy i osiedlenia.

Rolą Connect Chicago jest świadczenie pomocy wszystkim mieszkańcom miasta w zapewnianiu dostępu – bez względu na Twój rejon miasta, posiadane spektrum umiejętności, czy pozycję wśród zespołów zapewniających innym dostęp sieciowy i cyber-szkolenia.

关于我们 – 阅读详细信息

Connect Chicago 是一个松散的服务网络，由芝加哥市内超过 250 家提供互联网和电脑使用、数字技能培训以及在线学习资源的场所组成，且以上所有服务均为免费。

我们的工作人员在图书馆、大学、社区中心、劳动力发展中心以及公共住宅行业工作。在他们的努力下，芝加哥形成了一种生机勃勃的学习文化，使芝加哥更具整体竞争力，同时也变成了一个在各方面都更加适合生活和工作的地方。

Connect Chicago 致力于帮助所有芝加哥居民获得持续的技能服务，或者进入这个由众多网络接入和培训提供商组成的体系，不论您在这座城市的哪个地方。

 

 

Get Involved With the Chicago Broadband Challenge

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Earlier this week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the Chicago Broadband Challenge, “a unique initiative that will engage the public to secure Chicago’s position as one of the digital capitals of the country and the city with the greatest availability of ultra-high-speed broadband in the United States.”

The initiative includes a Request For Information that will help drive three main goals:

The City of Chicago is releasing a Request for Information (RFI) today, that seeks to engage private companies, universities, and other organizations to accomplish three main goals: building world-class broadband infrastructure for the city; extending broadband service into underserved areas; and providing free Wi-Fi access in public spaces throughout Chicago.

In driving the building of this infrastructure, the City will first focus on establishing an open, gigabit-speed networks in key innovation areas. The City has identified 15 innovation zones in key commercial and industrial corridors, and will work with the private sector to leverage the existing infrastructure and assets to ensure low-cost broadband is available in these zones with the ultimate goal of extension to all businesses in the City. The City will accomplish this by launching the RFI, and working with private sector service providers to determine best practices and innovative solutions that will allow the low-cost broadband to be developed.

The second goal of the RFI is to expand access to high-speed internet for residents who live in underserved and disadvantaged neighborhoods. Respondents to the RFI will be encouraged to bring solutions forward that will expand access and availability for these communities throughout the city. The City will additionally work with partners like the Smart Chicago Collaborative to develop a comprehensive strategy for digital skills training to ensure that Chicagoans can make the most of broadband access.

Finally, the third element of the RFI will be to implement free Wi-Fi internet service in every public park, plaza or space across the city. The City will start by offering free Wi-Fi in Millennium Park in September, as part of a partnership with SilverIP. This effort will expand to include every public space in the city over the next several years. The RFI will solicit private sector companies, non-profit organizations and other groups that can participate in establishing this connectivity.

Smart Chicago is excited to be a part of this process. We were founded to help address issues of uneven access to the Internet and harness its transformative power to change lives. The amazing work done by our partner LISC Chicago in their Smart Communities program is a powerful demonstration of the value of increasing digital access and use by families, businesses and other institutions. I’ve seen these programs up-close— they are changing lives for the better by teaching youth how to use new media, helping small businesses use technology to grow, and helping neighborhood residents connect to information and services.

Smart Chicago is also working with the Chicago Public Library, Department of Family Support Services, City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago Cook Workforce Investment Council, and Chicago Housing Authority to strengthen their existing computer training and pull it into a cohesive program. The lessons we’re learning in the course of our Digital Skills Initiative and Connect Chicago campaign are informing this comprehensive strategy for digital skills training.

I’ve written before about the importance of gigabit-speed connectivity here in Chicago— here’s a primer on the organizations and projects that are working on the Federal level to make that happen. A key point is importance of new ideas for the use of ultra-high-speed broadband— there is currently a lack of solid ideas on what we’d *do* with gigabit speeds.

We need the voices of all Chicagoans to make this initiative work for all of us. The Broadband Challenge website seeks your input on the following key questions:

How the City can best make use of its existing broadband infrastructure and potential uses for future expansion of high-speed broadband access citywide. So let’s fill-in-the blank here:

  • “If I had ultra-high-speed broadband at home I could….”
  • “If my school/church/community group had blazing fast internet service we could…”
  • “If my company had gigabit speed fiber we could…”
To submit your thoughts on how best to address Chicago’s Broadband Challenge, send your answers to these questions to chicagobroadband@cityofchicago.org.
Add your voice today.
Elsewhere
Here’s a roundup of coverage of the launch of the Mayor’s Chicago Broadband Challenge:
City wants free Wi-Fi in all parks, public spaces
By Ameet Sachdev, Tribune staff reporter, 10:59 a.m. CDT, September 24, 2012
Emanuel said his first goal is to build a network infrastructure that will offer Internet service at “gigabit” speeds, which are about 100 times faster than a basic cable modem. Google built such a network in Kansas City, Mo., that bypassed the local cable and phone companies.

