[ { "title" : "Online: UChicago Justice Project", "url" : "/events/2026/07/21/uchicago-justice-project.html", "description" : "Description coming soon", "speakers" : "Robert Vargas, UChicago Justice Project", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "academic, justice", "date" : "July 21, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2026/07/14/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "July 14, 2026" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: National Association of Government Web Professionals", "url" : "/events/2026/06/30/nagw.html", "description" : "Join to us for a presentation from the National Association of Government Web Professionals.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "June 30, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2026/06/23/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 23, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Achieving Accessibility - Making IT Work for People with Disabilities", "url" : "/events/2026/06/16/mike-scott.html", "description" : "Join Mike Scott, Chief Information Accessibility Officer for the State of Illinois, to learn what’s new in the world of information accessibility, including what you can do to help make sure your IT works for people with disabilities.", "speakers" : "Mike Scott, Chief Information Accessibility Officer,Illinois Department of Innovation & Technology", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, accessibility", "date" : "June 16, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2026/06/09/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 9, 2026" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Fighting to Fund our Schools: Organizing with Data (Chicago Teachers Union)", "url" : "/events/2026/06/02/chicago-teachers-union.html", "description" : "Join to us for a presentation from the Chicago Teachers Union.", "speakers" : "Chris Poulos, Public Finance Policy Analyst, he/him (https://github.com/chrisdpoulos), Pavlyn Jankov, Director of Research, he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy", "date" : "June 2, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Building an Artemis Tracker", "url" : "/events/2026/05/26/artemis-ii-tracker.html", "description" : "On April 2nd, 2026, the Artemis II mission sent the first humans to orbit the moon since the Apollo missions. In a sea of constantly changing, polarizing and attention grabbing headlines, the four astronauts that went up captured the world’s attention for several days on their way to and from the moon. In this talk, Ian will discuss how he found the failing tracking website and built a replacement using the same data to show progress during the mission. It turns out several other people ran into this problem, too, and we’ll explore their similar tools.", "speakers" : "Ian Dees, software engineer, he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "May 26, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: How Chicago Fought Back Against 'Midway Blitz'", "url" : "/events/2026/05/19/icirr.html", "description" : "The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights was at the forefront of resistance to the DHS escalation. ICIRR senior policy counsel Fred Tsao will discuss what we endured over the past year, what tools we used to protect and empower our neighbors, and what we can all do to get involved.", "speakers" : "Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel, he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "May 19, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2026/05/12/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "May 12, 2026" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Chicago Transit Authority", "url" : "/events/2026/05/05/chicago-transit-authority.html", "description" : "Join to us for a presentation from the Chicago Transit Authority.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy", "date" : "May 5, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Tackling the Unprecedented Challenges of Data Centers & The POWER Act", "url" : "/events/2026/04/28/citizens-utility-board.html", "description" : "Come hear a presentation from Citizens Utility Board on energy use and data centers.", "speakers" : "Scott Allen, he/him, Energy Policy Specialist;, Linc Cohen, he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "April 28, 2026" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Relaying Public Input on AI to Researchers: Creating the First AI Ethics Policy for the Zooniverse Crowdsourcing Platform", "url" : "/events/2026/04/21/ai-ml-ethics.html", "description" : "Join us for a presentation from Zooniverse on AI/ML Ethics.", "speakers" : "Dr. Samantha Blickhan, Director of Zooniverse at the Adler Planetarium, she/her", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy", "date" : "April 21, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Tracking the Unprecedented: Cataloging Federal Criminal Prosecutions in an Era of Overreach", "url" : "/events/2026/04/14/nacdl.html", "description" : "Come hear a presentation from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers about a criminal case tracker they maintain.", "speakers" : "Lisa Wayne, Executive Director, NACDL (she/her), Steven Logan, Chief Operating Officer, NACDL (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "April 14, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Life as a Local Legislator", "url" : "/events/2026/04/07/derek-eder.html", "description" : "In June 2025, Derek Eder was appointed to be a Trustee for the Village of Oak Park, a suburb west of Chicago with 54,000 residents known for being ethnically diverse and socially liberal. Derek will talk about what is involved in being a local legislator, the lessons he’s learned in his first 10 months, and share how his experience with Chi Hack Night and civic technology has prepared him and translated into policymaking.", "speakers" : "Derek Eder, he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "April 7, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2026/03/31/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 31, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2026/03/24/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 24, 2026" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Show and Tell", "url" : "/events/2026/03/10/show-and-tell.html", "description" : "Show and Tell is back! Join our low-pressure session to share what you're working on with the community.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "March 10, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Landlord Mapper - Year 2", "url" : "/events/2026/03/03/landlord-mapper.html", "description" : "Founder and lead developer Dylan Pederson returns to Chi Hack Night to report back about progress made so far in the initiative's second year. He will present on methodological developments, data model standardization, pipeline construction and app development in the initiative’s second year.", "speakers" : "Dylan Pederson, Landlord Mapper", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "housing", "date" : "March 3, 2026" } , { "title" : "Members Only: Election & Member Meeting", "url" : "/events/2026/02/24/election-and-member-meeting.html", "description" : "On Tuesday, February 24, 2026, Chi Hack Night will hold our seventh annual member meeting and election for our Board of Directors.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "member meeting", "date" : "February 24, 2026" } , { "title" : "Our 2025 Year in Review", "url" : "/blog/2026/02/24/2025-year-in-review.html", "description" : "As we gear up for our annual Member Meeting and Board Elections on February 24, 2026, we’re excited to share our 2025 Year in Review with all of our Members and the broader Chi Hack Night community. In that spirit of transparency and celebration, here are the high‑level highlights from Chi Hack Night in 2025.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 24, 2026" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Lucy Parsons Labs - Chicago's Fight against Automated License Plate Readers", "url" : "/events/2026/02/17/lucy-parsons-labs.html", "description" : "Join to hear about Chicago's Fight against Automated License Plate Readers.", "speakers" : "Freddy Martinez (he/him), Co-Executive Director of Lucy Parsons Labs", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy", "date" : "February 17, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: From Neglected to Beloved: How Vision, Policy, Data, and Engagement Revived the Chicago-Calumet River System", "url" : "/events/2026/02/10/friends-of-chicago-river.html", "description" : "Come hear a presentation from Friends of the Chicago River", "speakers" : "Adam Flickinger, AICP, WEDG, LEED AP, Planning Director @ Friends of the Chicago River, he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "February 10, 2026" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night’s Seventh Board Election", "url" : "/blog/2026/02/09/board-member-elections.html", "description" : "Details about the upcoming Board Member Election on February 24, 2026. Info about who is seeking reelection and how members can run for the board is detailed within.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 9, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2026/02/03/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "February 3, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2026/01/27/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "January 27, 2026" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Four-Flats, ADUs, and Beyond - How Abundant Housing Illinois is Reshaping Chicago", "url" : "/events/2026/01/20/abundant-housing-illinois.html", "description" : "What does it mean to be a YIMBY? As the Illinois chapter of the national “Yes In My Backyard” movement, Abundant Housing Illinois advocates for building more homes of all types; from affordable housing and shelters to market-rate apartments and the classic Chicago four-flat. The organization brings together neighbors, urbanists, and policy wonks to push for housing reforms that make the city and state more affordable and welcoming.", "speakers" : "Robert Spragg, Founder, he/him, Steffany Bahamon, Lead, she/her", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy", "date" : "January 20, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: One Year In - What We Know the Trump Administration Means for Public Interest Technology", "url" : "/events/2026/01/13/civic-tech-panel.html", "description" : "Join Reilly Martin from Technologists for the Public Good, Kate Green from We The Builders, and Christopher Whitaker from the Alliance of Civic Technology for a panel discussion on what the last year has meant for civic tech.", "speakers" : "Reilly Martin, She/Her - Executive Director, Technologists for Public Good, Kate Green, She/Her - Executive Director, We the Builders, Christopher Whitaker, He/Him - Executive Director, Alliance of Civic Technologists", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "January 13, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2026/01/06/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "January 6, 2026" } , { "title" : "Online: Govbot: Decentralized Government Data Meets AI Analysis — Built for Citizens and Activists", "url" : "/events/2025/12/16/govbot.html", "description" : "Legislative data is hard to parse, track, and organize—and existing solutions can disappear overnight, like Google’s Civic Information API did in 2024. What would a decentralized, open-source alternative look like?", "speakers" : "Sartaj Chowdhury (he/him), Tamara Dowis (she/her), Edwin Chalas Cuevas (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "December 16, 2025" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Bicyclist Fatalities - Investigating USDOT-Registered Carriers, City of Chicago Contracts, & Insurance Networks", "url" : "/events/2025/12/09/bike-lane-uprising.html", "description" : "Bike Lane Uprising has conducted a data-driven audit and risk analysis of over 50,000 Illinois companies registered with the United States Department of Transportation - specifically examining their risk of involvement in crashes and fatalities with bicyclists.", "speakers" : "Christina Whitehouse, Kelley Sarussi, Alex Vogler, Chris Baggott", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy", "date" : "December 9, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/12/02/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "December 2, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/11/18/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "November 18, 2025" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/11/11/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join us in-person at i.c.stars for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "open, hack", "date" : "November 11, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: The IMPACT Program - Funding solutions that address digital gaps and leverage storytelling", "url" : "/events/2025/11/04/impact-program.html", "description" : "In 2024, Cook County and City Bureau partnered to co-design and launch the IMPACT Small Grants Program to provide funding and storytelling support to local nonprofits, media organizations, and libraries. These grants help expand internet access, boost digital literacy, and boost the engagement efforts of community-based organizations to make digital skills accessible to everyone in Cook County.", "speakers" : "Mauricio Jimenez, Digital Equity Coordinator at Cook County Government, he/him, Tyra Bosnic, Senior Manager of Grants and Public Partnerships at City Bureau, she/her", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, digital equity", "date" : "November 4, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Designing Dashboards that Deliver", "url" : "/events/2025/10/28/dashboards-that-deliver.html", "description" : "During this talk, you’ll learn the Dashboards That Deliver design framework, which blends user-centered design, Agile, and data viz practices and the authors’ experiences designing thousands of dashboards across industries. Then we’ll dive into a few practical examples, including Amanda’s stories about her own dashboards and examples from the book, to see how the framework applies in practice, and what lessons you can apply to the next data product you collaborate on, whether you’re a team of one or an enterprise analytics team.", "speakers" : "Amanda Makulec (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "design", "date" : "October 28, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/10/21/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 21, 2025" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Generating 1.9 Million Static Web Pages to Explore How the Cook County Assessor’s Statistical Model Valued Your Home", "url" : "/events/2025/10/14/ccao.html", "description" : "In this talk, the CCAO Data team will explain how and why they built HomeVal. They’ll dive into the nitty-gritty details of how they designed and implemented the app — from developing an AI explainability algorithm, to scaling that algorithm across every home in the County using high-performance Python code, to generating 1.9 million static HTML pages in roughly one hour using Hugo and GitHub Actions.", "speakers" : "Nicole Jardine, Chief Data Officer, Cook County Assessor’s Office (she/her), Jean Cochrane, Interim Director of Data Science, Cook County Assessor’s Office (she/her), Michael Wagner, Junior Data Scientist, Cook County Assessor’s Office (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "October 14, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/10/07/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 7, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Namesake - Simplifying legal name and gender marker changes for trans people in the U.S.", "url" : "/events/2025/09/30/namesake.html", "description" : "Namesake was founded in 2021 to help trans people in Massachusetts navigate the legal name change process. Namesake's open source web application is built to securely guide people through the steps required to update identity documents, keep track of progress, and answer common questions. Namesake partners with organizations like the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition to provide financial assistance and host name change clinics. Our hope for Namesake is to build a resource by and for trans people, to share knowledge, offer communal support, and fight for policies to ensure that everyone can be seen for who they are.", "speakers" : "Eva Decker Co-Founder, Namesake (they/she), mb Bischoff, Designer and Developer (she/it)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "lgbtq", "date" : "September 30, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Investigating the Trump administration’s deportations to a maximum security prison in El Salvador", "url" : "/events/2025/09/23/propublica-deportations-reporting.html", "description" : "A team of ProPublica and Texas Tribune reporters, working in collaboration with Venezuelan journalists, spent several months investigating who the men really were. Contrary to the administration’s claims that the men were “some of the most violent savages on the face of the Earth,” internal records showed that officials knew that the vast majority of the Venezuelan men had never been convicted of crimes in the U.S. By and large, the men had not absconded from immigration authorities; they were in the system, and dozens had open immigration court cases or pending asylum claims at the time they were deported.", "speakers" : "Melissa Sanchez, ProPublica reporter (she/her), Mica Rosenberg, ProPublica reporter (she/her), Perla Trevizo, ProPublica/Texas Tribune Investigative Unit reporter (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "immigration", "date" : "September 23, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: The Civics of Technology Project", "url" : "/events/2025/09/16/civics-of-technology-project.html", "description" : "The Civics of Technology Project (CoT) is a grassroots education organization that conducts research, develops curriculum, and offers professional development for teachers and students to critically inquire into the effects of technology on people’s individual and collective lives. At a time when powerful Big Tech companies seek to control how, what, and why people learn with and about technology, CoT brings together educators and students from across disciplines and institutions to consider ways to resist and refuse corporate capture of classrooms while reimagining justice-oriented technology education.", "speakers" : "Charles Logan; Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Northwestern University’s Center for Responsible Technology, Policy, and Public Dialogue; he/him/his", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "September 16, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Chicago Food Rescue", "url" : "/events/2025/09/09/chicago-food-rescue.html", "description" : "Chicago Food Rescue bridges the gap between food waste and food insecurity in Chicago. Volunteers use an app to deliver surplus food that would otherwise be thrown out directly to organizations serving people in need. Food Rescue makes nutritious food accessible to people facing food insecurity while giving volunteers a flexible, meaningful way to contribute.", "speakers" : "Jake Tepperman, Executive Director and Founder - Chicago Food Rescue, he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "food security", "date" : "September 9, 2025" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Community Feedback Session", "url" : "/events/2025/09/02/chn-community-feedback-session.html", "description" : "Join us for a facilitated group conversation about how we, as both individuals and a community, might navigate the rising authoritarian government in the US. During these times, it's important to stay informed, build community, and make plans. How might we do this better? The facilitated discussion will be structured around 3 prompts.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "September 2, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/08/26/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 26, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/08/19/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 19, 2025" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: City of Chicago’s Department of Technology and Innovation​", "url" : "/events/2025/08/12/nick-lucius.html", "description" : "Hear from the Chicago Department of Tech and Innovation leaders on recent progress and projects.", "speakers" : "Nick Lucius, Commissioner and Chief Information Officer, He/Him, Melissa Clark, Head of Planning, She/Her", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "city, of, chicago", "date" : "August 12, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: CityCamp 2025: A global movement of community-focused events that foster civic collaboration and innovation", "url" : "/events/2025/08/05/citycamp.html", "description" : "Hear about CityCamp - an “unconference” designed to bring together technologists, nonprofit leaders, and local government stakeholders to collaborate on innovative ways to improve our cities.", "speakers" : "Nicole Dan, Board Member - Alliance of Civic Technologists and Vice President - Florida Community Innovation, she/her", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "events", "date" : "August 5, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: How the CTA is Fighting Ghost Buses ", "url" : "/events/2025/07/29/cta.html", "description" : "Hear from three CTA employees on technical improvements the Chicago Transit Authority has been working on.", "speakers" : "Will Anderson, Manager, External Electronic Communications (he/him), Lok Kwan, System Administrator III, Planning and Innovation (he/him), Austin Chambers, Programmer Analyst III (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transit", "date" : "July 29, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/07/22/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "July 22, 2025" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: For the Public Good: Technology at Chicago Public Library​", "url" : "/events/2025/07/15/chicago-public-library.html", "description" : "Learn more about technology at CPL", "speakers" : "Nicole Steeves (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "library", "date" : "July 15, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Property tax foreclosures in Cook County", "url" : "/events/2025/07/08/property-tax-foreclosure.html", "description" : "Since 2019, more than 1,000 Cook County homeowners have lost their homes and home equity to investors — called tax buyers — through property tax foreclosure. Collectively, these homeowners owed $2.3 million at the time they fell behind on tax bills but lost $108 million in the estimated market value of their homes when investors foreclosed. A joint investigation by Injustice Watch and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity found these losses of homes and of wealth are disproportionately concentrated in Black community areas. Reporters Emeline Posner and Carlos Ballesteros will discuss their reporting and impact.", "speakers" : "Emeline Posner, Reporter, Investigative Project on Race and Equity (they/them), Carlos Ballesteros, Senior Reporter, Injustice Watch (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "housing", "date" : "July 8, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Build your Tech skills with CCC", "url" : "/events/2025/06/24/city-colleges-of-chicago.html", "description" : "City Colleges helps students enter and evolve in a tech career—no matter where they start. With classes offering college credit, industry certifications, and professional development, it’s an affordable and life-changing tech education. City Colleges partners with some of the biggest names in tech, ensuring that CCC students learn relevant skills, and that employers have direct access to top talent.", "speakers" : "Leah Banks, Associate Dean of Continuing Education at Harold Washington College (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "June 24, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Promontory Point: How to Save the Point", "url" : "/events/2025/06/17/promontory-point.html", "description" : "Promontory Point Conservancy works to protect and preserve Promontory Point, Burnham Park, on Chicago’s South Side. For the past 25 years, the Conservancy, a community-led non-profit, has advocated to save the Point’s historic limestone block, stepped-stone revetment and promenade. The Conservancy succeeded in getting the Point listed on the National Register of Historic Places (2018) and designated a Chicago Landmark (2023). Preserving the historic limestone revetment preserves the community that has gathered at the Point for many decades. Public support for a genuine preservation approach to saving the Point is nearly unanimous (99.3%). In fact, survey data shows that the Point de-stigmatizes the South Side and represents who South Siders really are. ", "speakers" : "Jack Spicer, president and co-founder, Promontory Point Conservancy (he/his), Debra Hammond, treasurer, Promontory Point Conservancy (you/your)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "conservation", "date" : "June 17, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/06/10/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 10, 2025" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Cook County Treasurer's Office", "url" : "/events/2025/06/03/cook-county-treasurer.html", "description" : "The Cook County property tax assessment appeals system shifted nearly $2 billion in property taxes onto homeowners from businesses over just three years, with lower-income, Black and Latino homeowners picking up a disproportionate share of the burden, according to a new study by the Cook County Treasurer’s Office. Christopher Silber, the study’s lead author, and Director of Research Hal Dardick, the study’s editor, will break down the background, methodology and findings of the study.", "speakers" : "Christopher Silber, Researcher, Cook County Treasurer’s Office(he/his), Hal Dardick, Director of Research, Cook County Treasurer’s Office (he/his)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "government", "date" : "June 3, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/05/27/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "May 27, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/05/20/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "May 20, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: The Illinois Assistive Technology Program", "url" : "/events/2025/05/13/iatp.html", "description" : "The Illinois Assistive Technology Program (IATP) is a statewide nonprofit agency funded by state and federal grants that has been responsible for implementing the federal Assistive Technology Act since 1989. IATP promotes the availability of assistive technology (AT) devices and services for people with disabilities and other health conditions.", "speakers" : "Paula Basta, Director Strategic Initiatives and Program Development (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "digital access", "date" : "May 13, 2025" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Show and Tell (at i.c.stars)", "url" : "/events/2025/05/06/icstars.html", "description" : "Show and Tell is our low-pressure session to share what you're working on with the community.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "May 6, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Learning and AI Tools", "url" : "/events/2025/04/29/cameron-sow.html", "description" : "In this talk Cameron Sow, Chi Hack Night Board Member, will explore a paper he released this year on what learning is and how it differs from computational “learning”. We will then consider some of the implications these recognitions have for emerging technologies and society. Special attention will be paid to the unique features of the city of Chicago that make it an awesome place to learn about learning.", "speakers" : "Cameron Sow, Learner | Artist | Philosopher (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "ai", "date" : "April 29, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: What's in the River? Urban Rivers citizen science monitoring of the Chicago River", "url" : "/events/2025/04/22/urban-rivers.html", "description" : "Urban Rivers is a non-profit with the mission of turning our cities waterways into wildlife sanctuaries and is the organization behind the Wild Mile floating park. They presented at Chi Hack Night back in 2015. We’ll hear what they’ve been up to in the last 10 years! Nick Wesley will discuss Urban Rivers efforts to monitor wildlife in the Chicago River using camera traps and the development of Rangers.UrbanRivers.org to catalogue all of the species observed.", "speakers" : "Nick Wesley, Executive Director and Co-Founder", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "April 22, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/04/15/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 15, 2025" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Chicago Neighborhoods Project (new location)", "url" : "/events/2025/04/08/chicago-neighborhoods-project.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Night will be at a new location! i.c.stars, a non-profit tech training & placement program, will be hosting us at their office at 750 N Orleans Suite 500, Chicago. Hear from the researchers leading the Chicago Neighborhood Project about their work and early findings.", "speakers" : "Dr. Crystal Bae, Assistant Instructional Professor of GIScience at the University of Chicago (she/her or they/them), Dr. Lydia Wileden, Assistant Research Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Connecticut (she/her), Dr. Emily Talen, Professor of Urbanism at the University of Chicago and Director of the Urbanism Lab (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "academic", "date" : "April 8, 2025" } , { "title" : "Meet Chi Hack Night's New Co-Presidents!", "url" : "/blog/2025/04/06/meet-our-new-co-presidents.html", "description" : "After serving as Chi Hack Night's second President, Sean Watland is stepping down after two years. Congratulate Sneha Jalukar & Samanatha Goodman Chi Hack Night's new Co-Presidents!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 6, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Rental Affordability in Chicago", "url" : "/events/2025/04/01/wbez-rental-affordability.html", "description" : "Rents have risen faster than incomes in Chicago in recent decades, leading to worsening rental affordability issues for residents across the city. Between 2000 and 2022, the number of neighborhoods considered “affordable” for low- and middle-income renters decreased, and the number of new units has fallen. Amy Qin and Andjela Padejski have been analyzing these and other rental affordability issues in Chicago for recent reporting in WBEZ. They and their colleagues also created a Chicago Rent Time Machine to allow readers to explore historical rent data. In this presentation, they will discuss their reporting process and findings.", "speakers" : "Amy Qin, Data Reporter, Andjela Padejski, Interactive Developer/Data Journalist", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "housing", "date" : "April 1, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/03/25/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 25, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/03/18/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 18, 2025" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Digital Equity with “Retired” Computers", "url" : "/events/2025/03/11/pcs-for-people.html", "description" : "Since 1998, PCs for People has refurbished over 400,000 devices which were contributed by corporations, colleges, government entities, and other organizations. They have diverted over 23 million lbs of e-waste from landfills while equipping underserved communities with the tools needed to succeed in a digital world.", "speakers" : "Loren Williams He/Him, PCs For People", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "digital, equity", "date" : "March 11, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: StopWatch - Exploring Bus Service in Chicago", "url" : "/events/2025/03/04/stopwatch.html", "description" : "The StopWatch analyzes a unique dataset of over 100 million real-time bus locations collected by Chi Hack Night Ghost Bus. Part of the 2024 Local Data Journalism Initiative, this project is a collaboration between the University of Chicago’s Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation and the Chicago Tribune.", "speakers" : "Sarah Freishtat, Austin Steinhart, Joseph De Leon, Regina I. Medina", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transportation", "date" : "March 4, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: ChicagoAQI and The Political Technology of Air Monitors", "url" : "/events/2025/02/25/chicago-aqi.html", "description" : "On February 3rd, Neighbors For Environmental Justice (N4EJ) released a new tool called ChicagoAQI that lets people suggest locations for city air monitors and explore environmental risks and exposures in their neighborhood. The app is available in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Like air monitors, ChicagoAQI is both a data tool and an organizing tool. In this session, Anthony Moser from N4EJ talks about why they decided to make ChicagoAQI, how thinking about it as a tool for organizing shaped the design beyond data requirements, and how data and design choices are inherently political.", "speakers" : "Anthony Moser (he/him) - Board President, Neighbors For Environmental Justice", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "February 25, 2025" } , { "title" : "Members Only: Election & Member Meeting", "url" : "/events/2025/02/18/election-and-member-meeting.html", "description" : "On Tuesday, February 18, 2025, Chi Hack Night will hold our sixth annual member meeting and election for our Board of Directors.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "member meeting", "date" : "February 18, 2025" } , { "title" : "2025 Board Election Results", "url" : "/blog/2025/02/18/election-results.html", "description" : "On Feb 18th, we held our sixth election for our Board of Directors. Congrats to our elected and appointed Board Members Derek Eder, Katie O'Shea, Josh Kalov, Adam Hecktman, and Vien Nguyen!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 18, 2025" } , { "title" : "Our 2024 Year in Review", "url" : "/blog/2025/02/16/2024-year-in-review.html", "description" : "Ahead of our sixth annual Member Meeting and Board Elections on Feb 18, 2025, we’re publishing our 2024 year in review to share with our Members and our community (that’s you!). We put on 48 Chi Hack Night events, hosted 33 presentations, held our fifth annual board election, remained financially stable, and updated and set new objectives and key results (OKRs) for our organization.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 16, 2025" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Illegal evictions in Chicago", "url" : "/events/2025/02/11/ire.html", "description" : "An eviction with no notice is extraordinarily disruptive, straining budgets with unplanned expenses, risking job loss for adults and missing school for kids. Yet lockout complaints to Chicago police have increased by 40% since the city started tracking them. A Business Insider investigation found weak enforcement Chicago's laws against lockouts: tickets or arrests by police are rare, and city lawyers routinely dismiss cases, often without documenting why. The result is that only one of every 140 lockout calls ended in a fine, BI found.", "speakers" : "Cecilia Reyes, Senior Reporter (She/Her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "February 11, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/02/04/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "February 4, 2025" } , { "title" : "January 2025 Community Feedback Session", "url" : "/blog/2025/01/31/2025-community-feedback-session.html", "description" : "On January 14, 2025, Chi Hack Night held a community feedback session. During this hybrid in-person and remote event, participants collaborated to provide feedback on four topics that impact Chi Hack Night Community members. In particular, participants discussed topics of fears and hopes, media and civic literacy, social media impacts, and Chi Hack Night Community. In this blog post, we recap the content of the discussions and reflect on major themes that emerged.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 31, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Neighborhood Defenders - Participatory Politics and America's Housing Crisis", "url" : "/events/2025/01/28/housing-politics-lab.html", "description" : "In this talk Prof. Palmer will discuss the key findings of Neighborhood Defenders, and present some recent research on other ways that communities fight new housing, even when that housing is allowed under the zoning code. For example, communities exclude newcomers by giving local preferences to current residents in affordable houding lotteries, exclude families by restricting new affordable housing to seniors or only building small units, and stop developments entirely by buying large plots of land. He will also discuss some strategies to address the housing crisis.", "speakers" : "Maxwell Palmer, Associate Professor of Political Science, Boston University. He/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "housing", "date" : "January 28, 2025" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night’s Sixth Board Election", "url" : "/blog/2025/01/24/board-member-elections.html", "description" : "Details about the upcoming Board Member Election on February 18, 2025. Info about who is seeking reelection and how members can run for the board is detailed within.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 24, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Landlord Mapper - The National Landlord Database Initiative", "url" : "/events/2025/01/21/landlord-mapper.html", "description" : "Dylan Pederson is a former tenant organizer and founder and lead developer of the Landlord Mapper, a national landlord database initiative. He has developed a novel methodology for obtaining landlord datasets using property taxpayer records and has created a web application allowing users to investigate landlords and their properties. His work aims to help tenants research their landlords, and to promote broader transparency in rental markets. ", "speakers" : "Dylan Pederson (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "housing", "date" : "January 21, 2025" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Community Feedback Session", "url" : "/events/2025/01/14/community-feedback.html", "description" : "Join us for a facilitated group conversation about the incoming second Trump Administration, the role of technology and data in our society, and how we, the Chi Hack Night community might respond to all of it. Community feedback will be summarized and shared out in a future blog post. Join us Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. in person!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "January 14, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2025/01/07/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "January 7, 2025" } , { "title" : "Online: Electrify Chicago - Analyzing Chicago's Building Pollution", "url" : "/events/2024/12/17/electrify-chicago.html", "description" : "Hear from one of Chi Hack Night's own breakout groups, Electrify Chicago, an independent open-source project looking to shed light onto one of the biggest sources of Chicago's CO2 emissions - buildings. In this talk, lead contributor of Electrify Chicago Viktor Köves will walk through how the project got started, what the team found in the city's data, the goals of Electrify Chicago, and how their work has helped activists put pressure on building owners to improve and on the city to enforce the energy and emissions reporting requirements.", "speakers" : "Viktor Köves (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community, environment", "date" : "December 17, 2024" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night joins the Alliance of Civic Technologists", "url" : "/blog/2024/12/16/2024-joining-act.html", "description" : "The Chi Hack Night Board is proud to share that we have become a member of the Alliance of Civic Technologists (ACT), a national network of volunteer civic technology groups. We encourage everyone in the Chi Hack Night community to learn about ACT and its other member groups, and to reach out and participate in their spaces where and when you can!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "December 16, 2024" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Run On Climate - Addressing the climate crisis through local action", "url" : "/events/2024/12/10/run-on-climate.html", "description" : "Cities account for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions and have enormous power to reduce emissions through local policy. With an incoming federal government that plans to move backwards on climate, it is more crucial now than ever that cities are moving forward. Jack Hanson, Founder and Executive Director of Run On Climate will discuss his work to support bold local climate action in communities across the U.S.", "speakers" : "Jack Hanson, Founder and Executive Director of Run On Climate and former Burlington, VT City Councilor", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "December 10, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Windy Civi", "url" : "/events/2024/12/03/windy-civi.html", "description" : "Windy Civi is a Chi Hack Night breakout group with a focus to help citizens stay updated and engaged on active legislation. They recently released their open source app, with a support for Chicago, Illinois, and Federal locales. They will talk through how they hope it will help achieve the goal of having a better informed & influential citizens.", "speakers" : "Sartaj Chowdhury (he/him), Marissa Heffler (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "December 3, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2024/11/19/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "November 19, 2024" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Wings Over the Windy City and the Chicago Bird Migration Monitoring Network", "url" : "/events/2024/11/12/wings-over-the-windy-city.html", "description" : "“Wings Over the Windy City” is a research initiative focused on the unique challenges and opportunities migratory birds face within Chicago’s urban landscape. This three-year project at the Van Doren Lab of Migration Biology at UIUC will explore how migratory birds use high-altitude city airspace, assess the value of urban green spaces, and identify key factors driving fatal bird-building collisions.", "speakers" : "Dr. Benjamin Van Doren, he/him, Assistant Professor with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, J’orge Garcia, he/they, #citybirds Director", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "November 12, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Launching the Alliance of Civic Technologists ", "url" : "/events/2024/10/29/act.html", "description" : "The Alliance of Civic Technologists is a decentralized network of civic technology volunteer organizations, providing opportunities to connect, learn, and grow. We are launching our membership drive to reestablish America’s civic technology network filling the gap left by the sunsetting of Code for America's Brigade program. ACT Executive Director Christopher Whitaker will talk about the history of civic technology volunteer groups, why it’s valuable to have these groups connected together, and how ACT plans to support civic tech volunteer groups across the country by convening volunteers, providing opportunities to learn, and by amplifying their stories.", "speakers" : "Christopher Whitaker, Executive Director, He/Him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice", "date" : "October 29, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2024/10/22/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 22, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Invisible Institute presents: CPDP 3.0 and National Police Index", "url" : "/events/2024/10/15/invisible-institute.html", "description" : "The Civic Police Data Project (CPDP.co) takes records of police interactions with the public – records that would otherwise be buried in internal databases – and opens them up to make the data useful to the public, creating a permanent record for every CPD police officer. The database, the first and largest of its kind in the country, holds more than a quarter million allegations of misconduct by Chicago Police from 1988-2023. This August, we launched CPDP 3.0, adding 12,000+ misconduct allegations, 28,000+ use of force reports, and 1,500 lawsuit settlements.", "speakers" : "Maira Khwaja (she/her), Sam Stecklow (he/him), Maheen Khan (she/her), trina reynolds-tyler (she/they), Chaclyn Hunt (she/her), Andrew Fan (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice", "date" : "October 15, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2024/10/08/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 8, 2024" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: The Tenant Trap", "url" : "/events/2024/10/01/tenant-trap.html", "description" : "A yearlong Injustice Watch investigation found tens of thousands of Chicagoans live in buildings with histories of serious safety violations. Tenants in these buildings regularly face eviction and informal displacement, even when trying to exercise their rights. Reporters Alejandra Cancino and Maya Dukmasova found a dual court system: a lenient one for landlords focused on ensuring buildings are up to code, and a punitive one for tenants focused on getting them out of apartments.", "speakers" : "Alejandra Cancino (She/Her), Maya Dukmasova (She/Her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "housing", "date" : "October 1, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Counting Trucks for Environmental Justice: Data from the Ground Up", "url" : "/events/2024/09/24/chicago-truck-counts.html", "description" : "The presenters will explore the urgent environmental and public health concerns that inspired this innovative project, and how the Chicago Truck Data Portal emerged from grassroots community science efforts in Little Village. By connecting quantitative data with the lived experiences of residents, this portal serves as a vital tool for empowering local communities. They will highlight how the traffic data— for example, showing over 5,000 trucks and buses passing through an environmental justice neighborhood daily— has fueled community-driven advocacy, informing federal policy proposals, and amplifying voices in long-overlooked areas.", "speakers" : "Carolina Macias, she/they/ella/elle, Senior Mobility Justice Research Organizer | Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Paulina Vaca, she/her, Associate, Urban Resilience | Center for Neighborhood Technology", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transportation, environment", "date" : "September 24, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2024/09/17/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "September 17, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2024/09/10/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "September 10, 2024" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: A Systems Approach to Gender Equity: World Business Chicago", "url" : "/events/2024/09/03/wbc-gender-equity-office.html", "description" : "Currently, it will take 100 years in tech and society to close the gender parity gap. In 2020, GET Cities began as a five-year, three city initiative (Chicago, Miami and Washington, D.C.) to close that gap with a variety of interventions leveraging stakeholders across the system including non-profits, private companies, government and educational institutions. Now at World Business Chicago (WBC) as the head of their new Gender Equity Office, Elle Ramel will lead the new office to leverage the data and research capacities of WBC to understand macroeconomic trends and how they relate to the Chicago workforce, expand past tech into tech-adjacent industries, and extend its exploration and amplification of best practices in regards to access to capital and employment for women and non-binary individuals.", "speakers" : "Elle Ramel, Chief of Staff & Inclusive Partnerships (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity", "date" : "September 3, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Statewide Digital Equity: Breaking down a historic moment for universal broadband access in Illinois", "url" : "/events/2024/08/27/il-digital-equity.html", "description" : "Thanks to the Biden Administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Illinois is on the cusp of receiving more than $1 billion to connect every household to broadband and build capacity among local organizations to help residents get online. Devon Braunstein, Director of the Illinois Office of Broadband, will join Chi Hack Night on August 27th to discuss how Illinois prepares for this historic moment, practices equity-in-process, and navigates complex policy questions around what it means to be “served” by broadband internet.", "speakers" : "Devon Braunstein (she/her), Director, Illinois Office of Broadband", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "government, digital equity", "date" : "August 27, 2024" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night | 2024-2025 Goals", "url" : "/blog/2024/08/22/2024-okrs.html", "description" : "On June 1st, 2024, the Board of Directors held our second in-person board retreat! This retreat served as an excellent opportunity for the 10 Board of Directors to have more focused discussions around what membership means at Chi Hack Night, plan our upcoming OKRs for the year, and enjoy copious amounts of bagels & coffee.