Earlier this month, Chicago Chief Technology Officer John Tolva unveiled the city’s very first technology plan. The plan was a result of a year-long process of research, brainstorming, and thinking about how to make all of Chicago competitive in the new digital economy.
Smart Chicago Collaborative is proud to have a key role in many of these initiatives and is dedicated to implementing this plan. Here’s a look at our role in the plan and the aspects of our existing work in this context.
When I was on the cross-country team at Gordon Technical High School, we had a running joke-slash-motivational line. After we warmed up, stretched, and started to get ready for the afternoon’s workout, someone would say, “where is the line?”. What they meant was, “where are we going to start running from?” More specifically, “where will we be when we know to stop running?”
The answer would come from someone else (it was a different person every day who asked and answered, but it was never planned). The answer was always the same: “You are the line. The line is you”.
Then we would all line up next to and behind the person who asked where the line was. Someone would set their watch, say “go”, and we’d start the run.
People often ask me if civic data, like the stuff available at data.cityofchicago.org is accurate. Tony Sarabia asked me this recently on his Morning Show. It’s a good question, especially from good journalist, because you should know your source. But the answer is that civic data is a messy manifestation of the agony and the ecstasy of the human condition: people crying out for help after being victims of crime, people submitting a service request because the lights are out on their block, someone pulling a building permit to turn a porch into a baby’s room.
When I look at PlowTracker or ClearStreets, I don’t see the fun icons or the crisp lines. I see hundreds of city workers who get into trucks and spread salt in dangerous conditions. That’s not just data. That’s human beings— our neighbors— doing their jobs; feeding their children. We can download raw data sets, send them through hoops and massage tunnels, load them on our own servers, and it’s not really ours.
Civic data is a civic treasure. Something that represents all of us. We talk a lot in government, philanthropy, and communications about “engagement”. There is nothing more engaging than a line in a spreadsheet that has us in it.
As we noted in the launch post about Adopt-A-Sidewalk, tonight marks the first storm here in Chicago this winter. That means it is the first time this season that snowplows have been deployed by the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation. Here’s a list of all the 669 employees in that department with the word “driver” in their job title:
The Smart Chicago Collaborative is proud be a part of Chicago Shovels, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s initiative to help connect the public with City winter resources and empower neighbors to come together to help Chicago navigate winter. We worked with the City of Chicago and the Chicago Code for America Brigade to re-launch of Adopt-A-Sidewalk.
The Race for Reuse is a nationwide effort to help redeploy civic apps all across the country with 28 cities helping to deploy 31 civic apps. Adopt-A-Sidewalk was originally built as the Boston-focused Adopt-a-Hydrant app that lets citizens adopt hydrants that they agree to take care of in the event of snow.
Chicago has modified this code and added map files of every sidewalk in the city. Residents can claim sidewalks during snow events (like tonight!)– pledging to shovel their own walks or take care of a neighbor’s 25 feet of love. If you can’t shovel your walk and need help, The app will also let people indicate that they need help with their sidewalk. Volunteers can then go into the app and adopt that particular sidewalk.
Lots of people worked on this app. Chief among them is Ryan Briones. He is an IT Director for Software Architecture and Design at the City’s Department of Innovation and Technology, but he worked to configure the server and document the code on his evenings, civic hacker-style. He is longtime member of OpenGovChicago and just flat-out cares about this stuff.
Chicago is no stranger to community technology for the wintry mix. In 2011, a great group of people emanating from the Chicago Tribune news apps team that created and worked the ChicagoSnow Crowdmap (Ask for help, lend a hand: Blizzard 2011). We spent a couple nights managing and mapping 984 snow help reports for the blizzard of February 1, 2011. Here’s a super-detailed writeup. It was a great test case in community building around a weather event.
People interested in civic hacking are encouraged to meet to talk policy, data, and technology at the OpenGovChicago meetup group. You can also head over to the Open Gov Hack Nights at 1871 located inside the Merchandise Mart. These growing gatherings, hosted and supported in part by Smart Chicago, are a great way to get a mitt and get in the game on civic hacking.
As part of the his administration’s focus on increasing access to quality early learning programs for children across the city and emphasis on helping parents get and stay involved in their children’s education, Mayor Rahm Emanuel today launched a new online Early Leaning Portal, www.chicagoearlylearning.org. The portal is an easy-to-use, interactive website that puts information about hundreds of quality early learning programs across the city all in one place.
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“We were happy to collaborate with the City on this interactive map, which will allow parents and families to find information about these programs easily and quickly. We’re interested in hearing from parents and caregivers on what would make the site more useful to them,” said Dan O’Neil, Executive Director of the Smart Chicago Collaborative. “We’re also releasing the code for the site as open source, so that it can be used to make similar map-based sites showing resources across the city.”
“Our focus is on making sure children are ready to learn when they enter kindergarten. M.K. and I share Mayor Emanuel’s strong commitment to providing high-quality early learning for infants, toddlers and their families,” said J.B. Pritzker, president of the J.B. & M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation. “Helping Chicago parents and caregivers identify the best early childhood educational opportunities in their neighborhoods is critically important. This online interactive, one-stop shop will help parents and caregivers access and better manage the challenging process of selecting a high-quality early learning program for their infants and toddlers.”
We worked with a really great team to get this first phase of the Web site launched:
At Smart Chicago, we had consultant Derek Eder of DataMade. Derek served as local technical technical project manager and was instrumental in getting the data for the site in good order
Azavea, a leading geospatial firm out of Philadelphia, did the heavy lifting around technology
The Urban Education Lab of the University of Chicago shepherded the project from the education perspective and worked with other stakeholders like Illinois Action for Children to make sure that the data was sound and the interface was useful key constiuents
We look forward to working toward a successful phase two, which will incorporate feedback from user testing we’ll be conducting in the months to come. Questions, comments, and feedback are always welcome at info@chicagoearlylearning.org
The Smart Chicago Collaborative hosted project was led by the Tom Kompare, who volunteered his time to develop the app that makes it easy for Chicago residents to stay healthy this flu season by finding their nearest flu shot clinic to get vaccinated. Kompare lives in Rogers Park and also volunteers with Open Government Chicago(-land), a technology meetup group for Chicagoans interested in seeing governments function more efficiently and responsively.
“Helping make City data more accessible and understandable is my way of giving back to Chicago, a sort of e-volunteerism,” said Kompare. “Chicago has made public a really impressive amount of data and it’s up to developers like us to make this data more useful for everyday Chicagoans.”
Smart Chicago is hosting this app on our Amazon Web Services account. If you are a developer working with civic data, you may be eligible for free space on this account. Go here for more info on this program.
If you’re interested in using civic data to make lives better in Chicago, you should join the Open Government Chicago(-land) meetup group!
City of Chicago — Get A Flu Shot Map
“Get a Flu Shot” Sign on the Door of 37th Ward Alderman Emma Mitts’ Ward Office
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 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 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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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 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.”
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.
Lastly: a =n incomplete list of news stories covering the work:
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?
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.
Tom Tresser: Working to establish Civic Lab – Apps for Activists, Activist Speed Dating Night & The TIF Report projects.
Francesca Rodriquez: Update on the City’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program
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!
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.
Derek Eder: Open City would like to announce our latest civic app: Crime in Chicago
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.
Earlier this month, Chicago Chief Technology Officer John Tolva unveiled the city’s very first technology plan. The plan was a result of a year-long process of research, brainstorming, and thinking about how to make all of Chicago competitive in the new digital economy.