While Google is selling its broadband service to consumers, Emanuel would like to focus the ultra-fast connections in commercial and industrial areas, what he called “innovation zones.”

The mayor also acknowledged that faster Internet service is needed in Chicago’s disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Chicago aims for Internet access in parks, underserved neighborhoods
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/ fspielman@suntimes.com September 24, 2012 10:08AM

Now, Emanuel is launching, what he calls the “Broadband Challenge,” by dividing the city into 15 “innovation zones in key commercial and industrial corridors” and asking private sector partners to suggest ways they can “leverage the [city’s] existing infrastructure and assets” to bring low-cost, high-speed Internet to all businesses in those areas and, ultimately to underserved communities and to every park and public plaza in Chicago.

In the request for information, the city raises the possibility of making a $30 million investment in the city high-speed Internet system.

“To further these goals, the city may offer a variety of supporting assets, including: access to existing city-owned fiber; right-of-way access to [underground] freight tunnels, water mains and sewers; coordination with planned city construction work to modernize the water and sewer infrastructure; up to $30 million in IT [information technology] spending by the city and its sister agencies and other forms of investment,” the document states.

City unveils plan for free Wi-Fi, wider super-fast Internet
Greg Hinz on Politics, September 24, 2012

But those services are lacking in surrounding neighborhoods such as the Randolph Market area in the West Loop, where startup companies can find cheap rents. And even rudimentary, home-based links are not affordable in many low-income neighborhoods.

To solve that, Mr. Emanuel is issuing a request for information for companies and groups interested in coming up with potential solutions. As bait, the city said it’s willing to explore how it “can best make use of its existing broadband infrastructure and potential uses for a future expansion.” Once those ideas come in, the city would formally seek partners through a traditional bidding process.

Probably the most promising is the city’s hope to lure providers of gigabit speed out to the neighborhoods, particularly areas that house higher education institutions. Such providers offer service 50 times the speed of a typical home broadband link, and where competition exists at costs of $1,500 a month, half the price in areas without competition.

Chicago mayor targets affordable gigabit broadband, free WiFi throughout city parks
By Zachary Lutz, Endgadget, posted Sep 25th 2012 10:38AM

In addition to the hopes for ultra-fast broadband, Emanuel’s project, dubbed the Chicago Broadband Challenge, also seeks to extend low-cost, high-speed internet to underserved areas of the city and to bring free WiFi access to all public spaces such as parks and plazas. Although mostly a token gesture, mayor Emanuel announced the immediate availability of free WiFi in Chicago’s Millennium Park. The city is currently soliciting plans and proposals of how to approach the ambitious project, and you’re invited to become a bit more familiar with these grand ambitions with the PR and source links below.

 

The Launch of Open311 in Chicago

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This afternoon the Mayor’s Office released two new resources for the people of Chicago:

The Smart Chicago Collaborative helped write the application for Chicago to become a Code for America city focused on complying with the Open311 standard, and we have funded this project from the start.  John Tolva, Chicago CTO and Smart Chicago Advisory Committee member, has been deeply supportive of the project and has shepherded it through to completion. Chicago Chief Data Officer and Commissioner of the Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) Brett Goldstein, along with Director Danielle DuMerer, has been instrumental in getting this project done, as were others at DoIT and people at Motorola Solutions and Connected Bits. Audrey Mathis, Director of 311 Services, has been great to work with as well.

None of this would be possible without Code for America, the ground-breaking organization founded and led by Jennifer Pahlka. The amount of work achieved under this grant is kind of stunning:

  • 311Labs: A space where your dreams of the possiblities of 311 data can become a reality!
  • The Daily Brief:  Explore and filter 311 service requests by neighborhood, service name, and status
  • Open311 Status: a site that shows if Open311 APIs are down or have performance issues, and provides Public APIs uptime, comprehensiveness and citizen utilization
  • Civiz: A polyglot Platform as a Service civic application
  • Civics Garden: Reflect, record—and be reminded of—your civic deeds and contributions
  • And all the normal code, design, documentation, and logo contributions you’d expect when you suddenly find yourself in front of smart Web people who can get things done

The Chicago Code for America fellows— Jesse Bounds, Angel Kittiyachavalit, Ben Sheldon, and Rob Brackett deserve a ton of credit for drilling down into a set of tools that make sense for the particularities of Chicago while being broadly useful as reusable code for other municipalities. They moved the 311 movement forward in ways that will be felt for years to come. They are technically top-notch, excellent communicators, and real-deal project managers, all of them. They listened to our needs and were able understand the unique technology setup that lied beneath a simple desire to see the current status of a pending service request.