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 22, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Locked In, Priced Out: How The Appeal Built the First National Database of Prison Commissary Prices", "url" : "/events/2024/08/20/the-appeal.html", "description" : "Earlier this year, The Appeal published the first-ever national database of prices charged for basic necessities at prison commissaries across the United States. The result of a nearly yearlong effort to compile commissary lists from 46 states, the database sheds light on the prices and steep markups that affect access to numerous food, hygiene, and religious items behind bars. In this presentation, The Appeal’s research and projects editor, Ethan Corey, will discuss how The Appeal built the database and the challenges the reporting team faced along the way. The presentation will also discuss opportunities for building on the database to hold officials and contractors accountable.", "speakers" : "Ethan Corey, Research & Projects Editor at The Appeal, he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 20, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: IN2IT Chicago: Making Local Civic Engagement Easier", "url" : "/events/2024/08/13/in2it.html", "description" : "Join us as we share lessons learned and opportunities ahead in making it easier to get civically engaged in Chicago. Find or recommend volunteer opportunities, help us spread the word, and let us know what you think as we work together to strengthen community life in Chicago.", "speakers" : "Cameron Sow (he/him) - Product Development, Wes Thorburn (he/him) - Web Development, Deanna Franklin (she/her) - Design", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 13, 2024" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Chi Hack Night's 600th Episode - Celebration and Ideathon!", "url" : "/events/2024/08/06/600-ideathon.html", "description" : "August 6th, 2024 marks the 600th episode of Chi Hack Night! For this very special in-person Hack Night, we will have an ideathon! An ideathon is an event where people of diverse backgrounds come together into teams to generate and refine ideas around a small number of guiding themes. Teams will present their ideas, and then by community vote will receive prizes!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "August 6, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Introducing the Spatial Equity Data Tool and Its New API", "url" : "/events/2024/07/30/spatial-equity-tool.html", "description" : "The Urban Institute’s Spatial Equity Data Tool (SEDT) enables users to upload their own data and quickly assess whether place-based programs and resources — such as parks, libraries, wi-fi hotspots, or electric vehicle charging stations — are equitably distributed across neighborhoods and demographic groups. Gabe Morrison will introduce the SEDT, its new API, and new analysis features that significantly expand the applications for the SEDT.", "speakers" : "Gabe Morrison (Him/Him/His), Data Scientist, the Urban Institute", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 30, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: The Police Department for Fired Cops", "url" : "/events/2024/07/23/police-department-for-fired-cops.html", "description" : "The Illinois Answers Project found that 17% of all police officers hired by the Robbins Police Department since 2000 came on board directly after they were fired from previous law enforcement jobs, the most of any department in Illinois. The investigation includes a database that shows the fired cops and the departments that subsequently hired them.", "speakers" : "Casey Toner, He/His, investigative reporter", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "July 23, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2024/07/16/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "July 16, 2024" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Navigating the Tangled Web of City Agencies - Producing Large Scale Events in the City of Chicago", "url" : "/events/2024/07/09/chicago-dcase.html", "description" : "Chicago is showcased through some of the largest and well known events in the country. From the Chicago Air & Water Show and Taste of Chicago, to Lollapalooza and NASCAR, to the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, millions of people participate in thousands of events year-round. Ann Hickey has 24 years event operations and logistics experience with the City of Chicago and oversees the permitting of special events. She joins us for a lively discussion of how the City gets things done for large scale events and how to navigate through the many acronyms to do so.", "speakers" : "Ann Hickey, Deputy Commissioner of Operations, City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "July 9, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2024/06/25/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 25, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2024/06/18/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 18, 2024" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: How I accidentally started an uprising - Bike Lane Uprising", "url" : "/events/2024/06/11/bike-lane-uprising.html", "description" : "We’re making it easy to report bike lane obstructions with our mobile app. Bike Lane Uprising®️ was founded in 2017 by Christina Whitehouse after she was almost run over by a driver of a commercial truck. The incident happened in Chicago which coincidentally was named the most bike friendly city in the United States that same year. After starting as a passion project in Chicago, Bike Lane Uprising® spread via word of mouth and is now available in all US & Canadian cities. Whitehouse was named a Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago Magazine as well as 1 of the '50 of the most influential people in American cycling' by Escape Collective.", "speakers" : "Christina Whitehouse, Bike Lane Uprising Founder", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy", "date" : "June 11, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: 'Amis Moedict: An open source dictionary for Formosan Languages", "url" : "/events/2024/06/04/amis-moedict.html", "description" : "Dictionaries are one of the important means for language conservation, especially for the languages of minorities. miaoski and Jerry are going to talk about the birth and development of an online dictionary of 'Amis, a Formosan indigenous language. They will talk about the special momentum intertwined with g0v's online and offline hackathons, the philosophy of crowd-sourcing, the challenges, and how the open source movement works as an empowerment to the language's speakers.", "speakers" : "miaoski / Threat researcher / he, him, Jerry Lee / Engineer / he, him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "language", "date" : "June 4, 2024" } , { "title" : "Vien Nguyen", "url" : "/board-of-directors/vien-nguyen.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "June 1, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Ward Wise - Neighborhood Infrastructure Spending In Chicago", "url" : "/events/2024/05/28/ward-wise-breakout-group.html", "description" : "Ward Wise is a Chi Hack Night breakout group working to empower Chicagoans by demystifying the city’s infrastructure spending. Using nearly two decades worth of data, they are performing analysis and crafting tools to make Chicago infrastructure engaging and understandable for the general public. Come learn what “menu money” is, explore the available options for new neighborhood infrastructure, and uncover actionable steps to engage in the decision-making process.", "speakers" : "Sean MacMullan (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "May 28, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Leave the Seat Empty - Documenting Demolition in Chicago", "url" : "/events/2024/05/21/soren-spicknall.html", "description" : "Leave the Seat Empty is an ongoing photo series by Soren Spicknall, capturing buildings in Chicago in between the time a demolition permit is issued and the time the wrecking crews come, paired with writing about the subject buildings. At Chi Hack Night, Spicknall will discuss the methods he uses to research ongoing demolition activity, key patterns driving demolition in Chicago, and the shortcomings of available public records related to demolition.", "speakers" : "Soren Spicknall, independent photographer, he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "housing", "date" : "May 21, 2024" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Chicago Missing Persons Project", "url" : "/events/2024/05/14/chicago-missing-persons-project.html", "description" : ""Missing in Chicago" is a seven-part investigative series that reveals how Chicago police have routinely violated state law and police procedure, delaying and mishandling missing person cases. The report revealed a racial bias that disproportionately impacts Black women and girls, and how poor police data is making the problem harder to solve.", "speakers" : "Trina Reynolds-Tyler, Director of Beneath the Surface at the Invisible Institute, Sarah Conway, Senior Reporter at City Bureau", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "May 14, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Collaboration to Address Climate Change in Chicago", "url" : "/events/2024/05/07/collaboration-climate-change.html", "description" : "In this discussion, four experts working on the problem of climate change, vulnerability, and inequity in Chicago will discuss their group's work and collaboration between partners to solve the most pressing climate issues. We'll hear about projected changes in climate hazards in Chicago, how scientists are working with community partners to make data and resources accessible, and how public health professionals are working to ensure a healthier and more just future in Chicago.", "speakers" : "Trent Ford, Illinois State Climatologist, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he/him, Elena Grossman, Community Benefits Program Manager, GTI Energy, she/her, Max Grover, Software Developer, Argonne National Lab, he/him, Peiyuan Li, Researcher, Discovery Partners Institute, he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "climate, change", "date" : "May 7, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Investigating the judiciary - public officials outside public records laws", "url" : "/events/2024/04/30/maya-dukmasova.html", "description" : "Maya Dukmasova, Senior Reporter at Injustice Watch, will explain the basics about the structure of the Cook County judicial branch of government and the things under the courts' jurisdiction. She will share how Injustice Watch investigates judges and court-administered bureaucracies for its journalism and its #CheckYourJudges judicial election guides.", "speakers" : "Maya Dukmasova, Senior Reporter at Injustice Watch (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "April 30, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: US Research Software Engineer Association", "url" : "/events/2024/04/23/sandra-gesing.html", "description" : "The US Research Software Engineer Association (US-RSE) empowers a diverse workforce of Research Software Engineers through advocacy, professional development, and collaboration. Like for many nonprofit organizations, most of the work is done by only a few volunteers though. While these individuals are very passionate about improving the RSE ecosystem, the challenge is to protect them from burning out without stopping their enthusiasm. The presenter will go into approaches to address this challenge that are suitable for volunteer organizations in general.", "speakers" : "Sandra Gesing, Executive Director and Senior Researcher (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "nonprofit", "date" : "April 23, 2024" } , { "title" : "In-person Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2024/04/16/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join us at Tech Nexus for food, networking, socializing and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 16, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Auditing OpenAI's GPT for hiring bias", "url" : "/events/2024/04/09/leon-yin.html", "description" : "Leon Yin will share the background, methodology and findings for a recent data-driven investigation into hiring bias in OpenAI's GPT. By reproducing a classic hiring discrimination study, Yin and his co-authors (Davey Alba and Leonardo Nicoletti) reveal GPT's racial and gender biases against names when asked to rank equally-qualified candidates for the same role.", "speakers" : "Leon Yin (he/his) - Investigative data journalist", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "April 9, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2024/04/02/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 2, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2024/03/26/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 26, 2024" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Every life counts: tracking opioid overdose deaths on the CTA", "url" : "/events/2024/03/19/katie-prout.html", "description" : "In order to understand the scope of a public health crisis, you must count the dead. While the Medical Examiner's Office does track the number of opioid-overdose related deaths that occur in Cook County every year, no city department tracks how many of those deaths occur on the CTA, including the CTA. This matters, because while the majority of overdoses that result in death in the county do occur in private homes, the ones that happen on the CTA-where hundreds of unhoused Chicagoans shelter every winter--are visible, public, and thus present more opportunity for reversal. According to Katie Prout of the Chicago Reader, 158 people died from overdose on the CTA between 2018-2022. That number is likely an underestimate. For her talk, Prout will discuss how she came to those numbers, how other cities (and transit agencies) across the U.S. are tracking those numbers, and the questions that remain.", "speakers" : "Katie Prout, features writer for Chicago Reader, she/her/hers", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transit", "date" : "March 19, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Borderless Investigation - Inhumane Conditions at Chicago’s Largest Shelter", "url" : "/events/2024/03/12/mauricio-pena.html", "description" : "Some 36,000 migrants have arrived by bus or plane since August 2022. Inside the city’s largest shelter, migrants have detailed harsh living conditions, mistreatment from staff, spoiled food and rampant illness. Three days after Borderless’s investigation, a five-year-old died of Sepsis and other infectious diseases. A second investigation found that early warning signs about the conditions inside the city’s shelter were ignored. Mauricio Peña, Editorial Director of Borderless, will discuss his reporting and the impact it has had.", "speakers" : "Mauricio Peña, Editorial Director of Borderless (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "immigration, housing", "date" : "March 12, 2024" } , { "title" : "Our COVID-19 Policy", "url" : "/blog/2024/03/11/our-covid-19-policy.html", "description" : "At Chi Hack Night we continue to believe in the importance of hosting in-person events particularly in a time where meaningful social life is so vital, but we must work together to do so safely.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 11, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2024/03/05/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 5, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Tech for Public Good- How the #PublicSectorJobBoard is Bridging the Gap Between Technologists and Government", "url" : "/events/2024/02/27/rebecca-heywood.html", "description" : "Interest in public service is high, but in order to get a job, you need to be able to find it. The #PublicSectorJobBoard and newsletter have become a staple in the civic tech community for those interested in joining government, helping people navigate the process and get excited about civic tech and public service.", "speakers" : "Rebecca Heywood (she/her/hers), Governments Lead at U.S. Digital Response and Founder of the #PublicSectorJobBoard", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "February 27, 2024" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Reducing Pretrial Jailing in Illinois - Implementing the Pretrial Fairness Act", "url" : "/events/2024/02/20/pretrial-fairness-act.html", "description" : "The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice led the campaign to get the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act law passed and is now working to hold the courts accountable to it. They’ll be presenting on the law, the fight to ensure successful implementation and the role data has played in reforming the state’s pretrial legal system.", "speakers" : "Matthew McLoughlin (he/him), Campaign Strategist, Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "justice", "date" : "February 20, 2024" } , { "title" : "2024 Board Election Results", "url" : "/blog/2024/02/15/election-results.html", "description" : "On Feb 13th, we held our fifth election for our Board of Directors. We were amazed at the turnout. Of our 28 official Members, 22 attended virtually to cast their votes. Congrats to our elected and appointed Board Members Cameron Sow, Sean Watland, Sneha Jalukar, Michael Chladek, Samantha Goodman, Kyle Dolezal!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 15, 2024" } , { "title" : "Our 2023 Year in Review", "url" : "/blog/2024/02/14/2023-year-in-review.html", "description" : "Ahead of our fifth annual Member Meeting and Board Elections on Feb 7, 2023, we’re publishing our 2023 year in review to share with our Members and our community (that’s you!). We put on 48 Chi Hack Night events, hosted 35 presentations, held our fourth annual board election, remained financially stable, and updated and set new objectives and key results (OKRs) for our organization.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 14, 2024" } , { "title" : "Members Only: Election & Member Meeting", "url" : "/events/2024/02/13/election-and-member-meeting.html", "description" : "On Tuesday, February 13, 2024, Chi Hack Night will hold our fifth annual member meeting and election for our Board of Directors.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "member meeting", "date" : "February 13, 2024" } , { "title" : "Samantha Goodman", "url" : "/board-of-directors/samantha-goodman.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 13, 2024" } , { "title" : "Kyle Dolezal", "url" : "/board-of-directors/kyle-dolezal.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 13, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Data-driven criminalization - The case of Chicago's gang database, Part 2", "url" : "/events/2024/02/06/uic-policing-in-chicago-research-group.html", "description" : "Researcher-organizer and PCRG member Janae Bonsu-Love returns to Chi Hack Night with fellow PCRG member Enrique Alvear Moreno to present the challenges and successes leading to the #EraseTheDatabase victory and the insidious relationship between interagency coordination, data sharing, and criminalization.", "speakers" : "Janae Bonsu-Love, Policing in Chicago Research Group, she/her/hers, Enrique Alvear Moreno, Policing in Chicago Research Group, he/him/his/El", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "justice", "date" : "February 6, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Crowd+AI Tools to Map, Analyze, and Visualize Sidewalk Accessibility for Inclusive Cities", "url" : "/events/2024/01/30/project-sidewalk.html", "description" : "People with disabilities and older adults experience numerous barriers to walking/wheeling around the Chicago region and to using transportation. Unfortunately, many communities in the Chicago region do not collect or maintain data on sidewalk network quality, which limits how well they can plan, and prioritize sidewalk network improvements. This presentation will describe an NSF Smart and Connected Communities study that is developing crowdsourcing + AI tools for communities to more efficiently collect, map and analyze sidewalk network data and plan for more inclusive communities.", "speakers" : "Dr. Yochai Eisenberg (he, him, his), Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Disability and Human Development, Mikey Saugstad (they, them), Research Scientist, University of Washington", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transportation, equity", "date" : "January 30, 2024" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night’s Fifth Board Election", "url" : "/blog/2024/01/26/board-member-elections.html", "description" : "Details about the upcoming Board Member Election on February 13, 2024. Info about who is seeking reelection and how members can run for the board is detailed within.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 26, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Local News in Peril - What it Means for Communities and What’s Being Done", "url" : "/events/2024/01/23/local-news-initiative.html", "description" : "The loss of local news is accelerating. The U.S. loses on average more than two newspapers every week. There are 204 news desert counties, and another 228 counties are at high risk of becoming news deserts. Illinois has been hit especially hard, losing more newspaper journalists than any other state. This trend has profound implications for communities and our democracy. But there are major efforts underway to address this crisis. We’ll explore what’s being done and potential new models.", "speakers" : "Tim Franklin, Senior Associate Dean and Director of the Medill Local News Initiative, Medill School, Northwestern University, Sarah Stonbely, Director, Medill State of Local News Project", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "January 23, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online Only: Ghost Buses", "url" : "/events/2024/01/16/ghost-buses.html", "description" : "Note: We have switched this to be an online only event starting at 7pm. Ghost Bus is a Chi Hack Night project conducted by volunteer data scientists, engineers, and researchers. The project compares open source real-time bus tracking data to the CTA’s official schedules to identify gaps in service across Chicago’s bus lines.", "speakers" : "Laurie Merrell (she/her), JR Rubin (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transportation", "date" : "January 16, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Transit Tech is Civic Tech", "url" : "/events/2024/01/09/transit-tech-civic-tech.html", "description" : "Kristin Taylor and Ryan Mahoney, Design and Engineering leaders, describe the urgency and unique obstacles faced in employing civic tech methods in public transit based on their experiences at the US’s largest in-house transit tech team at Massachusetts’ MBTA.", "speakers" : "Kristin Taylor, Civic Design Leader, MBTA, she/her, Ryan Mahoney, Chief Operating Officer, TransitOPS, he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "civic tech, transportation, govtech", "date" : "January 9, 2024" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2024/01/02/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "January 2, 2024" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Movement Journalism and the New Black Press", "url" : "/events/2023/12/12/harvey-world-herald.html", "description" : "Amethyst J. Davis, founder of The Harvey World Herald, will discuss the fragility of American democracy, the deepening news desert crisis and distrust in communities of color, and how a new generation of Black-owned newsrooms is intervening.", "speakers" : "Amethyst J. Davis (she/they), Founder, The Harvey World Herald", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "December 12, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Illinois Solar For All", "url" : "/events/2023/12/05/il-solar-for-all.html", "description" : "Myriam Yvette Perez, Energy Outreach Coordinator and Organizer for A Just Harvest, will get us familiar with the Illinois Solar For All Program. Created by the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) in 2016 and then expanded by the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) in 2021, Illinois Solar for All makes solar more accessible and affordable for income-eligible residents.", "speakers" : "Myriam Yvette Perez (she/her), Energy Outreach Coordinator and Organizer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment, equity", "date" : "December 5, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2023/11/28/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "November 28, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Chicago New Arrivals Dashboard", "url" : "/events/2023/11/14/chicago-new-arrivals-dashboard.html", "description" : "In September 2023, Chicago City Council’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights launched a dashboard to provide weekly updates on the number of migrants in the city, new arrivals, shelter locations, and other data: WelcometoChicago.org. Pooja Ravindran, Chief of Staff of the Committee, will discuss the dashboard and the use of data to provide the public with transparent, up-to-date information while the City, non-profits, and community groups coordinate in response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis. ", "speakers" : "Pooja Ravindran, Chief of Staff - Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "immigration", "date" : "November 14, 2023" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Leveraging Data Visualization to Support Equitable Watershed-Scale Investments in Nature-Based Solutions", "url" : "/events/2023/11/07/amy-heldman.html", "description" : "Amy will explore with participants a recently launched unique online parcel database and watershed analysis tool, the Natural Solutions Tool, to illustrate how goals for equity, public health, biodiversity, resiliency, and greenway connectivity can be achieved together through strategic investments in nature-based solutions. She will provide a live demonstration of the tool where participants will learn how different geographic data layers can be combined to reveal project prioritization strategies, view local demographics, find areas of interest, and be a key tool for advocacy.", "speakers" : "Amy Heldman, Planning and GIS Specialist, she/her/hers, Friends of the Chicago River", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "November 7, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2023/10/31/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 31, 2023" } , { "title" : "October 2023 Community Feedback Session: Decaying platforms, rising fascism, and government response", "url" : "/blog/2023/10/29/community-feedback-recap.html", "description" : "On October 24, 2023, Chi Hack Night hosted a facilitated group conversation with 20 members of our civic tech community about the role of technology and data in our society. In this, our seventh Community Feedback session, we focused our discussion on events and trends going on outside of Chi Hack Night and how the civic tech community might respond to them.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 29, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Community Feedback Session", "url" : "/events/2023/10/24/community-feedback.html", "description" : "Join us for a facilitated group conversation about the role of technology and data in our society. In our seventh Community Feedback session, we will discuss prompts on online platform enshittification, responding to rising facism in America, and opportunities Chicago City IT. Join the conversation!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community, feedback", "date" : "October 24, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Integrating Equity into Open Government Data: Insights from a Pilot Survey", "url" : "/events/2023/10/17/federica-fusi.html", "description" : "Today, public agencies at all levels are adopting open government data portals and designing data practices to increase access to and sharing of government data. Using data from website coding and a survey of public managers in US state environmental agencies, this talk explores two main questions: How is equity defined in the context of government data? To what extent do government agencies adopt equitable and inclusive data practices? Results from the project provide insights to strengthen civic engagement around open government data and increase government responsiveness to the data divide.", "speakers" : "Federica Fusi (she/her/hers), PhD. Assistant Professor, Department of Public Policy, Management, and Analytics, UIC", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "opengov", "date" : "October 17, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2023/10/10/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 10, 2023" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Building Cook County’s Digital Equity Ecosystem", "url" : "/events/2023/10/03/kyla-williamstate.html", "description" : "Equitable access to the internet, computers, and other digital tools is essential today. Cook County’s Digital Equity Action Plan charts a path to ensuring these opportunities for connection are accessible to all members of our communities. This presentation will review the inaugural Cook County Digital Equity Action Plan and its companion tool, the Cook County Digital Equity Map.", "speakers" : "Kyla Williams Tate, Director of Digital Equity, Cook County Government (She/Her/Hers)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "digital, equity", "date" : "October 3, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Why Chicago is Losing the War on Rats", "url" : "/events/2023/09/26/casey-toner.html", "description" : "An Illinois Answers Project and Block Club Chicago investigation found that since the beginning of the pandemic, record rat complaints have overwhelmed the City of Chicago’s services. The data-heavy investigation focused on the people who live with rats, other shortcomings in city services, and the city’s methods of enforcement.", "speakers" : "Casey Toner (he/him), Illinois Answers Project reporter", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "September 26, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Chicago's Pension Challenge: Understanding Why the Pension Funds are Underfunded", "url" : "/events/2023/09/19/amanda-kass.html", "description" : "For years Chicago’s public pension funds have garnered headlines about their dismal funding levels. But what does it mean for a pension fund to be deemed 'underfunded'? Moreover, how did Chicago get into this situation? This presentation focuses on the funding history of Chicago’s four public pension funds and why their low levels of funding are a thorny problem. It also discusses state laws that went into effect in 2016 and 2017 that are meant to resolve the underfunding problem in the long-term.", "speakers" : "Amanda Kass (she/her), Assistant Professor at the School of School of Public Service at DePaul University", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "pensions", "date" : "September 19, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2023/09/12/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "September 12, 2023" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Investigating School Closing Promises", "url" : "/events/2023/09/05/sarah-karp.html", "description" : "Karp, along with WBEZ data editor and colleagues at the Chicago Sun Times, set out to test whether these promises made by past City Officials were kept. We will also were share how the school closings impacted the communities around them. In other words, did the fears that so many expressed when this was proposed come to fruition.", "speakers" : "Sarah Karp, Education Reporter, WBEZ-Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education, journalism", "date" : "September 5, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Civic Tech Jobs Panel", "url" : "/events/2023/08/29/civic-tech-jobs-panel.html", "description" : "Four civic technology practitioners will share their reflections on their careers and the evolution of the field. With backgrounds spanning government, nonprofits, universities, and private companies, the panelists have a breadth of experience and perspectives to share with the CHi Hack Night audience.", "speakers" : "Christopher Whitaker (he/him), Digital Service Expert, United States Digital Service, Jean Cochrane (she/her), Senior Data Scientist, Cook County Assessor’s Office, Mjumbe Poe (he/him), Lecturer, Master of Urban Spatial Analytics Program at University of Pennsylvania and Software Engineer, Jarvus Innovations, Nikki Lee (she/her), Director of Product, New Practice Lab at New America", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "civic tech", "date" : "August 29, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Breakout Group Showcase", "url" : "/events/2023/08/22/breakout-group-showcase.html", "description" : "4 of the breakout groups at Chi Hack Night are going share a little bit about what they are working on - and how you can help!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "breakout groups", "date" : "August 22, 2023" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night | 2023-2024 Goals", "url" : "/blog/2023/08/22/2023-retreat-okrs.html", "description" : "On June 3rd, 2023, the Board of Directors held our first in-person board retreat! This retreat served as an excellent opportunity for the 10 Board of Directors to have more focused discussions around what membership means at Chi Hack Night, plan our upcoming OKRs for the year, and enjoy copious amounts of bagels & coffee.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 22, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2023/08/15/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 15, 2023" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Building a Weather-Ready Chicago", "url" : "/events/2023/08/08/noaa.html", "description" : "NWS Chicago Meteorologist-in-Charge Eric Lenning describes how the NWS coordinates very closely with the City of Chicago during hazardous weather situations, while at the same time striving to maintain an equal level of support to the public and key partners across its entire forecast area. Additionally, given the ever-increasing frequency of extreme weather events, he shares how the NWS is working to promote a Weather Ready Nation.", "speakers" : "Eric Lenning (he/him), Meteorologist-in-Charge", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "August 8, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Accelerating Civic Innovation through High IMPACT Design", "url" : "/events/2023/08/01/adam-wisniewski.html", "description" : "In this week’s Chi Hack Night event, Adam (Wiz) Wisniewski’s presentation will walk attendees through the process of High IMPACT Design and help them find ways to push forward public sector initiatives with greater efficiency and speed.", "speakers" : "Adam Wisniewski, EX3 Labs CEO, he/him/his", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "design", "date" : "August 1, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: New Policies, New Systems, New Moves: Reimagining Transportation for Racially Marginalized Communities", "url" : "/events/2023/07/25/equiticity.html", "description" : "Olatunji Oboi Reed will be discussing the vision and mission of Equiticity, and the organization's work to operationalize racial equity, mobility justice, and environmental justice. Oboi will also discuss the work needed to reimagine transportation for racially marginalized communities. He will both challenge the status quo in the transportation sector and offer tactical solutions to solve for racialized transportation inequities and other compounding inequities across domains. Oboi's presentation will push the transportation sector to reimagine itself and its purpose in our society, and recognize the urgent need to shift how the sector operates.", "speakers" : "Olatunji Oboi Reed, President & CEO, Equiticity (he/him/his)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity, transit", "date" : "July 25, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2023/07/18/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "July 18, 2023" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night: 2022-2023 OKRs Review", "url" : "/blog/2023/07/15/2022-okr-wrap.html", "description" : "Each year, the Board of Director plans our OKRs to focus our efforts around things that make Chi Hack Night successful. Check out this post to learn more about how we did.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 15, 2023" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: CNT: Guarding the goal of Justice40 by testing the methods behind the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST)", "url" : "/events/2023/07/11/cnt.html", "description" : "The initial step of the Justice40 Initiative is to identify the disadvantaged communities. To accomplish this, the White House tasked the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to develop the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), a mapping tool that identifies Census Tracts as disadvantaged based on 35 environmental, climate and social indicators. Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) was eager to conduct a deep dive analysis of the CEJST data and engage with other non-profits and community-based organizations to provide input on its usefulness and limitations.", "speakers" : "Preeti Shankar; Managing Director, Urban Analytics; she/her, Paul Esling; Senior Application Developer, Urban Analytics; he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "economic justice", "date" : "July 11, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Health Data and Health Equity: Digital Transformation at Sinai Chicago", "url" : "/events/2023/06/27/sinai-chicago.html", "description" : "In this talk, Sinai Chicago's President & CEO, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, will discuss the critical role that healthcare data systems can play in addressing health disparities and advancing health equity. She'll introduce a major initiative Sinai Chicago has undertaken to advance modern healthcare data infrastructure and technology for its own patients and communities. She'll also speak to the role Chicago's civic tech community can play in helping advance health equity through enhanced data and technology infrastructure.", "speakers" : "Ngozi Ezike, MD - President & CEO, Sinai Chicago (she/her), Rachael Marusarz - Chief Development Officer, Sinai Chicago (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "health", "date" : "June 27, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2023/06/20/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 20, 2023" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Budburst: Climate change research and big data using community science", "url" : "/events/2023/06/13/budburst.html", "description" : "Budburst, a community science program hosted at the Chicago Botanic Garden, pursues two primary goals: Research and education. In 2021, Budburst relaunched their website and launched a mobile application, allowing for even easier data collection. Dr. Oschrin will share her perspective on the process of leading the design and build of the Budburst website and mobile app without prior technical experience.", "speakers" : "Dr. Emma Oschrin, Budburst Director, she/her/hers", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment, citizen science", "date" : "June 13, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Are Traffic Stops the new Stop and Frisk in Chicago?", "url" : "/events/2023/06/06/pascal-sabino.html", "description" : "Block Club reporter Pascal Sabino will share how he used multiple data sources, legal documents and individual narratives to piece together the reasoning behind a recent and dramatic tactical shift by Chicago Police, and the impact it has had on Black and Latino Chicagoans. ", "speakers" : "Pascal Sabino, Block Club", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, public safety", "date" : "June 6, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2023/05/30/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "May 30, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Rose Afriyie, Retention at the Intersections", "url" : "/events/2023/05/23/rose-afriyie.html", "description" : "The Chicagoland area is a place where findings show that women, transgender, and nonbinary technologists stay in the field of technology. Retention rates in the field are as high as 93.1 percent. Despite high retention, there are other growth opportunities in the field; a considerably lower percentage (51 percent) report a positive experience in the tech field.", "speakers" : "Rose Afriyie", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity", "date" : "May 23, 2023" } , { "title" : "Join us at Media Party on June 8-10, 2023!", "url" : "/blog/2023/05/23/media-party.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Night is excited to be partnering with Hacks/Hackers for Media Party Chicago 2023! Join us as attendees and participants along with journalists, designers, entrepreneurs, and tech experts, sparking innovative dialogues on artificial intelligence, democracy, and the future of media!