Breakout groups

Every week after the presentation, we split up into breakout groups led by regular attendees to guide conversations, answer questions, and build civic apps. The groups are split into two types: working groups and learning groups.

Want to start your own breakout group? All you need to do is announce it at the next hack night and people will vote with their feet! We also recommend that you check out our guide to starting a breakout group.

  1. Create a GitHub account if you don't already have one: https://github.com/join
  2. Open a new GitHub Issue in this repository: https://github.com/chihacknight/join-a-breakout/issues/new
  3. Set the title of your issue to the name of your breakout, and fill out the description template in the body. We will add the appropriate labels to it.


Learning Groups

New to Chi Hack Night? Interested in learning what it's all about? Or learning how to program or work with data? Join a learning group!


Working Groups

These groups focus on building civic apps, doing research and pursuing ways of using technology to make Chicago a better place to live in. Groups can last for one night or several years - it's up to you!

Sometimes groups get marked as closed if they haven't been active in a few weeks. This is to keep the list size managable. Any group marked this way can be re-opened at any time.

To re-open a group:

  1. Visit the list of closed Github Issues.
  2. Search for your project and click on it.
  3. You will see all the project notes and comments previously left. Scroll to the bottom of the page you'll see a box that allows you to leave a comment. Next to the comment button there should be a 'Reopen Issue' button.
  4. We recommend leaving a comment while you re-open the issue, to update the project and mention if you're looking for anything new!