So get out there and track your favorite service request:

311 Service Tracker

Elsewhere:

Online system to track 311 calls
By Fran Spielman, City Hall Reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, September 14, 2012

The technology upgrade will make the process of calling 311 to get a pothole filled, a tree trimmed or a broken streetlight replaced like using FedEx to send a package, under the plan, first disclosed by the Chicago Sun-Times last spring.

Mayor Emanuel Launches New Online “Open311” System to Improve Government Accountability and Service Delivery
 Press release from Mayor’s Office of the City of Chicago, September 20, 2012

The Open311 technology was developed through a partnership between the City’s Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) and Code for America, and was funded in part by the Smart Chicago Collaborative.

Code for America, a non-profit loosely based on Teach for America, recruits the top talent from the technology industry to give a year of service to build innovative web applications for city governments.

Code for America selected the City of Chicago as one of only eight cities to be a part of its 2012 national fellowship program, thanks to Chicago’s demonstration of cutting-edge thinking and its willingness to invest in long-term change through the development of new web-based technology.

Mayor’s Office Video: Open 311 in Chicago

Here’s an information chart created by the Mayor’s Office:

New Open 311 Information Chart

City Reveals New And Upgraded 311 App
CBS Chicago, September 20, 2012 6:50 AM

“That’s what we’ve built – it’s called Service Tracker,” city Chief Technology Officer John Tolva said on the CBS 2 Morning News Thursday. “So whether you call in, or whether you e-mail, or use an app, you get a number just like a package, and you can track it all along the way, and you’ll get an e-mail saying it’s done.”

Chicago Launches 311 Service Tracker
WBEZ | 91.5, by Robin Amer, September 20, 2012

Chicago Chief Technology Officer John Tolva said the new service will help make city government more accountable and more transparent, something Mayor Rahm Emanuel promised upon taking office. “You need to be able to see where [a service request] is at every step along the way – not just whether it’s open or closed,” Tolva said. “Our residents and our businesses deserve to know that.”

City launches new 311 Web site
WGNTV.com, Mark Suppelsa,6:13 p.m. CDT, September 20, 2012

Chicago residents have a new way to request city services all with the click of a mouse. The city revealed its new open 311 website today which allows people to submit pictures of problems. And soon there will be an improved app.

Open311Launch

Lastly: a =n incomplete list of news stories covering the work:

List of Apps For Metro Chicago Applicants

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Last year the State of Illinois,  Cook County, and the City of Chicago announced its first-of-its-kind application development competition, “Apps 4 Metro Chicago Illinois (A4MC)”.  This was the first government-sponsored apps competition in Chicago, and the first anywhere that included collaboration among three different units of government. Here’s a press release about the competition from the City.

The A4MC competition was run by the Metro Chicago Information Center, which closed in March 2012. The A4MC website is no longer available on the Internet. Here’s a list of as many entries as we could cobble together, along with some basic info about the apps, listed in alphabetical order. We’re certain that we’re missing some things and we’d love to hear any updates about your apps or new projects. Please write me at doneil@cct.org with updates!

42nd Ward Crime answers the question: How safe is your block in the 42nd Ward. Select a block, give your email address and at no charge an alert will be sent to the user’s email automatically whenever an incident is reported.

AllSchedules gives you access to a huge collection of transit schedules, for different transport modes (bus, metro, train, tram ferry, etc.), in multiple cities around the world.

Bikes on Metra – “Can I bring my bike on Metra right now?” is an application that answers this question with a simple text display of “Yes, you can” or “No, you can’t” for each Inbound and Outbound Metra train.  This text display tells the user when a bike can or cannot be brought on board a Metra train, help the user find bike parking around Metra stations, and advise them on specific rules and tips for bringing bikes aboard.

Buster is a CTA bus and train tracker application that is designed for the subset of transit users that use the service every day as their main mode of transit.

Chicago and Friends is a social networking online magazine that connects the community through geolocation and Facebook.

Chicago City Crime is an Android application that provides a convenient and simple mechanism for users to quickly get crime information, based on their current location in Chicago. By becoming more aware of how many and what types of crimes have been committed around their area, this allows them to make informed decision and action that will benefit them and their community.

Chicago Crime Viewer  helps people find maps of crime in Chicago for a better understanding of neighborhood issues and trends. Quick access to this authoritative information supports real estate, commuting, and situational awareness decision making across the City of Chicago.

Chicago Lobbyists is an open data, open government, and open source project intended to improve the transparency of interactions between the City of Chicago and lobbyists and their clients.

Chicago Local Guide is an Android app meant to help local people as well as tourists find interesting places and points-of-interest near them; locate specials and promotions from local businesses; get updates on cultural, social, and technology events around Chicago; and hear breaking local news.