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 23, 2023" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Building Connected Services for Physical Spaces: Accessibility & Microservice Architecture at The Obama Presidential Center", "url" : "/events/2023/05/16/obama-foundation.html", "description" : "The Obama Foundation’s Product and Technology Team, formed in 2021, is working to build the digital content, infrastructure, and experiences that will support the offline and online experiences associated with the storytelling of the OPC, and with the Obama Foundation programming more broadly. In this talk, co-founding software engineer Diana M Steakley-Freeman unpacks the conceptual and architectural underpinnings of the technology that will power the Center, the accessibility affordances the team is building at the core of its museum experience infrastructure, and the lessons learned so far in the process of building the suite of services that will support interested citizens in transforming their hopes into concrete actions.", "speakers" : "Diana Steakley-Freeman (She/Hers) Senior Software Engineer, Obama Foundation", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "May 16, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Divesting from Despair: Building a transformative movement media ecosystem", "url" : "/events/2023/05/09/airgo.html", "description" : "AirGo is a weekly podcast and movement media hub in Chicago that reshapes the culture of the city and beyond for the more liberatory and creative. Through longform conversations with movement workers, artists, rappers, poets, musicians, organizers, and changemakers, AirGo puts Chicago's reimaginers in conversation and creates a living dialogue-based archive of our creative communities and social movements. In this session, co-creators Damon and Daniel lead a explore how AirGo creates an anticolonial archive of dialogue-based media, and the unique importance of movement media in the fight for a liberated future.", "speakers" : "Damon A Williams (he/him), Co-creator of AirGo, Co-Founder of Respair Production & Media, Daniel Kisslinger (he/him), Co-Creator of AirGo, Co-Founder of Respair Production & Media", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "May 9, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2023/05/02/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "May 2, 2023" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Flushed with Insights: The Promising Potential of Poop-Based Testing for Public Health", "url" : "/events/2023/04/25/dpi-wastewater.html", "description" : "Illinois has established a wastewater-based epidemiology monitoring network to track COVID-19, flu, and RSV by measuring the amount of viral RNA in wastewater. The initiative is a collaboration between the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), and the University of Illinois System’s Discovery Partners Institute (DPI). The Illinois Wastewater Surveillance System (IWSS) provides information on the levels of pathogens in wastewater that can help local communities intervene with protective measures to slow disease spread.", "speakers" : "Dr. Melissa Pierce, Senior Data Scientist, Discovery Partners Institute (she/her), Dr. Katelyn Leisman, Research Assistant Professor, Northwestern University (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "public health", "date" : "April 25, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Native Land Digital - Online Cartography for La LLakta", "url" : "/events/2023/04/18/victor-sauca.html", "description" : "Native Land facilitates a place on the digital space for the representation of Native or Indigenous Nations’ traditional territories with their languages and histories through cartography. As such it creates a contrasting space in relation to the form in which the current political divisions of those same territories are presented to the world. In this occasion Victor Sauca, Research Lead at NL, before embarking into new ventures within the organization will share his experience collecting the data to create such space and the impact it has had.", "speakers" : "Victor Sauca (he/him), Research Lead at Native Land Digital", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "mapping, indigenous nations", "date" : "April 18, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Choosing the path of wandering - Math Circles of Chicago", "url" : "/events/2023/04/11/math-circles-of-chicago.html", "description" : "The mission of the Math Circles of Chicago (MC2) is to create opportunities for all children across Chicago to develop a passion for mathematics as an afterschool enrichment program. Sara Rezvi, program director of MC2, will present on the work of MC2 including three segments: (1) A rationale for teaching and engaging mathematics through student centered experiences and joyfulness (2) The development of our diverse teaching staff to promote high quality learning experiences for our children; and (3) the ongoing development of the activity plans we use across our sites.", "speakers" : "Sara Rezvi, (she/they), Program Director & Doctoral Candidate, Math Circles of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "April 11, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2023/04/04/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 4, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2023/03/28/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 28, 2023" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Democratize Journalism Everywhere - City Bureau’s Documenters Network", "url" : "/events/2023/03/21/documenters-network.html", "description" : "City Bureau’s Documenters Network trains and pays local residents to attend and annotate government meetings, turning the knowledge, relationships, and capacity of local residents into a powerful community information resource. The Documenters Network dramatically increases local journalism capacity while simultaneously creating points of access for anyone to participate in the process of producing civic media. Join the discussion to learn more about the growing Documenters Network and the tools and resources supporting it.", "speakers" : "Nora Bryne, Documenters Network Coordinator, she/hers", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "March 21, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Research, track and analyze legislation with OpenStates.org", "url" : "/events/2023/03/14/open-states.html", "description" : "The Open States project supplies accessible, open legislative information. Join this talk to find out how we've survived and sustained over 13 years, and how you can use these resources!", "speakers" : "Jesse Mortenson, CTO of Plural & the Open States project, Christopher Yamas, Data Engineer with Plural & Open States", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 14, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Building a Database and Reporting on the Repatriation of Native American Remains", "url" : "/events/2023/03/07/propublica-repatriation.html", "description" : "In January, ProPublica launched The Repatriation Project, a series that began with a national database that lets readers find out which institutions still have Native American remains, as well as a local deep-dive into the Illinois State Museum. In this talk, reporters Logan Jaffe, Ash Ngu, and Andrea Suozzo will describe how the database was built, designed, and used in reporting. We’ll also discuss the state of repatriation nationally and in the Midwest region.", "speakers" : "Logan Jaffe, Reporter (she/her), Ash Ngu, News Apps Developer (she/her; they/them), Andrea Suozzo, News Apps Developer (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, indigenous nations", "date" : "March 7, 2023" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night President Transition", "url" : "/blog/2023/03/03/president-transition.html", "description" : "After 11 years, Derek Eder is stepping down as President and leader of Chi Hack Night and will be succeeded by Sean Watland. Derek will remain on the Board of Directors and continue to be an active member of the Chi Hack Night community", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 3, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Matt Bernhard, VotingWorks - Building voting systems that don't suck", "url" : "/events/2023/02/28/matt-bernhard-votingworks.html", "description" : "Trust in American elections is at an all-time low. It can no longer be taken for granted that election results will be abided by, and skepticism about voting systems has run amok. Experts have been warning for years that insufficient security practices and a cumbersome regulatory regime has limited the ability of voting system vendors to provide adequately trustworthy equipment to conduct American elections. In this talk, Dr. Matt Bernhard discusses how we got to where we are and where we can go from here.", "speakers" : "Matt Bernhard, VotingWorks", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "elections", "date" : "February 28, 2023" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: StateScoop: How government technology news could restore faith in media", "url" : "/events/2023/02/21/jake-williams-statescoop.html", "description" : "Join Jake Williams, vice president of content and community of StateScoop.com — an online news website that covers the intersection of state and local government and technology — for an overview on how media is serving the govtech landscape. He’ll explain StateScoop’s editorial philosophy that prioritizes people and community, while also holding elected and government officials accountable. In addition, he’ll explain why reframing media with a community-first mindset can help uplift communities and inspire collaboration", "speakers" : "Jake Williams, VP of Content and Community, StateScoop", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, govtech", "date" : "February 21, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2023/02/14/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "February 14, 2023" } , { "title" : "Adam Hecktman", "url" : "/board-of-directors/adam-hecktman.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 11, 2023" } , { "title" : "2023 Board Election Results", "url" : "/blog/2023/02/11/2023-election-results.html", "description" : "On Feb 7th, we held our fourth annual General Meeting and election for our Board of Directors. We were amazed at the turnout. Of our 28 official Members, 19 attended virtually to cast their votes. There were three members chosen by Chi Hack Night Members based on popular vote and one appointed by the current Board of Directors with majority Membership approval.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 11, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Chicago Race Riot 1919 Project", "url" : "/events/2023/02/07/chicago-race-riot-1919-project.html", "description" : "Living in a largely ahistorical society contributes to the persistence of racism in America. In Chicago, for instance, shockingly few people know of the city’s worst incident of racial violence, the 1919 Chicago Race Riot, in which 38 people were killed and 537 injured. Fewer still know it played a major role in the segregation that still defines the city. Lack of awareness makes it easier to deny this legacy but moving towards equity demands learning and embracing painful historical truths. The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19) seeks to attack such historical amnesia and denial that hold our city and country back.", "speakers" : "Peter Cole, CRR19 codirector, Franklin N. Cosey-Gay, CRR19 codirector", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, history", "date" : "February 7, 2023" } , { "title" : "Our 2022 Year in Review", "url" : "/blog/2023/02/07/2022-year-in-review.html", "description" : "Ahead of our fourth annual Member Meeting and Board Elections on Feb 7, 2023, we’re publishing our 2022 year in review to share with our Members and our community (that’s you!). We put on 48 Chi Hack Night events, hosted 34 presentations, held our third annual board election, held a hybrid community feedback session, celebrated our 500th Chi Hack Night episode, simplified the committees our Board uses to get work done, streamlined the renewal process for our membership, remained financially stable, and updated and set new objectives and key results (OKRs) for our organization.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 7, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Better Data Portal: Making Public Data More Public", "url" : "/events/2023/01/31/anthony-moser.html", "description" : "Join Anthony for this talk about the tools and philosophy behind BetterDataPortal and other public data tools (like the CPS FOIA Archive, Position History, and Demographics Dashboard; the Chicago TIF map generator and precinct map generator; and the 311 Air Pollution Dashboard) and what it means to think of data as a kind of embodied storytelling, instead of an objective view from nowhere.", "speakers" : "Anthony Moser he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "open data", "date" : "January 31, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Chicago Independent Media Alliance: Collaborating for a more equitable media ecosystem", "url" : "/events/2023/01/24/cima.html", "description" : "The Chicago Independent Media Alliance (CIMA) is made up of over 60 members representing more than 80 outlets covering the Black, Latinx, Asian American, immigrant, LGBTQ+, and other Chicago-area communities. The alliance members include traditional print newspapers, independently produced podcasts, dynamic video production studios, and nonprofit newsrooms focusing on key issues that affect the fabric of the city. CIMA's founder, founding director, and co-director will discuss how they organized an emergency joint fundraising campaign during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. They will share insights into how they managed the messaging, coordinated between dozens of different partners, leveraged matching funds to amplify the work, and more.", "speakers" : "Savannah Hugueley, Co-Director of the Chicago Independent Media Alliance (CIMA), she/her, Tracy Baim, Publisher and President of the Chicago Reader & Founder of the Chicago Independent Media Alliance (CIMA), she/her, Yazmin Dominguez, Founding CIMA Director, she/her", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "January 24, 2023" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night’s Fourth Board Election", "url" : "/blog/2023/01/20/board-member-elections.html", "description" : "Details about the upcoming Board Member Election on February 7, 2023. Info about who is seeking reelection and how members can run for the board is detailed within.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 20, 2023" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Why are property taxes in Chicago so high? (And what can be done to lower them)", "url" : "/events/2023/01/17/ccao-dan-snow.html", "description" : "Chicago property taxes increased by roughly $468 million in tax year 2021, with the median residential property tax bill in the city rising by roughly 8%. What caused this increase? Who (or what) bears responsibility? And what, if anything, can be done to lower property tax bills?", "speakers" : "Dan Snow, Director of Data Science, Cook County Assessor's Office (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, property taxes", "date" : "January 17, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Chicago Public Schools - Enrollment Decline but Budget Stability", "url" : "/events/2023/01/10/forest-denali.html", "description" : "Given the steady decline in CPS enrollment, is the budget shrinking? Denali Dasgupta and Forest Gregg took the revenue streams for CPS from the budget book and coded them along two dimensions: their source and their enrollment dependence. Putting the pieces together, they discovered that enrollment can continue to decline with little impact on revenue, at least at the district level. This decoupling invites Chicagoans to think about the fiscal challenges and opportunities for a shrinking, but financially stable school district. This presentation will include information about scoping exploratory administrative data analysis to examine assumptions and narratives. It is full of exciting demographic and public finance data and analysis.", "speakers" : "Forest Gregg (he/him), Denali Dasgupta (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education, policy", "date" : "January 10, 2023" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2023/01/03/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "January 3, 2023" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Administrative Informatics - Understanding the Data Needs of Public Agencies", "url" : "/events/2022/12/13/administrative-informatics.html", "description" : "Join Dr. Stephen Kleinschmit, Director of the MS in Civic Analytics program at the University of Illinois Chicago, as he discusses administrative informatics, an emerging movement grounded in the data needs of local, state and federal agencies. ALSO - this will be our last hack night of the year. Come celebrate the year and holidays with us by brining snack and drinks of your choice!", "speakers" : "Stephen Kleinschmit, Ph.D., Director, Master of Science in Civic Analytics at UIC", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "civic tech, academia", "date" : "December 13, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack & Member Meeting", "url" : "/events/2022/12/06/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, and announcements, followed by breakout groups and a meeting of the Chi Hack Night members.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "December 6, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: Civic Tech’s Evolution: Thoughts for the Next Gen", "url" : "/events/2022/11/29/uchicago-capp.html", "description" : "As data and technology grow more pervasive and ubiquitous in society, the need for people trained at the intersection of computer science, data science, and public policy is becoming more critical than ever. Almost ten years ago, a combination of Chicago civic tech practitioners and University of Chicago faculty were among the first to recognize this new and emerging field and founded UChicago’s MS in Computational Analysis and Public Policy (MSCAPP) program. Since then, students and alumni have leveraged their training in unexpected and impactful ways to address complex challenges in Chicago and around the world.", "speakers" : "Kathryn Mattie (she/her/hers), Program Director, University of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "civic tech, academia", "date" : "November 29, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: The Resource Directory Dilemma: or, Why there isn't, probably won't be, and maybe shouldn't be a Yelp for Social Services", "url" : "/events/2022/11/15/resource-directory-dilemma.html", "description" : "One of the most common prompts for civic tech projects is: 'Where can I go to get help?' In any given community, you’ll find information about human services available through call centers, printed directories, web sites, and more. However, these information resources are typically maintained in fragmented, redundant silos. In this talk, we'll explain what the resource directory information problem really is all about, why it resists simple solutions, and what we can do about it.", "speakers" : "Greg Bloom, Founder, Open Referral, Mary Kuhn, Program Manager, Open Referral", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "resource directory, 211", "date" : "November 15, 2022" } , { "title" : "Ghost Buses", "url" : "/projects/2022/11/11/ghost-buses.html", "description" : "A 'ghost bus' is when a bus tracker app claims that a bus is coming but it never shows up. If you live in Chicago and regularly take public transit, you may have been 'ghosted' by a bus! This project compared real-time data (data that indicates which bus trips actually happened) with schedule data (the trips that the CTA said in advance would happen).", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Projects", "tags" : "Transit", "date" : "November 11, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2022/11/08/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "November 8, 2022" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Breakout Group Showcase", "url" : "/events/2022/11/01/breakout-group-showcase.html", "description" : "Every week, after presentations are given, announcements are shared, and 3-word introductions are popcorned, Chi Hack Night attendees split off into breakout groups and work on civic tech projects. Some of these groups have been meeting for years, while others started in the past few weeks. Join us for our next in-person Chi Hack Night to hear from each of these breakout groups and learn how they are using technology and data to further the public good.", "speakers" : "Alvyn Walker (they,them, theirs), Steve Ediger (he/they), Surag Nuthulapaty (he/him), Derek Eder (he/him), Laurie Merrell (she/her), Sartaj Chowdhury (he/him), Brian Burns (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "breakout, groups", "date" : "November 1, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: Injustice Watch's #CheckYourJudges election guide", "url" : "/events/2022/10/25/injustice-watch.html", "description" : "Judges are the elected officials that you’re most likely to come into contact with. Whether you’re getting a divorce, fighting a traffic ticket, suing over an injury, settling a loved one’s estate, or facing criminal charges, a judge is involved — and their decisions can be life-changing. Yet there are few places to get information about these public officials when they run for election. That’s why Injustice Watch, a nonprofit newsroom in Chicago focused on issues of equity and justice in the courts, created the #CheckYourJudges judicial election guide. Jonah Newman, Injustice Watch’s managing editor, and Bea Malsky, a software engineer at the New York Times, will talk about the research and reporting that goes into the guide.", "speakers" : "Jonah Newman (he/him), Injustice Watch managing editor, Bea Malsky (she/her), software engineer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "elections", "date" : "October 25, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: Digital Equity - A 40 Year Community Retrospective", "url" : "/events/2022/10/18/black-star-project.html", "description" : "Digital equity has begun appearing more in the news with the exposure by the pandemic of digital inequities in access, training, skills building and workforce development among underserved urban and rural communities, low-income residents and seniors. But digital equity - the absence of which is commonly referred to as the digital divide - has been a forty year issue. Now the Biden administration has allocated a reported $65 billion toward closing the digital divide. Where are communities represented in the planning and execution of digital divide elimination programs and what is the history of community efforts that have kept the movement alive?", "speakers" : "Pierre Clark, co-founder of the Chicago Digital Access Alliance Inc. and founder/convenor of the Digital Excellence Consortium", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "digital, equity", "date" : "October 18, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: The Chicago Covenants Project", "url" : "/events/2022/10/11/chicago-covenants-project.html", "description" : "The Chicago Covenants Project is a civically-engaged research project working to locate every racially restrictive covenant in Cook County. Racial covenants prevented non-whites and especially African Americans from buying, renting, or living in houses in white neighborhoods in Chicago in the first half of the twentieth century. These records have been buried in the files of the Cook County Clerk, but this new crowdsourced research project is unearthing the documents to illustrate how racial segregation in Northern cities such as Chicago was not accidental. It was a system that was intentionally created, house by house, block by block, and subdivision by subdivision, across the city and across the country.", "speakers" : "LaDale Winling, Associate Professor of History, Virginia Tech (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "segregation, housing", "date" : "October 11, 2022" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Project Rainbow: Addressing Learning Loss through a Digital Equity Lens", "url" : "/events/2022/10/04/nick-shields.html", "description" : "There’s nothing more vital to a person’s chances of success than supporting their development in the first years of life, including easy access to high-quality early education opportunities. While nothing can replace the effectiveness of live, in-person learning, extensive research shows that children’s television programming and other forms of educational media can significantly improve children’s mental and social development. Cook County launched Project Rainbow, new high-quality educational TV programming for children and families in 2021. The content is available on County TV (Channel 22, 900 on Comcast), the Cook County website, Facebook, and on the free Cook County Project Rainbow mobile app.", "speakers" : "Nick Shields, Director of Communications and Public Affairs for Cook County (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "October 4, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: The Chicago Tool Library", "url" : "/events/2022/09/27/chicago-tool-library.html", "description" : "The Chicago Tool Library is a nonprofit community lending library with the goal of providing everyone with equitable access to tools, equipment and information so they can learn, share and create. They're open to all Chicagoans over 18 with a pay-what-you-can membership model. By removing many of the typical barriers, the Chicago Tool Library is hoping to help the city reshape its relationship to ownership, consumption, and creativity.", "speakers" : "Vivek Doshi, Chicago Tool Library", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "nonprofit, library", "date" : "September 27, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2022/09/20/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "September 20, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2022/09/13/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "September 13, 2022" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Tonika Lewis Johnson, Folded Map", "url" : "/events/2022/09/06/tonika-johnson.html", "description" : "Tonika Johnson is a visual artist/photographer from Chicago’s South Side Englewood neighborhood. She was featured in Chicago Magazine as a 2017 Chicagoan of the Year for her photography of Englewood's everyday beauty, countering its pervasive media coverage of poverty and crime. Most recently, she was named one of Landmark Illinois' 2022 Influencers for her current "Inequity For Sale," project that encourages us to reevaluate and create positive change of inequities in real estate and land use practices, including historic preservation.", "speakers" : "Tonika Lewis Johnson, Folded Map", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity, mapping", "date" : "September 6, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online - SOYPE : Saving Our Youth from Prison via Education", "url" : "/events/2022/08/30/amira-kefi.html", "description" : "SOYPE is an organization of a group of students and professionals volunteering to run an education project in partnership with the Cook county juvenile center and help break the prison cycle via education. The mission of SOYPE is to help our young people in and outside of juvenile detention centers learn skills (technical, non-technical and life skills) that help them break the cycle of criminal behavior and become productive members of society. SOYPE vision is to run training programs for youth across the country and help support their transition to self sufficiency and success.", "speakers" : "Amira Kefi, Executive Director, Yolanda Franklin, Advisory Board, Laya Krishnan, Assistant Director for Development, Morris Chukhman, Assistant Director for Education Program, Vaibhav Chand, Assistant Director for Budget and Finance", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education, juvenile detention", "date" : "August 30, 2022" } , { "title" : "Sneha Jalukar", "url" : "/board-of-directors/sneha-jalukar.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 30, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: How Commuters Take Action in Chicago", "url" : "/events/2022/08/23/ctaction.html", "description" : "Commuters Take Action (CTAction) was started by several frustrated Chicago transit riders who believe the city deserves better from the CTA. The goal of CTAction is twofold: to kickstart the public debate on the topic and to put pressure on the CTA and our elected officials to address the situation. CTAction has been busy stickering the city's transit stops with Reprot the Ghost. These stickers ask riders to scan a QR code and share their transit experience. Then, we present this data at CTA Board meetings and to city officials. CTAction also provides daily updates on our rider reports via a Twitterbot.", "speakers" : "Fabio Gottlicher, Commuters Take Action Organizer, he/him, Luca Harsh, Commuters Take Action Organizer, they/them", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transporation", "date" : "August 23, 2022" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Residential Valuation V3: Cook County's Next Top Model", "url" : "/events/2022/08/16/ccao.html", "description" : "The Cook County Assessor’s Office (CCAO) is responsible for determining the assessed value of over 1.8 million properties. Last year, the CCAO’s Data Department presented V2 of its residential valuation model, which was used to reassess the City of Chicago. The model outperformed previous CCAO valuation models, but still had some rough edges. This year, the Data Department created V3 of its residential valuation model. The new model includes a vastly expanded set of input features, significantly improved methods, stricter accounting for different modeling experiments, and more. The result is the CCAO's fastest, most accurate valuation model to date.", "speakers" : "Dan Snow, Senior Data Scientist, Cook County Assessor's Office (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, property taxes", "date" : "August 16, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2022/08/09/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 9, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: ChiVes - Harmonizing Environmental Data & Partnerships for Resilient Futures", "url" : "/events/2022/08/02/chicago-chives.html", "description" : "ChiVes is a data collaborative and community mapping application that brings data on Chicago’s environment together at the neighborhood level. It’s a partnership of researchers, community organizations, and civic groups.", "speakers" : "Marynia Kolak (she/they), Director, Healthy Regions & Policies Lab, UChicago/UIUC, Dylan Halpern (he/him), Sr. Software Engineer, Healthy Regions & Policies Lab, UChicago, Susan Paykin (she/her), Research Manager, Healthy Regions & Policies Lab, UChicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "mapping, environment", "date" : "August 2, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: Decarbonize My State", "url" : "/events/2022/07/26/decarb-my-state.html", "description" : "Decarb My State brings together emissions and electrification data for all 50 states + DC and organizes it based on the biggest sources of climate pollution: the machines we use to heat our homes, cook our food, get us places, and produce our power.", "speakers" : "Derek Eder (he/him), Viktor Köves (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "climate change", "date" : "July 26, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2022/07/19/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "July 19, 2022" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: The 500th Chi Hack Night!", "url" : "/events/2022/07/12/chihacknight-500.html", "description" : "July 12, 2022 will mark the 500th episode of Chi Hack Night. That’s 10 years! For this very special in-person hack night, the presenters will be YOU! We’re bringing back LIGHTNING TALKS from members of our community.", "speakers" : "Eric Sherman (he/him), Kyla Williams Tate (she/her), Derek Eder (he/him), Emily Drevets-Larson (she/her), Michael Chladek (he/him), Laurie Merrell (she/her), Nick Lucius (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "lightning talks", "date" : "July 12, 2022" } , { "title" : "Decarb My State", "url" : "/projects/2022/07/12/decarb-my-state.html", "description" : "Decarb My State brings together emissions and electrification data for all 50 states + DC and organizes it based on the biggest sources of climate pollution: the machines we use to heat our homes, cook our food, get us places, and produce our power.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Projects", "tags" : "Climate change", "date" : "July 12, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: Unpacking Chicago’s Digital Divide", "url" : "/events/2022/06/28/devon-braunstein.html", "description" : "The digital divide in Chicago is not what it seems: The majority of Chicago households (~80%) are connected to the internet. Yet, deep disparities exist at the neighborhood level. In Chicago’s least connected communities, more than 40% of residents don’t have internet at home. In this talk, we will review internet connectivity trends in Chicago from a socio-economic perspective, dig into the meaning of digital equity and inclusion, discuss the City’s progress to date, and lay out a strategy for achieving digital equity by placing community members at the center of the work. We will also discuss the approach of the Chicago Digital Equity Council and discuss ways to get involved in closing the digital divide once and for all.", "speakers" : "Devon Braunstein (she/her), Digital Inclusion Policy Fellow, Office of the Mayor, City of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "broadband, equity", "date" : "June 28, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: MAPPED Chicago (Making a People’s Pathway for Engaging Design)", "url" : "/events/2022/06/21/mapped-chicago.html", "description" : "MAPPED is a searchable database that includes projects at different scales in different categories: community spaces, placemaking interventions, public spaces, plans, neighborhood design guidelines, and toolkits. This transparent, organized, and accessible index of Chicago’s community spaces will inspire our communities to explore and create spaces in their own neighborhoods. MAPPED users can quickly access budgets, partners, funders, technical information, and other project specifics that can help them better predict costs and concerns.", "speakers" : "Elle Ramel, Co-Founder of Design Trust Chicago, she/her, Emma Jasinski, Community Designer @ Design Trust Chicago, she/her", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "urban planning", "date" : "June 21, 2022" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night #500 Call for Speakers", "url" : "/blog/2022/06/17/chn-500-call-for-speakers.html", "description" : "July 12, 2022 will mark the 500th episode of Chi Hack Night. That's 10 years! For this very special in-person hack night, the presenters will be YOU! We're bringing back LIGHTNING TALKS from members of our community. Your prompt: How has Chi Hack Night changed you or your organization?", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "June 17, 2022" } , { "title" : "Online: Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2022/06/14/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 14, 2022" } , { "title" : "In Person and Online: City Cast Chicago", "url" : "/events/2022/06/07/city-cast-chicago.html", "description" : "City Cast Chicago is a daily news podcast, fresh every weekday at 6 a.m., called 'the essential Chicago podcast' by Chicago magazine and voted 'Best Podcast 2021' by Chicago Reader. They will talk about launching a podcast, newsletter and media brand from scratch, and the first year of figuring out their place in the Chicago media landscape. That includes things that worked, things that didn't, and what they are always working to make better for listeners and readers.", "speakers" : "Carrie Shepherd, Lead Producer, Jacoby Cochran, Host", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "June 7, 2022" } , { "title" : "Chicago's Climate Action Plan", "url" : "/events/2022/05/31/chicago-cap.html", "description" : "Chicago's new climate goals set a course to reduce the city's carbons emissions 62% by 2040. Anchored in values of economic inclusion and savings, pollution burden reduction, and equitable access to critical infrastructure and community health and resilience, the 2022 CAP prioritizes delivering meaningful community benefits and system improvements as the City continues to lead on climate. The 2022 CAP comes at a time when greater attention toward racial and economic justice calls for more inclusive planning and implementation. How can governments exercise transparency and accessibility using databases or other systems for complex issues such as equitable climate action? ", "speakers" : "Sustainability Team in the Office of the Mayor, Kyra Woods (she/her), Gaby Wagener-Sobrero (she/her), Gavin Taves (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment, climate change", "date" : "May 31, 2022" } , { "title" : "The Handcrafted Digital Map", "url" : "/events/2022/05/24/chicago-in-maps.html", "description" : "GIS is powerful, but sometimes it can be like using a chainsaw to make a birdhouse. Chicago cartographer Dennis McClendon will look at how a composite approach—using the strengths of both GIS and Illustrator—can be the best way to produce good-looking and meaningful maps.", "speakers" : "Dennis McClendon, Design Director, Chicago CartoGraphics", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "maps, GIS", "date" : "May 24, 2022" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2022/05/17/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "May 17, 2022" } , { "title" : "In Person and Online: The Internet Equity Initiative", "url" : "/events/2022/05/10/internet-equity-research-initiative.html", "description" : "The Internet Equity Initiative, a flagship research initiative of the University of Chicago’s Data Science Institute, brings together stakeholders and researchers across disciplines to help address these challenges. Nick Feamster and Marc Richardson will discuss the initiative’s approach to mitigating the digital divide and showcase some of the research, toolkits, and data that the initiative has produced to date, as well as ways that you can get involved in the initiative.", "speakers" : "Professor Nick Feamster (he/him), Neubauer Professor of Computer Science and The College Faculty Director of Research, Data Science Institute at University of Chicago, Marc Richardson (he/him), Technical Project Manager, Internet Equity Initiative, Data Science Institute at University of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "broadband, equity", "date" : "May 10, 2022" } , { "title" : "How we mapped racial segregation in Chicago", "url" : "/events/2022/05/03/mapping-segregation.html", "description" : "Chicago is one of the most segregated cities in the United States. Over the last century, an array of political and cultural forces have created clear lines of division between racial groups. These demarcations were shaped by racist sentiments toward Black residents and non-Whites and manifested through urban planning, housing policies, discriminatory banking, and other practices – all effectively confining people from different demographic groups to certain parts of the city. Jackie Serrato, Pat Sier, and Charmaine Runes will discuss how they mapped racial segregation in Chicago for WTTW's FIRSTHAND: Segregation project, including the story's context and the project goals, as well as the team's design choices and data sources.", "speakers" : "Charmaine Runes (she/they), Data/Visuals Reporter at WBEZ, Pat Sier, he/him, Webmaster at South Side Weekly, Jacqueline Serrato, she/her, Editor-in-chief, South Side Weekly", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "May 3, 2022" } , { "title" : "March 2022 Community Feedback Session", "url" : "/blog/2022/04/29/march-2022-community-feedback.html", "description" : "On March 15, 2022, Chi Hack Night held a hybrid community feedback session to assess how our community is feeling about the current phase of the pandemic and what people are looking for from Chi Hack Night in this moment.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 29, 2022" } , { "title" : "Meera Raja, CUTgroup Chicago: a reflection ", "url" : "/events/2022/04/26/meera-raja.html", "description" : "The Civic User Testing group, also known as CUTgroup, originated in Chicago to enable residents to give valuable input throughout the technology discovery and development process, allowing them to have a voice in and access to emerging technology. In this presentation, you will hear Meera Raja, who led City Tech’s resident engagement work, speak about City Tech’s approach to CUTgroup and reflect on some of their best practices and lessons learned.", "speakers" : "Meera Raja; she/her; P33 Chicago; Vice President, Deep Tech", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "user, testing", "date" : "April 26, 2022" } , { "title" : "Cabrini Green: A History of Broken Promises", "url" : "/events/2022/04/19/alejandra-cancino.html", "description" : "Chicago is set to spend more than $2 billion transforming the city's most famous public housing complex, Cabrini Green. The transformation came with unkept promises of jobs, city contracts and homes for those forced from the neighborhood. Alejandra Cancino will talk about her reporting on the decades-long promises that never materialized and the cost to taxpayers.", "speakers" : "Alejandra Cancino (She/Her/Ella), City Bureau's Deputy Editor", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "April 19, 2022" } , { "title" : "Open Hack (presenter rescheduled)", "url" : "/events/2022/04/12/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join us in person or remote for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 12, 2022" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2022/04/05/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 5, 2022" } , { "title" : "Tracking COVID-19 Data from Chicago Public Schools", "url" : "/events/2022/03/29/jakob-ondrey.html", "description" : "Jakob Ondrey, the creator of cpscovid.com, will walk us through his investigation into Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Covid-19 case discrepancies, the experience of breaking his story, and the subsequent fallout. He'll discuss his realization that even when armed with facts and data, it is the narrative that you construct with those facts that has the power to move people.", "speakers" : "Jakob Ondrey (he/him), CPS Covid Data", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "COVID-19, open data, journalism, education", "date" : "March 29, 2022" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2022/03/22/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 22, 2022" } , { "title" : "In-person: Community Feedback Session", "url" : "/events/2022/03/15/in-person-community-feedback.html", "description" : "As we emerge from 2 years of a pandemic that upended the world, Chi Hack Night will host a Community Feedback Session to reflect on what happened and what the Chi Hack Night Community should do next. Please join us for a facilitated group discussion to share what’s important to us now, and come up with ideas for taking action.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community feedback", "date" : "March 15, 2022" } , { "title" : "How The Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act Was Passed", "url" : "/events/2022/03/08/illinois-climate-and-equitable-jobs-act.html", "description" : "The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (ICJC) is made up of more than 200 climate groups, healthcare professionals, environmental justice champions, businesses, community leaders, labor unions, consumer advocates, faith-based and student organizations. In this presentation, you’ll hear from members of the ICJC coalition who will take you on a journey of how organizing led to the historic passage of CEJA.", "speakers" : "Andrew Barbeau, he/him, The Accelerate Group, President, Delmar Gillus, he/him, Elevate, Chief Operating Officer, Jack Darin, he/him, Sierra Club Illinois, Director, Celeste Flores,she/hers, Clean Power Lake County, co-chair, Mike Atty, he/him, United Congregation of Metro East, Executive Director", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment, climate change, advocacy", "date" : "March 8, 2022" } , { "title" : "Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison", "url" : "/events/2022/03/01/commissioner-kevin-morrison.html", "description" : "Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison will discuss his three years in office as Commissioner for the 15th District. In particular, he will speak about his role as Chairman of the Technology and Innovation Committee and discuss Cook County's technology plans in 2022.", "speakers" : "Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "March 1, 2022" } , { "title" : "2022 Board Election Results", "url" : "/blog/2022/02/24/2022-election-results.html", "description" : "On Feb 22nd, we held our third annual General Meeting and election for our Board of Directors. We were amazed at the turnout. Of our 57 official Members, 26 attended virtually to cast their votes. There were three members chosen by Chi Hack Night Members based on popular vote and two appointed by the current Board of Directors with majority Membership approval.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 24, 2022" } , { "title" : "Board Election & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2022/02/22/member-meeting-election.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Night will hold our annual election for our Board of Directors as part of a General Meeting of the Chi Hack Night Membership. After announcements and introductions, Members will gather to vote on a new Board of Directors. If you are a Member of Chi Hack Night please attend this event to participate and vote! Not a member? Tonight will also be a regular Open Hack for everyone.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "February 22, 2022" } , { "title" : "Sean Watland", "url" : "/board-of-directors/sean-watland.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 22, 2022" } , { "title" : "Laurie Merrell", "url" : "/board-of-directors/laurie-merrell.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 22, 2022" } , { "title" : "Our 2021 Year in Review", "url" : "/blog/2022/02/22/2021-year-in-review.html", "description" : "Ahead of our annual Member Meeting and Board Elections, the Chi Hack Night Board of Directors has compiled the list of our organization's notable achievements for 2021 to share with our Members and our community (that's you!) We put on 48 Chi Hack Night events, hosted 31 presentations, held our second annual Member Meeting and board election, resumed 3 in-person events, continued to examine actions we could take to promote racial justice, began offering $100 presenter honorariums, remained financially stable, and tracked our first ever objectives and key results (OKRs).", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 22, 2022" } , { "title" : "In-person and Online: Code for Chicago: Supporting Not-for-Profit Organizations", "url" : "/events/2022/02/15/joseph-tajaran.html", "description" : "When civic tech delivers, it can make a difference in the lives of people who need it the most. While many flock to it for experience building and/or altruistic reasons, those who have been through the trenches know that civic tech in the after work hours has its challenges. In this talk, learn more about how Chicago’s Code for America Brigade, Code for Chicago, attempt to resolve common pain points through the lens of their projects.", "speakers" : "Joseph Tajaran, Brigade Captain, he/him/his", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "civic tech", "date" : "February 15, 2022" } , { "title" : "The future of preservation policies and movements in Chicago", "url" : "/events/2022/02/08/elizabeth-blasius.html", "description" : "This talk will begin with a history of historic preservation in Chicago that rejects the notion that the field began when historians and photographers documented threatened works by Louis Sullivan, revealing efforts by grassroots preservationists decades earlier. Then, the talk will discuss how existing preservation policy works to protect (or not protect) the historic places that tell Chicago’s story through its built environment. The talk will conclude with how new approaches, ideas and relationships can truly expand preservations’ purview.", "speakers" : "Elizabeth Blasius, Architectural Historian, She/Her", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "historic preservation", "date" : "February 8, 2022" } , { "title" : "Data for Climate: Lessons learned from Sunrise Movement's data team", "url" : "/events/2022/02/01/brittany-bennett.html", "description" : "brittany bennett is the inaugural Data Director of Sunrise Movement where she leverages data analytics to understand how the movement builds power and win. At Sunrise, brittany built the infrastructure that enabled Sunrise to train over 12,000 people during the pandemic, reach 6.5 million voters during the 2020 election, and mobilize tens of thousands of members in actions. In this talk, you will learn about what it means to do data for climate, how data can be used to drive effective organizing, and how Sunrise built a powerful data team. ", "speakers" : "brittany bennett, Data Director @ Sunrise Movement, she/her", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment, climate change, advocacy", "date" : "February 1, 2022" } , { "title" : "It's All Good - Why Block Club Chicago Chose Positivity For Their First Podcast", "url" : "/events/2022/01/25/jon-hansen.html", "description" : "Jon Hansen is an Emmy-Winning TV and Radio Host, and joined Block Club Chicago in 2021 to launch their first podcast. The award-winning hyperlocal website covers all facets of Chicago's neighborhood and citywide news, so why focus on just good news for the podcast? Jon will explain the rationale behind It's All Good and how he develops the podcast each week. ", "speakers" : "Jon Hansen, It's All Good Executive Producer and Host, He/Him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "January 25, 2022" } , { "title" : "Feb 22, 2022: Chi Hack Night's Third Board Election", "url" : "/blog/2022/01/24/board-elections.html", "description" : "On Tuesday February 22, 2022, Chi Hack Night will hold our third member meeting and election for our Board of Directors. There are a total of 6 seats up in this election. Three of them will be chosen by Chi Hack Night Members based on popular vote and three will be appointed by the current Board of Directors with majority Membership approval. All of the seats are 2 year terms.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 24, 2022" } , { "title" : "NOW REMOTE: Former Inspector General Joe Ferguson", "url" : "/events/2022/01/18/joe-ferguson.html", "description" : "Joe Ferguson served as the Inspector General for the City of Chicago for 12 years, where he led a 100-person independent municipal oversight agency spanning the administrations of three mayors in the third largest city in the United States. Joe will talk about the role of holding the City of Chicago government accountable with a focus on police accountability.", "speakers" : "Joe Ferguson, Former Inspector General for Chicago (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "open government, transparency", "date" : "January 18, 2022" } , { "title" : "What does it actually take to decarbonize a state?", "url" : "/events/2022/01/11/juan-pablo-velez.html", "description" : "Juan-Pablo Velez, founder and one-time co-organizer of Chi Hack Night, spent the pandemic creating a solar YIMBY group and going deep into New York State climate politics and policy. With an eye towards sparking similar work in Illinois, he'll give an overview of New York State's country-leading climate law, what it will take to decarbonize NYS by 2050, and the political forces standing in the way.", "speakers" : "Juan-Pablo Velez, climate activist, he/him/his", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 11, 2022" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2022/01/04/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "January 4, 2022" } , { "title" : "In-person: P33 Chicago - The State of Chicago Tech Talent Report", "url" : "/events/2021/12/14/p33-chicago.html", "description" : "According to the recently released State of Chicago Tech Talent Report, lack of diversity at technology companies in Illinois mirrors the demographic profile of computer science programs at local public and private universities. Just 4% of bachelor’s degrees in computer science from Illinois colleges were awarded to Black students and 11.9% went to Latino students in 2020. Aleena Agrawal, Director of Talent Solutions at P33 Chicago, will discuss the findings of this report and what actions can be taken to increase the racial diversity of Chicago’s tech sector.", "speakers" : "Aleena Agrawal, Director of Talent Solutions at P33 Chicago (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity, workforce development", "date" : "December 14, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/12/07/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "December 7, 2021" } , { "title" : "Drowning in debt: How WBEZ investigated Chicago’s water debt crisis", "url" : "/events/2021/11/30/drowning-in-debt.html", "description" : "For years, Chicago leaders turned the city’s water supply into a source of revenue. Now, tens of thousands of homeowners are going into debt over a resource they can’t live without: water. WBEZ’s Race, Class, and Communities reporter, María Inés Zamudio, spent the past six months investigating the city’s punitive debt collection system that often publishes homeowners who can’t afford to pay for water. This talk will highlight the use of FOIA to obtain multiple data sets and a behind the scenes look at how the journalist collaborated to bring the data alive.", "speakers" : "María Inés Zamudio, Reporter, Race, Class and Communities (she/her), Charmaine Runes, Data/Visuals Reporter (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "data journalism, water", "date" : "November 30, 2021" } , { "title" : "In-person: Open Sourcing A Not-For-Profit Organization Through Open Collective", "url" : "/events/2021/11/16/mike-strode.html", "description" : "This event will be in person, but you can also tune in via our usual livestream. Both start at 6pm CST. In this presentation, Mike Strode, a program manager with Open Collective Foundation, shares some background on the work that led to the development of the Open Collective platform and current growth of the Foundation. He will explore how a decentralized network of fiscal host organizations are advancing participatory budgeting by hosting their projects on the platform. Mike will offer examples of some of the 300+ initiatives currently hosted by Open Collective Foundation whose cross-sectoral work includes: mutual aid, tenant organizing, food access, timebanking, prisoner support, and open source technology.", "speakers" : "Mike Strode (he/him), Program Manager, Open Collective Foundation", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "nonprofit", "date" : "November 16, 2021" } , { "title" : "NFTs: Fad or Future?", "url" : "/events/2021/11/09/fight-for-the-future.html", "description" : "You might love them, hate them, or not really get them, but NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) have become a massive topic of conversation this year, and have huge potential to decentralize and democratize the Internet. Fight for the Future has long advocated for decentralized, community-driven alternatives to Big Tech monopolies and their abusive business practices, and NFTs are one piece of this puzzle.", "speakers" : "Joe Thornton, Fight for the Future", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "activism", "date" : "November 9, 2021" } , { "title" : "In-person Chi Hack Night returns on Nov 16, 2021", "url" : "/blog/2021/11/09/2021-return-to-in-person.html", "description" : "On November 16, 2021 at 6pm, in-person Chi Hack Night will return! After 20 months and 75 remote hack nights, we’re excited to bring Chi Hack Night back to the physical world. With COVID cases decreasing in Chicagoland and adult vaccination rates up to 75%, we feel that it is safe again to gather for a masked evening of socializing, learning, and civic hacking. Oh, how we’ve missed you!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 9, 2021" } , { "title" : "Just crazy enough to work: How technologists, organizers, and everyday people can come together for a better Chicago", "url" : "/events/2021/11/02/chicago-redistricting.html", "description" : "In this talk, Chris Kanich, commissioner of the Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission, will provide an overview of how redistricting works in Chicago, how technology played an important but supporting role in the process of drawing The People's Map, and what the next steps are that Chicagoans can take to make sure that the ward boundaries for the next decade are drawn by the people and for the people.", "speakers" : "Chris Kanich, Commissioner, Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission, he/him/his", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "redistricting, elections", "date" : "November 2, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/10/26/openhack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 26, 2021" } , { "title" : "Combatting Digital Influence Operations by State Actors", "url" : "/events/2021/10/19/omelas.html", "description" : "Omelas has created a map of the online information environment to detect digital influence campaigns used to undermine democratic values. This talk is about the rising threat posed by coordinated influence activities online and the effect these have on shaping people's beliefs and behaviors. We will explore the growing risk of state-sponsored influence campaigns and the role civic actors and organizations like Omelas can play in combating it. ", "speakers" : "Roberto Barroso Luque (he/him), Data Scientist, Nick Tallant (he/him), Senior Data Engineer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "misinformation, social media", "date" : "October 19, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/10/12/openhack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 12, 2021" } , { "title" : "Chicago Community Data Portal", "url" : "/events/2021/10/05/heartland-alliance.html", "description" : "The Social IMPACT Research Center recently updated and refreshed the Chicago Community Data Portal. With more user friendly interfaces and new indicators on job quality, the updated portal paints a richer picture of the communities in which we live. These dashboards empower human services and government agencies with the data they need to truly understand the needs of communities they serve and inform decisions about how to target resources.", "speakers" : "Katie Buitrago, Senior Director of Research and Evaluation, Social IMPACT Research Center at Heartland Alliance (she, her, hers), Suniya Farooqui, Senior Data Analyst, Social IMPACT Research Center at Heartland Alliance (she, her, hers)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "nonprofit, data", "date" : "October 5, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/09/28/openhack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "September 28, 2021" } , { "title" : "The Master of Science in Civic Analytics: Progress and Initiatives", "url" : "/events/2021/09/21/stephen-kleinschmit.html", "description" : "The Master of Science in Civic Analytics (MSCA) at the University of Illinois Chicago prepares students for operational data roles in public organizations. Informed by the principles of public policy and administration, the MSCA presents a new framework for studying public interest technology. Now in its second year, the program has expanded opportunitiesto explore the analysis and application of public data . Dr. Stephen Kleinschmit, MSCA Director, joins us to discuss the program’s evolution. The presentation will also discuss recent changes to the program’s curriculum, student placements, then conclude by reviewing new education and research initiatives at the university.", "speakers" : "Stephen Kleinschmit, Ph.D. (he/him) Director, MS in Civic Analytics, University of Illinois Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "September 21, 2021" } , { "title" : "Code Your Dreams", "url" : "/events/2021/09/14/code-your-dreams.html", "description" : "Code Your Dreams is a Chicago-based nonprofit that empowers students from underserved communities to engage in different areas of technology fields, and apply their newfound knowledge to creating community engagement projects. During this talk, we begin by discussing the state of K-12 computer science education as the background for the origin story of Code Your Dreams. Then, we will discuss core teaching and learning principles, pedagogies and tools utilized at Code Your Dreams, and how each leads to exceptional student outcomes. Along the way, you will see and hear student examples for how they’re building technology to lift up their communities. Finally, we will discuss how you can get involved and make a difference for our future technology leaders and disruptors.", "speakers" : "Brianne Caplan, Founder and Executive Director at Code Your Dreams & Program Director at the University of Chicago's Careers in Computer Science program, She/Her, Victoria Reese, Instructor and Curriculum Advisor at Code Your Dreams & Data Scientist at E15 Group, She/Her", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education, equity", "date" : "September 14, 2021" } , { "title" : "How Hack Night Hatched a Co-op", "url" : "/events/2021/09/07/chicommons.html", "description" : "ChiCommons is a worker-owned, multi-stakeholder cooperative, whose mission is to cooperatively foster and grow a people-owned solidarity economy. ChiCommons is working on two projects, a map-directory of cooperatives and solidarity entities in the Chicago region and BlockShare, a neighborhood-based Intranet/Internet owned by the community. The map-directory is being released as a stand-alone web application, allowing users to enter information about their own cooperative or solidarity entity. BlockShare is currently being piloted in the South Shore.", "speakers" : "Steve Ediger, Founding Worker-owner, they/them, Alvyn Walker, Founding Worker-owner, they/them/theirs, Nurul Eusufzai, Founding Worker-owner, he/him, Nemiah Felipe Mitchell, III, Founding Worker-owner, he/him/el", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "coops, breakout group", "date" : "September 7, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/08/31/openhack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 31, 2021" } , { "title" : "Whose Streets? Our Streets! – Smart City Cautionary Tales & Prevention Tactics", "url" : "/events/2021/08/24/rebecca-williams.html", "description" : "Rebecca spent the 2020-21 academic year researching smart city harms to civil liberties as part of Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs’ Technology and Public Purpose (TAPP) Project. In her final report Whose Streets? Our Streets! (Tech Edition) she outlines 2020-21 Smart City Cautionary Trends & 10 Calls to Action to Protect and Promote Democracy. In this presentation, Rebecca will describe how smart city technology tracks individuals and how that could impact democracy.", "speakers" : "Rebecca Williams, Harvard Technology and Public Purpose Fellow, she/her", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "smart, cities", "date" : "August 24, 2021" } , { "title" : "The Pizza Stone: What WBEZ Learned By Biting Into Engagement Journalism", "url" : "/events/2021/08/17/alex-keefe.html", "description" : "As a lead coordinator WBEZ’s election coverage, Editor Alex Keefe knew the station had to come up with a different way to cover the insanity of the 2020 races. At the same time, he and some dedicated colleagues also were looking for ways to integrate engagement journalism tactics more regularly into the hustle and bustle of a competitive, big-city newsroom. So they decided to adopt a newsroom-wide Citizens Agenda approach to election coverage. Building on the success of that project, WBEZ decided to adopt a similar – but different – approach for its coverage of COVID-19 vaccine distribution in Chicagoland.", "speakers" : "Alex Keefe, Editor on the WBEZ Government & Politics Team, he/him", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "August 17, 2021" } , { "title" : "Urban Air Chicago: Designing a Network for Hyperlocal Air Quality Sensing", "url" : "/events/2021/08/10/urban-air-chicago.html", "description" : "How clean is Chicago’s air? Over the last month, you might have seen a white leaf on top of bus shelters around the city. At over 100 bus stops, Chicago residents can now scan a QR code and see air quality data in real time. In this talk, Madeleine Daepp -- a Senior Researcher from the Microsoft Research team -- will discuss the process, promise, and pitfalls of a city-scale sensing deployment.", "speakers" : "Madeleine I. G. Daepp, Ph.D., Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research; Pronouns: She/her/hers", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "August 10, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/08/03/openhack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 3, 2021" } , { "title" : "Toward an Office of the Public Architect", "url" : "/events/2021/07/27/ann-lui.html", "description" : "When you are accused of a crime, if you cannot afford a lawyer, you have the right to a public defender. When issued a building violation, should you also have the right to a Public Architect? The proposal for an Office of the Public Architect asks: can more accessible design services achieve a safe and humane built environment for all?", "speakers" : "Ann Lui, Principal, Future Firm & Assistant Professor of Practice, University of Michigan", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "architecture", "date" : "July 27, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/07/20/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "July 20, 2021" } , { "title" : "Committee on Public Safety: 20-year Analysis", "url" : "/events/2021/07/13/chicago-justice-project.html", "description" : "The Chicago Justice Project is an independent organization with the core mission of increasing public access to justice-related information. Tracy Siska, Executive Director of CJP, and Lauren Cole, Research Intern, will discuss the recently published report on the Committee on Public Safety.", "speakers" : "Tracy Siska, Executive Director (he/him), Lauren Cole, Public Policy Research Intern (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "public safety, oversight", "date" : "July 13, 2021" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night now offering $100 presenter honorariums", "url" : "/blog/2021/07/01/2021-presenter-honorariums.html", "description" : "To increase the diversity of speakers at Chi Hack Night and to provide opportunities to potential presenters who may not have the privilege or ability to give their time away for free or in service of their company or organization, Chi Hack Night is now offering a standard presenter honorarium of $100 for all speakers to compensate them for their time and expertise.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 1, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/06/29/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 29, 2021" } , { "title" : "Chicago Cityscape", "url" : "/events/2021/06/22/chicag-cityscape.html", "description" : "Chicago Cityscape is a real estate information platform designed to spark and inspire more equitable development in overlooked and underinvested neighborhoods by organizing and aggregating property data, policy information, and market insights into one platform – equalizing access to information for underrepresented and resourced property professional and nonprofit organizations.", "speakers" : "Steven Vance, founder and CEO (he/him), Casey Smagala, business development manager (he/him)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "real, estate", "date" : "June 22, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Government: Chicago Style, Budget, Campaign Finance and Q&A", "url" : "/events/2021/06/15/andre-vasquez.html", "description" : "Join us for a presentation on Zoom with Alderperson Vasquez, joined by Geoffrey Cubbage, his Director of Policy, for a look at a budget tool they are working on in advance of this year’s vote, so as to better get input from his colleagues so that there can be some consensus on budget reprioritization. After we will open up the conversation to a full Q&A about any and all things related to Chicago government, whether it’s Public Safety, Affordable Housing, Reimagining the Public Way, and more.", "speakers" : "Alderperson Andre Vasquez", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "budgeting", "date" : "June 15, 2021" } , { "title" : "Digital Security 101: Practical Tips to Level Up Your Digital Security Game", "url" : "/events/2021/06/08/digital-security-101.html", "description" : "From big tech, to city offices, to the meat industry, no person or organization is immune to a hack, and anyone can be a target. This means that securing digital accounts and personal data is important now more than ever. Enter: Chi Hack Night's very own digital security experts. They will discuss how to create strong passwords that are impossible to crack, how to identify the red flags in phishing emails, and what to do if information is compromised.", "speakers" : "Nicole Lopez (she/her), Software Engineer Digital Defense Fund; Director of Engineering, Board Secretary, Midwest Access Coalition, Khoa Truong (he/him), IT Security Specialist, TargetSmart", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "digital, security", "date" : "June 8, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/06/01/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 1, 2021" } , { "title" : "So, You Want to Be a Co-conspirator With AAPI Communities. Now What?", "url" : "/events/2021/05/25/celebrate-argyle.html", "description" : "Join the Celebrate Argyle team for a discussion on unpacking the AAPI experience, understanding and addressing past and current challenges, and elevating AAPI voices. Learn how to co-conspire and advocate with the AAPI community, and also celebrate the diversity of AAPI communities during Asian Pacific Heritage Month May 2021.", "speakers" : "Trang Truong-Hill, community organizer (She/Her/Hers), Hoan Huynh, community organizer (He/Him/His), Sany Nguyen, community organizer (She/Her/Hers), Jennifer Nuky Pham, community organizer (She/Her/Hers)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity", "date" : "May 25, 2021" } , { "title" : "Chicago Department of Housing Racial Equity Impact Assessment", "url" : "/events/2021/05/18/chicago-dept-of-housing.html", "description" : "The Mission of the Chicago Department of Housing (DOH) is to expand access and choice for residents and protect their right to quality homes that are affordable, safe, and healthy. ​As part of its efforts in ensuring that it is programs, initiatives and policies are working to improve access and choice to housing, in March, DOH released the results of a Racial Equity Impact Assessment (REIA) on its Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) for the distribution of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC).", "speakers" : "Sendy Soto, Managing Deputy Commissioner, Daniel Hertz, Director of Policy, Research, and Legislative Affairs", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "housing", "date" : "May 18, 2021" } , { "title" : "Transforming access to benefits during the pandemic", "url" : "/events/2021/05/11/mrelief.html", "description" : "In 2014, two newly-minted coders attended a Chi Hack Night presentation about the dismal access to social services for struggling families who didn’t know they qualified for relief programs. 7 years later, the organization they co-built to address this gap has served over 1,000,000 families and unlocked over $375 million in food stamp benefits. In this presentation, Zareena and Dize will talk about how and why mRelief has expanded beyond building eligibility screeners to creating accessible and mobile-friendly applications for SNAP. ", "speakers" : "Zareena Meyn, Executive Director, she/hers, Dize Hacioglu, CTO, she/hers", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "food, assistance", "date" : "May 11, 2021" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night Community Feedback Session", "url" : "/events/2021/05/04/community-feedback.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Night has been operating remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic for just over a year. Though it has lasted longer than many of us expected, there’s reason for hope and optimism as we all get vaccinated and reopening begins. To mark this milestone, and to help us plan for the future, we’d like to host one of our favorite events: a community feedback session.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community, feedback", "date" : "May 4, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/04/27/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 27, 2021" } , { "title" : "The making of the Chicago Police Torture Archive", "url" : "/events/2021/04/20/chicago-police-torture-archive.html", "description" : "Join Maira Khwaja of the Invisible Institute for a behind the scenes look at the Chicago Police Torture Archive, which is a human rights documentation of Commander Jon Burge’s violence against more than 100 Black people, from the 1970s-1990s.", "speakers" : "Maira Khwaja, Invisible Institute", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "public safety, accountability", "date" : "April 20, 2021" } , { "title" : "Intro to being anti-racist in civic tech", "url" : "/events/2021/04/13/anti-racist-in-civic-tech.html", "description" : "What does it mean to be anti-racist? What is white supremacy culture and how does it show up? Over the past months, Chi Hack Night’s DEI committee has discussed and researched these questions. Now, Chi Hack Night Board Members Ryan Spencer, Derek Eder and Samantha Evans will share what we learned in our recent blog post so that we can all work to make our communities more equitable and just.", "speakers" : "Ryan Spencer, Chi Hack Night Board Member (she/her), Derek Eder, Chi Hack Night President (he/him), Samantha Evans, Chi Hack Night Board Member (she/her)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "civic tech, anti-racism", "date" : "April 13, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/04/06/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 6, 2021" } , { "title" : "Communicating Around Complex Open Data", "url" : "/events/2021/03/30/cook-county-states-attorney.html", "description" : "In 2018, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) became the first prosecutor office to make case level open data available to the public. Transparency was the reason for making this data available but just because the data was available to the public the goal of transparency was not completely met. This presentation will walk through the evolution of the open data, the office’s mindset to open data, and the additional resources beyond the data that have been developed for the public.", "speakers" : "Lisa Li - Data Integration Analyst, Matthew Saniie - Chief Data & Technology Officer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice, data analytics", "date" : "March 30, 2021" } , { "title" : "Intro to being anti-racist in civic tech", "url" : "/blog/2021/03/25/2021-intro-to-being-anti-racist-in-civic-tech.html", "description" : "In recognition of Chi Hack Night’s commitment to Black Lives Matter and the racial justice movement, we believe it’s important for our community to continue taking steps to address white supremacy culture. But what does it mean to be anti-racist? What is white supremacy culture and how does it show up? Over the past months, Chi Hack Night’s DEI committee has discussed and researched these questions. Now we’re sharing what we learned so that we can all work to make our communities more equitable and just.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 25, 2021" } , { "title" : "MWRD Commissioner Mariyana Spyropoulos", "url" : "/events/2021/03/23/mariyana-spyropoulos.html", "description" : "Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) is a special purpose government agency responsible for wastewater treatment and stormwater management. Commissioner Mariyana Spyropoulos will talk about the importance of MWRD and the history behind the agency.", "speakers" : "Commissioner Mariyana Spyropoulos", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "water, environment", "date" : "March 23, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/03/16/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 16, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/03/09/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 9, 2021" } , { "title" : "The Maintainers: Building the Movement for Maintenance Thinking & Action", "url" : "/events/2021/03/02/the-maintainers.html", "description" : "Founded in 2016, The Maintainers is a global research network interested in the concepts of maintenance, infrastructure, repair, and the myriad forms of labor and expertise that sustain the human-built world. In this presentation, Maintainers co-directors Jessica Meyerson, Andrew Russell, and Lee Vinsel will discuss three important facets of the work of the Maintainers.", "speakers" : "Jessica Meyerson, Andrew Russell, Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Lee Vinsel", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "maintenance", "date" : "March 2, 2021" } , { "title" : "2021 Post-election community feedback results", "url" : "/blog/2021/02/26/2021-post-election-community-feedback.html", "description" : "Following the 2016 presidential election, Chi Hack Night held a post-election community feedback session. Four years later and with another presidential transition, we decided to hold a remote community feedback session to discuss the same questions as we assess the challenges and opportunities for the Chi Hack Night Community in 2021. Here are the results.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 26, 2021" } , { "title" : "Why we need to end gerrymandering, together", "url" : "/events/2021/02/23/change-il.html", "description" : "Why should you care about ending gerrymandering? Gerrymandering is a form of voter suppression. Both major political parties do it. They draw political districts to protect incumbents, advantage their own party and disadvantage the other. After the census, all districts are redrawn to reflect population changes. When those districts are gerrymandered, or rigged, some in our communities lose their representation and right to effectively petition their governments.", "speakers" : "Madeleine Doubek (she/her/hers), Executive Director, CHANGE Illinois", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "gerrymandering", "date" : "February 23, 2021" } , { "title" : "Second Quadrennial Post-election Feedback Session", "url" : "/events/2021/02/16/post-election-feedback.html", "description" : "Following the last presidential election in 2016, Chi Hack Night held a post-election community feedback session. Now, four years later, we invite you to join us as we discuss the same questions as we assess the challenges and opportunities for the Chi Hack Night Community in 2021. Join us Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom for our second quadrennial post-election feedback session.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community feedback", "date" : "February 16, 2021" } , { "title" : "2021 Board Election Results", "url" : "/blog/2021/02/12/2021-election-results.html", "description" : "On Feb 9, we held our second annual General Meeting and election for our Board of Directors. We were amazed at the turnout. Of our 41 official Members, 28 attended virtually to cast their votes. There were four members chosen by Chi Hack Night Members based on popular vote and two appointed by the current Board of Directors with majority Membership approval.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 12, 2021" } , { "title" : "Board Election & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/02/09/board-election.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Night will hold our second election for our Board of Directors as part of a General Meeting of the Chi Hack Night Membership. After announcements and introductions, Members will gather to vote on a new Board of Directors. If you are a Member of Chi Hack Night please attend this event to participate and vote! Not a member? Tonight will also be a regular Open Hack for everyone.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "February 9, 2021" } , { "title" : "Our 2020 Year in Review", "url" : "/blog/2021/02/06/2020-year-in-review.html", "description" : "2020 is over. We survived. Chi Hack Night survived. It wasn’t easy. This, friends, is our recap of the year. What started as a highlights reel for the year has transformed into a shared biography on one of the most chaotic, stressful and challenging years we will hopefully ever experience. But through the crucible of pandemic, racial uprising, authoritarianism and more, we’ve come to realize the importance of our community and what we do at Chi Hack Night. So bear with us. It’s a bit long, but hopefully you’ll find it a worthwhile read.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 6, 2021" } , { "title" : "Connect Illinois: Eliminating the Digital Divide through an Equity Lens", "url" : "/events/2021/02/02/matt-schmit.html", "description" : "As the largest state broadband matching grant program ever, Connect Illinois seeks to achieve what no other state or federal approach has accomplished: ubiquitous broadband access throughout the state. In order to help Illinoisans both access and use broadband, Connect Illinois will promote digital equity and inclusion while leveraging fully scalable, affordable broadband to drive economic development, increase quality of life, and stay connected.", "speakers" : "Matt Schmit | Director, Illinois Office of Broadband", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "broadband, equity, govtech", "date" : "February 2, 2021" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2021/01/26/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "January 26, 2021" } , { "title" : "Residential Valuation V2: New Methods, Models, and Results", "url" : "/events/2021/01/19/cook-county-assessor.html", "description" : "The Cook County Assessor’s Office (CCAO) is responsible for determining the assessed value of over 1.8 million properties. This year, the Data Science department created V2 of its residential valuation model. CCAO Senior Data Scientist, Dan Snow, will walk through V2 of the new residential model. He'll cover major modeling choices, what features/data are included, and what adjustments are made to initial model results.", "speakers" : "Dan Snow, Senior Data Scientist, Cook County Assessor's Office", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "real estate, taxes", "date" : "January 19, 2021" } , { "title" : "Feb 9, 2021: Chi Hack Night's Second Board Election", "url" : "/blog/2021/01/19/board-elections.html", "description" : "On February 9th, 2021, Chi Hack Night will hold our second election for our Board of Directors. There are a total of 5 seats up in this election. Three of them will be chosen by Chi Hack Night Members based on popular vote and two will be appointed by the current Board of Directors with majority Membership approval. All of the seats are 2 year terms.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 19, 2021" } , { "title" : "Together We Heal: Advancing Racial Healing and Transformation in Chicago", "url" : "/events/2021/01/12/candace-moore.html", "description" : "Together We Heal (TWH) launches a journey aimed at building racial healing across Chicago. The goal is for every Chicagoan to do their part to foster racial healing, learning, and restoration in every neighborhood across our City. The initiative seeks to promote civic unity by encouraging Chicagoans to connect across lines of difference and support a collective conversation about our truth and our promise as a City.", "speakers" : "Candace C. Moore, Chief Equity Officer, City of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity", "date" : "January 12, 2021" } , { "title" : "Ald. Gilbert Villegas", "url" : "/events/2021/01/05/ald-villegas.html", "description" : "36th Ward Alderman Gilbert Villegas has served on the Chicago City Council since 2015. As chair of the Capital and Technology Development Committee and floor leader for Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Ald Villegas will share his plans to modernize the City’s information technology systems.", "speakers" : "36th Ward Ald. Gilbert Villegas", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "January 5, 2021" } , { "title" : "Sam Evans", "url" : "/board-of-directors/sam-evans.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 1, 2021" } , { "title" : "Michael Chladek", "url" : "/board-of-directors/michael-chladek.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 1, 2021" } , { "title" : "COVID-19 and Chicago’s Homeless", "url" : "/events/2020/12/15/laura-michalski.html", "description" : "When the COVID-19 pandemic changed our lives and the way society operates, North Side Housing and Supportive Services took swift and decisive measures. They implemented a COVID Response and Management Plan in accordance with CDC and IDPH guidelines which included decompressing their shelter, provided on-site screenings and testing, increased access to PPE and more. Tonight North Side Housing will share with you the approach they’ve used to minimize their COVID-19 numbers, while still giving their clients access to the essential services that we all need.", "speakers" : "Laura Michalski, Executive Director", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "housing, homelessness", "date" : "December 15, 2020" } , { "title" : "Kids' Privacy and Security During Online Learning", "url" : "/events/2020/12/08/kids-privacy.html", "description" : "Remote learning places additional burdens on schools to help maintain children’s online privacy and security. Schools are also more dependent on educational technologies now more than ever. What are the main issues with helping kids stay safe online? What laws exist to protect children’s digital privacy and security in schools? Who should be taking care of this learning? Where should this learning occur?", "speakers" : "Marshini Chetty, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education, privacy, digital security", "date" : "December 8, 2020" } , { "title" : "The Circuit: Decoding the Cook County Court System", "url" : "/events/2020/12/01/the-circuit.html", "description" : "More than 3 million criminal cases were filed in Cook County between 2000 and 2018. That’s more than 400 cases per day. In a first-of-its-kind project, Chicago news nonprofits the Chicago Reporter, Injustice Watch and the Better Government Association teamed up with civic tech firm DataMade to collect and analyze these records from the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County’s mainframe computer system.", "speakers" : "Casey Toner, BGA Reporter, Jared Rutecki, BGA Data Coordinator, John Chase, BGA Director of Investigations, Amanda Miley, Injustice Watch Development Director , Emily Hoerner, Injustice Watch Reporter , Bea Malsky, Former DataMade Developer ", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "data journalism, criminal justice", "date" : "December 1, 2020" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2020/11/17/open-hack.html", "description" : "There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have our first Open Hack since Feb 11. Join our 7pm open Zoom call for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 17, 2020" } , { "title" : "Solidifying Civic Tech", "url" : "/events/2020/11/10/cyd-harrell.html", "description" : "How can civic technologists help each other across all the different government levels, agencies, disciplines, partnership types, and public needs? How can the field best welcome and support a diverse new cohort of people eager to help? Cyd will talk through sets of questions that it behooves every civic technologist to engage with as the field considers the future, and hopefully spark a lively discussion/Q&A to follow!", "speakers" : "Cyd Harrell, author of A Civic Technologist's Practice Guide", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "November 10, 2020" } , { "title" : "People's Budget Chicago: What do our communities need to be safe and thriving?", "url" : "/events/2020/10/27/peoples-budget.html", "description" : "Next month, Chicago City Council will vote a budget for 2021. If we want the future of our city to look different from our past, we have to build it differently. If we want different results, we need to design different processes. That’s why neighbors across our city have been working to build the People’s Budget Chicago.", "speakers" : "All Chicago United for Equity Fellows 2020, Alex Ensign, Deputy Director of Communications, Cook County Government, Matthew Sweeney, Senior Research Specialist, UIC Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement, Kyra Woods, Campaign Organizer, Sierra Club", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "civic engagement, finance", "date" : "October 27, 2020" } , { "title" : "Profit Without Oppression", "url" : "/events/2020/10/20/kim-crayton.html", "description" : "Instead of mixing capitalism with social justice, what about shifting the lens to capitalism AS social justice. In today’s political and economic climate, it is more important than ever that we rethink how we scale, evolve, and recover our businesses, while also thinking deeply about our collective impact on society. Profit Without Oppression, is that new lens.", "speakers" : "Kim Crayton founder of Kim Crayton LLC and the #causeascene Community", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity, anti-racism", "date" : "October 20, 2020" } , { "title" : "The Pandemic Response in Senior Housing: An Open Data Case Study", "url" : "/events/2020/10/13/propublica.html", "description" : "In June, ProPublica published an article about the flawed response to the coronavirus pandemic at senior housing complexes in Chicago. The investigation depended on an unexpected resource: open data available on the Cook County website. In this talk, ProPublica data reporter Haru Coryne and reporter Mick Dumke will describe their investigation in the context of open data, delving into one particular dataset that ultimately became useful.", "speakers" : "Haru Coryne, Data Reporter, ProPublica, Mick Dumke, Reporter, ProPublica", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, covid-19", "date" : "October 13, 2020" } , { "title" : "How can we accelerate gender equity in Chicago’s tech ecosystem?", "url" : "/events/2020/10/06/get-cities.html", "description" : "Over the last decade, representation of women and marginalized genders in tech has remained largely unchanged. Women currently comprise only 26% of jobs in the computing workforce, and among those women, only 12% are Black or Latinx women. We’re working to change that. Gender Equality in Tech (GET) Chicago is an initiative to bring women, trans, non-binary technologists and their allies together to address gender inclusivity in tech as one active ecosystem.", "speakers" : "Sam Letscher, Chicago Associate — GET Cities, Niharika Hanglem, Manager, Research & Partnerships — GET Cities, Casey Koppelson, Program Manager — GET Cities", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity", "date" : "October 6, 2020" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night’s 2020 Election Information Guide for Illinois", "url" : "/blog/2020/10/06/2020-election-information-guide-for-illinois.html", "description" : "The 2020 Election is fast approaching. America’s presidential contest is shaping up to be one unlike any other. Chi Hack Night wants to equip you with accurate information to support you as you cast your ballot.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 6, 2020" } , { "title" : "Exploring Real-Time Water Quality Monitoring in the Great Lakes", "url" : "/events/2020/09/29/chicago-water-week.html", "description" : "Current will kick-off the evening by briefly updating the group on its H2NOW Chicago project that will measure microbial pollution levels in the Chicago River in real-time within a year. They’ll then provide an overview of the existing water quality monitoring efforts in Lake Michigan, segueing into the inspiring work of GLOS and CWA to explore how Chicagoans might be able to access and utilize real-time water quality data for their beloved Great Lake in the near-future.", "speakers" : "Max Herzog, Program Manager, Cleveland Water Alliance (CWA), Tim Kearns, Chief Information Officer, Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS), Svetlana Taylor, Technical Program Director, Current", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "September 29, 2020" } , { "title" : "Why Cancer Surgery Volumes Matter- Empowering patients with public data", "url" : "/events/2020/09/22/adam-andersen.html", "description" : "Amulet Health is a patient advocacy website that shares publicly available cancer surgery volumes and other information about seeking second medical opinions for cancer surgery. The site started as a breakout group at Chicago Hack Night. The talk will focus on developing the project and website and the ongoing work to increase access to cancer surgery volume data.", "speakers" : "Adam Andersen, Director, Quality Performance and Improvement, UI Health, Nolan Winkler, Data and Policy Analyst, Acumen LLC", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "health", "date" : "September 22, 2020" } , { "title" : "Ensuring Accessibility in Your Civic Tech Project", "url" : "/events/2020/09/15/viktor-koves.html", "description" : "Viktor Köves, a developer and web-accessibility specialist, will present an overview of accessibility, why it matters in civic technology, and give some tips on how designers and developers can ensure that their projects are accessible.", "speakers" : "Viktor Köves", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "accessibility", "date" : "September 15, 2020" } , { "title" : "Election SOS", "url" : "/events/2020/09/08/jennifer-brandel.html", "description" : "Election SOS is a collaborative initiative from a variety of news-support organizations designed to provide journalists with critical election information needs. With the election weeks away and mail-in voting already active in many states, Election SOS is interested in hearing from civically engaged folks about what information needs they have that newsrooms could and should be providing. ", "speakers" : "Jennifer Brandel, Senior Strategist - Election SOS, co-founder Hearken & Civic Exchange Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "elections, journalism", "date" : "September 8, 2020" } , { "title" : "Beware of Tech Solutions to Policing and Prisons", "url" : "/events/2020/09/01/victoria-law-maya-schenwar.html", "description" : "In their new book, Prison by Any Other Name, the speakers delve into the way in which many popular policing and prison reforms actually expand the system of criminalization. These reforms include a range of tech-based "fixes," from electronic monitoring to data-driven policing. In their presentation, Law and Schenwar will explain the frightening consequences of these tech-related developments, and how we must chart a different path forward. ", "speakers" : "Victoria Law, freelance journalist focused on incarceration, Maya Schenwar, editor-in-chief of Truthout", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "justice, equity", "date" : "September 1, 2020" } , { "title" : "Chicago Police Took Thousands Of Cars Without Criminal Charges And Stuck Owners With Thousands In Debt", "url" : "/events/2020/08/25/elliott-ramos.html", "description" : "On the surface, Chicagos’s vehicle impoundment program was intended to get cars of drug dealers, criminals caught with illegal weapons, or those with DUIs. Instead, it grew over time to ensnare hundreds of thousands for small-time offenses. ", "speakers" : "Elliott Ramos, Data Editor, WBEZ", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "August 25, 2020" } , { "title" : "Civic Engagement Under Quarantine", "url" : "/events/2020/08/18/maria-hadden.html", "description" : "Meaningful civic engagement is a cornerstone of a healthy democratic society. A resident’s ability to access and influence their elected officials and public employees is a key part of engagement. There are many barriers to this access in the best of times as inequity is maintained by systemic structural faults like racism, classism, sexism and white supremacy. This is why working for the radical inclusion of people who are marginalized or the most impacted by decisions has become a best practice for governance. However, for those who work in this way, the pandemic has brought new challenges.", "speakers" : "Alderwoman Maria Hadden", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "civic, engagement", "date" : "August 18, 2020" } , { "title" : "Holistic Public Defense: The Road to Reform", "url" : "/events/2020/08/11/amy-campanelli.html", "description" : "Join us Tuesday to hear from Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli. Ms. Campanelli is committed to reducing incarceration of her clients by supporting smart, fair, and non-discriminatory criminal justice reform at every stage of the process, and through a holistic client-centered approach.", "speakers" : "Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "public, safety", "date" : "August 11, 2020" } , { "title" : "Tracking COVID-19 in Illinois from the spread to reopening policies", "url" : "/events/2020/08/04/chicago-reporter-wbez.html", "description" : "Since the beginning of the pandemic, The Chicago Reporter and WBEZ have been collaborating to build tools and graphics to help everyday Illinoisans navigate the crisis and understand how COVID-19 is affecting their communities. Through reporting-driven design and development, we've published a range of editorial products, from tools that allow Illinoisans to track cases in their own ZIP code to trackers that break down evolving reopening plans.", "speakers" : "Asraa Mustufa, Chicago Reporter editor, David Eads, Former Chicago Reporter editor, Paula Friedrich, WBEZ producer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "August 4, 2020" } , { "title" : "Introducing the Tech & Data Help Desk", "url" : "/blog/2020/07/31/tech-and-data-help-desk.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Night is now offering free tech & data assistance to nonprofits, government, small businesses and people that request it.