The Chicago Metro Information (CMI) Real Time Screensaver is an application designed to turn any unused computer screen into an electronic billboard displaying “up-to-the-second” data images for the Chicago Metropolitan Area, such as the forecast, street traffic, and public transportation schedules.

Chicago Recycle Helper is a web application that helps people locate recycling drop-off points for various materials in the Chicago area.

Chicago River Viewer is an interactive mapping web application designed as a one-stop resource, so that anyone interested in learning more about the Chicago Area Waterway System.

Chicago Rider is designed to get you the information you need quickly. See nearby stops, favorite stops, and real time bus schedules at a glance.

Chicago Service Request  is a web application that allows you to store additional information about a service request either as a picture, mapped location, and/or note.

Chicago TIF Viewer is a unique map viewer allowing free access to data and services with three features: Tax Increment Financing District Information, Ward Contact Information and US Census 2010 Unemployment Rates.

Chicago Wards I-Map is an interactive map of Chicago which provides ward information for every square foot of the city, which includes the ward number, alderman’s name, telephone number, and office locations.

ChicagoTXT is a text message feature that allows the user to get upcoming train and water taxi departure times to any phone.

ChiTxt provides residents a way to access city information without the need of an internet connection. Anyone who has a cellphone with standard text-messaging can use ChiTxt to get information about city services like health facilities, soup kitchens, and more.

Chicago Public Library (CPL) Mobile is designed to provide easy access to Chicago Public Libraries’ (CPL) resources everywhere for users on mobile devices and tablets.

Crime Alert is a cross-platform web application that serves to alert users of crime in their community and surrounding area as rapidly as possible, and receive information that is relevant to their lives.

FasPark helps drivers find street parking in real time.

FixIt! is a mobile app that allows Chicagoans to report issues, like public property damages, that require city attention. It automatically requests confirmation from participating citizens who are in the area and uses their responses to highlight critical reports while sifting out erroneous ones.

FOIAshare brings together FOIA request logs so viewers can share insight on the information that they have requested, view trends and search for records.

GoChicago grants users the ability to make a list of the places in Chicago they’d like to see, view directions to each place on a map, or call the place for more information.

Got Game?  is designed for residents to choose an activity, find parks near them that support the activity and schedule a game, enabling people to meet up and use the facilities at the parks near them.

Heads-Up Chicago pulls together up-to-date information of all the FREE Admission Days at local Chicago Museums and “Kids Eat Free” Days at local Chicago Restaurants, into a clearly outlined monthly calendar and daily planner format. This software will help parents to easily plan their family trips into the city, while helping Chicago organizations and institutions gain exposure while playing a part of creating memorable experiences for families within the Chicago Metro area.

IBikeChicago is an Android app built to support and enhances the biking community in Chicago. The application allows the users to locate bike routes, bike racks, and bike shops in the City of Chicago.

IFindit Chicago is an Android app that is designed to help low income and homeless Chicago residents connect with critical resources such as medical clinics, food pantries, shelters, etc in an easy to use, comprehensive and sharable format.

InThirty is an application used to see what Chicago city transportation resources that a user can access within a thirty-minute train, bus, or bike ride.

LIGHT BULB FINDER empowers consumers to make informed choices based on their own lighting needs and financial priorities. The app estimates the energy savings from changing the bulb and how long it will take for the new bulb to pay for itself. It also calculates a home’s total energy savings potential and environmental impact for recommended bulb replacements.

Green Habit (GHabit) is a social network with a simple goal to inspire people and organizations to create a greener and sustainable habitat. By inspiring green habits, each individual will take action to recycle, reuse and reduce waste, conserve resources, live a healthy lifestyle, demand eco-safe products, be innovative and implement new ideas, and energize the green movement.

MassUp.us  is “Chicago’s Social Cycling System” web application that serves communications and navigation information needs for social and personal bicycling. It broadcasts maps, news, weather and more, for smartphones and text messaging. MassUp.us is also used for details about local events (“masses”), to find riders, check conditions, record, share and chat.

Metro Chicago Farmers’ Markets is a tool helping residents find farmers’ markets, identifying and plots on the map, the nearest open farmers market to the current location.

Mi Parque is a bilingual participatory placemaking web and smartphone application that helps residents of the community contribute and share their vision for the future of Little Village’s new parks.

“Mom, We’re Bored” is an application for anyone with children aged 2-12 to help find activities kids will love, going on right now, nearby.

OkCopay is a comparison search engine for medical care that allows users to search for the procedure they need, compare local providers, and view their actual prices. OkCopay hopes to be a trusted resource all Chicagoans can use to find the medical care they need.

OwtSee is an Android based and a web based application that presents information about the Chicago parks and community events in one convenient place.

See How Mobile is an application that calculates how ‘mobile’ any Chicago address is. It determines the distance to the nearest El, Metra, bus, or highway, and then tells good (or bad) those distances are compared to every other location in the city.