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 31, 2020" } , { "title" : "Police reform in Chicago: why it's taking so long and what we can do about it", "url" : "/events/2020/07/28/matt-martin.html", "description" : "Join us for a conversation with 47th Ward Alderman Matt Martin to discuss the status of police reform in Chicago and why the CPD budget must remain part of that discussion.", "speakers" : "Matt Martin, 47th Ward Alderman", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "police, accountability", "date" : "July 28, 2020" } , { "title" : "The Lyric Opera of Chicago's EmpowerYouth! Program", "url" : "/events/2020/07/21/lyric-opera-of-chicago.html", "description" : "How do people create community when they physically can't be together? That was the challenge that Crystal Coats and Angela Hamilton of the Lyric Opera of Chicago faced this spring. When COVID-19 meant participants had to stay home, the future of Lyric Unlimited’s community programming was uncertain. In this presentation, Coats and Hamilton will talk about the process of doing art online, keeping young people engaged, and maintaining community during a pandemic.", "speakers" : "Crystal Coats, Interim Director of Lyric Unlimited, Angela Hamilton, the Community Programs Coordinator", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "arts", "date" : "July 21, 2020" } , { "title" : "The Chicago PPE Market", "url" : "/events/2020/07/14/garr-punnett.html", "description" : "As Chicago and other cities across the world begin reopening, communities are trying to figure out how to get the supplies that are needed to the places that need them the most. Chicago PPE Market connects Chicago businesses and nonprofits to local distributors of PPE materials, allowing businesses to ensure their customers and staff are safe upon their return to work.", "speakers" : "Garr Punnett, Chief of Staff & Sustainability", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "marketplaces", "date" : "July 14, 2020" } , { "title" : "Actions Towards Racial Justice - Part II", "url" : "/events/2020/06/30/actions-towards-racial-justice-part-2.html", "description" : "After our 400th episode group discussion on Actions Towards Racial Justice, we received overwhelming feedback that people wanted to continue the conversation and create a space for productive conversation around racial justice, equity and being anti-racist. For our 404th episode, we will gather again via Zoom call to discuss constructive ways our community can support efforts to end racial injustice.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "racial, equity", "date" : "June 30, 2020" } , { "title" : "The Intersection of Racial Equity, Data and Technology in Cook County’s Response to COVID-19", "url" : "/events/2020/06/23/toni-preckwinkle.html", "description" : "Join us for a conversation with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle to discuss Cook County's initial, rapid response to the COVID-19 crisis and her priorities for an equitable recovery over the next two years. She's bringing the County's Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Data Officer to take your questions and provide updates on the County's progress toward its goals. Throughout the pandemic, Cook County has prioritized transparency and is renewing its focus on advancing digital equity.", "speakers" : "Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Board President, Tom Lynch, Chief Information Officer, Hema Sundaram, Chief Technology Officer, Dessa Gypalo, Chief Data Officer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "racial equity, govtech", "date" : "June 23, 2020" } , { "title" : "Calculating and Publishing COVID-19 Adjustments to Property Reassessments", "url" : "/events/2020/06/16/cook-county-assessor.html", "description" : "In January 2020, the Cook County Assessor’s Office (CCAO) began its reassessment of homes and commercial properties in the South and west suburbs. In March 2020, the effects of COVID-19 were still unfolding in many ways. The Office conducted analyses, and soon made the determination to account for COVID-19’s economic effects in the south and west suburb reassessment.", "speakers" : "Rob Ross, Chief Data Officer, Cook County Assessor's Office, Nicole Jardine, Director of Communications, Cook County Assessor's Office", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, real estate, taxes", "date" : "June 16, 2020" } , { "title" : "Nick Lucius, Chicago’s Chief Data Officer", "url" : "/events/2020/06/09/nick-lucius.html", "description" : "Nick Lucius serves as the City of Chicago’s Chief Data Officer. Working in the Office of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Nick oversees data strategy and policy citywide. He will talk about how the city uses data and technology to flatten the curve of COVID infections, with a focus on racial justice.", "speakers" : "Nick Lucius, Chief Data Officer, Office of the Mayor, City of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "covid-19, govtech, open data", "date" : "June 9, 2020" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night stands with the Black Lives Matter movement", "url" : "/blog/2020/06/06/black-lives-matter.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Night stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. We commit to the fight to end systemic racism and injustice. For real system change to be achieved, we cannot remain silent or on the sidelines. We must also take this time to listen, reflect and learn while also having our voice heard as part of a broader movement.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "June 6, 2020" } , { "title" : "CHN 400: Actions Towards Racial Justice", "url" : "/events/2020/06/02/episode-400.html", "description" : "Join us for our 400th episode. We will gather via Zoom call to discuss constructive ways our community can support efforts to end racial injustice.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "racial equity", "date" : "June 2, 2020" } , { "title" : "Barriers to Digital Equity", "url" : "/events/2020/05/26/angela-siefer.html", "description" : "Angela Siefer is the Executive Director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. The health crisis has made access to home broadband and a computer, along with digital skills, even more of a necessity than it had been. She will discuss with us the barriers to digital equity and the solutions - both on the ground and needed policy changes.", "speakers" : "Angela Siefer, Executive Director, National Digital Inclusion Alliance", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "digital equity", "date" : "May 26, 2020" } , { "title" : "Hacking Imagination: Participatory Futures during a Pandemic", "url" : "/events/2020/05/19/john-sweeney.html", "description" : "In 2019, NESTA, a global innovation agency based in the UK, commissioned research on participatory futures approaches. A global team compiled over 400 cases from around the world featuring an arrange of analog, tech-driven, and hybrid approaches, methods, and tools for engaging civil society in thinking about the future. Additionally, core team members developed a game that focuses on how to design more impactful, imaginative, and inclusive participatory futures engagements. Following the Q&A, participants are invited to play the game using Miro, an online whiteboard platform. ", "speakers" : "Dr. John A. Sweeney Director, Qazaq Research Institute for Futures Studies Foresight Advisor, INTERPOL", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "participatory futures", "date" : "May 19, 2020" } , { "title" : "City Bureau's Chicago COVID Resource Finder", "url" : "/events/2020/05/12/pat-sier.html", "description" : "City Bureau created the Chicago COVID Resource Finder as a way for Cook County residents to quickly access over 1,300 vetted resources in 12 languages online or over SMS. Pat Sier, web developer at City Bureau, will talk about how the tool was put together as well as how lessons learned from past projects were incorporated in the design process.", "speakers" : "Pat Sier, Web Developer at City Bureau", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "covid-19, journalism", "date" : "May 12, 2020" } , { "title" : "Leaning into remote, 501(c)(3) status attained & celebrating episode 400!", "url" : "/blog/2020/05/08/leaning-into-remote-nonprofit-episode-400.html", "description" : "As we enter into the second month of staying at home and the world being turned upside down by COVID-19, we’d like to share what Chi Hack Night has been up to, as well as some exciting updates. We are now a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and our 400th episode is coming up next month!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 8, 2020" } , { "title" : "Black Wave: How Networks and Governance Shaped Japan's 3/11 Disasters", "url" : "/events/2020/05/05/daniel-aldrich.html", "description" : "Daniel Aldrich uses qualitative and quantitative data to show precisely how trust, reciprocity, and social ties working during a variety of crises and disasters. He will talk about his research into the ongoing effects of a trio of disasters in Japan— an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown known colloquially as 3/11.", "speakers" : "Daniel P. Aldrich, Director, Security and Resilience Studies Program, and Professor, Political Science and Public Policy, Northeastern University", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "covid-19", "date" : "May 5, 2020" } , { "title" : "Art Institute of Chicago's Public API", "url" : "/events/2020/04/28/nikhil-trivedi.html", "description" : "As part of a recent website redesign, The Art Institute of Chicago embarked on aggregating all the museum's public data into one place and serving it all up through a unified, searchable API. That API will be formally launched as their public API later this year, and Chi Hack Night will get a sneak peek.", "speakers" : "nikhil trivedi, Director of Engineering", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "arts", "date" : "April 28, 2020" } , { "title" : "Remote Hack Night", "url" : "/events/2020/04/21/remote-hack.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Nights are now remote! Same time (6pm Tuesdays), but now from the comfort of your self-quarantine location! Join our Slack to participate in Remote Chi Hack Nights! We are also organizing teams to provide technincal assistance to people and groups during the COVID-19 outbreak.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 21, 2020" } , { "title" : "Remote Hack Night", "url" : "/events/2020/04/14/remote-hack.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Nights are now remote! Same time (6pm Tuesdays), but now from the comfort of your self-quarantine location! Join our Slack to participate in Remote Chi Hack Nights! We are also organizing teams to provide technincal assistance to people and groups during the COVID-19 outbreak.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 14, 2020" } , { "title" : "Remote Hack Night", "url" : "/events/2020/04/07/remote-hack.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Nights are now remote! Same time (6pm Tuesdays), but now from the comfort of your self-quarantine location! Join our Slack to participate in Remote Chi Hack Nights! We are also organizing teams to provide technincal assistance to people and groups during the COVID-19 outbreak.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 7, 2020" } , { "title" : "Remote Hack Night", "url" : "/events/2020/03/31/remote-hack.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Nights are now remote! Same time (6pm Tuesdays), but now from the comfort of your self-quarantine location! Join our Slack to participate in Remote Chi Hack Nights! We are also organizing teams to provide technincal assistance to people and groups during the COVID-19 outbreak.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 31, 2020" } , { "title" : "Remote Hack Night", "url" : "/events/2020/03/24/remote-hack.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Nights are now remote! Same time (6pm Tuesdays), but now from the comfort of your self-quarantine location! Join our Slack to participate in Remote Chi Hack Nights! We are also organizing teams to provide technincal assistance to people and groups during the COVID-19 outbreak.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 24, 2020" } , { "title" : "The Civic Technologist's Guide to Helping Out During the COVID-19 Outbreak (Chicagoland Edition)", "url" : "/blog/2020/03/23/guide-to-helping-out-during-the-covid-19-outbreak.html", "description" : "If you’re reading this, you’re probably interested in, or already part of Chicago’s civic tech community. With everyone sheltering in place, the tools we use and information that we share have never been more critical. Well, if you know about technology and its impact on civic life, this is your moment: you are someone who can be a leader in your own community and to the people that you love. This is a guide for volunteering with Chi Hack Night during the COVID-19 outbreak.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 23, 2020" } , { "title" : "Introducing Remote Chi Hack Nights", "url" : "/blog/2020/03/16/chi-hack-night-going-remote.html", "description" : "Are you already feeling that Tuesday night void? Looking for a way to help out and contribute during the COVID-19 outbreak? Chi Hack Nights are going remote! Same time, but now from the comfort of your own home / quarantine location!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 16, 2020" } , { "title" : "CANCELLED: Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2020/03/10/open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 10, 2020" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night is Postponed Until Further Notice", "url" : "/blog/2020/03/09/chi-hack-night-postponed.html", "description" : "Due to the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Chi Hack Night has been postponed until further notice. In the coming weeks, Chi Hack Night will facilitate remote hack nights on Tuesdays over our Slack channel, email and Twitter.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 9, 2020" } , { "title" : "Cassandra Madison, Tech Talent Project", "url" : "/events/2020/03/03/tech-talent-project.html", "description" : "Tech Talent Project's goal is to increase the ability of America’s govern- ment to recruit the right top technical talent in order to achieve critical economic, societal and human outcomes.", "speakers" : "Cassandra Madison, Tech Talent Project", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "March 3, 2020" } , { "title" : "So you want to start a breakout group?", "url" : "/blog/2020/02/28/so-you-want-to-start-a-breakout-group.html", "description" : "A practical guide to running breakout groups at Chi Hack Night. Have an idea for a breakout group? This guide is for you! It contains hard-earned knowledge, recommendations and resources compiled by Chi Hack Night veterans.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 28, 2020" } , { "title" : "Jeffery Beckham Jr., Chicago Scholars", "url" : "/events/2020/02/25/chicago-scholars.html", "description" : "Chicago Scholars is the largest college access and success program in Chicago serving more than 3,000 Scholars and Alumni each year in their seven-year college access and success mentoring and career support program. Jeffery Beckham Jr., Vice President of Partnerships will share more about the work Chicago Scholars does and highlight areas that the Chi Hack Night Community can get involved.", "speakers" : "Jeffery Beckham Jr., Vice President of Partnerships, Chicago Scholars", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education, racial equity", "date" : "February 25, 2020" } , { "title" : "Emmanuel Pratt, Sweet Water Foundation", "url" : "/events/2020/02/18/emmanuel-pratt.html", "description" : "At Chi Hack Night, Emmanuel + Sweet Water Foundation team members will discuss their plans for The Commonwealth, an emerging community land trust that is taking a triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) approach to neighborhood development of 10 city blocks at the nexus of the Englewood and Washington Park communities on Chicago’s South Side.", "speakers" : "Emmanuel Pratt, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Sweet Water Foundation", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "urban farming, environment", "date" : "February 18, 2020" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2020/02/11/open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "February 11, 2020" } , { "title" : "2020 Board Election Results", "url" : "/blog/2020/02/05/2020-board-election-results.html", "description" : "On Feb 4, we held our first-ever General Meeting and election for our Board of Directors. We were amazed at the turnout. Of our 41 official Members, 30 attended in person to cast their votes. There were three members chosen by Chi Hack Night Members based on popular vote and three appointed by the current Board of Directors with majority Membership approval. All board members serve 2 year terms.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 5, 2020" } , { "title" : "Board Election & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2020/02/04/election-hack.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Night will hold our first ever election for our Board of Directors as part of our first General Meeting of the Chi Hack Night Membership. After announcements and introductions, Members will gather to vote on updates to our bylaws as well as new Board Directors. If you are a Member of Chi Hack Night please attend this event to participate and vote! Not a member? Tonight will also be a regular Open Hack for everyone.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "February 4, 2020" } , { "title" : "Soren Spicknall", "url" : "/board-of-directors/soren-spicknall.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 4, 2020" } , { "title" : "Ryan Spencer", "url" : "/board-of-directors/ryan-spencer.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 4, 2020" } , { "title" : "Joel Inwood", "url" : "/board-of-directors/joel-inwood.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 4, 2020" } , { "title" : "Eric Sherman", "url" : "/board-of-directors/eric-sherman.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 4, 2020" } , { "title" : "Cameron Sow", "url" : "/board-of-directors/cameron-sow.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 4, 2020" } , { "title" : "Alexis Shoemaker", "url" : "/board-of-directors/alexis-shoemaker.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 4, 2020" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night in 2019: Our first year as a non-profit", "url" : "/blog/2020/02/04/2019-year-in-review.html", "description" : "Ahead of our first ever non-profit board election, now is a good time to look back on 2019 and review all that we have accomplished at Chi Hack Night. In many ways, 2019 was the most introspective and transformative year for Chi Hack Night since we were founded in 2012.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 4, 2020" } , { "title" : "H2NOW Chicago: Real-time Water Quality Monitoring in a Major Urban Waterway", "url" : "/events/2020/01/28/h2now.html", "description" : "H2NOW Chicago (H2NOW) is the first real-time water quality monitoring project in the U.S. to measure microbial pollutants in a major urban waterway, and publicly communicate that data in an easily understandable format. In Phase II (2020), Current and its partners are preparing to launch an online data visualization tool that will access the real-time water quality data being collected, and display it on the project’s public platform.", "speakers" : "Alaina Harkness, Executive Director, Current, George Brigandi, Partnerships and Development Manager, Current, Svetlana Taylor, Technical Program Director, Current, Ryan Henderson, Intern, Current", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "January 28, 2020" } , { "title" : "The Wabash Lights: Creating Chicago’s First Interactive Public Arts Platform", "url" : "/events/2020/01/21/wabash-lights.html", "description" : "The mission of The Wabash Lights is to create Chicago’s first interactive public art platform. The team will discuss how they’ve grown from two people into a thriving volunteer-run organization, the project’s evolution and next phases for installation and programming, and the ins and outs of designing technology for public use and access while working across multiple layers of civic stakeholders.", "speakers" : "Maria Demopoulos, Board Chair", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "arts", "date" : "January 21, 2020" } , { "title" : "Million Neighborhoods: Mapping Slums on a Global Scale", "url" : "/events/2020/01/14/million-neighborhoods.html", "description" : "The Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation at the University of Chicago recently released the Million Neighborhoods Map, a groundbreaking visual tool that provides the first comprehensive look at informal settlements on a global scale, helping to identify communities most in need of roads, power, water, sanitation and other infrastructure. The research team will provide an in-depth walkthrough of the data, methods, and computational techniques utilized in the project.", "speakers" : "Satej Soman, Research Engineer, Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, Computational Analysis & Public Policy, Cooper Nederhood, Research Engineer, Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, Computational Social Science, Nico Marchio, Data Scientist, Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation and University of Chicago Research Computing Center", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "poverty", "date" : "January 14, 2020" } , { "title" : "Feb 4, 2020: Chi Hack Night's First Board Election", "url" : "/blog/2020/01/14/board-elections.html", "description" : "On February 4, 2020, Chi Hack Night will hold our first ever election for our Board of Directors. There are a total of 5 seats up in this election. Three of them will be chosen by Chi Hack Night Members based on popular vote and two will be appointed by the current Board of Directors with majority Membership approval. All of the seats are 2 year terms.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 14, 2020" } , { "title" : "Transit Talk: Crowd-Sourced Issue Reporting for Public Transit", "url" : "/events/2020/01/07/transit-talk.html", "description" : "Members of the Transit Talk team will discuss how they built the platform from the ground up, relying entirely on spare-time volunteer labor. With Transit Talk now ready for primetime, they'll also discuss strategies for outreach and plans for implementation of the site in multiple cities. Transit Talk will make its public debut at Chi Hack Night, with a live demo of the fully functioning app being given for the very first time.", "speakers" : "Megan Krout - Outreach Team Leader, Scott Rubin - Design Team Leader, Soren Spicknall - Project Leader", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transit", "date" : "January 7, 2020" } , { "title" : "It's the Chi Hack Night Holiday Party!!", "url" : "/events/2019/12/17/chihacknight-holiday-party.html", "description" : "We've been working hard all year long and now it's time to celebrate the close of 2019 with a very special Chi Hack Night holiday party!! Come mix and mingle with your fellow data enthusiasts, policy wonks, software afficionados, and curious citizens.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "party", "date" : "December 17, 2019" } , { "title" : "Bridging the Gap: Changing Power Dynamics in Community Partnerships", "url" : "/events/2019/12/10/thrive-chicago.html", "description" : "Thrive Chicago creates collaborative networks of people and data that accelerate innovation for Chicago’s youth. Drawing on its experience providing capacity building support and technical assistance to a variety of youth serving community-based organizations and city agencies, the Thrive Data Team will share characteristics of high quality working partnerships as well as emergent best practices for scoping work, designing/refining, and co-creating compelling and useful tools and products.", "speakers" : "Denali Dasgupta (Director of Data Strategies), Jessica Dargiel (Data & Learning Associate), David Krosin (Data Analyst)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "December 10, 2019" } , { "title" : "Residential Electricity Usage: Who, Where, and How?", "url" : "/events/2019/12/03/citizens-utility-board.html", "description" : "With the rollout of advanced metering infrastructure nearly complete, millions of smart meters across Illinois are transmitting electricity usage data back to utilities in near real time. Since 2017, CUB has been using this data to look at who is winning and losing economically from existing electric rate design.", "speakers" : "Jeff Zethmayr, Director of Research, Ramandeep Singh Makhija, Data Scientist", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "energy", "date" : "December 3, 2019" } , { "title" : "IN2IT Chicago: Creating a Platform for Civic Engagement", "url" : "/events/2019/11/19/in2it.html", "description" : "Almost two years have passed since a group of Chi Hack Night attendees began volunteering every Tuesday night to work on a project to make it easier for people to get involved in their local communities. In this presentation, IN2IT will trace their journey to creating a unique platform for civic engagement.", "speakers" : "Cameron Sow, Project Lead, Austin Schey, Lead Back-End Developer, Wes Thorburn, Lead Front-End Developer, Deanna Franklin, Lead Designer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "civic, engagement", "date" : "November 19, 2019" } , { "title" : "Civic Diplomacy through Tech Innovation and Entrepreneurship", "url" : "/events/2019/11/12/Kyla-Williams.html", "description" : "The Professional Fellows Program (PFP) brings emerging tech innovation, entrepreneurship, and education leaders to Chicago for short-term professional development fellowships. Presenter Kyla Williams will introduce us to World Chicago and it's Programs, highlight the Professional fellows program, and introduce us to this year's cohort who will share their ideas and action plans.", "speakers" : "Kyla Williams and the Fall 2019 Professional Fellows Cohort", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "international", "date" : "November 12, 2019" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2019/11/05/open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "November 5, 2019" } , { "title" : "Exploring the new $45 billion state infrastructure package", "url" : "/events/2019/10/29/cmap.html", "description" : "In June and July 2019, the State of Illinois enacted a $45 billion package of legislation to fund transportation, water infrastructure, natural resources, open space, school construction, affordable housing, and other projects. To catalogue the types of projects and programs funded as part of the package, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) converted the legislation into a data table that can be explored and summarized in Excel and other statistical programs.", "speakers" : "Stephanie Levine, Policy Analyst at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "urban, planning", "date" : "October 29, 2019" } , { "title" : "Building city technology for police accountability in the City of Austin", "url" : "/events/2019/10/22/ODD-OPO-Austin.html", "description" : "The City of Austin now has an online form for submitting anonymous feedback on police conduct. Eric Sherman, , Full Stack Developer at the City of Austin's Office of Design and Delivery, will talk about what it took to get there, and what that can mean for police accountability in other cities.", "speakers" : "Eric Sherman, Full Stack Developer at the City of Austin's Office of Design and Delivery", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "October 22, 2019" } , { "title" : "Block Club Chicago: Building A Nonprofit Newsroom", "url" : "/events/2019/10/15/block-club-chicago.html", "description" : "Block Club Chicago Editor-In-Chief and Co-founder Shamus Toomey will talk about creating a nonprofit neighborhood newsroom from the ashes of DNAinfo, the now-defunct for-profit newsroom.", "speakers" : "Shamus Toomey, Editor-In-Chief and Co-founder", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "October 15, 2019" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2019/10/08/open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 8, 2019" } , { "title" : "Open Hack (Presentation Cancelled)", "url" : "/events/2019/10/01/ehi-aimiuwu.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 1, 2019" } , { "title" : "UIC Civic Analytics and the Evolving Landscape of Public Data Science Education", "url" : "/events/2019/09/24/stephen-kleinschmit.html", "description" : "A new model for public sector data science education, the MSCA is the first graduate degree to combine civic technology and data analytics into one curriculum. Its development was directly influenced by members of Chicago’s civic tech and public data communities, including Chihacknight, and will help serve as a model for the development of the field's data science competencies, thanks to a recent initiative by NASPAA.", "speakers" : "Stephen Kleinschmit, Ph.D. Director, Master of Science in Civic Analytics University of Illinois at Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "September 24, 2019" } , { "title" : "Zooniverse: Unlocking Data through People-Powered Research", "url" : "/events/2019/09/17/laura-trouille-zooniverse.html", "description" : "The Zooniverse is the world’s largest platform for online citizen science, engaging more than 1.7 million volunteers around the world (including 18,000 Chicagoans) in over 100 projects across the disciplines, from identifying animals in images from the Serengeti to discovering planets around distant stars to transcribing African American Civil War soldiers’ service records to tracking resistance to antibiotics.", "speakers" : "Dr. Laura Trouille, Vice President of Citizen Science at the Adler Planetarium", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "science", "date" : "September 17, 2019" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2019/09/10/open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "September 10, 2019" } , { "title" : "Dick Simpson: UIC Politics Professor and Former Alderman", "url" : "/events/2019/09/03/dick-simpson.html", "description" : "Dick W. Simpson has uniquely combined a distinguished academic career with public service in government. Professor Simpson will discuss his recent work pushing for ethics reforms and greater accessibility and accountability from Chicago’s City Council and the Chicago City Clerk, specifically on publishing usable data on divided roll call votes by Aldermen.", "speakers" : "UIC Professor Dick Simpson, UIC Ph.D. Student, Marco Rosaire Rossi", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "politics", "date" : "September 3, 2019" } , { "title" : "Juvenile Protective Association", "url" : "/events/2019/08/27/juvenile-protective-association.html", "description" : "Juvenile Protective Association (JPA) has amassed a wealth of data on services provided and clients seen. It has innovated a unique form to track children’s behavioral progress as rated by teachers, and collects additional information including clinical data, demographics, attendance in therapy, and trauma history. JPA welcomes ideas on how to streamline the linking of this data, its analysis, and its reporting in order to better tell the story of those we serve.", "speakers" : "Karen G. Foley, President & CEO, Akadia Kacha-Ochana, Research and Quality Improvement Specialist", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "safety, and, justice", "date" : "August 27, 2019" } , { "title" : "Using Data to Protect Voting Rights in 2020", "url" : "/events/2019/08/20/voting-rights-and-civic-empowerment.html", "description" : "Ami Gandhi, an attorney and the Director of Voting Rights and Civic Empowerment at Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, will present on the work she does in statewide voter protection, partnering with community members in the criminal justice system to expand voter access and advocating for communities of color during Illinois redistricting.", "speakers" : "Ami Gandhi, Director of Voting Rights and Civic Empowerment, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "elections", "date" : "August 20, 2019" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2019/08/13/open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 13, 2019" } , { "title" : "Envisioning Equity: Being Nice Is Not Enough", "url" : "/events/2019/08/06/envisioning-equity.html", "description" : "There's a whole lot of talk in the news about people saying 'I don't have a racist bone in my body!' Nice people are convinced they couldn't possibly be racist. But is that what it's really about? Racial equity consultants Heidi Massey and Prerna Abbi-Scanlon will provide a context for how organizations can effectively address racism in their organization, and how to do so through an intersectional lens.", "speakers" : "Heidi Massey, Co-Creator, Envisioning Equity and Founder, CommunityConnective, Prerna Abbi-Scanlon, Partner, Envisioning Equity and Co-Founder, Moxie Consultancy Collective", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity", "date" : "August 6, 2019" } , { "title" : "Illinois Legal Aid Online", "url" : "/events/2019/07/30/illinois-legal-aid-online.html", "description" : "Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO) is a nonprofit organization that uses innovation to lower barriers to the law so that people can understand their legal options, make informed decisions and represent themselves in court when they cannot afford a lawyer. ILAO puts the law within reach for all Illinois residents by simplifying our complex legal system and connecting people to legal information and assistance on ILAO’s website, IllinoisLegalAid.org.", "speakers" : "Amy Clark, Community Engagement Manager, Gwen Daniels, Director of Product Development", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "nonprofit", "date" : "July 30, 2019" } , { "title" : "Breakout Group Demo Night!", "url" : "/events/2019/07/23/open-hack-and-demo-night.html", "description" : "This week will be a Breakout Group Demo Night. This is an opportunity for hack nighters and breakout groups to show off projects in progress – to attract potential new members, and inspire people to give the feedback you've been looking for. Demos are short, and don't have formal presentations or slideshows. Come see what your compatriots are working on!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "July 23, 2019" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2019/07/16/open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "July 16, 2019" } , { "title" : "Using Urban Forestry Data to Improve Health and Quality of Life in the Chicago Region", "url" : "/events/2019/07/09/chicago-region-trees-initiative.html", "description" : "Results from an extensive tree census conducted in the seven-county Chicago metropolitan region found that urban forests are in a state of transition with the recent loss of 13 million trees to emerald ash borer. Further, 28% of the overall forest is comprised of an exotic invasive species. This transition has significant impacts on the 8.5 million people who rely on the benefits these trees provide (US 2010 Census). The Chicago Region Trees Initiative (CRTI), founded by The Morton Arboretum, was organized to reverse this outlook and leverage collaborative efforts for a holistic approach to improve the urban forest and quality of life for Chicago region residents.", "speakers" : "Lydia Scott, Director, Chicago Region Trees Initiative, The Morton Arboretum", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "July 9, 2019" } , { "title" : "Protecting Queer Communities Through Data", "url" : "/events/2019/06/25/soren-spicknall.html", "description" : "To create safe, empowering tech experiences for LGBT+ users, digital fields need to do much more than improve workplace culture and include new gender options in dropdown menus. During this Chi Hack Night, data scientist Soren Spicknall will discuss how industry-wide data practices lead to an undercount of queer individuals, and how the prospect of remedying this undercount could pose major dangers of its own. Queer lives can be deeply harmed by careless data treatment, and Soren will discuss those harms and the many options available to prevent them.", "speakers" : "Soren Spicknall - Data Scientist at AskWhai", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity, data", "date" : "June 25, 2019" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2019/06/18/open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 18, 2019" } , { "title" : "Matt Topic & Josh Burday - Using and Enforcing The Freedom of Information", "url" : "/events/2019/06/11/matt-topic-foia.html", "description" : "The Freedom of Information Act is an important tool for monitoring the government and holding it accountable. Unfortunately, the statute is routinely violated by government at every level. In this presentation, two experienced FOIA litigators, Matt Topic and Josh Burday, will teach you how to use the statute effectively and explain how you can bring FOIA litigation at little or no cost. Matt and Josh have handled hundreds of FOIA cases, including the Laquan McDonald shooting video, Rahm Emanuel's 'private email,' and records about potentially fraudulent net neutrality comments to the FCC.", "speakers" : "Matt Topic, Josh Burday", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "foia", "date" : "June 11, 2019" } , { "title" : "The Chicago Board of Ethics: Our Responsibilities, and How the Public Can Help", "url" : "/events/2019/06/04/chicago-board-of-ethics.html", "description" : "With the start of the new City Council legislative session, and in light of recent corruption charges against several Chicago Aldermen, the Chicago Board of Ethics has called for new reforms to fight City Hall corruption. Join us on Tuesday to hear from Steve Berlin, the Executive Director of the Chicago Board of Ethics. He will speak about the Board’s role, responsibilities and jurisdiction, the city's ethics laws, public participation, and how the Civic Tech community can help.", "speakers" : "Steve Berlin, Executive Director, Chicago Board Ethics", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "ethics", "date" : "June 4, 2019" } , { "title" : "How TechGirlz Inspires Girls to Explore Technology", "url" : "/events/2019/05/28/techgirlz-chicago.html", "description" : "TechGirlz is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the gender gap in technology occupations, by focusing on girls at the crucial middle school age. They offer free workshops to get girls interested in different kinds of technology, show them varied career options, and connect them with professionals in technology fields.", "speakers" : "Joan Matz, TechGirlz Chicago Outreach Manager, Creating IT Futures Sr. Manager, NextUp", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "coding, equity", "date" : "May 28, 2019" } , { "title" : "Meet the New Chi Hack Night", "url" : "/events/2019/05/21/meet-the-new-chihacknight.html", "description" : "This week marks Chi Hack Night's 350th event and 7th anniversary! What started in a tiny room in 1871 as a place for people to discuss the open data movement and work with the new information that was coming from the city of Chicago has grown into one of the best-known civic tech events in the city. In 2018, Chi Hack Night community leaders and participants made the decision to incorporate as a non-profit to ensure the future of the organization and to adopt a structure that would better serve both the community of CHN and the city of Chicago.", "speakers" : "Derek Eder, Chi Hack Night, Mieko Furuhashi, Chi Hack Night, Steve Ediger, Chi Hack Night", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "May 21, 2019" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2019/05/14/open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "May 14, 2019" } , { "title" : "Preparing for Pothole-Filling Robots: Analytics, Routing, and Ethics", "url" : "/events/2019/05/07/illinois-tech-math497.html", "description" : "In 2018, the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) filled 40,225 potholes around the city. On average, CDOT completed requests 2.5 weeks after they were reported [1]. How can undergraduate teams improve Chicago’s pothole situation on a cold-start 135-hour budget for analytics and mathematical modeling? Two teams of applied math and computer science students from Illinois Tech’s Math 497 class Problem-Solving Projects in Business, Government and Industry share their progress exploring the Chicago Data Portal’s pothole data and designing placement and routing algorithms to prepare for future self-driving robotic pothole fillers.", "speakers" : "Jelena Mihajlovic-Klaric, Erik Quintanilla, Vinesh Kannan, Illinois Tech undergraduates, David Eads, News Applications Developer, ProPublica", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "data", "date" : "May 7, 2019" } , { "title" : "IL Count Me In 2020: Making the Case for a fair and accurate Census count in Illinois", "url" : "/events/2019/04/30/forefront-census.html", "description" : "As part of Forefront’s Democracy Initiative, Forefront is mobilizing our nonprofit and foundation members alike to encourage all Illinoisans, and especially members of traditionally hard-to-count populations, to participate in the upcoming 2020 Census. Through Forefront’s Census outreach work, Forefront is advocating for a fair, accurate and coordinated Census outreach across the State, working in partnership with elected officials, Grantmakers, and nonprofit, community leaders on the importance and impact of the 2020 census.", "speakers" : "Anita Banerji, Director, Democracy Initiative, Forefront", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "census", "date" : "April 30, 2019" } , { "title" : "Technology Transformation Services and 18F", "url" : "/events/2019/04/23/18F-TTS.html", "description" : "Join us this Tuesday to hear from the local TTS/18F team about some projects (Open Forest with U.S. Forest Service, cloud.gov, and login.gov) that deliver high impact outcomes, how TTS/18F operates and collaborates with other agencies through agile, user-centered, and open development processes, and how you can get involved.", "speakers" : "Amanda Schonfeld (Talent, TTS), Andrew Suprenant (Product, 18F), Anne Petersen (Director of Design, 18F), Nick Ng (Design, 18F)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "April 23, 2019" } , { "title" : "Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi", "url" : "/events/2019/04/16/cook-county-assessor.html", "description" : "Join us on Tuesday to hear from Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi and his Chief Data Officer Rob Ross to learn about how their office is using transparency to support accountability in assessments. Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "Fritz Kaegi – Cook County Assessor, Rob Ross, Deputy Assessor, Chief Data Officer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, real estate, taxes, transparency", "date" : "April 16, 2019" } , { "title" : "Introducing the Chi Hack Night Board of Directors", "url" : "/blog/2019/04/11/introducing-the-chi-hack-night-board-of-directors.html", "description" : "We announced in November 2018 that after almost 7 years and 300 events, Chi Hack Night was forming as a non-profit. Since then, we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes forming our new organization. Today, we are excited to announce a major step on that journey: our first Board of Directors!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 11, 2019" } , { "title" : "What People Want From Smart City Tech", "url" : "/events/2019/04/09/richard-beckwith.html", "description" : "Join us on Tuesday to hear from Richard Beckwith, a research psychologist with Intel, regarding his recent work conducting interviews with Chicago city residents and municipal leadership to understand how the community feels about smart city tech and what kinds of services would be desired of a Smart Community.", "speakers" : "Richard Beckwith – Research Psychologist, Intel", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "smart cities", "date" : "April 9, 2019" } , { "title" : "Election Night Potluck and Party", "url" : "/events/2019/04/02/election-night-potluck.html", "description" : "Come celebrate democracy with us this Tuesday on mayoral election night! Don't forget to RSVP by noon and bring a dish to share (bonus points if you name it with a fun political or Chicago pun!)", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "elections", "date" : "April 2, 2019" } , { "title" : "MAPSCorps: Youth-Powered Community Asset Data", "url" : "/events/2019/03/26/MAPSCorps.html", "description" : "MAPSCorps is a non-profit data and youth employment organization on Chicago’s South Side. Join us this Tuesday to learn more about how it operates, the data it produces, and ways you and your organization can get involved. Stay after the talk to analyze a sample of the data to search for patterns within and across neighborhoods.", "speakers" : "Janaya Crevier – Data Analyst, MAPSCorps", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "data", "date" : "March 26, 2019" } , { "title" : "Lorena Mesa: Using Data Ethically", "url" : "/events/2019/03/19/lorena-mesa.html", "description" : "Join us on Tuesday to hear from Lorena Mesa on the ethical questions and quandaries that she has grappled with during her career working with data in several different organizations and the principles that guide her work.", "speakers" : "Lorena Mesa, data engineer on GitHub's software intelligence systems team, Director on the Python Software Foundation, and PyLadies Chicago co-organizer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "ethics, coding", "date" : "March 19, 2019" } , { "title" : "Chicago Health Atlas: Open Data for Better Health", "url" : "/events/2019/03/12/chicago-health-atlas.html", "description" : "The Chicago Health Atlas is a community-facing repository of city-wide and community-level health data, compiled by the Chicago Department of Public Health and other health data partners. Join us this Tuesday to hear from Leslie Durr, Project Manager at City Tech Collaborative, Kingsley Weaver, an epidemiologist at the Chicago Department of Public Health, and Katy Franzen, Project Manager for Clarity Partners to learn about the evolution of the Atlas, how it can be used, and how you can get involved.", "speakers" : "Leslie Durr, Project Manager, City Tech Collaborative, Kingsley Weaver, Epidemiologist, Chicago Department of Public Health, Katy Franzen, Project Manager, Clarity Partners", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "public health", "date" : "March 12, 2019" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2019/03/05/open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 5, 2019" } , { "title" : "The Array of Opportunity —  Steven C. Philpott, Sr.", "url" : "/events/2019/02/26/steven-philpott.html", "description" : "Join us this Tuesday to hear from Steven Philpott, Sr. Managing Director of Colony 5, on his work on the Array of Opportunity, a pilot collaboration between the research community and innovators to develop prototypes for social impact and commercial implications in a concentrated geolocation.", "speakers" : "Steven C. Philpott, Sr., Sr. Managing Director of Colony 5", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "Colony 5", "date" : "February 26, 2019" } , { "title" : "Maudlyne Ihejirika, Chicago Sun Times Urban Affairs Reporter and Columnist", "url" : "/events/2019/02/19/maudlyne-ihejirika.html", "description" : "Join us this Tuesday to hear from Maudlyne Ihejirika, award-winning Chicago Sun Times Urban Affairs reporter and columnist as she shares about her experience working in the journalism field in Chicago over the last 30 years.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "February 19, 2019" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2019/02/12/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "February 12, 2019" } , { "title" : "The 2019 Chi Hack Night Black History Month Speaker Series", "url" : "/blog/2019/02/07/black-history-month-speaker-series.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Night is proud to present our second annual Black History Month Speaker Series. This year’s speaker series will consist of 3 Chi Hack Night presentations on Tuesday nights in February and a partnership event with the Chicago Chapter of The National Association of Black Journalists.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 7, 2019" } , { "title" : "Launching Documenters.org", "url" : "/events/2019/02/05/documenters-dot-org.html", "description" : "Join Chi Hack Night on Tuesday to learn about documenters.org, a project from City Bureau that empowers citizens to learn about and attend local government public meetings, and share information with journalists.", "speakers" : "Darryl Holliday, City Bureau News Lab Director, Pat Sier, City Bureau Web Developer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "February 5, 2019" } , { "title" : "CANCELLED: Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2019/01/29/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "To prevent people from traveling in unsafe weather, we are cancelling Chi Hack Night this week. Please stay warm!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "January 29, 2019" } , { "title" : "Racial Disparities in Illinois Traffic Stops", "url" : "/events/2019/01/22/racial-disparities-IL-traffic-stops.html", "description" : "Since 2004, the Illinois Traffic and Pedestrian Stop Statistical Study Act has required Illinois law enforcement to document and report traffic stops to the Illinois Department of Transportation. Mollie Pettit, Chris Kucharczyk and Rachel Murphy (ACLU) will discuss the history of the law that requires the traffic stops data collection and present on IllinoisTrafficStops.com, a website created to showcase the results of the analysis in a visual and explorable way.", "speakers" : "Rachel Murphy, staff attorney, ACLU-IL, Mollie Pettit, data visualization / data science freelancer, Chris Kucharczyk, data scientist, IDEO", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice", "date" : "January 22, 2019" } , { "title" : "Tech Month Chicago - A Technology Awareness Month for the City of Chicago", "url" : "/events/2019/01/15/tech-month-chicago.html", "description" : "Tech Month Chicago is a month of technology awareness for the Chicagoland area that showcases the depth and diversity of local tech culture through community events in technology, engineering, math, and science. This Tuesday, Melanie Adcock, founder of Tech Month Chicago, will discuss the first three years of learning, development, successes, and failures of this maturing civic concept, which is now in its fourth year.", "speakers" : "Melanie Adcock, founder of Tech Month Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "media", "date" : "January 15, 2019" } , { "title" : "Vote Equity Project - creating a Chicago for all", "url" : "/events/2019/01/08/vote-equity-project.html", "description" : "Kacie Smith and Paola Aguirre, Chicago United for Equity 2019 Fellows, talk about the Vote Equity Project - a campaign linking the work of over 100 organizations working in different fronts of action related to racial equity - they call it a Chicago for All.", "speakers" : "Kacie Smith, Co-Founder State Matters and 2019 CUE Fellow, Paola Aguirre, Founder of Borderless Studio and 2019 CUE Fellow.", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity", "date" : "January 8, 2019" } , { "title" : "Steve Luker", "url" : "/board-of-directors/steve-luker.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 1, 2019" } , { "title" : "Steve Ediger", "url" : "/board-of-directors/steve-ediger.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 1, 2019" } , { "title" : "Monique Wingard", "url" : "/board-of-directors/monique-wingard.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 1, 2019" } , { "title" : "Mieko Furuhashi", "url" : "/board-of-directors/mieko-furuhashi.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 1, 2019" } , { "title" : "Kulsum_ameji", "url" : "/board-of-directors/kulsum-ameji.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 1, 2019" } , { "title" : "Katie Oshea", "url" : "/board-of-directors/katie-oshea.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 1, 2019" } , { "title" : "Josh Kalov", "url" : "/board-of-directors/josh-kalov.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 1, 2019" } , { "title" : "Emily Drevets", "url" : "/board-of-directors/emily-drevets.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 1, 2019" } , { "title" : "Derek_eder", "url" : "/board-of-directors/derek-eder.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Board", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 1, 2019" } , { "title" : "FOIA for Christmas!", "url" : "/satellite/2018/12/19/matt-chapman.html", "description" : "Wondering what to get for your loved one who has everything this holiday season? How about some government data!? Matt Chapman, Executive Director of Free Our Info, will show us how to submit FOIA requests for requesting information from our local, state, and federal governments.", "speakers" : "Matt Chapman, Executive Director of Free Our Info", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite, technology, education, government", "date" : "December 19, 2018" } , { "title" : "It's the Chi Hack Night Holiday Party!!", "url" : "/events/2018/12/18/chihacknight-holiday-party.html", "description" : "Come join us for some fun this Tuesday! Wear something festive, bring some cookies for the cookie competition, enter for a chance to win a Chi Hack Night stein, join a data task force to help save the holidays, and don’t forget to RSVP (it’s required)!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "party", "date" : "December 18, 2018" } , { "title" : "We're Becoming a Non-Profit!", "url" : "/events/2018/12/11/becoming-a-non-profit.html", "description" : "Later this month, Chi Hack Night will incorporate as an independent, membership-driven 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Join us on Tuesday to learn more about this milestone and how it will impact members of the community as well as what it means for the future of ChiHackNight. Don’t forget to RSVP (it’s required)!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "December 11, 2018" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2018/12/04/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "December 4, 2018" } , { "title" : "Illinois’ Most Comprehensive Database of Public Salaries", "url" : "/events/2018/11/27/better-government-association.html", "description" : "Join us on Tuesday to hear from the Better Government Association, which compiles Illinois’ most comprehensive government salary database, on the work they’ve done to improve the database’s functionality and provide greater context and more powerful searching for users. Don’t forget to register by noon on Tuesday the 27th!", "speakers" : "John Chase, Better Government Association, Jared Rutecki, Better Government Association, Hannah Cushman, DataMade", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "November 27, 2018" } , { "title" : "There Are No Snacks in Antarctica!", "url" : "/satellite/2018/11/21/peg-keiner.html", "description" : "As an educator and innovator, Peg Keiner took part in a research expedition to Antarctica with National Geographic and was able to share her journey to Antarctica with her sudents, inspiring them to take similar approaches to investigate everday actions and their effects in Chicago. ", "speakers" : "Peg Keiner, Director of Innovation at GEMS World Academy - Chicago", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite, technology, education", "date" : "November 21, 2018" } , { "title" : "The Folded Map Project", "url" : "/events/2018/11/13/tonika-johnson-folded-map.html", "description" : "Join us on Tuesday to hear from Tonika Johnson of the Folded Map Project, a visual investigation of Chicago’s communities that uses Chicago's grid map system to identify mirroring points of the city and directly compare photographs and videos of North and South Side blocks. Don't forget to RSVP by 12 pm!", "speakers" : "Tonika Johnson, Folded Map Project", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 13, 2018" } , { "title" : "Nourish (comm)Unity: Community Tech", "url" : "/satellite/2018/11/10/Community-Tech.html", "description" : "Learn how to access public data, partner with organizations who use the data to make websites/apps, and speak to a local expert about your technology needs!", "speakers" : "Accelrate 77, The Kola Nut Collaborative", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite, technology, community", "date" : "November 10, 2018" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night is incorporating as a non-profit!", "url" : "/blog/2018/11/09/incorporating-as-a-non-profit.html", "description" : "In December 2018, Chi Hack Night will incorporate as an independent, membership-driven 501(c)3 non-profit organization. We will invite attendees to become voting members and elect who will serve on our Board of Directors. And on December 11th, we will hold a town hall feedback session about these changes at Chi Hack Night.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 9, 2018" } , { "title" : "Election Night Potluck and Party", "url" : "/events/2018/11/06/election-night-party-2018.html", "description" : "Come celebrate democracy with us this Tuesday at the Chi Hack Night 2018 watch party! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on 11/6 and bring a dish to share (bonus points if you name it with a fun political pun!)", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "elections", "date" : "November 6, 2018" } , { "title" : "Using Data to Help End Homelessness", "url" : "/events/2018/10/30/salvador-mu%C3%B1oz-all-chicago.html", "description" : "Join us on Tuesday to hear from Sal Muñoz, System Implementation Manager with All Chicago, who will help clarify what homelessness is, and provide insight into how Chicago is using data to create systems and methods for connecting neighbors in crisis with the support they need. Remember to RSVP by noon next Tuesday!", "speakers" : "Sal Muñoz, System Implementation Manager with All Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "homelessness", "date" : "October 30, 2018" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2018/10/23/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech! Don't forget to RSVP by noon on Tuesday!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 23, 2018" } , { "title" : "Lets throw a Ballot Party!", "url" : "/satellite/2018/10/17/logan-hack-night-9.html", "description" : "Ballot Parties are a place for you, your friends, and your neighbors to come together and learn about the issues facing your communities and the candidates that are up for election.", "speakers" : "Kacie Smith, Executive Director for State Matters", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite, election, education, politics", "date" : "October 17, 2018" } , { "title" : "Bike Lane Uprising - One Year of Data Insights", "url" : "/events/2018/10/16/christina-whitehouse-bike-lane-uprising.html", "description" : "Join us this Tuesday to hear from Christina Whitehouse, founder of Bike Lane Uprising, a platform that makes it easy to report cars in bike lanes and hold violators accountable. She will be presenting on the insights that she's discovered over the past year since she founded BLU and talk a little about what is next for the organization. Don't forget to RSVP by noon on the 16th!", "speakers" : "Christina Whitehouse, Founder of Bike Lane Uprising", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 16, 2018" } , { "title" : "CANCELLED PRESENTATION: Census Datasets and Tools: Measuring America's People and Economy", "url" : "/events/2018/10/09/censusbureau.html", "description" : "This presentation has been cancelled due to a family medical emergency. This event will be an Open Hack Session instead. Come build, share, and learn about civic tech with us!", "speakers" : "David Schuler, Data Dissemination Specialist, US Commerce Department, Bureau of Census", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "October 9, 2018" } , { "title" : "CityKey: The Chicago Municipal ID", "url" : "/events/2018/10/02/citykey.html", "description" : "The CityKey is Chicago’s first ever Municipal ID program that combines a government-issued ID, transit pass, library card and pharmaceutical benefits all in one. City Clerk Anna Valencia, Chief of Policy Tonantzin Carmona and, former Chief Data Officer Tom Schenk will talk about launching this innovative government initiative.", "speakers" : "Anna M. Valencia, City Clerk of Chicago, Tonantzin Carmona, Chief of Policy, City Clerk of Chicago, Tom Schenk, Director of Analytics, KPMG", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "October 2, 2018" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2018/09/25/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "September 25, 2018" } , { "title" : "How to wield your power with care! (LSQHN#8)", "url" : "/satellite/2018/09/19/logan-hack-night-8.html", "description" : "During this intimate conversation, George Aye of Greater Good Studio will help us understand the mechanics of power and how to wield it with care.", "speakers" : "George Aye, Co-Founder and Director of Innovation, Great Good Studio", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite, design, education, politics", "date" : "September 19, 2018" } , { "title" : "Kyla Williams, The Shuri Project", "url" : "/events/2018/09/18/kyla-williams.html", "description" : "In this talk, Kyla Williams, the President and CEO of the Henry Williams Love Foundation, will outline some early findings from the Summer 2018 session of The Shuri Project, a tech mentoring program for girls in the Roseland community area. She will also outline next steps for the program and talk about advocacy for representation in the implementation of STEM programs using the Shuri Project's mentoring model.", "speakers" : "Kyla Williams, President and CEO Henry Williams Love Foundation", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "diversity", "date" : "September 18, 2018" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2018/09/11/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "September 11, 2018" } , { "title" : "Center on Halsted", "url" : "/events/2018/09/04/center-on-halsted.html", "description" : "Kim Fountain, Chief Operating Officer of Center on Halsted, and Gayle Thompson, its Community Technology Center Manager, will talk about the challenges of bridging the gap of social issues-based nonprofits using data and technology to solve problems. They will also have a conversation around what kind of opportunities exist in collaborating with Chi Hack Night.", "speakers" : "Kim Fountain, Center on Halsted", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "LGBTQ, non-profits", "date" : "September 4, 2018" } , { "title" : "Parking Tickets and Bankruptcy", "url" : "/events/2018/08/28/propublica-parking-tickets.html", "description" : "ProPublica Illinois has been reporting all year on how unpaid parking tickets have pushed tens of thousands of mostly black motorists into bankruptcy. It’s something that, by all accounts, is happening nowhere else in the country. In this talk, Melissa Sanchez and David Eads of ProPublica Illinois will talk about the reporting and getting the data, including how they obtained an exemption to access federal bankruptcy court records and scrape information on tens of thousands of consumer bankruptcies.", "speakers" : "Melissa Sanchez, ProPublica Illinois reporter, David Eads, ProPublica Illinois news apps developer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, parking tickets", "date" : "August 28, 2018" } , { "title" : "The opportunity of civic tech", "url" : "/events/2018/08/21/derek-eder.html", "description" : "It is said that Chicago has one of the strongest and most vibrant civic technology communities in the world, but what even is civic tech? What are the opportunities in the civic tech space and what has changed over the past few years that make these opportunities possible? Derek Eder, Founder of Chi Hack Night and DataMade, will answer these questions (and more!).", "speakers" : "Derek Eder, Founder of Chi Hack Night and DataMade", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "design", "date" : "August 21, 2018" } , { "title" : "Give art a chance! (LSQHN#7)", "url" : "/satellite/2018/08/15/logan-hack-night-7.html", "description" : "An invitation for people raised in the formal world of math and programming to interact with artists.", "speakers" : "Eric Dolores-Cuenca, Postdoctoral research associate", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite, art, education, math", "date" : "August 15, 2018" } , { "title" : "City of Chicago's First Design Director", "url" : "/events/2018/08/14/jason-kunesh.html", "description" : "If you're a Chicagoan, Jason Kunesh is your design director. What does that even mean? He's working to introduce product & service design disciplines and techniques to make sure the city is accessible, inclusive, and strategic when it launches tech products.", "speakers" : "Jason Kunesh, City of Chicago Design Director", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "design", "date" : "August 14, 2018" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2018/08/07/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 7, 2018" } , { "title" : "Tom Schenk Jr., Former Chief Data Officer, City of Chicago", "url" : "/events/2018/07/31/tom-schenk-jr.html", "description" : "Last month, Chicago’s second Chief Data Officer, Tom Schenk Jr., left after serving 5 1/2 years. Tom will share the stories from the past 5 years to celebrate the accomplishments and share where there is still opportunity for improvement in the future. He will go beyond the projects themselves and explore the underlying motivations and philosophy that drove Chicago’s data team.", "speakers" : "Tom Schenk Jr., Former Chief Data Officer, City of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "July 31, 2018" } , { "title" : "Public-Powered Journalism - Flipping the Newsroom", "url" : "/events/2018/07/24/jennifer-brandel.html", "description" : "Jennifer Brandel, CEO & Co-founder of Hearken and Co-founder of WBEZ’s Curious City, will overview public-powered journalism and detail the promises and pitfalls inherent in trying to shift longstanding institutions from the inside out.", "speakers" : "Jennifer Brandel, CEO & Co-founder of Hearken, Co-founder of WBEZ's Curious City", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "July 24, 2018" } , { "title" : "Supporting Child Care Services in the Digital Age (LSQHN#5)", "url" : "/satellite/2018/07/18/logan-hack-night-6.html", "description" : "Pie for Providers supports child care businesses by streamlining government facing administration, and will be talking about the current landscape in this industry and its relationship with government regulation.", "speakers" : "Hannah Meyer, COO", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite, children, education, government", "date" : "July 18, 2018" } , { "title" : "Taking an Assets-based Approach to Designing Technology with Resource-Constrained Communities", "url" : "/events/2018/07/17/sheena-erete.html", "description" : "Sheena Erete, Assistant Professor in the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University will discuss how she designs with residents in resourced- constrained communities by focusing on their assets, specifically the human, environmental, social, and economic capital that can be leveraged in design. In her talk, she will discuss how we can identify and leverage local assets in resourced-constrained communities when designing technologies, practices, and policies.", "speakers" : "Sheena Erete, Assistant Professor in the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity, community investment", "date" : "July 17, 2018" } , { "title" : "Growing a Collaborative Civic Innovation Ecosystem in Chattanooga", "url" : "/events/2018/07/10/chattanooga.html", "description" : "Andrew Rodgers, Director of Research and Applications Development at The Enterprise Center in Chattanooga TN, will share how a small community brought together existing legacy organizations in an open, collaborative way to capitalize on the initial infrastructure investment, and expand it into a thriving civic innovation ecosystem that is driving cutting edge research outcomes in a unique way.", "speakers" : "Andrew Rodgers, Director of Research and Applications Development at The Enterprise Center", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "broadband", "date" : "July 10, 2018" } , { "title" : "Urban Commons: Hacking the City For All", "url" : "/events/2018/06/26/shareable.html", "description" : "Tom Llewellyn, Strategic Partnerships Director at Shareable.net and Chi Hack Night’s very own facilitator and commoner, Steve Ediger, will discuss Shareable’s new book “Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons”, explore the commons and (true) sharing economy, and discuss how we can make a more equitable, sustainable and people-driven Chicago.", "speakers" : "Tom Llewellyn, Strategic Partnerships Director, Shareable.net, Steve Ediger, Steve Ediger Associates, LLC, Facilitator and Commoner", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "commons", "date" : "June 26, 2018" } , { "title" : "You Matter, State Matters", "url" : "/satellite/2018/06/21/logan-hack-night-5.html", "description" : "Kacie Smith and others from State Matters will lead a discussion about the importance and effect of state politics and how to raise awareness of how local issues are represented on our ballot. ", "speakers" : "Kacie Smith", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite, education, state politics, elections", "date" : "June 21, 2018" } , { "title" : "Designing Health and Social Impact Games for Chicago’s Youth", "url" : "/events/2018/06/19/ashlyn-sparrow.html", "description" : "Ashlyn Sparrow, Game Designer and Director of Ci3’s Game Changer Chicago Design Lab (GCC), will give a demo of Bystander and discuss the importance of integrating a youth-friendly storyline and visual design in each player scenario that touches upon critical sexual assault topics. A seasoned game designer, Ashlyn will also share why GCC is exploring health and social issues through video and analog games.", "speakers" : "Ashlyn Sparrow, Game Designer and Director of Game Changer Chicago Design Lab at University of Chicago’s Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Innovation in Sexual and Reproductive Health (Ci3)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "public health", "date" : "June 19, 2018" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2018/06/12/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 12, 2018" } , { "title" : "Lead Safe: Predictive Analytics to Prevent Lead Poisoning in Children", "url" : "/events/2018/06/05/lead-safe.html", "description" : "Beginning 2014, Data Science for Social Good, Chicago Department of Public Health, and Department of Innovation and Technology partnered to find the homes that are most likely to still contain lead-based paint hazards. The result is The Lead Safe Project - a free, API-based analytics service for Chicago-based hospitals to receive alerts if young children are likely being exposed to elevated lead levels.", "speakers" : "Allison Arwady, Chief Medical Officer, Chicago Department of Public Health, Raed Mansour, Director of Innovation, Chicago Department of Public Health, Tom Schenk, Chief Data Officer, Chicago Department of Innovation and Technology, Avishek Kumar, Data Scientist, University of Chicago's Center for Data Science and Public Policy, Nita Mohanty, Chief Research Officer, Alliance of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "public health", "date" : "June 5, 2018" } , { "title" : "Re(turn): Civic Tech, ReEntry, and Collaboration", "url" : "/events/2018/05/29/access-to-justice.html", "description" : "Through a process of learning, listening, and looking for partnership opportunities, our Chi Hack Night group “Access to Justice” teamed up with the Education Justice Project (EJP) which releases an annual comprehensive “reentry guide” to aid reentering citizens. Eric van Zanten and Joseph Smalzer will walk us through their process in researching, designing and building the app and share what they learned along the way.", "speakers" : "Eric van Zanten, Developer at DataMade, Joseph Smalzer, Account Executive at Dell/volunteer at the Chicago juvenile detention center", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice", "date" : "May 29, 2018" } , { "title" : "Data-driven criminalization: The case of Chicago's gang database", "url" : "/events/2018/05/22/janae-bonsu.html", "description" : "In February 2018, the Policing in Chicago Research Group at the University of Illinois Chicago released Tracked and Targeted, a comprehensive report detailing preliminary findings about Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) gang database. Researcher-organizer and the report’s lead author, Janae Bonsu will present what we know about the database, its impact, and the work behind the campaign to put an end to it.", "speakers" : "Janae Bonsu, PhD candidate and organizer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice", "date" : "May 22, 2018" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night on WTTW Chicago Tonight", "url" : "/blog/2018/05/18/wttw-chicago-tonight.html", "description" : "On May 16, 2018 WTTW Chicago Tonight featured Chi Hack Night on their program. The segment covered our 300th event and included interviews with a cross-section of our community.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 18, 2018" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2018/05/15/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "May 15, 2018" } , { "title" : "The 2018 Hackies Winners", "url" : "/blog/2018/05/11/the-2018-hackies-winners.html", "description" : "On May 8th, 2018 we celebrated the 300th episode of Chi Hack Night! In honor of this momentous milestone, we recognized the many people, projects, partners, and presentations that make our community great. The evening included the awarding of “the Hackies”, our new civic tech version of the Oscars! 13 Hackies were awarded by popular vote.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 11, 2018" } , { "title" : "The Hackies", "url" : "/events/2018/05/08/the-hackies.html", "description" : "Join us for the 300th episode of Chi Hack Night! In honor of this momentous milestone, we’ll be recognizing a few of the many people, projects, partners, and presentations that make our community great. The evening will include the awarding of “the Hackies”, our new civic tech version of the Oscars!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "May 8, 2018" } , { "title" : "The Justice Media Project", "url" : "/events/2018/05/01/the-justice-media-project.html", "description" : "In 2011 the Chicago Justice Project created the Justice Media Project to create the architecture to collect and analyze media coverage of crime and violence in Chicago. The initiative was brought to Chi Hack Night as the Quantifying Justice News breakout group. Tracy Siska, Executive Director of the Chicago Justice Project, Kevin Rose, Matt Meshulam, Josh Herzberg and Michael Chladek will present the work they have done to date and how they did it.", "speakers" : "Tracy Siska, Chicago Justice Project, Kevin Rose, Matt Meshulam, Josh Herzberg, Michael Chladek", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "breakout, criminal justice", "date" : "May 1, 2018" } , { "title" : "Quantify Justice News", "url" : "/projects/2018/05/01/justice-media-project.html", "description" : "The Justice Media Project collects media reporting in Chicago on crime, violence and justice issues through scraping of the websites of the Chicago media. The team used algorithms to categorize the type of crime covered in each news article as well as extract geo-location data and tag each article with a location.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Projects", "tags" : "Issue advocacy", "date" : "May 1, 2018" } , { "title" : "Daniel Kay Hertz, The Battle of Lincoln Park", "url" : "/satellite/2018/04/26/logan-hack-night-4.html", "description" : "Daniel Kay Hertz leads a dialogue around the issues raised in his upcoming book The Battle of Lincoln Park: Urban Renewal and Gentrification in Chicago.Attendees will have a chance to give feedback to Hertz’s book before he submits the final manuscript as well as learn how to use archival resources to better understand the history of community conflict and how they can be applied to today’s gentrifying areas.", "speakers" : "Daniel Kay Hertz", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite, education, gentrification", "date" : "April 26, 2018" } , { "title" : "Community Feedback Session", "url" : "/events/2018/04/24/community-feedback-session.html", "description" : "Please join us for a facilitated group discussion to reflect on what we’ve done at Chi Hack Night in the last 18 months, share what’s important to us now, and come up with some ideas for taking action.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "April 24, 2018" } , { "title" : "Judy Hertz, Midwest Academy", "url" : "/events/2018/04/17/judy-hertz-midwest-academy.html", "description" : "Much of what we do at Chi Hack Night can be described as organizing. Though technology and data are the focus, every breakout group has to identify a problem they want to address, research it, come up with a plan of action, and execute it. This week, we welcome Judy Hertz, Executive Director of Midwest Academy.", "speakers" : "Judy Hertz, Executive Director, Midwest Academy", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "organizing", "date" : "April 17, 2018" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2018/04/10/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 10, 2018" } , { "title" : "Civic Tech and Data Journalism: Better Together", "url" : "/blog/2018/04/10/civic-tech-and-data-journalism-better-together.html", "description" : "On March 10, 2018, a cadre of journalists, civic tech folks, and other interested people gathered in a room at the Marriott Magnificent Mile to discuss the relationship of civic tech and data journalism. Derek Eder and I were to facilitate the discussion at this session, which was called “Civic Tech and Data Journalism: Better Together.” We didn’t include a period on the end of the title, but for us it was implied – it was a statement of fact. However, we soon found, just minutes into the discussion, that, for many in the group, the title should have ended in a question mark.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 10, 2018" } , { "title" : "Building an app for the immigrant community (at Chi Hack Night!)", "url" : "/events/2018/04/03/icirr-app.html", "description" : "In January 2017, The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) asked Chi Hack Night’s Deportation/Immigration/Refugee Task Force breakout group about building an app to help the immigrant community. Yonatan Kogan, the primary software engineer on the project, will talk about the process of working with ICIRR to design and build the app, the challenges that the group faced, and the lessons they learned along the way.", "speakers" : "Yonatan Kogan, Staff Software Engineer at Tock", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "breakout, immigration", "date" : "April 3, 2018" } , { "title" : "Protecting yourself on social media", "url" : "/blog/2018/04/03/protecting-yourself-on-social-media.html", "description" : "This guide is for people who are concerned about use of their data by social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Google and its effect on themselves and the world. Though Facebook is emphasized in the guide, most of these steps and principles can be applied to just about any web platform.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 3, 2018" } , { "title" : "Michelle Frisque, CTO for Chicago Public Library", "url" : "/events/2018/03/27/michelle-frisque-chicago-public-library.html", "description" : "Michelle Frisque, Chief of Technology, Content and Innovation at Chicago Public Library, talk will explore the role that technology plays in supporting and advancing the libraries mission and the path Michelle took to become a librarian and technologist. She will explore how combined, these skills allow her to oversee an expansive system of public and staff computing, oversee the library’s digital strategy and the evaluation, introduction and dissemination of new technologies.", "speakers" : "Michelle Frisque, Chief of Technology, Content and Innovation at Chicago Public Library", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "literacy, govtech", "date" : "March 27, 2018" } , { "title" : "Building Responsible and Community-Driven Development Projects", "url" : "/satellite/2018/03/22/building-responsible-and-community-driven-development-projects.html", "description" : "Gentrification and displacement are longstanding and underlying issues in Chicago. While they are persistent, they often flare up when there are large proposed developments, or when public investment is used to build what end up becoming popular amenities. Join us for a panel discussion with Janet Smith of the Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement, Joy Aruguete of Bickerdike Development, Sarah Wick of Related Midwest and journalist Adrienne Samuels Gibbs.", "speakers" : "Janet Smith, Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement & UIC College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, Joy Aruguete, Bickerdike Development, Sarah Wick, Related Midwest, Adrienne Samuels Gibbs, Independent Journalist", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite, housing", "date" : "March 22, 2018" } , { "title" : "Vicki White, Chicago Books to Women in Prison", "url" : "/events/2018/03/20/vicki-white.html", "description" : "This week, we welcome Vicki White, President of Chicago Books to Women in Prison, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that distributes paperback books to incarcerated women. For more than 15 years they’ve provided a critical intervention into an oppressive system by offering the self-empowerment, education and entertainment that reading provides.", "speakers" : "Vicki White, President, Chicago Books to Women in Prison", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice", "date" : "March 20, 2018" } , { "title" : "Sana Jafri, Chicago Learning Exchange", "url" : "/events/2018/03/13/sana-jafri.html", "description" : "This week, we welcome Sana Jafri, program officer for the Chicago Learning Exchange (CLX). She will present on how CLX facilitates the connection and exchange of different nodes: educators, programs, technology, and learners. Sana’s work revolves around how technology can be leveraged for learning and how technology concepts like networks and working in the open can be applied to the education world.", "speakers" : "Sana Jafri, program officer for the Chicago Learning Exchange", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "March 13, 2018" } , { "title" : "Alya Adamany Woods, ChicagoNEXT", "url" : "/events/2018/03/06/alya-adamany-woods.html", "description" : "This week, we welcome Alya Adamany Woods, Executive Director of ChicagoNEXT at World Business Chicago. A veteran in Chicago policy, business and tech, Alya’s talk will focus on a broad question: As Chicago’s tech community grows up, what is the role of government and nonprofit partners in ensuring equitable access to our innovation ecosystem?", "speakers" : "Alya Adamany Woods, Executive Director of ChicagoNEXT at World Business Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity", "date" : "March 6, 2018" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night & City Tech Women’s History Month Speaker Series", "url" : "/blog/2018/03/06/womens-history-month-speaker-series.html", "description" : "Jumping off from the success of our Black History Month Speaker Series in February, for the month of March, we will celebrate Women's History Month at Chi Hack Night featuring presentations from Alya Adamany Woods from ChicagoNEXT, Sana Jafri from Chicago Learning Exchange, Vicki White from Chicago Books to Women in Prison and Michelle Frisque the CTO of Chicago Public Libraries. We hope you will join us!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 6, 2018" } , { "title" : "Entrepreneurial Journeys: Black Women Activating Tech", "url" : "/satellite/2018/02/28/entrepreneurial-journeys-black-women-activating-tech.html", "description" : "Join us on Feb 28th as we host a community event at the Greater Englewood Community Development Corporation with Colony 5, a cohort of neighborhood-based entrepreneurs who are identifying ways that technology can support their business. Our panel, Entrepreneurial Journeys: Black Women Activating Tech, will highlight the stories and experiences of four black women founders in Chicago.", "speakers" : "Monique Wingard, Founder of The Civic Collective, Ehi Aimiuwu-Jinadu, Founder of Geek Empowered, Andrea Smith, Founder of Luminate Brands, Britney Robbins, founder and CEO of The Gray Matter Experience, Deena McKay, Founder and host of BlackTechUnplugged (moderator)", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite, entrepreneurship", "date" : "February 28, 2018" } , { "title" : "Charlene Carruthers, BYP100", "url" : "/events/2018/02/27/charlene-carruthers.html", "description" : "Charlene Carruthers, BYP100 National Director, will discuss her upcoming debut book, Unapologetic: A Black, Queer and Feminist Mandate for Our Movement. Drawing on Black intellectual and grassroots organizing traditions, including the Haitian Revolution, the US civil rights movement, and LGBTQ rights and feminist movements, Unapologetic challenges all of us engaged in the social justice struggle to make the movement for Black liberation more radical, more queer, and more feminist. Charlene will also discuss BYP100’s local organizing work and her experience in social justice movements across the world.", "speakers" : "Charlene Carruthers, BYP100 National Director", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity, organizing", "date" : "February 27, 2018" } , { "title" : "Fabian Elliott, Black Tech Mecca", "url" : "/events/2018/02/20/fabian-elliott.html", "description" : "Black Tech Mecca is a data driven think tank dedicated to building thriving Black Tech Ecosystems through research, education and advocacy. Fabian Elliott, CEO of Black Tech Mecca, will discuss Black Tech Mecca’s groundbreaking research report, Unleashing Chicago’s Black Tech Ecosystem: Assessing, Defining, and Growing Chicago’s BTE.", "speakers" : "Fabian Elliott, Black Tech Mecca", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity, data analytics", "date" : "February 20, 2018" } , { "title" : "Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx", "url" : "/events/2018/02/13/kim-foxx.html", "description" : "Cook County State’s Attorney Foxx, who took office in 2016, will discuss her efforts to build a data program within the State’s Attorney’s Office, including the hiring of a Chief Data Officer and the release of a first-ever data report. State's Attorney Foxx will also preview upcoming steps in the process of building towards an open data environment.", "speakers" : "Kim Foxx, Cook County State's Attorney", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice, data analytics", "date" : "February 13, 2018" } , { "title" : "Alvyn Walker, Bridging the Digital Divide", "url" : "/events/2018/02/06/alvyn-walker.html", "description" : "For the month of February, we will be celebrating Black History Month at Chi Hack Night. We will feature presentations from prominent African Americans in tech and civic life here in Chicago. On February 6, we will welcome Alvyn Walker of Leave No Veteran Behind, a national non-profit organization that invests in veterans through employment training, transitional jobs, and educational debt relief scholarships.", "speakers" : "Alvyn Walker, Leave No Veteran Behind", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity", "date" : "February 6, 2018" } , { "title" : "Introducing the Chi Hack Night & City Tech Black History Month Speaker Series", "url" : "/blog/2018/02/02/introducing-black-history-month-speaker-series.html", "description" : "For the month of February, we will celebrate Black History Month at Chi Hack Night featuring presentations from Alvyn Walker from Leave No Veteran Behind, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, Fabian Elliott of Black Tech Mecca, Charlene Carruthers of BYP100 and Colony 5. We hope you will join us!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 2, 2018" } , { "title" : "Logan Square Hack Night #3", "url" : "/satellite/2018/01/31/logan-hack-night-3.html", "description" : "City Bureau co-founder Darryl Holliday and others will be on hand to talk about their work to bring journalists and community members together in collaborative environments to promote responsible media coverage, increase civic engagement and hold powerful forces to account. ", "speakers" : "Darryl Holliday, City Bureau", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite, education", "date" : "January 31, 2018" } , { "title" : "ProPublica Illinois: The Tax Divide", "url" : "/events/2018/01/30/the-tax-divide.html", "description" : "In 2017, ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune published The Tax Divide, a four-part series examining deep inequities in the Cook County’s property tax assessments system. ProPublica Illinois reporters Jason Grotto and Sandhya Kambhampati will discuss the stories, their methodology and the fallout from the series.", "speakers" : "Jason Grotto, ProPublica Illinios, Sandhya Kambhampati, ProPublica Illinios", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "January 30, 2018" } , { "title" : "Regional Housing Solutions", "url" : "/events/2018/01/23/regional-housing-solutions.html", "description" : "CMAP Associate Planner Elizabeth Scott will demo Regional Housing Solutions - a new tool that helps municipal officials and staff, policy makers, and other housing stakeholders across the Chicago region understand the variation in local housing submarkets, identify where common housing challenges exist across the region, and determine the best strategies to address those challenges.", "speakers" : "Elizabeth Scott, CMAP", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "housing", "date" : "January 23, 2018" } , { "title" : "Inside the Water Drain", "url" : "/events/2018/01/16/inside-the-water-drain.html", "description" : "In October 2017, the Chicago Tribune published The Water Drain, a multi-part series investigating water rates throughout the Chicago region. Tribune reporters Ted Gregory, Patrick O’Connell and Cecilia Reyes with walk us through their findings and how they reported this series.", "speakers" : "Ted Gregory, Chicago Tribune, Patrick O'Connell, Chicago Tribune, Cecilia Reyes, Chicago Tribune", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "January 16, 2018" } , { "title" : "Chris Kennedy", "url" : "/events/2018/01/09/chris-kennedy.html", "description" : "Happy 2018! Chi Hack Night is proud to present the fourth part of our series: Better Know Your Candidates for Illinois Governor! This week, we welcome Chris Kennedy who will make his case for being our next Governor, and discuss the vision he has for the State of Illinois.", "speakers" : "Chris Kennedy", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "candidate", "date" : "January 9, 2018" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night: 2017 Year in Review", "url" : "/blog/2018/01/04/2017-year-in-review.html", "description" : "48 events. 35 presentations. 4 satellite events. 15 new co-hosts. 1 open data pledge. And much more! This is the Chi Hack Night 2017 Year in Review!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 4, 2018" } , { "title" : "Logan Square Hack Night #2", "url" : "/satellite/2017/12/13/logan-hack-night-2.html", "description" : "Wednesday, December 13th we will convene at Second Shift for the second ever Chi Hack Night in the Logan Square neighborhood! Ali Karbassi, Founder & CEO of CoderDojoChi, will talk about how his nonprofit is focused on building a better world for our children through the love of coding. ", "speakers" : "Ali Karbassi, Founder & CEO of CoderDojoChi", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite, education", "date" : "December 13, 2017" } , { "title" : "Chikindlmarket Holiday Party", "url" : "/events/2017/12/12/chikinlmarket.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Night will be magically transformed through the power of the civic tech holiday spirit into . . . . Chikindlmarket! Visitors from all around Chicagoland (and beyond!) can play games, gnosh on sausages, pretzels, and other holiday treats, do screen printing, and thank each other for the accomplishments of the past year!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "celebration", "date" : "December 12, 2017" } , { "title" : "Danielle DuMerer, Chicago CIO", "url" : "/events/2017/12/05/danielle-dumerer.html", "description" : "In June of 2017, Danielle DuMerer was appointed as Chief Information Officer for the City of Chicago after nearly ten years working in the Department of Innovation & Technology. Danielle will talk about her journey to this role, and the City's future efforts to leverage data and technology to be more responsive.", "speakers" : "Danielle DuMerer, Chief Information Officer, City of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "December 5, 2017" } , { "title" : "Cook Central: Cook County’s Spatial Data Portal", "url" : "/events/2017/11/28/cook-county-gis.html", "description" : "David Arfa and David Treering from the Cook County Bureau of Technology will provide an interactive walk-through of the new Cook Central portal, showcasing open spatial data, interactive mapping applications and their application programming interface for community members to pioneer unique, innovative applications with Cook County’s authoritative data.", "speakers" : "David Arfa, Cook County Bureau of Technology, David Treering, Cook County Bureau of Technology", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, mapping", "date" : "November 28, 2017" } , { "title" : "Chicago's Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA)", "url" : "/events/2017/11/14/chicago-copa.html", "description" : "In September 2017, the City of Chicago officially launched the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), a new agency charged with oversight of the Chicago Police Department. Last week, COPA released for the first time an open data set on the police misconduct complaints they’ve received. Members of COPA will walk us through this data and talk about the role of transparency and open data in their work going forward.", "speakers" : "A.D. Lewis, COPA, Martin Guzman, COPA, Mia Sissac, COPA", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, criminal justice", "date" : "November 14, 2017" } , { "title" : "Logan Square Hack Night", "url" : "/satellite/2017/11/08/logan-hack-night-1.html", "description" : "Wednesday, November 8th we will convene at Second Shift for the first Chi Hack Night in the Logan Square neighborhood. We will hear from and interact with Andra Stanciu and Derek Eder, two Logan Square civic tech thinkers, doers, and community members. Civic Tech 101, Manatee Tank and other breakout groups to follow!", "speakers" : "Andra Stanciu, founder at RO-AM Innovation Consortium, Derek Eder, DataMade and Chi Hack Night", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite", "date" : "November 8, 2017" } , { "title" : "Assessing Chicago’s Large Lot Program", "url" : "/events/2017/11/07/assessing-chicagos-large-lot-program.html", "description" : "The City of Chicago’s Large Lot Program enables the purchase vacant lots for $1 each by residents who own property on the same block. What benefits and costs do these lots have for new owners? What physical changes are made to the lots? To answer these questions, Paul Gobster from the USDA Forest Service and William Stewart from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will share their research on two areas on the South and West sides of the city with high rates of land vacancy.", "speakers" : "Demond Drummer, CoderSpace, Jeanne Chandler, City of Chicago, Paul Gobster, USDA Forest Service, William Stewart, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, housing", "date" : "November 7, 2017" } , { "title" : "Chi Spook Night!", "url" : "/events/2017/10/31/chi-spook-night.html", "description" : "Oooooh for the first time, Chi Hack Night falls on October 31st! Which means it’s time for the spookiest night of civic tech all year! Instead of a presentation, we'll have a game show and some especially haunted breakout groups. Bring some candy/Halloween-themed snacks for breakout group trick-or-treating, and don't forget to wear a costume! We will have some prizes for the best disguises!