Recycle City Chicago is an application that helps Chicago residents recycle by finding the closest recycling drop-off facility and driving direction to that location.

SpotHero is an application that efficiently connects parking demand and parking supply. We allow parking spot owners to earn income by renting their spot when it’s unoccupied.

Spothole is an ongoing project to create tools to enable Chicago residents to more conveniently participate in the process of maintaining their neighborhoods’ streets, starting with Logan Square.

SweepAround.US helps Chicagoans find out when residential street sweeping will next occur in their neighborhood, and allows them to sign up for email or text message reminders or subscribe to calendar feeds.

Taxi Share Chicago is an application designed to increase efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions and cut down on already congested streets and highways.  The app allows users to find each other and share a cab to popular destinations around the city and to the major airports.

Techno Finder  helps you find public WiFi near your location by using a cell phone or home phone, the web, or smart phone.

Thank you Officer is a web-based application initiative with the goal to mail a physical personal thank-you card to every police officer in Chicago, and let them know that we appreciate them.

TrailBlaze Chicago records and anonymously reports your bicycle tracks, allowing you to vote for new paths simply by carrying your phone while you bike.

Transit Stop: CTA Tracker is a quick and easy access to bus and train arrival time estimates for every Chicago Transit Authority bus and train stop.

Transitsocial -Transit Social is a unique and new place to search public transportation and socialize.

TreKing (Chicago) is an Android app that supports all four major transit systems in Chicago.

Vacant and Abandoned Building Finder is a tool for helping people and organizations find buildings in Chicago that are not in use and are potentially hazardous to the neighborhood.

WasMyCarTowed.com is a single-serving website that lets Chicagoans quickly answer the question, “Was my car towed?”

What’s Driving Costing You in Chicago? is a compact simple tool designed to educate divers about their driving costs. This tool provides map data including optional live traffic conditions and specific route information between start and end locations.

Here’s the announcement of winners:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 16, 2011

CONTACT:
Kathryn Auerbach – Metro Chicago Information Center
312-580-2597
kauerbach@mcic.org

APPS FOR METRO CHICAGO ILLINOIS WINNERS ANNOUNCED!
SpotHero wins Apps 4 Metro Chicago Grand Challenge, OkCopay is the Innovate Illinois Award winner and Recycle City Chicago and Chicago Recycle Helper with the Green Opportunities Award!

Mayor Emanuel’s Director of Social Media Kevin Hauswirth and Governor Quinn’s Chief Operating officer Andy Ross announced the winners of the Apps 4 Metro Chicago Illinois Grand Challenge and the Innovate Illinois Award today at Excelerate Labs. They were joined by the Delta Institute who announced the winner of the Green Opportunities App Award (GO Award). The Apps 4 Metro Chicago Illinois (A4MC) competition is facilitated by the Metro Chicago Information Center (MCIC), a nonprofit research, consulting and information resource committed to increasing the quality, quantity and accessibility of information, and guided by a fundamental philosophy that better information produces better decisions. The A4MC Competition is a collaborative open data civic applications competition which brought together software developers, nonprofits, and residents to create web and mobile applications over 300 data sets made available on the City of Chicago, Cook County, and State of Illinois data portals, and CMAP’s MetroPulse. The Apps 4 Metro Chicago IL Grand Challenge is the final, biggest, broadest and best round of the Competition. In this round apps could have any theme as long as they touched on Metro Chicago and the winners covered everything from local entertainment, transportation and leisure, to the environment, conservation and politics. The final round was decided by a Grand Challenge Judging panel comprised of experts committed to building Chicago’s entrepreneurial community and encouraging innovation. Grand Challenge Judge Troy Henikoff founder and CEO of Excelerate Labs further showed his support by hosting the announcement at Excelerate Labs.

The competition, which began six months ago on June 24th, continued the historic open data efforts taking place in Chicago, the Chicago metro area, and throughout Illinois. “I congratulate the winning app SpotHero, the other finalists, and all of the people who submitted applications during this successful contest,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “My administration is committed to providing unprecedented access to data so that our residents and tech community can create innovative apps that can improve the quality of life in Chicago as well as foster new business opportunities.”

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle recognized the Competition was intended to showcase the power and possibility that can stem from government and resident collaboration and combining data and technology. “The brilliant and innovative finalists in the Apps 4 Metro Chicago are all worthy of recognition,” said President Preckwinkle. ” We are entering a new age where citizens have the opportunity to create information technology that will dramatically improve how public data and services are delivered. We hope this collaborative effort will inspire even greater participation and will strengthen the relationship between the taxpayers and the government they elect to serve their interests.”