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "celebration", "date" : "October 31, 2017" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2017/10/24/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 24, 2017" } , { "title" : "Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza", "url" : "/events/2017/10/17/illinois-comptroller-susana-mendoza.html", "description" : "This week, we welcome Susana Mendoza, Comptroller for the State of Illinois. In her talk, Comptroller Mendoza will provide an overview of the technological challenges facing her office and the State of Illinois, and the ways she intends to address them. She’ll also discuss her effort to increase transparency and accountability through legislation in the Debt Transparency Act.", "speakers" : "Susana Mendoza, Comptroller of Illinois", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "electeds", "date" : "October 17, 2017" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2017/10/10/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 10, 2017" } , { "title" : "Data Practice at the Chicago Transit Authority", "url" : "/events/2017/10/03/cta.html", "description" : "How does the CTA plan and schedule to accommodate 1.6 million daily rides for changing ridership within budget and material constraints? How does the CTA get a birds eye view to internally manage operations and efficiency? To answer these questions, we welcome Lok Kwan from Rail Scheduling Design & Development, Bonnie Fan and Elias Mechaber from Performance Management and Bryan Post from Data Analytics.", "speakers" : "Lok Kwan, Chicago Transit Authority, Bonnie Fan, Chicago Transit Authority, Elias Mechaber, Chicago Transit Authority, Bryan Post, Chicago Transit Authority", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, data analytics", "date" : "October 3, 2017" } , { "title" : "Disaster Mapping", "url" : "/events/2017/09/26/disaster-mapping.html", "description" : "Longtime Chi Hack Night member and transportation writer Steven Vance will introduce us to OpenStreetMap. We will dive right into a simple map editing job that can help responders thousands of miles away with accurate information about roads and buildings.", "speakers" : "Steven Vance, mapper (among other things)", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "mapping, howto", "date" : "September 26, 2017" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2017/09/19/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "September 19, 2017" } , { "title" : "The Clear Water Project", "url" : "/blog/2017/09/13/clear-water.html", "description" : "Chicago's Clear Water Project is an effort to keep beaches safe through a combination of new water testing technologies, predictive modeling, and continued volunteer engagement. Based on its pilot run in 2017, the Clear Water Project method was able to issue water quality advisories with three times more accuracy than Chicago’s previous method.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "September 13, 2017" } , { "title" : "Human Centered Design for the City Clerk", "url" : "/events/2017/09/12/eric-vazquez-chi-city-clerk.html", "description" : "How does one account for the various needs of every single Chicagoan? Eric Vazquez, Chief Technology Officer for the Chicago City Clerk, will share how he is introducing Human Centered Design into the City’s most visited government office.", "speakers" : "Eric Vazquez, Chief Technology Officer for the Chicago City Clerk", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, design", "date" : "September 12, 2017" } , { "title" : "Senator Daniel Biss", "url" : "/events/2017/09/05/senator-daniel-biss.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Night is proud to present the third part of our series: Better Know Your Candidates for Illinois Governor! This week welcome Daniel Biss, State Senator for Illinois 9th District. Senator Biss will make his case for being our next Governor, and discuss the vision he has for the State of Illinois.", "speakers" : "Daniel Biss, State Senator, IL 9th District", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "candidate", "date" : "September 5, 2017" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2017/08/29/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 29, 2017" } , { "title" : "Chicago Foundation for Women", "url" : "/events/2017/08/22/chicago-foundation-for-women.html", "description" : "How do we move Chicago closer to gender parity, and how can data help us get there? Chicago Foundation for Women President and CEO K. Sujata will share their vision for gender equity, and how the foundation is using data to remove barriers for women and girls.", "speakers" : "K. Sujata, Chicago Foundation for Women", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy, equity", "date" : "August 22, 2017" } , { "title" : "Biased Election Maps: Fighting Gerrymandering in 2020", "url" : "/events/2017/08/15/Gerrymandering-2020.html", "description" : "Web developer, mapmaker, and former Code for America fellow Nick Doiron returns to Chi Hack Night from Gerrymandering Summer School by the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group (yes, this is a real thing), to share how mappers and technologists can help measure and challenge unfair election maps.", "speakers" : "Nick Doiron", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "elections, advocacy", "date" : "August 15, 2017" } , { "title" : "Summertime Analytics: Predicting E. coli and West Nile Virus", "url" : "/events/2017/08/08/summertime-predictions.html", "description" : "This summer, the City of Chicago launched two new predictive analytics projects to forecasts the risks and to proactively limit these risks. Members of the research team, Tom Schenk Jr., Gene Leynes and Nick Lucius will discuss the projects and how they’re being used as part of city operations.", "speakers" : "Tom Schenk Jr., City of Chicago, Gene Leynes, City of Chicago, Nick Lucius, City of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "health, data analytics", "date" : "August 8, 2017" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2017/08/01/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 1, 2017" } , { "title" : "Code for America's Summer Tour", "url" : "/events/2017/07/25/cfa-summer-tour.html", "description" : "Join Code for America Founder Jen Pahlka and Network Director Erie Meyer as they share stories of what Code for America Brigades across the country have done to impact communities and share about their plans for the future.", "speakers" : "Jen Pahlka, Code for America, Erie Meyers, Code for America", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "July 25, 2017" } , { "title" : "Oral Histories from the West Side", "url" : "/events/2017/07/18/chicago-history-museum.html", "description" : "Peter Alter, director of the Chicago History Museum’s Studs Terkel Center for Oral History, will talk about two recent projects in East Garfield Park and North Lawndale working with students to document oral histories of their communities. ", "speakers" : "Peter T. Alter, Chicago History Museum", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "July 18, 2017" } , { "title" : "JB Pritzker", "url" : "/events/2017/07/11/jb-pritzker.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Night is proud to present the second part of our series: Better Know Your Candidates for Illinois Governor! This week welcome JB Pritzker, venture capitalist, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and private business owner based in Chicago. JB will make his case for being our next Governor, and discuss the vision he has for the State of Illinois.", "speakers" : "JB Pritzker", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "candidate", "date" : "July 11, 2017" } , { "title" : "Building Chano4Mayor.com", "url" : "/events/2017/06/27/chano4mayor.html", "description" : "Jean Cochrane and Alex Soble will talk about their work creating Chano4Mayor.com. The website proposes that Chance the Rapper run for the Mayor of Chicago in the upcoming 2019 elections. The site also explains what’s at stakes and engages residents to make sure they’re registered.", "speakers" : "Jean Cochrane, Alex Soble", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy, politics", "date" : "June 27, 2017" } , { "title" : "Brenna Berman", "url" : "/events/2017/06/20/brenna-berman.html", "description" : "Five years leading the second largest municipal IT department in the country is a journey marked by equal parts exhilaration, frustration and pride. Just two months after leaving her position as CIO, Brenna Berman will be sharing achievements and reflections from her time at the City of Chicago Department of Innovation & Technology.", "speakers" : "Brenna Berman, Chicago CIO 2013-2017", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "June 20, 2017" } , { "title" : "Open Hack & Demo Night", "url" : "/events/2017/06/13/open-hack-and-demo-night.html", "description" : "This week will be a Open Hack & Demo Night. This is an opportunity for hack nighters and breakout groups to show off projects in progress – to attract potential new members, and inspire people to give the feedback you've been looking for. Demos are short, and don't have formal presentations or slideshows. Come see what your compatriots are working on!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 13, 2017" } , { "title" : "Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart", "url" : "/events/2017/06/06/tom-dart.html", "description" : "Sheriff Dart will speak about the evolution of technology used in the Cook County Sheriff’s Office since he became Sheriff nearly 11 years ago. He’ll elaborate and give examples on how data is used to inform practices and procedures throughout the Sheriff’s Office.", "speakers" : "Tom Dart, Cook Country Sheriff", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "electeds, criminal justice", "date" : "June 6, 2017" } , { "title" : "Sex, Gender and Innovation Gaps in Data and Design for Healthcare", "url" : "/events/2017/05/30/dima-elissa.html", "description" : "Today’s innovation and research communities are recognizing that the approaches to designing drugs devices and treatment have to change. They way most innovation have come to be excludes the personalized and individualized variables which play out differently based on sex and gender. Dima Elissa, CEO of VisMed 3D, shares her learning about the real world impact the lack of patient specific data has in healthcare innovation and how we can change the landscape.", "speakers" : "Dima Elissa, CEO of VisMed 3D", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "health, equity", "date" : "May 30, 2017" } , { "title" : "Using Data to Close the Safety Net Participation Gap in NYC", "url" : "/events/2017/05/23/civisanalytics.html", "description" : "Kelly Kreft, Advik Shreekumar, and Ola Topczewska of Civis Analytics join us to talk about how their modeling work helped explore usage of SNAP and EITC public benefits in New York City.", "speakers" : "Kelly Kreft, Civis Analytics, Advik Shreekumar, Civis Analytics, Ola Topczewska, Civis Analytics", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, socal services", "date" : "May 23, 2017" } , { "title" : "Open Source Software: The Ownership Society Reimagined", "url" : "/events/2017/05/16/karl-fogel.html", "description" : "Karl Fogel, long time Chi Hack Night member and partner at Open Tech Strategies will examine the professional and societal consequences of today’s robust open source ecosystem. He will offer some new ways to look at other kinds of replicable goods, and explore the possibility of similarly unlocking and reallocating value in areas beyond software.", "speakers" : "Karl Fogel, Open Tech Strategies", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy, open source", "date" : "May 16, 2017" } , { "title" : "Accessing the Chicago Police Department's secret data", "url" : "/events/2017/05/09/mick-dumke.html", "description" : "Mick Dumke, a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, will detail his ongoing fight to access public records of how the Chicago Police Department has been arresting parolees for unlawful contact with people deemed by cops to be gang members.", "speakers" : "Mick Dumke, reporter, Chicago Sun-Times", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, criminal justice", "date" : "May 9, 2017" } , { "title" : "Alderman Ameya Pawar", "url" : "/events/2017/05/02/ameya-pawar.html", "description" : "This week, we're excited to have Alderman Ameya Pawar join us! As an Alderman Pawar will share his experience as a local politician, particularly with regards to education reform and community development, and the role of technology in government. As a gubernatorial candidate, he’ll share his perspective on the current challenges faced by the state.", "speakers" : "Ameya Pawar, 47th Ward Alderman", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "candidate", "date" : "May 2, 2017" } , { "title" : "Open Hack & Demo Night", "url" : "/events/2017/04/25/open-hack-and-demo-night.html", "description" : "This week will be Open Hack & Demo Night. This is an opportunity for hack nighters and breakout groups to show off projects in progress – to attract potential new members, and inspire people to give the feedback you've been looking for. Demos are short, and don't have formal presentations or slideshows. Come see what your compatriots are working on!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 25, 2017" } , { "title" : "5 Year Celebration Recap", "url" : "/blog/2017/04/24/5-years-celebration-recap.html", "description" : "For our 250th hack night, we asked for presentations along the theme of 5 years forward / 5 years back. We also wanted to open up the format a bit and encourage other kinds of performances, including talks, poems, songs and skits.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 24, 2017" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night develops its civic role", "url" : "/blog/2017/04/22/chi-hack-night-develops-its-civic-role.html", "description" : "Working in newspapers was an education in civics, and in hacking. Chi Hack Night helped me put the two together. As Chi Hack Night marks its 5th anniversary this week, its role in Chicago’s tech community and civic life , and I’m personally grateful for its endurance.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 22, 2017" } , { "title" : "5 Year Celebration!", "url" : "/events/2017/04/18/5-years.html", "description" : "Happy Birthday Chi Hack Night! This night marks our 5th anniversary and 250th event to build, share and learn about civic tech! To celebrate this day, we will hear from members of Chi Hack Night about what they’ve done at or learned from our group. Come celebrate, eat, build, share, and learn with us!", "speakers" : "Commissioner John Fritchey, Kevin Wei, Dave Chary, Nina Sandlin, Scott Beslow, Jonathon Rogoff, Vinesh Kannan, Andy Rasmussen", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "celebration", "date" : "April 18, 2017" } , { "title" : "Reflecting on 5 Years of Chi Hack Night", "url" : "/blog/2017/04/18/reflecting-on-5-years-of-chi-hack-night.html", "description" : "Today marks Chi Hack Night’s 250th event and **5 year anniversary**! Yes, we've been doing this for 5 years, and what a ride it’s been! For the occasion, we invited our members, alumni and past presenters to share how Chi Hack Night and it's community has affected or benefited them. We were floored by your responses. It turns out you like us! You really like us!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 18, 2017" } , { "title" : "Redesigning Access to Michigan's Health and Human Services", "url" : "/events/2017/04/11/redesigning-access-to-michigans-health-and-human-services.html", "description" : "Lena Selzer, Design Director at Civilla and Janice M. Cho, Design Director at DevMynd, will discuss how they partnered with residents and caseworkers to create a simple, usable and integrated Michigan Department of Health and Human Services application that has been embraced by residents, caseworkers, and Michigan State leaders alike.", "speakers" : "Lena Selzer, Design Director at Civilla, Janice M. Cho, Design Director at DevMynd", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "health, design", "date" : "April 11, 2017" } , { "title" : "Smart Green Infrastructure Monitoring", "url" : "/events/2017/04/04/smart-green-infrastructure-monitoring.html", "description" : "Adam Hecktman, Microsoft’s Director of Technology & Civic Innovation Chicago, Dana Al-Qadi, Engineer at AECOM and Tom Schenk, Chief Data Officer at the City of Chicago will present details on the Smart Green Infrastructure Monitoring pilot project by City Digital at UI Labs.", "speakers" : "Adam Hecktman, Microsoft, Director of Technology & Civic Innovation Chicago, Dana Al-Qadi, AECOM, Engineer, Tom Schenk, City of Chicago, Chief Data Officer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "April 4, 2017" } , { "title" : "Women in Civic Tech: Amplifiers of Community Voice", "url" : "/satellite/2017/03/30/amplifiers-of-community-voice.html", "description" : "Thursday, March 30th we will convene at the DuSable Museum of African-American History and hear from a panel of amplifiers of community voice featuring Andrea Hart of City Bureau, Aviva Rosman of Ballot Ready and Tiana Epps-Johnson of Center for Tech and Civic Life.", "speakers" : "Andrea Hart of City Bureau, Aviva Rosman of Ballot Ready, Tiana Epps-Johnson of Center for Tech and Civic Life", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite", "date" : "March 30, 2017" } , { "title" : "Celebrate 5 Years of Chi Hack Night with Us!", "url" : "/blog/2017/03/30/5-years-chi-hack-night-call-for-speakers.html", "description" : "April 18, 2017 will mark the 250th episode of Chi Hack Night. That's 5 years! To celebrate this day, we want to hear from you, the members of Chi Hack Night, via lightning presentations and testimonials.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 30, 2017" } , { "title" : "Women in Civic Tech: Creators & Founders", "url" : "/satellite/2017/03/29/creators-and-founders.html", "description" : "Wednesday, March 29th we will convene at the Homan Square Community Center and hear from panel of civic tech creators and founders to hear about their personal narratives. The panel will feature Allyson Scrutchens of Forward Planning and Dima Elissa of VisMed-3D.", "speakers" : "Annie Mohaupt, CEO of Mohop", "categories" : "Satellite", "tags" : "satellite", "date" : "March 29, 2017" } , { "title" : "Robin Robinson: Fostering Stronger Community & Police Relationships", "url" : "/events/2017/03/28/robin-robinson.html", "description" : "In June 2016, as part of their strategy to foster stronger community faith and partnerships in Chicago’s neighborhoods, the Chicago Police Department hired Robin Robinson, a longtime Chicago television news anchor as special advisor on community affairs. Robin will discuss the role she has taken on and the work needed to rebuild trust between the Chicago Police Department and the communities it serves.", "speakers" : "Robin Robinson, Special Adviser of Community Affairs at the Chicago Police Department", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, criminal justice", "date" : "March 28, 2017" } , { "title" : "Grace Hopper: Legends and Lies", "url" : "/events/2017/03/21/grace-hopper-legends-and-lies.html", "description" : "Melissa Pierce, Producer and Director of Born with Curiosity: The Story of Grace Murray Hopper, will weave together the story of the life and times of Grace Hopper using archive footage, photographs, and various oral histories to bring you a more honest and true portrait of Grace both a legend and a person.", "speakers" : "Melissa Pierce, Filmmaker, Programmer & Entrepreneurial Rabble Rouser", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "March 21, 2017" } , { "title" : "Sandee Kastrul, President of i.c.stars", "url" : "/events/2017/03/14/sandee-kastrul.html", "description" : "For our Women in Tech speaker series, we welcome Sandee Kastrul, president and co-founder of i.c.stars, an innovative nonprofit leadership and technology training program founded in 1999 to prepare inner-city adults for technology careers and community leadership.", "speakers" : "Sandee Kastrul, President of i.c.stars", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "March 14, 2017" } , { "title" : "Technology alone can't solve Chicago's murder problem", "url" : "/blog/2017/03/10/technology-alone-cant-solve-chicagos-murder-problem.html", "description" : "As members of Chi Hack Night, an open group that has been shaping civic technology in Chicago for five years, we responded to Scott Moorhouse's opinion piece suggesting a hackathon to solve Chicago's violence problem.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 10, 2017" } , { "title" : "Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle", "url" : "/events/2017/03/07/toni-preckwinkle.html", "description" : "This week, we are honored to welcome Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle to Chi Hack Night. As a dedicated community leader for over two decades, President Preckwinkle will talk about strategies for collaborative approaches that can drive positive change in Cook County.", "speakers" : "Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Board President", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "electeds", "date" : "March 7, 2017" } , { "title" : "Presenting the Women In Tech Speaker Series", "url" : "/blog/2017/03/07/presenting-the-women-in-tech-speaker-series.html", "description" : "Smart Chicago Collaborative and Chi Hack Night have teamed up to create a speaking series in celebration of Women’s History Month in an effort to elevate the talented, diverse women in civic-driven technology across Chicago.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 7, 2017" } , { "title" : "Mr. Robot Goes to Washington", "url" : "/events/2017/02/28/mr-robot-goes-to-washington.html", "description" : "This week at Chi Hack Night, we’ll be looking at data from a less rosy perspective: privacy and abusive collection. What are the risks of collecting too much data, and what can we as consumers of technology do to protect ourselves? Ari Scharg, Partner at Edelson PC will give an overview of the consumer privacy issues facing the tech world, and talk about how privacy laws affect tech firms and startups.", "speakers" : "Ari Scharg, Edelson PC", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy, privacy", "date" : "February 28, 2017" } , { "title" : "If You Build It, Will They Come?", "url" : "/events/2017/02/21/if-you-build-it-will-they-come.html", "description" : "Janice Cho, Design Director at DevMynd Software, will give a talk premised on answering the question: How might we leverage the design methodologies that constitute Human Centered Design to vet our ideas before we build them?", "speakers" : "Janice Cho, DevMynd Software", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "design", "date" : "February 21, 2017" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2017/02/14/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "February 14, 2017" } , { "title" : "Chicago Energy Benchmarking", "url" : "/events/2017/02/07/chicago-energy-benchmarking.html", "description" : "In the fall of 2013, the City of Chicago passed the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance with the goal of unlocking energy and cost savings opportunities for businesses and residents. Amy Jewel of the City Energy Project will share how energy data and transparency are being harnessed to improve energy efficiency and drive carbon reductions in the City of Chicago.", "speakers" : "Amy Jewel, Senior City Advisor, City Energy Project", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "February 7, 2017" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2017/01/31/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "January 31, 2017" } , { "title" : "Hacking Housing at the Latin@ Techies Hackathon", "url" : "/events/2017/01/24/latino-techies-hackathon.html", "description" : "Latin@ Hackathon organizers Luz Chavez and Kara Carrell will give an overview of their event on fair housing and community development. Noah Moskowitz, Antonio Gutierrez, Henri Idrovo, Shelley Hoover and Janet Gomez, all members of the winning team, will show off their project and how they tackled the question “How can we leverage technology to build renter power?”", "speakers" : "Luz Chavez, Co-Organizer for Gozamos/Latin@ Techies, Kara Carrell, Developer / Co-Organizer for Latin@ Techies, Noah Moskowitz, Housing Advocate at Somos Logan Square, Antonio Gutierrez, Housing Advocate at Autonomous Tenants Union, Henri Idrovo, Software Engineer at HERE Maps, Shelley Hoover, Research Administrator at UIC School of Public Health, Janet Gomez, Production Designer at National Restaurant Association- Conventions", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy, housing", "date" : "January 24, 2017" } , { "title" : "Data & Tech at the Cook County Clerk's Office", "url" : "/events/2017/01/17/cook-county-clerk.html", "description" : "Abdelnasser Rashid, Deputy Chief of Staff, and Tonya Rice, Elections Data & Technology Manager for the Cook County Clerk, will touch on the innovative ways the Clerk’s office has used technology to improve services, expand access and increase efficiency. The Clerk's Office manages elections for a large suburban area (the City of Chicago has its own elections board) that includes 129 villages and cities with 1.5 million voters, representing hundreds of jurisdictions. ", "speakers" : "Abdelnasser Rashid, Deputy Chief of Staff, Cook County Clerk, Tonya Rice, Elections Data & Technology Manager, Cook County Clerk", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, elections", "date" : "January 17, 2017" } , { "title" : "Civic Tech in Ukraine & Georgia", "url" : "/events/2017/01/10/civic-tech-in-ukraine-and-georgia.html", "description" : "This week, we will be hearing from a special international guest, Giorgi Vashadze, founder of Innovation and Development Foundation and a prominent Georgian and Ukrainian politician. During his career, he has initiated and implemented many techology reforms in government including the Public Service Hall.", "speakers" : "Giorgi Vashadze, Innovation and Development Foundation", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, international", "date" : "January 10, 2017" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2017/01/03/potluck-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "January 3, 2017" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night: 2016 Year In Review", "url" : "/blog/2016/12/31/2016-year-in-review.html", "description" : "49 events. 33 presentations. 27 blog posts. 2 open data pledges 58 video presentations. And much more! This is the Chi Hack Night 2016 Year in Review!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "December 31, 2016" } , { "title" : "Recap: The Holiday Party Hacktacular Lightning Talks", "url" : "/blog/2016/12/20/recap-holiday-party-hacktacular-lightning-talks.html", "description" : "On December 13th 2016, Chi Hack Night hosted our last event of the year: The Chi Hack Night Holiday Party Hacktacular. Eight members of the Chi Hack Night community shared their own story or insight about civics, society and technology. The major themes this time around were the needs, tactics and benefits of inclusion, perspective on our community's role in society, and the responsibilities that we have as users of data.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "December 20, 2016" } , { "title" : "Holiday Party Hacktacular!", "url" : "/events/2016/12/13/holiday-party-hack-tacular.html", "description" : "This is our last hack night of 2016, so we’re going all out! We’re doing lightning talks, a potluck AND building, sharing and learning about civic tech. There will also be hugs and high-fives. Prepare to eat yummy food be zapped with civic tech knowledge and wisdom!", "speakers" : "Andy Rasmussen, Don Chartier, Viktor Koves, Yonatan Kogan, Eric Sherman, Rose Afriyie, Tom Schenk, Joseph Smalzer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "celebration", "date" : "December 13, 2016" } , { "title" : "Computer Science For All, A Love Story With Data", "url" : "/events/2016/12/06/computer-science-for-all.html", "description" : "This Fall, Mikva Challenge and Mumkin Studio brought four Chicago Public High School students to Chi Hack Night to design, implement, and evaluate user experience for the Chi Hack Night project Edumap, a tool for finding computer science curriculum to assist with Chicago Public Schools Computer Science for All (CS4All) initiative. Mikva Civic Tech Interns Pedro Garcia, Daniel Kolade, Marshall Nakamura and Jessica De Jesus will share their experience and findings.", "speakers" : "Pedro Garcia, Mikva Civic Tech Intern, Daniel Kolade, Mikva Civic Tech Intern, Marshall Nakamura, Mikva Civic Tech Intern, Jessica De Jesus, Mikva Civic Tech Intern", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "December 6, 2016" } , { "title" : "Lightning Talks 3: Call for Speakers", "url" : "/blog/2016/12/02/lightning-talks-3-call-for-speakers.html", "description" : "Lightning Talks return for our last Chi Hack Night of the year! Do you have an interesting or funny story to tell about civics, society and/or technology? Want to show off that awesome project you’ve been working on? Now’s your chance to tell it to the world!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "December 2, 2016" } , { "title" : "The Chicago Nursing Home Report", "url" : "/events/2016/11/29/the-chicago-nursing-home-report.html", "description" : "Illinois ranks near the bottom for nursing home care. Low staffing levels, failed inspections and using strong medications to subdue residents unnecessarily have contributed to a consistent low ranking, despite reforms enacted in 2010. Joel Inwood has led a Chi Hack Night breakout group since 2015 to create an interactive map showing the quality of nursing homes in the Chicago region, and tonight they launch it!", "speakers" : "Jason Molony, SHARE Network, Joel Inwood, Chicago Nursing Home Search", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "health, breakout", "date" : "November 29, 2016" } , { "title" : "Post-election community feedback results", "url" : "/blog/2016/11/26/post-election-community-feedback-results.html", "description" : "On November 15, 2016, Chi Hack Night held a post-election community feedback session. It was our largest Chi Hack Night ever with over 165 attendees. Read through the full results and see how our community is planning to adapt to America's new political reality.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 26, 2016" } , { "title" : "Post-Election Community Feedback Session", "url" : "/events/2016/11/15/post-election-community-feedback-session.html", "description" : "Suddenly, everything has changed. With the stunning election of Donald Trump as our next president, much of what we thought we knew about our country, the technology we use every day, and even ourselves, has been turned upside down. So, where does Chi Hack Night and the broader civic tech community go from here? That’s where you come in. Last year, around this time, we held our first ever community feedback session. This week, we’re doing it again.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "November 15, 2016" } , { "title" : "Election Party & Potluck", "url" : "/events/2016/11/08/election-party-potluck.html", "description" : "The day has finally arrived - the end to the rollercoaster ride that is the 2016 General Election. Come hack and watch the returns come in as we eat, potluck style! If you’d like to bring dishes, drinks, snacks or desserts, fill out your name and what you’re bringing here! We’ll provide the usual empanadas too.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "celebration", "date" : "November 8, 2016" } , { "title" : "Investigating CPD's Use of Civil Asset Forfeiture", "url" : "/events/2016/11/01/investigating-cpds-use-of-civil-asset-forfeiture.html", "description" : "In September, Lucy Parsons Labs collaborated with MuckRock and the Chicago Reader to investigate the size and scope of the Chicago Police Department’s civil asset forfeiture program. Lucy Parsons Labs’ Freddy Martinez and freelance journalist Joel Handley will walk through the FOIA process, the analysis of the deposit and expenditure data they received, and the highlights of their findings.", "speakers" : "Freddy Martinez, Lucy Parsons Labs, Joel Handley, Freelance Journalist", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, criminal justice", "date" : "November 1, 2016" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night at Transparency Camp 2016", "url" : "/blog/2016/10/28/chi-hack-night-at-transparency-camp-2016.html", "description" : "Oct 14-15, 2016 was Transparency Camp in Cleveland, Ohio - and Chi Hack Night was there to represent Chicago! As advocates of transparency and open government, it’s only natural that members of Chi Hack Night decided to attend. With Cleveland a 5-6 hour drive away, we decided to make a road trip out of it! We rented a van and hit the road.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 28, 2016" } , { "title" : "Cook County Board of Review - Digital Appeals Processing", "url" : "/events/2016/10/25/cook-county-board-of-review.html", "description" : "This week, we'll hear a lesser-known, but critical government agency and how they've used technology to improve their processes. Commissioner Michael Cabonargi and Deputy Commissioner James Thompson will discuss how the Cook County Board of Review introduced a new Digital Appeals Processing System that increased transparency, created better efficiencies and dramatically improved access to the appeal process.", "speakers" : "Commissioner Michael Cabonargi, Cook County Board of Review, Deputy Commissioner James Thompson, Cook County Board of Review", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "October 25, 2016" } , { "title" : "Mapping CPD's Street Stops", "url" : "/events/2016/10/18/mapping-cpds-street-stops.html", "description" : "In July of this year, Injustice Watch launched a series on the unequal treatment of people of color in the criminal justice system. The first in the series sheds light on the Chicago Police Department’s stops on the streets with the help of extensive datasets compiled by the ACLU of Illinois. Sam Hart, Reporting and Graphics Fellow at Injustice Watch, will walk us through data collection to their final visual product.", "speakers" : "Sam Hart, Injustice Watch", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, criminal justice", "date" : "October 18, 2016" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2016/10/11/potluck-and-open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 11, 2016" } , { "title" : "Chicago Community Bond Fund: Hacking Cook County Jail", "url" : "/events/2016/10/04/chicago-community-bond-fund.html", "description" : "In Cook County Jail, more than 95% of the 8,000 people incarcerated on any given day are awaiting trial and have not been convicted of a crime. More than two-thirds of those people have money bonds that they simply cannot pay. We are keeping people in cages simply because they are poor. Chicago Community Bond Fund collective members Micah Gates and Sharlyn Grace will discuss how they are working to end pre-trial detention by posting bond for people who cannot pay it themselves, and advocating for the abolition of monetary bonds entirely.", "speakers" : "Micah Gates, Chicago Community Bond Fund, Sharlyn Grace, Chicago Community Bond Fund", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice", "date" : "October 4, 2016" } , { "title" : "My Building Doesn't Recycle: Designing for Policy Change", "url" : "/events/2016/09/27/my-building-doesnt-recycle.html", "description" : "How can an idea at a hack night become an app that affects policy change? Claire Micklin, Interaction Designer at The University of Chicago, will explain how civic apps can have the power to influence policy change and that policy change can be a realistic goal. When apps have a clear call to action, are digestible by journalists and citizens, and tell a compelling story, they can get the attention of policymakers - and change cities for the better.", "speakers" : "Claire Micklin, University of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment, breakout", "date" : "September 27, 2016" } , { "title" : "Chi Safe Path", "url" : "/events/2016/09/20/chi-safe-path.html", "description" : "In Chicago, sidewalks are essential in connecting us to just about any activity outside our own homes. Dilapidated and inaccessible sidewalks make getting around more difficult, if not impossible. Steven Luker, a web developer, and Adam Hecktman, Civic technologist for Microsoft, will discuss various ways that bad sidewalks not only make things difficult and dangerous for Chicagoans, and how a new civic app, Chi Safe Path, provides a way to deal with them.", "speakers" : "Steve Luker, Adam Hecktman, Microsoft", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "breakout, equity", "date" : "September 20, 2016" } , { "title" : "The U.S. Government Accountability Office at Chi Hack Night", "url" : "/blog/2016/09/16/us-gao.html", "description" : "On Tuesday, September 13th 2016, three analysts from the United States Government Accountability Office presented at Chi Hack Night to describe the data-intensive nature of their work assessing our federal government's efficiency to a crowd of over 100 people. Presenters Rebecca Abela, Silvia Ellis, and Joanie Lofgren all work in the GAO's Chicago office, one of 11 offices across the country.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "September 16, 2016" } , { "title" : "The U.S. Government Accountability Office", "url" : "/events/2016/09/13/the-us-government-accountability-office-congressional-watchdogs.html", "description" : "The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal agency known as the congressional watchdog, is tasked with supporting and advising Congress and federal agencies about ways to make government more efficient, effective, ethical, equitable and responsive. Policy analysts, Rebecca Abela, Silvia Ellis, and Joanie Lofgren, will discuss the types of work GAO does to audit the vast and diverse portfolio of federal programs and services.", "speakers" : "Rebecca Abela, U.S. GAO, Silvia Ellis, U.S. GAO, Joanie Lofgren, U.S. GAO", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "September 13, 2016" } , { "title" : "Open election data in Myanmar", "url" : "/events/2016/09/06/open-election-data-in-myanmar.html", "description" : "In November 2015, Myanmar held its first national openly-contested election in 25 years. A partnership with the Asia Foundation and the local election commission allowed records on thousands of candidates to be digitized and published in the open for the first time. Nick Doiron will talk about his experience working with this election data at the MaePaySoh hackathon.", "speakers" : "Nick Doiron, Traveling Freelance Developer and Mapmaker", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "elections", "date" : "September 6, 2016" } , { "title" : "Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2016/08/30/open-hack.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another open hacking session! Come build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 30, 2016" } , { "title" : "High school students are joining Chi Hack Night to train in user experience & design", "url" : "/blog/2016/08/26/teen-civic-tech-interns-at-chi-hack-night.html", "description" : "This Fall, Mikva Challenge and Mumkin Studio will partner to kick-off a program for teen user experience design interns at Chi Hack Night. Four Chicago Public High School students will work with Chi Hack Night during the fall quarter. They’ll design, implement, and evaluate user experience for two Chi Hack Night projects.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 26, 2016" } , { "title" : "Faisal Khan - Investigating corruption and championing oversight", "url" : "/events/2016/08/23/faisal-khan-investigating-corruption-and-championing-oversight.html", "description" : "Ensuring that elected and public officials are exercising their power and spending tax dollars properly – and transparently – is many times easier said than done. Faisal Khan, former Legislative Inspector General in Chicago City Hall and current CEO of Project Six, will discuss how he works through an investigation into potential government corruption from the early planning stages to final vetting of information and data.", "speakers" : "Faisal Khan, Project Six", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "oversight", "date" : "August 23, 2016" } , { "title" : "Demand-Driven Open Data", "url" : "/events/2016/08/16/demand-driven-open-data.html", "description" : "How can government agencies get the most public good and economic value from their data assets? David Portnoy will talk about Demand-Driven Open Data at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and what he was able to accomplish with it.", "speakers" : "David Portnoy, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, open data", "date" : "August 16, 2016" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack", "url" : "/events/2016/08/09/potluck-and-open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 9, 2016" } , { "title" : "Petcokealerts.org: Simple tools supporting big objectives", "url" : "/blog/2016/08/05/simple-tools-supporting-big-objectives.html", "description" : "Petcokealerts.org supports advocacy groups on the southeast side in their fight against an environmental injustice.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 5, 2016" } , { "title" : "Settling for misconduct", "url" : "/events/2016/08/02/settling-for-misconduct.html", "description" : "Between 2012 and 2015, the City of Chicago spent more than $210 million for police misconduct lawsuits. Last month, The Chicago Reporter built a database of these lawsuits and published it. Database reporter Jonah Newman and data editor Matt Kiefer will explain why and how the Reporter pursued this project.", "speakers" : "Jonah Newman, The Chicago Reporter, Matt Kiefer, The Chicago Reporter", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, criminal justice", "date" : "August 2, 2016" } , { "title" : "Some of you do not really love women", "url" : "/blog/2016/07/28/some-of-you-do-not-really-love-women.html", "description" : "There is a lot of talk at Chi Hack Night right now about being inclusive. Truly including people means learning to appreciate the things they enjoy, the ways they express themselves, their style. If you don’t like the way women sound and socialize and approach professional life, maybe you…don’t really like women.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 28, 2016" } , { "title" : "Beyond the HealthCare.gov fix: making better government software", "url" : "/events/2016/07/26/beyond-the-healthcaregov-fix-making-better-government-software.html", "description" : "Paul Smith, one of the people who fixed HealthCare.gov and co-founder of government sofware agency Ad Hoc, will touch on what's happened in the nearly 3 years since the president's signature domestic policy was nearly upended by poorly-developed software. From the perspective of a new small company working in this space, there are reasons to be optimistic that change is happening and starting taking root across government.", "speakers" : "Paul Smith, Ad Hoc", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "July 26, 2016" } , { "title" : "July 19 lightning talks: empathy, inclusion and progress", "url" : "/blog/2016/07/21/lightning-talks-part-deux.html", "description" : "On July 19th 2016, we heard from 9 members of Chi Hack Night on the projects they’ve worked on and the lessons they’ve learned from our community. Though there was no defined theme or coordination among the presenters, all 9 talks ended up focusing on the topics of empathy, inclusion and progress.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 21, 2016" } , { "title" : "Lightning Talks! Part Deux", "url" : "/events/2016/07/19/lightning-talks-part-deux.html", "description" : "Based on the success of the lightning talks we did for our 200th episode, we’re giving it another go! We will hear from 10 members of Chi Hack Night about what they’ve done at or learned from our group. Each presenter gets 2 minutes!", "speakers" : "Derek Eder, Steven Vance, Eureka Foong, Rebecca Jones, Cathy Deng, Emily Zvolanek, Claire Micklin, Benjamin Cooper, Nick Mader, Eric Sherman", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "July 19, 2016" } , { "title" : "Cook County's New Website", "url" : "/events/2016/07/12/cook-county-website-redesign.html", "description" : "Cook County has a beautiful new website! Kathy Lynch, IT Communications Manager at the Cook County Bureau of Technology, will tell the story of how the new Cook County website came to be and its focus is on quickly getting visitors to the services the County provides.", "speakers" : "Kathy Lynch, Cook County Bureau of Technology", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "July 12, 2016" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2016/07/05/potluck-and-open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "July 5, 2016" } , { "title" : "Lightning Talks Return!", "url" : "/blog/2016/07/05/lightning-talks-ii.html", "description" : "Based on the success of the lightning talks we did for our 200th episode, we’re giving it another go on July 19th! Do you have an interesting or funny story to tell about Chi Hack Night? Want to show off that awesome civic project you’ve been working on? Now’s your chance to tell it to the world!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 5, 2016" } , { "title" : "ChiCommons", "url" : "/projects/2016/06/30/chi-commons.html", "description" : "ChiCommons Cooperative is a multi-stakeholder organization that grew out of ChiHackNight and Sustainability volunteer movements for common good. We are a worker-owned cooperative that runs community projects to increase economic solidarity and digital equity. We offer opportunities to get involved as a skills volunteer or co-owner.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Projects", "tags" : "Community, Digital Equity, Worker Cooperative, Stakeholders, Mesh Networks, Asset-based Community Development", "date" : "June 30, 2016" } , { "title" : "Chi Flack Night: City Hall Politics and Media", "url" : "/events/2016/06/28/city-hall-politics-and-media.html", "description" : "The landscape has been rapidly evolving in Chicago City Hall in recent months, with the City Council taking up key legislation on everything from rideshare regulation to AirBnb to police reform. Communications strategist Joanna Klonsky will talk about how the changing environment has created new opportunities to make progress in City Hall, and how she works with media to help advance the necessary narratives to make it happen.", "speakers" : "Joanna Klonsky, JKV Strategies", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "politics", "date" : "June 28, 2016" } , { "title" : "Taking Predictive Analytics to the Beach", "url" : "/blog/2016/06/23/taking-predictive-analytics-to-the-beach.html", "description" : "Chicago is piloting an analytical model to enhance its Park District’s regular beach water quality inspection process. The model, which was built entirely by a team of volunteers from Chicago’s civic tech community, aims to predict which beaches may need to close based on likely E. Coli contamination.