The Apps 4 Metro Chicago Illinois Competition also continued to drive economic development through innovation. “This Competition shows us the best of what can be created by Illinois’ innovators and entrepreneurs when they have access to everyday data that the government collects,” Governor Quinn said. “I commend both OkCopay and iFindit for using datasets made available on Data.Illinois.Gov to provide Illinois residents with valuable services that can improve their lives. Innovators like these spur economic growth throughout our state and nation and are the key to creating jobs and ensuring Illinois’ continued competitiveness in the 21st century economy.”

The Delta Institute of Chicago is an innovative leader in transforming the Great Lakes Region into the center of the green economy. Delta’s awards, totalling $2,500, went to the best apps that promoted green activity, such as energy conservation, waste reduction, recycling, consumption of foods from local, sustainable sources and other environmentally friendly practices. Due to a tie for first place, Delta split the $2,000 top prize between Recycle City Chicago and Chicago Recycle Helper. A $500 runner-up prize went to Light Bulb Finder.

After six months, over 70 submissions, amazing collaborations, and inspirational stories the Apps 4 Metro Chicago Grand Challenge Winners are ….

1st SpotHero- $10,000
Spothero efficiently connects parking demand and parking supply. We allow parking spot owners to earn income by renting their spot when it’s unoccupied.
2nd TrailBlaze- $5,000
TrailBlaze Chicago records and anonymously reports your bicycle tracks, allowing you to vote for new paths simply by carrying your phone while you bike.
3rd OwtSee $3,500
OwtSee is an Android based and a web based application that presents information about the Chicago parks and community events in one convenient place.
4th Chicago Local Guide $2,000
Chicago Local Guide is an android app meant to help local people as well as tourists find interesting places and points-of-interest near them; locate specials and promotions from local businesses; get updates on cultural, social, and technology events around Chicago; and hear breaking local news.
5th Mi Parque $1,500
Mi Parque is a bilingual participatory placemaking web and smartphone application that helps residents of the community contribute and share their vision for the future of Little Village’s new parks.
6th FasPark $500
FasPark helps drivers find street parking in real time.
7th allSchedules $500
AllSchedules gives you access to a huge collection of transit schedules, for different transport modes (bus, metro, train, tram ferry, etc.), in multiple cities around the world.
8th OkCopay $500
OkCopay is comparison search engine for medical care that allows users to search for the procedure they need, compare local providers, and view their actual prices.
9th iFindIt $500
IFindit Chicago is an android app that is designed to help low income and homeless Chicago residents connect with critical resources such as medical clinics, food pantries, shelters etc.
10th Taxi Share $500
Taxi Share is an application designed to increase efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions and cut down on already congested streets and highways. The app allows users to find each other and share a cab to popular destinations around the city and to the major airports.

Innovate Illinois Winners:
Grand Prize: Okay Copay- $4,000
Runner Up: iFindit Chicago- $2,000

Green Opportunities Award:
Co-Winners- Recycle City Chicago & Chicago Recycle Helper ($1000 each)
Runner Up- Light Bulb Finder- $500

The Apps for Metro Chicago Competition, facilitated by the Metro Chicago Information Center (MCIC), was launched in June of 2011 in order to inspire the development of applications using 250+ data sets released by the City of Chicago, Cook County, State of Illinois, and Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. The Grand Challenge Round was open to all apps that used competition data and benefited the Chicago area. Support for the competition is provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, and Motorola Mobility Foundation.

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Two New Consultant Positions: Project Manager and Community Engagement Manager

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Update: Friday, August 24, 2012 at 5PM is our deadline for these slots.

Smart Chicago is looking to engage two consultants for Civic Innovation, a two-year project funded by the Knight Foundation and The Chicago Community Trust. The successful candidate will have a part-time contract with The Chicago Community Trust, a funder and sponsor of Smart Chicago, to perform this work over the course of the project. Here’s some background:

The Smart Chicago Collaborative is a civic organization devoted to using technology to make lives better in Chicago. Created by its founding partners (the City of Chicago, the MacArthur Foundation, and The Chicago Community Trust), Smart Chicago works as a center of gravity for municipal, philanthropic, and corporate investments in civic innovation.

Smart Chicago is looking to engage a consultant for a long-term, part-time project. The successful candidate will work under a contract with The Chicago Community Trust, a funder and sponsor of Smart Chicago’s Civic Innovation project, to perform this work over the course of two years.

And details on the positions:

Project Manager

The Project Manager will have primary day-to-day responsibility for managing this project. The successful candidate will have experience in one or more of our core areas of focus (government, technology, community) and will have experience in and passion for bridging gaps among communities. See full job description.

Community Engagement Manager

The Community Engagement Manager will work directly with nonprofits, churches, and community members to ensure that the information needs of Chicagoans understood and served by developers. The successful candidate will have experience in both technology and community development, and be able to help translate between technical and non-technical people. Useful software that serves communities is the ultimate goals of the Community Engagement Manager. The successful candidate will engage non-profit organizations on efforts to find community solutions that are based on public data and data collected by their own organizations. See full job description.

If you are interested, please send an email indicating your relevant background & skills and why you’re interested in filling one of these roles to Daniel X. O’Neil, doneil@cct.org.

Update: We have selected a consultant for the Project Manager position and we are actively planning how to approach community engagement in this project. Stay tuned to our project page for more.  –DXO, 11/13/2012

Agenda for OpenGovChicago Meeting, August 2, 2012

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

  1. Tom Feltner: Woodstock is moving the last 15 years of data to its portal by the end of the year. Licensing restrictions limit what source data can be made public. What aggregate data would be useful and what would be derivative?
  2. Barbara Iverson: Submit stories about Open Gov work in Chicago to Chicago Talks to help connect regular people on the street, “citizens” with civic projects and Open Gov work. Tell your story, and we’ll help you spread the word.
  3. Tom Tresser: Working to establish Civic Lab – Apps for Activists, Activist Speed Dating Night & The TIF Report projects.
  4. George Aye: Announcing the launch of a new crowd-designed transit app for the CTA.
  5. Francesca Rodriquez: Update on the City’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program
  6. Sharon Burns: The Field Museum, through a generous multi-year grant from the Grainger Foundation is developing new apps, ebooks and other outreach projects to enhance the revenues stream of the Museum. Are open scientific data sets interesting? Ideas welcome!
  7. Tom Kompare: I’d like see if anyone is interested exploring crime and place relationships. An investigation in the 49th Ward shows what may be significant relationships of crime with L stops and package liquor license locations. I need help to explore further.
  8. Derek Eder: Open City would like to announce our latest civic app: Crime in Chicago
  9. John Tolva: Update on the City’s Open 311 project
  10. Simeon Schnapper: Pilots in CPS today centering around youtopia.com

We’ve got a full boat of announcements– hopefully people will get a chance to review some of this material, which will help us get to the evening’s demos. Also: don’t forget that tonight is Urban Geeks at Villains (thanks, Justin Massa!)– there’s plenty of chit-chat to be had there, if you can make it.

DEMOS

EFFLUVIA

  • Bring ID and come early– the security is tight in this building
  • If you’ve been to a meetup at the Chicago Community Trust before, keep in mind that we have moved to another building in the same Illinois Center complex– 225 N. Michigan, 22nd Floor
  • Sammiches will be served. Come hungry

White House US Ignite Event and What It Means for Chicago

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Last month I attended the US Ignite launch event at the White House (see full video here), where a number of Obama administration officials made a series of announcements about programs around broadband policy. There are many entities, technologies, and programs that fit together to form a path toward United States leadership in superfast broadband, but it takes some digging and threading to hold it all in one hand. Here are some notes toward that, with a particular focus on how our work in Chicago can fit in to this important set of initiatives.

Leading by example and providing physical space for advanced broadband

Dr. John P. Holdren, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy announced that the President has issued an Executive Order Accelerating Broadband Infrastructure Deployment. This makes public land available for the placement of broadband infrastructure. Marc Ganzi, Chairman of the Personal Communications Industry Associate later said that “getting access to government land has been close to impossible”. This policy sets forth a central process and clearing house for doing that. This applies to any and all Federally-owned properties in Chicago.

Providing the raw technology for next-generation networks

Next up was Subra Suresh, Director of the National Science Foundation. First off, I was struck by the astoundingly effective investments made by this organization, including elemental projects like the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and Digital Library Initiative, which led to the Web browser and Google, respectively. Suresh spoke of a similar building block-style NSF program called GENI: Global Environment for Network Innovations. This is the technical groundwork for US Ignite— a “single physical network can be virtualized into multiple ‘slices’ or logical networks, each isolated from one another and customized to specific applications or uses”. Basically: a network that can be programmed to act in specific, custom ways based on the needs of the application that is running on it. In order for a company to take advantage of gigabit-level connectivity, they have to understand and think of and use networks in a different way than we currently do. Chicago is a leader in data centers— including the new 840 South Canal Street— and there is opportunity for us to provide conceptual leadership on these next-generation networks.

And concrete cash to encourage unexpected uses

Suresh also announced four Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research at four universities that will research concrete uses for GENI. Lastly, Suresh announced NSF support for the Mozilla Ignite Open Innovation Challenge, with $15,000 in prizes to “design and build apps for the faster, smarter internet of the future”.  This is a total of half million dollars over the next few months—  money to be had for Chicago developers and network scientists.

A real-world example helps bring it home

Then John Underkoffler, Chief Scientist at Oblong Industries, shared a relatively well-known real-world example of how these superfast networks are being used. Underkoffler invented the g-speak™ platform— the gestural interace control system shown in the film Minority Report. This product started off at the MIT Media Lab and is now located in Los Angeles. They have a telepresence product called Mezzanine that “melds technologies for collaborative whiteboarding, presentation design and delivery, and application sharing”.

Thinking about gigabit as a central component of United States competitive strategy

Julius Genachowski, Chairman of the FCC, then took the podium and provided some good context on why gigabit connections are important. He gave as an example mobile apps. It’s not that long ago that we looked to Japan for leadership on mobile apps— they were doing the most interesting things with phones. Now the United States is the unquestioned leader, witha proliferation of applications on all sorts of platforms. He also referenced getting to scale on 4G faster than any other country— the US is clearly the world’s testbed. He spoke of three goals at the FCC: increase spectrum, increase broadband adoption (this is a main focus here at Smart Chicago), and increase speed (a focus of US Ignite). He gave a number of examples of how the FCC helps out, including rules regarding pole attachments that make it easier for companies to string broadband fiber and the Connect 2 Compete program for broadband access at the community level. Here’s the complete text of Genachowski’s remarks.

Existing BTOP investments and other work by NTIA have supported US Ignite partners

Larry Strickling of  the National Telecommunications and Information Administration focused on expanding middle mile capacity in underserved areas and at anchor institutions. He says that NTIA is interested in working where the market has not served people. He called out a number of US Ignite partners who are also NTIA grantees: REACH Michigan Middle Mile Collaborative (“proposes to build a 955-mile advanced fiber-optic network through underserved counties in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula to serve institutions, businesses and households”) , Urbana-Champaign Big Broadband (“plans to construct 187 miles of fiber-optic broadband network to provide high-speed connectivity to area community anchor institutions and support fiber-to-the home services in four low-income neighborhoods”), and UTOPIA (“The Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA), a collaboration between 16 Utah municipalities in the Great Salt Lake region of northern Utah, proposes to enhance its existing fiber network to bring improved broadband services to Perry, Layton, Centerville, West Valley, Murray, Midvale, Orem, and Payson, with the capacity to expand to the entire region.”) Again, the point here is that existing investments by the federal government are being drawn together into a strategic plan to drive superfast broadband. Here at Smart Chicago, we’ve helped administer many of the local BTOP projects, and we are working closely with partners to see how we can learn from, enhance, and continue their great work.

This is an age of conception— we are limited only by our imaginations

Next up was Tom Kalil, the Deputy Director for Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He pointed to the Department of Health and Human Services Beacon program that will help the Mayo Clinic partner with US Ignite to deliver remote medical services. He also referenced a Department of Defense program to develop new algorithms to detect Improvised Explosive Devices. The Institute for Museum and Library Services is creating new apps for library patrons. Again, these are concrete examples that are being done in other cities that we should think about here in Chicago. The more we can be a leader in conception, the more investments and energy we can aggregate here.

US Ignite is looking to foster 60 applications— let’s make sure we’re in this number

Sue Spradley, the Executive Director of US Ignite, next gave some remarks about their role as an organization, which is to “connect and amplify efforts across the country”. I have worked with Sue and others from US Ignite and USTOP over the last year as they’ve planned for this launch. To be frank, at times it can feel overly loose, but in attending this event, things are coming into focus. This is the nature of the gigabit beast— its concrete value is not well-defined at this time. That is an opportunity for us here in Chicago— to fill those gaps. The US Ignite goal is to foster 60 applications that make a difference— let’s build our share of that!

Basic research is critical

John Donovan of AT&T spoke about the importance of this initiative from the business perspective. Nice quote: “We put a man on the man before we put wheels on a suitcase”. He spoke of the work AT&T on their with GENI-based research. He spoke about the value of basic research, noting that AT&T Labs started in 1901 and they still have 12,000 researchers working today. The opportunity is enormous: demand for mobile data has grown 20,000 percent in the last 4 years. Lastly, he made the call for more spectrum to be made available for providers. This is a major component of the National Broadband Plan. “Every available option, with a minimum of red tape and delay”, was his call.

The infrastructure is still being created

Marc Ganzi, Chairman of the Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA) offered a perspective on the nitty-gritty of the buildout for this network. “We’ve got to get the plumbing right— it’s not about bars on a phone, it’s about economic development and next generation applications”. He referenced the Jobs Act and the importance of the spectrum license auctions. “This is not a sexy job. Building networks today is difficult.” Small cell architecture. DAS networks and pole attachments, large towers, hidden towers. This is the critical stuff. “Getting access to government land has been close to impossible”, but now there is a central process and clearing house. To me, this highlighted the opportunity before us— the network is just now being developed.

Smart Chicago is deeply engaged with the national entities working in gigabit networks and how they can serve the businesses and communities. We look forward to working with local stakeholders as they help bring these benefits here.