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "June 23, 2016" } , { "title" : "Open Data in Gdańsk", "url" : "/events/2016/06/21/open-data-in-gdansk.html", "description" : "We will be joined by Tomasz Nadolny, Chief of Innovation and Head of Mayors Office in Gdańsk, Poland. Tomasz will share his work in government technology and how Gdańsk became the the first Polish city to implement an open data policy. He will also share several of their current initiatives, including GdanskLab, and discuss how they actively support their local Code for Poland brigade.", "speakers" : "Tomasz Nadolny, City of Gdańsk, Poland", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, international", "date" : "June 21, 2016" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2016/06/14/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another open hacking session! Come build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 14, 2016" } , { "title" : "HourVoice: A Workplace Transparency Platform", "url" : "/events/2016/06/07/hourvoice-a-workplace-transparency-platform.html", "description" : "Workplace monitoring, just-in-time scheduling and other technologies are making life more difficult for low-wage workers. HourVoice attempts to counteract this and other negative trends through crowdsourced transparency, rights education and data analysis.", "speakers" : "Don Chartier, HourVoice, Ryan Fischer, 20spokes", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy", "date" : "June 7, 2016" } , { "title" : "Chi Safe Path", "url" : "/blog/2016/06/03/chi-safe-path.html", "description" : "Chicago has some extremely treacherous sidewalks, curbs and cross ways that have the potential of doing great bodily injury to those with disabilities. To help with this problem, Steven Luker submitted an app to the Center for Neighborhood Technology Urban Sustainability App Competition this weekend to allow users to report, see, and route around bad sidewalks.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "June 3, 2016" } , { "title" : "Lucy Parsons Labs", "url" : "/events/2016/05/31/lucy-parsons-labs.html", "description" : "Lucy Parsons Labs is a new non-profit organization in Chicago that seeks to increase government transparency and accountability. They run a range of projects from opening up government data through FOIA to investigating police surveillance technology. Jennifer Helsby and Freddy Martinez will discuss Lucy Parsons Labs and its mission as well as share their newest project: a deployment of SecureDrop.", "speakers" : "Jennifer Helsby, Lucy Parsons Labs, Freddy Martinez, Lucy Parsons Labs", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice, privacy", "date" : "May 31, 2016" } , { "title" : "Greater Good Studio", "url" : "/events/2016/05/24/greater-good-studio.html", "description" : "The hardest part of running a social sector design studio isn’t what you think. Greater Good Studio is a human-centered design firm focused on social impact. George Aye, co-founder and principal, will talk about the projects they’ve worked on and challenges they’ve faced working in the social sector in Chicago.", "speakers" : "George Aye, Greater Good Studio", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "design", "date" : "May 24, 2016" } , { "title" : "Mysterious Disappearances", "url" : "/blog/2016/05/19/mysterious-disapearances.html", "description" : "It was a dark and stormy night. As I trudged through the downpour on the old steel bridge across the Chicago River, I was excited that we had finally reached a breakthrough. For months we had been developing the perfect formula, better than any government or nonprofit throughout the land, for using public data to rate nursing homes.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 19, 2016" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2016/05/17/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another open hacking session! Come build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "May 17, 2016" } , { "title" : "Citizens Police Data Project", "url" : "/events/2016/05/10/citizens-police-data-project.html", "description" : "After nearly a decade of fighting Chicago City Hall, records of police misconduct are now public information. For the past six months, the Invisible Institute has been building a set of publicly useful interfaces to these data called the Citizens Police Data Project, and working with investigative reporters to tell the stories contained within.", "speakers" : "Rajiv Sinclair, Invisible Institute, Chaclyn Hunt, Invisible Institute", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice, advocacy", "date" : "May 10, 2016" } , { "title" : "Personalized Bicycle Routing", "url" : "/events/2016/05/03/project-pavement.html", "description" : "For the past year, the Personalized Bicycle Routing (PBR for short) breakout group has been working to help Chicagoans navigate their city by bicycle. Zane Blanton will demonstrate a prototype system that crowd-sources the measurement of pavement quality via smartphones mounted on bicycles. This is Project Pavement!", "speakers" : "Zane Blanton", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transportation", "date" : "May 3, 2016" } , { "title" : "Predicting E. Coli levels in Chicago beaches", "url" : "/projects/2016/05/01/e-coli-predictions.html", "description" : "Chicago has three-dozen beaches that, sometimes, have high E. Coli levels. When do we need to warn the 9 million annual visitors of potentially high E. Coli levels? In 2016, members of Chi Hack Night built an improved statistical model to predict the E. coli levels at Chicago's beaches.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Projects", "tags" : "Predictive modeling, City partnership", "date" : "May 1, 2016" } , { "title" : "Center for Technology and Civic Life", "url" : "/events/2016/04/26/center-for-tech-and-civic-life.html", "description" : "The Center for Technology and Civic Life collects this disaggregated candidate and elected official information and turn it into standardized datasets for use by technologists, civic engagement organizations, and researchers. Tiana Epps-Johnson and Donny Bridges will show what data they currently have available and talk about their plans for the 2016 election.", "speakers" : "Tiana Epps-Johnson, Center for Technology and Civic Life, Donny Bridges, Center for Technology and Civic Life", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "elections", "date" : "April 26, 2016" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2016/04/19/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another open hacking session! Come build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 19, 2016" } , { "title" : "Tales from #200", "url" : "/blog/2016/04/15/tales-from-200.html", "description" : "April 12th, 2016 marked our 200th Chi Hack Night! From our humble beginnings on March 22nd, 2012 as 4 nerds sitting around a table eating macaroni, to this week with 130 people from across the city from all manner of backgrounds, skillsets and neighborhoods, we have come a long, long way. Here’s what happened at Chi Hack Night 200.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 15, 2016" } , { "title" : "200th Event Celebration!", "url" : "/events/2016/04/12/200th-event-celebration.html", "description" : "Happy Birthday Chi Hack Night! This night marks our 200th event to build, share and learn about civic tech! To celebrate this day, we will hear from 9 members of Chi Hack Night about what they’ve done at or learned from our group. Each presenter gets 2 minutes! Come celebrate, eat, build, share, and learn with us!", "speakers" : "Ben Galewsky, Eric van Zanten, Kevin Wei, Kristi Leach, Vinesh Kannan, Claire Micklin, Joel D. Inwood, Rene M Paccha, Cathy Deng", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "celebration", "date" : "April 12, 2016" } , { "title" : "#200 Celebration: A place to learn and grow civic tech leadership", "url" : "/blog/2016/04/12/200-celebration-a-place-to-learn-and-grow-civic-tech-leadership.html", "description" : "In both his State of the Union and his remarks at #SXSW, Chicagoan and President Barack Obama stated that the most important office in a democracy was that of the Office of the Citizen. At Chi Hack Night, we’re privileged to be part of an active movement of people getting engaged in their communities through the use of technology.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 12, 2016" } , { "title" : "#200 Celebration: Why I Attend Chicago Hack Night Events", "url" : "/blog/2016/04/11/200-celebration-why-i-attend-chicago-hack-night-events.html", "description" : "I’ve been attending Chicago Hack Night events for at least 2 years and I’m writing this article to help celebrate their 200th weekly gathering. This image is from May 29, 2016, where the Heartland Alliance presented information. You can see me in the middle, sitting by the wall. That’s my usual spot. Helps me see better.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 11, 2016" } , { "title" : "#200 Celebration: Becoming a Runner-Up in a Hackathon (without writing a single line of code)", "url" : "/blog/2016/04/10/200-celebration-becoming-a-runner-up-in-a-hackathon-without-writing-a-single-line-of-code.html", "description" : "It was September 2012, and I was reading a description for the Reinventing Chicago event at CNT (Center for Neighborhood Technology) the following month. The cost was $100, which isn’t a huge amount of money, but not exactly pocket change, at least not for me. But just as I was about to enter my payment information, I noticed that hackathon participants could attend for free. Even though I had no idea what a hackathon was, I figured, it was a weekend. How bad could it be?", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 10, 2016" } , { "title" : "#200 Celebration: Why I Come to Chi Hack Night", "url" : "/blog/2016/04/09/200-celebration-why-i-come-to-chi-hack-night.html", "description" : "I don’t code or design or project manage or map. I am a writer. And an improviser. And sometimes a marketer. And I read a lot of books. Despite that, I have felt so welcome. More importantly, I’ve realized how every problem is interdisciplinary and we need everyone on board—everyone from all backgrounds— to solve them.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 9, 2016" } , { "title" : "#200 Celebration: Congratulations from Cook County Government!", "url" : "/blog/2016/04/08/200-celebration-congratulations-from-cook-county-government.html", "description" : "Simona Rollinson, Cook County's Chief Information Officer, offers her congratulations to Chi Hack Night and the broader civic tech ecosystem in Cook County. In addition to providing data and information, she hopes to strengthen the fabric of this community. A strong civic tech community is a public asset.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 8, 2016" } , { "title" : "City Bureau", "url" : "/events/2016/04/05/city-bureau.html", "description" : "City Bureau is a new neighborhood newsroom and journalism training lab based on the South and West sides of Chicago. Editorial and education directors Darryl Holliday and Andrea Hart will explore how the group uses data, traditional reporting and a unique collaborative approach in its investigations and civics-based community outreach.", "speakers" : "Darryl Holliday, City Bureau, Andrea Hart, City Bureau", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "April 5, 2016" } , { "title" : "Heartland Alliance", "url" : "/events/2016/03/29/heartland-alliance.html", "description" : "Patricio Cadena, Senior Director of Information Technology and Amy Terpstra, Director of Research will talk about their vision for transforming Heartland Alliance into a hub of data- and research-informed innovation for ending poverty. They’ll discuss their ideas around developing a cohesive results framework and implementing robust tech solutions–and what about all this keeps them up at night and keeps them pushing forward.", "speakers" : "Patricio Cadena, Heartland Alliance, Amy Terpstra, Heartland Alliance", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "nonprofit", "date" : "March 29, 2016" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night #200: Call for speakers and writers", "url" : "/blog/2016/03/25/chi-hack-night-200-call-for-speakers-and-writers.html", "description" : "April 12, 2016 will mark the 200th episode of Chi Hack Night. To celebrate this day, we want to hear from you, the members of Chi Hack Night, about what you’ve done with or learned from this group. You can participate in two ways: by doing a lightning talk or writing a blog post.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 25, 2016" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2016/03/22/potluck-and-open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 22, 2016" } , { "title" : "Data used by political campaigns", "url" : "/events/2016/03/15/data-used-by-political-campaign.html", "description" : "It’s election night, and we’re getting a special look into the data used by political campaigns while we watch the results come in. Will Caskey, partner at Stanford/Caskey, will talk about the curious art and science of opposition research: how it’s collected, how it’s not, and how it’s put to use by campaigns. He’ll also discuss various examples of opposition research in the current election.", "speakers" : "Will Caskey, Stanford/Caskey", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "politics, elections", "date" : "March 15, 2016" } , { "title" : "BallotReady", "url" : "/events/2016/03/08/ballotready.html", "description" : "With the March 15th Primary right around the corner, it’s time to get educated about the candidates. Thankfully, there’s an app for that! BallotReady is an online voter guide for local elections. Their mission is to make it easy to vote informed on every candidate. Alex Niemczewski, CEO of BallotReady, will discuss their app and how big of a problem voting uninformed is.", "speakers" : "Alex Niemczewski, BallotReady", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "elections", "date" : "March 8, 2016" } , { "title" : "So you built an app, now what? Guerilla marketing protips for civic tech apps", "url" : "/blog/2016/03/04/so-you-built-an-app-now-what-guerilla-marketing-protips-for-civic-tech-apps.html", "description" : "On Feb 23rd 2016, Joel Inwood hosted a one-time breakout session at Chi Hack Night to discuss lean and feedback-centric methods of promoting your civic app. Three participants had their own project that needed some exposure, each of which is described below in the form of a case study that may provide some inspiration. We have generalized some guerilla marketing methods at the end that you should be able to apply to your own project.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 4, 2016" } , { "title" : "Jen Pahlka, Code for America", "url" : "/events/2016/03/01/jen-pahlka-code-for-america.html", "description" : "Code for America is San Francisco-based non-profit founded in 2009 to address the widening gap between the public and private sectors in their effective use of technology and design. Jen Pahlka, Founder and Executive Director, will share a bit about the challenges the 2016 fellowship teams are tackling and what they are learning about in the issues of economic development, criminal justice, and human services.", "speakers" : "Jen Pahlka, Code for America", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "March 1, 2016" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2016/02/23/potluck-and-open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have another civic hacking potluck! If you'd like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts! We'll provide the usual empanadas too. While we eat, we'll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "February 23, 2016" } , { "title" : "Understanding the Chicago Public Schools Financial Crisis", "url" : "/events/2016/02/16/understanding-the-chicago-public-schools-financial-crisis.html", "description" : "As you have probably heard, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is in the middle of a financial crisis. But how much money does CPS have left? Why is the district running out of cash? And when did it become clear to school officials that a financial crisis was brewing? Heather Gillers will share some of the findings she’s written about as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune.", "speakers" : "Heather Gillers, Chicago Tribune", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, education", "date" : "February 16, 2016" } , { "title" : "Transforming Technology in the State of Illinois", "url" : "/events/2016/02/09/illinois-state-cio-hardik-bhatt.html", "description" : "The State of Illinois is currently going through a major transformation. While technology plays a critical role in this change, the technology that government uses is undergoing a transformation of its own. Hardik Bhatt, Chief Information Officer for the State of Illinois, will talk about the technology changes the State of Illinois is undertaking, centered around building a data analytics practice", "speakers" : "Hardik Bhatt, Chief Information Officer for the State of Illinois", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "February 9, 2016" } , { "title" : "Adrienne Alexander tells Chi Hack Night what she does as a union lobbyist", "url" : "/blog/2016/02/03/adrienne-alexander-tells-chi-hack-night-what-she-does-as-a-union-lobbyist.html", "description" : "Adrienne Alexander came to Chi Hack Night last night to tell us about her experience as a lobbyist working for the state’s largest public employees union.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 3, 2016" } , { "title" : "Lobbying Chicago City Council", "url" : "/events/2016/02/02/lobbying-chicago-city-council.html", "description" : "Adrienne Alexander, Policy & Legislative Specialist for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31, will discuss her experience with the policy process in Chicago over the past five years.", "speakers" : "Adrienne Alexander, AFSCME Council 31", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "politics", "date" : "February 2, 2016" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2016/01/26/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week - just come to build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "January 26, 2016" } , { "title" : "Introducing Open Grid", "url" : "/events/2016/01/19/introducing-open-grid.html", "description" : "Tom Schenk, Jr and Daniel X. O’Neil will debut a new project by the City of Chicago called OpenGrid — an open-source, next generation version of WindyGrid — that will allow the public to navigate Chicago’s open data in a more intuitive interface.", "speakers" : "Tom Schenk, Jr - City of Chicago, Daniel X. O'Neil - Smart Chicago Collaborative", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "January 19, 2016" } , { "title" : "Freedom of Information and Laquan McDonald", "url" : "/blog/2016/01/19/freedom-of-information-and-laquan-mcdonald.html", "description" : "The story of how the Laquan McDonald video got released thanks to one curious journalist and the Freedom of Information Act.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 19, 2016" } , { "title" : "How the Laquan McDonald video got released", "url" : "/events/2016/01/12/how-the-laquan-mcdonald-video-got-released.html", "description" : "Brandon Smith, the independent journalist whose successful lawsuit forced the release of the Laquan McDonald video, will talk about his efforts to get it released, the effect it has had in Chicago, and the importance of having citizens understand how to get information via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to keep our government accountable.", "speakers" : "Brandon Smith, Independent Journalist", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "foia, criminal justice", "date" : "January 12, 2016" } , { "title" : "City Haul: Investigating Chicago's Payroll", "url" : "/events/2016/01/05/city-haul-investigating-chicagos-payroll.html", "description" : "We’re starting 2016 off with a bang! Sun-Times reporters Chris Fusco and Tim Novak will walk us through the process of obtaining and analyzing data on all of the ways City of Chicago workers are compensated.", "speakers" : "Chris Fusco, Chicago Sun-Times, Tim Novak, Chicago Sun-Times", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "January 5, 2016" } , { "title" : "Illinois Budget Clock", "url" : "/projects/2016/01/01/illinois-budget-clock.html", "description" : "Illinois Budget Clock aggregates stories of the impact of the 2016 Illinois state budget impasse in order to impose a greater sense of urgency and pressure Illinois politicians to act.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Projects", "tags" : "Issue advocacy", "date" : "January 1, 2016" } , { "title" : "Chi Hack Night: 2015 Year in Review", "url" : "/blog/2015/12/22/chi-hack-night-2015-year-in-review.html", "description" : "It’s the end of the year, and time to reflect on all the amazing things we accomplished in 2015 at the Chi Hack Night, Chicago’s place to build, share and learn about civic tech. Our community has never been as large, as diverse, as engaged and as productive as it is now. We have a lot to be proud of.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "December 22, 2015" } , { "title" : "Potluck & Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2015/12/15/potluck-and-open-hack-session.html", "description" : "For our last Chi Hack Night of 2015, we’re having a holiday potluck! If you’d like, please bring drinks, snacks or desserts. While we eat, we’ll build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "December 15, 2015" } , { "title" : "Nothing About Us Without Us: Participatory Action Research", "url" : "/events/2015/12/08/noting-about-us-without-us-participatory-action-research.html", "description" : "Participatory action reseach is a approach to research that collaborates with communities to understand the world and to change it. Dr. Dave Stovall, Professor of African American Studies and Educational Policy Studies at UIC, practices this method in his work and will help us think about some of the ethical challenges of arms-length research.", "speakers" : "Dr. Dave Stovall, UIC", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity", "date" : "December 8, 2015" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2015/12/01/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week - just come to build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "December 1, 2015" } , { "title" : "10 lessons from organizing Chi Hack Night", "url" : "/blog/2015/11/23/10-lessons-from-organizing-the-chi-hack-night.html", "description" : "Chi Hack Night has been referenced as the largest, most successful and productive civic hacking community around. This post is my first attempt at synthesizing and sharing our organizing model, starting with 10 lessons we've learned over the years.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 23, 2015" } , { "title" : "Using data from the American Community Survey", "url" : "/events/2015/11/17/using-data-from-the-american-community-survey.html", "description" : "The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing statistical survey run by the U.S. Census Bureau. Chicago data experts Rob Paral, Joe Germuska and Nina Sandlin will give us an intro, as well as practical tips on accessing and using this data.", "speakers" : "Rob Paral, Rob Paral and Associates, Joe Germuska, CensusReporter.org, Nina Sandlin, Health & Disability Advocates", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "open data, howto", "date" : "November 17, 2015" } , { "title" : "Cryptoparty: Digital Security for Everyone", "url" : "/events/2015/11/10/cryptoparty-digital-security-for-everyone.html", "description" : "Jennifer Helsby from Cryptoparty Chicago will talk about her work in hosting Cryptoparties - free events to teach people activists, lawyers, journalists, and everyday people how to use privacy tools to secure their data.", "speakers" : "Jennifer Helsby, Cryptoparty Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "privacy", "date" : "November 10, 2015" } , { "title" : "Covering schools through public records and data", "url" : "/events/2015/11/03/covering-schools-through-public-records-and-data.html", "description" : "Continuing on our education theme from last week, we have a special presentation on using public records and data for investigative journalism. Sarah Karp, Senior Investigator for the Better Government Association, will talk about her work investigating private companies that do work with Chicago Public Schools and breaking the Barbara Byrd-Bennett / Supes Academy corruption story in 2013.", "speakers" : "Sarah Karp, Better Government Association", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, education", "date" : "November 3, 2015" } , { "title" : "How does CPS's budget crisis affect my school?", "url" : "/events/2015/10/27/your-cps.html", "description" : "To help parents and students dissect the CPS budget crisis and know what the specific impacts would be on his/her school, Lingwei Cheng and Patricia Gomes from the Northwestern University Knight Lab built Your CPS, a data-driven dynamic article that delivers personalized and interactive content about every CPS school.", "speakers" : "Lingwei Cheng, University of Chicago, Patricia Gomes,Folha de S.Paulo", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "October 27, 2015" } , { "title" : "The inside track on how Aldertrack works", "url" : "/blog/2015/10/24/the-inside-track-on-how-aldertrack-works.html", "description" : "Mike Fourcher, founder of Aldertrack, and perpetual “news startup antagonist” (okay, I don’t remember the actual adjective he used), joined his colleague Claudia Morell, a reporter, and us at ChiHackNight on Tuesday night to explain how Aldertrack works.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 24, 2015" } , { "title" : "Aldertrack’s Clout.Wiki and Quarterly Report: Triumphs of Shoeleather Reporting", "url" : "/events/2015/10/20/aldertracks-cloutwiki-and-quarterly-report-triumphs-of-shoeleather-reporting.html", "description" : "Earlier this Fall Aldertrack released the free Clout.Wiki, a wiki of Chicago politicians, and The Quarterly Report, the first of a regularly updated directory of hundreds of Chicago city commission and board members.", "speakers" : "Mike Fourcher, Aldertrack Publisher, Claudia Morell, Aldertrack Reporter", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "October 20, 2015" } , { "title" : "RideW/Me: A Transportation App for Youth", "url" : "/events/2015/10/13/ride-w-me.html", "description" : "RideW/Me is an app that makes it easier for youth to travel safely to learning events across their City. Robert Friedman, Marina Malone, Chris Bohl, Kevin Yaroch from the RideW/Me team will demo their app and talk about how it will test whether transportation is a real or perceived barrier to equitable access and participation for young people in a city.", "speakers" : "Robert Friedman, Mozilla Hive Chicago Learning Network, Marina Malone, Senior at Lane Tech High School, Chris Bohl, Bellwether Creation Company, Kevin Yaroch, Hurricane Electric", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transportation, breakout", "date" : "October 13, 2015" } , { "title" : "The labor required to keep civic apps alive", "url" : "/blog/2015/10/09/the-labor-required-to-keep-civic-apps-alive.html", "description" : "The CPS Tiers map doesn’t update automagically. I volunteer my time to keep it accurate and up to date, and it’s worth doing.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 9, 2015" } , { "title" : "311 is back in the spotlight after 3 years", "url" : "/blog/2015/10/08/311-is-back-in-the-spotlight-after-3-years.html", "description" : "Last week, for budget “season” in Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed privatizing the 311 system – where citizens and aldermen request services from any city department, and citizens get information about city services – as a way to pay for the technology upgrade the system desperately needs.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 8, 2015" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2015/10/06/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week - just come to build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 6, 2015" } , { "title" : "Chicago Police Board Information Center", "url" : "/events/2015/09/29/chicago-police-board-information-center.html", "description" : "Tracy Siska from the Chicago Justice Project will debut the Chicago Police Board Information Center, an interactive website that makes 15 years of Chicago Police Board charges, decisions, and board member votes available for analysis available online for the first time ever.", "speakers" : "Tracy Siska, Chicago Justice Project", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice, advocacy", "date" : "September 29, 2015" } , { "title" : "Meet Team #ChiHackNight at the Code for America Summit", "url" : "/blog/2015/09/28/meet-team-chi-hack-night.html", "description" : "The Chi Hack Night will be sending 13 members of our community to the Code for America Summit September 30th - October 2nd, 2015. We had everyone who went answer a few questions about themselves and what they’re looking forward to at this year’s Summit. We can’t wait to meet everyone there!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "September 28, 2015" } , { "title" : "Results of our community feedback session", "url" : "/blog/2015/09/23/results-of-our-community-feedback-session.html", "description" : "Yesterday, the Chi Hack Night had our first ever community feedback session. The Chi Hack Night has grown and changed a lot over the last 3 ½ years, and we wanted to take the time and hear from everyone on how it’s going, and how we can make it better. To handle our large group (there were about 70 people in attendance), we broke out into four groups, led by Genevieve Nielsen, Rose Afriyie, Cathy Deng and Karl Fogel, to provide feedback on four topics.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "September 23, 2015" } , { "title" : "Community Feedback Session", "url" : "/events/2015/09/22/community-feedback-session.html", "description" : "Instead of a presentation, we want to give everyone in the community a chance to voice their opinion. We will break out into groups and provide feedback on four topics.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "community", "date" : "September 22, 2015" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2015/09/15/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week - just come to build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "September 15, 2015" } , { "title" : "Black Tech Mecca", "url" : "/events/2015/09/08/black-tech-mecca.html", "description" : "Fabian Elliott, Corey Thurman and Myron Hicks will explain why they believe Chicago can become the ‘Global Black Tech Mecca’ and share how Black Tech Mecca plans to bring that to pass.", "speakers" : "Fabian Elliott, Black Tech Mecca, Corey Thurman, Black Tech Mecca, Myron Hicks, Black Tech Mecca", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity, breakout", "date" : "September 8, 2015" } , { "title" : "Calculating the Impact of Transit-Oriented Development in Chicago", "url" : "/events/2015/09/01/calculating-the-impact-of-transit-oriented-development-in-chicago.html", "description" : "Yonah Freemark and Ryan Griffin-Stegink from the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) will demo Grow Chicago, a new website MPC uses to advocate for transit-oriented development in the Chicago region.", "speakers" : "Yonah Freemark, Metropolitan Planning Council, Ryan Griffin-Stegink, Metropolitan Planning Council", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transportation, housing", "date" : "September 1, 2015" } , { "title" : "mRelief", "url" : "/projects/2015/09/01/mrelief.html", "description" : "mRelief is a non-for-profit organization that has built an easy-to-use platform on web and text messaging for low-income Americans to find out if they qualify for the most important social services such as food stamps.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Projects", "tags" : "Social services, Text messaging, Non-profit", "date" : "September 1, 2015" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2015/08/25/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week - just come to build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 25, 2015" } , { "title" : "2015 Data Science for Social Good Projects", "url" : "/events/2015/08/18/2015-data-science-for-social-good-projects.html", "description" : "The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Data Science for Social Good Summer Fellowship is wrapping up their third year here in Chicago. We’ll be hearing final presentations by three of their teams.", "speakers" : "Lauren Haynes, Data Science for Social Good, Matt Gee, Data Science for Social Good", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, nonprofit", "date" : "August 18, 2015" } , { "title" : "The Chicago Early Learning Finder", "url" : "/events/2015/08/11/the-chicago-early-learning-finder.html", "description" : "Cara Bader from the City of Chicago, Rose Afriyie and Genevieve Nielsen from mRelief, along with Sonja Marziano from the Smart Chicago Collaborative will demo the Early Learning Finder, a new project done in partnership with the City of Chicago Early Learning Portal.", "speakers" : "Rose Afriyie, mRelief, Genevieve Nielsen, mRelief, Sonja Marziano, Smart Chicago Collaborative, Cara Bader, City of Chicago Innovation Delivery Team", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "August 11, 2015" } , { "title" : "Illinois Sunshine", "url" : "/events/2015/08/04/illinois-sunshine.html", "description" : "David Melton and Sarah Brune from The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, along with Derek Eder and Eric van Zanten of DataMade, will debut Illinois Sunshine, a new website for exploring money in Illinois politics.", "speakers" : "David Melton, The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, Sarah Brune, The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, Derek Eder, DataMade, Eric van Zanten, DataMade", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "elections", "date" : "August 4, 2015" } , { "title" : "Reporting on Poverty and School Achievement", "url" : "/events/2015/07/28/reporting-on-poverty-and-school-achievement.html", "description" : "Tim Broderick, Daily Herald news art editor, and WBEZ reporter Linda Lutton will discuss their reporting and analysis on the link between poverty and school achievement in Illinois.", "speakers" : "Linda Lutton, WBEZ Education Reporter, Tim Broderick, Daily Herald News Presentation Editor", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, education", "date" : "July 28, 2015" } , { "title" : "Chicago's Million Dollar Blocks", "url" : "/events/2015/07/21/chicagos-million-dollar-blocks.html", "description" : "Chicago's Million Dollar Blocks is a newly launched website exploring where Illinois incarceration spending is targeted. Dan Cooper will discuss justice research and alternatives to incarceration. Cathy Deng will discuss design decisions involved in making the interactive story to share these ideas.", "speakers" : "Dan Cooper, Adler School of Professional Psychology, Cathy Deng, DataMade", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice", "date" : "July 21, 2015" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2015/07/14/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week - just come to build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "July 14, 2015" } , { "title" : "Social Strategies in Chicago Activism", "url" : "/events/2015/07/07/social-strategies-in-chicago-activism.html", "description" : "How do Chicago activists generate buzz and media coverage with no budget? Rachael Perrotta, Media Relations Activist, will give a look behind the scenes at the social media and public relations tools and strategies used by local groups like the Trauma Care Coalition, fighting for level 1 trauma care on the South Side of Chicago since 2010.", "speakers" : "Rachael Perrotta, Media Relations Activist", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy", "date" : "July 7, 2015" } , { "title" : "Using Technology to Fight Ebola", "url" : "/events/2015/06/30/using-technology-to-fight-ebola.html", "description" : "Kambale Musavuli, consultant at ThoughtWorks and spokesperson for Friends of the Congo, will talk about his work in providing support to African techies at the frontline of the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.", "speakers" : "Kambale Musavuli, ThoughtWorks", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "international", "date" : "June 30, 2015" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2015/06/23/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week - just come to build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "June 23, 2015" } , { "title" : "Cook County Data", "url" : "/events/2015/06/16/cook-county-data.html", "description" : "Representatives from the Cook County Performance Management Office, Bureau of Technology, County Clerk, Health and Hospitals System, Sheriff’s Office and other Cook County IT Departments will take your questions and hear your open data wish lists.", "speakers" : "Andrew Schwarm, Cook County Chief Performance Officer, Derrick Thomas, Director of Application Development and Management for the Cook County Bureau of Technology, Poh Png, Director of IT for the Cook County Clerk’s Office, Donna Hart, Director of Information Systems at the Cook County Health and Hospitals System", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "open data", "date" : "June 16, 2015" } , { "title" : "The Return of Slow Roll Chicago", "url" : "/events/2015/06/09/the-return-of-slow-roll-chicago.html", "description" : "Olatunji Oboi Reed, Sonju Walker, Derek Burk, Mary Kuhn and Eric Sherman will present their app, the Bicycle Equity Data Project, which uses data to tell the story of inequity in the City of Chicago’s changing approaches to distributing bike infrastructure.", "speakers" : "Olatunji Oboi Reed, Sonju Walker, Derek Burk, Mary Kuhn, Eric Sherman", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity, breakout, transportation", "date" : "June 9, 2015" } , { "title" : "CitySDK from the US Census Bureau", "url" : "/events/2015/06/02/citysdk-from-the-us-census-bureau.html", "description" : "Jeff Meisel, Presidential Innovation Fellow at the US Census Bureau and 18F will present CitySDK, a toolbox for civic innovators to connect local and national public data.", "speakers" : "Jeff Meisel, Presidential Innovation Fellow", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "open data, howto", "date" : "June 2, 2015" } , { "title" : "Slow Roll Chicago - Bike Equity Project", "url" : "/projects/2015/06/01/chicago-bike-equity.html", "description" : "Visualization and analysis of Chicago bike lanes. An effort to show the distribution of bike infrastructure investments in Chicago, while at the same time showing how those were related to socioeconomic and health indicators. ", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Projects", "tags" : "Issue advocacy, Mapping", "date" : "June 1, 2015" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2015/05/26/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "No presentation this week - just come to build, share, and learn about civic tech!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "May 26, 2015" } , { "title" : "Why the Slow Roll Chicago working group uses GitHub to collaborate", "url" : "/blog/2015/05/25/why-the-slow-roll-chicago-working-group-uses-github-to-collaborate.html", "description" : "Email wasn’t just limiting our discussion quality and member inclusion, it was also limiting file storage, file sharing, and file versioning (which file is the latest?). Email has tended to demand a lot of attention, and there’s a lot of wasted time typing responses. I wanted to use a tool that didn’t have such demands, and that helped organize responses into actionable requests and delegation.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 25, 2015" } , { "title" : "Predicting Food Inspection Outcomes Using Open Data", "url" : "/events/2015/05/19/predicting-food-inspection-outcomes-using-open-data.html", "description" : "Tom Schenk, Gene Leynes, Gerrin Butler, Raed Mansour from Jon Levy the City of Chicago will present on a predictive model they developed to estimate the riskiest food establishments to assist in the City’s food inspection operations.", "speakers" : "Tom Schenk, Gene Leynes, Gerrin Butler, Raed Mansour, Jon Levy", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, data analytics", "date" : "May 19, 2015" } , { "title" : "The Naru Project", "url" : "/events/2015/05/12/the-naru-project.html", "description" : "Zachary Damato and Nick Wesley, from The Naru Project will talk about their non-for-profit that focuses on incorporating artificial wetlands into our city’s river systems.", "speakers" : "Zachary Damato, Nick Wesley", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "May 12, 2015" } , { "title" : "Introducing Chi Hack Night", "url" : "/blog/2015/05/12/introducing-chi-hack-night.html", "description" : "I’m happy to announce the new name and logo for our event. Since we started 3 years and 155 events ago, our event has grown into a community all it’s own. We emerged out of the Open Government movement here in Chicago, and have become something much more. We’re not just about Open Gov anymore. We’re about Chicago.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 12, 2015" } , { "title" : "Modelling Pension Reform in Illinois", "url" : "/events/2015/05/05/modelling-pension-reform-in-illinois.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Ben Galewsky, David Melton, Nathan Pinger, Denis Roarty, Tim Sharko", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "breakout, pensions", "date" : "May 5, 2015" } , { "title" : "Petcoke Alerts", "url" : "/projects/2015/05/01/petcoke-alerts.html", "description" : "A text message alert system to inform residents around KCBX Terminals in Chicago's 10th Ward that windspeed is high, and that they are therefore at increased risk of exposure to petroleum coke ('petcoke').", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Projects", "tags" : "Issue advocacy, Text messaging", "date" : "May 1, 2015" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2015/04/28/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 28, 2015" } , { "title" : "American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois", "url" : "/events/2015/04/21/american-civil-liberties-union-of-illinois.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Karen Sheley, ACLU", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "criminal justice", "date" : "April 21, 2015" } , { "title" : "There Are No Innocents: Data Rebroadcasting and Server-Side Responsibility", "url" : "/events/2015/04/14/there-are-no-innocents-data-rebroadcasting-and-server-side-responsibility.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Karl Fogel, Open Tech Strategies, LLC", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "open data", "date" : "April 14, 2015" } , { "title" : "Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council", "url" : "/events/2015/04/07/illinois-sentencing-policy-advisory-council.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Nate Inglis Steinfeld, SPAC", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, criminal justice", "date" : "April 7, 2015" } , { "title" : "The Market for Philanthropic Lemons", "url" : "/events/2015/03/31/the-market-for-philanthropic-lemons.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Andrew Means, The Impact Lab", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "nonprofit", "date" : "March 31, 2015" } , { "title" : "DIY Environmental Monitoring", "url" : "/events/2015/03/24/diy-environmental-monitoring.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Benjamin Sugar, Public Lab, Olga Bautista, Community Organizer", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment, advocacy", "date" : "March 24, 2015" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2015/03/17/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "March 17, 2015" } , { "title" : "Design for America: Data and Empathy", "url" : "/events/2015/03/10/design-for-america.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Rob Calvey, Design for America, Julian Bongiorno, Design for America", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "design", "date" : "March 10, 2015" } , { "title" : "Data in Schools: An Anatomy Lesson", "url" : "/events/2015/03/03/data-in-schools.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Andrew Martin, KIPP New Jersey, Juan-Pablo Velez, Polynumeral", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "March 3, 2015" } , { "title" : "Municipal Election Night", "url" : "/events/2015/02/24/municipal-election-night.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "celebration", "date" : "February 24, 2015" } , { "title" : "Hive Chicago", "url" : "/events/2015/02/17/hive-chicago.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Robert Friedman, Hive Chicago, Kyla Williams, Smart Chicago Collaborative", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "nonprofit", "date" : "February 17, 2015" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2015/02/10/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "February 10, 2015" } , { "title" : "Aldertrack", "url" : "/events/2015/02/03/aldertrack.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Jimm Dispensa, Aldertrack", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "February 3, 2015" } , { "title" : "Slow Roll Chicago", "url" : "/events/2015/01/27/slow-roll-chicago.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Olatunji Oboi Reed, Slow Roll Chicago, Steven Vance, Chi Hack Night", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "equity, transportation", "date" : "January 27, 2015" } , { "title" : "How Data Can Advance Economic Justice", "url" : "/blog/2015/01/27/how-data-can-advance-economic-justice.html", "description" : "At Woodstock Institute, our mission is to advance economic justice, particularly for low-wealth communities and communities of color. To move towards this goal, we prepare data concerning economic justice and empower others to use and understand it. As our national partners at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition say, data drive the movement.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 27, 2015" } , { "title" : "Translating Data into Cinema", "url" : "/events/2015/01/20/translating-data-into-cinema.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Ben Kolak, Scrappers Film Group, Brian Ashby, Scrappers Film Group", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "January 20, 2015" } , { "title" : "Mob Programming as an Open Door to Learning to Program", "url" : "/blog/2015/01/15/mob-programming-as-an-open-door-to-learning-to-program.html", "description" : "The flourishing of the Civic Tech movement has brought techies and citizens together, using technology to make cities more transparent and better coordinated. The movement’s strength and joy is its diversity - Chicago’s Open Gov Hack Night attracts a wide range of talents and interests each week, from web designers to database managers, data scientists, designers, business intelligence professionals, journalists, government representatives, social science researchers, non-profits and community organizers.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 15, 2015" } , { "title" : "The Great Migration", "url" : "/events/2015/01/13/the-great-migration.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "January 13, 2015" } , { "title" : "Woodstock Institute Map and Data Compendium", "url" : "/events/2015/01/06/woodstock-institute-map-and-data-compendium.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Katie Buitrago, Woodstock Institute, Julianna Nunez, Woodstock Institute", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "open data, housing", "date" : "January 6, 2015" } , { "title" : "Open Gov Hack Night: 2014 Year in Review", "url" : "/blog/2015/01/06/open-gov-hack-night-2014-year-in-review.html", "description" : "The Open Gov Hack Night is Chicago’s weekly event to build, share, and learn about civic tech. And, boy, was it ever a place to do just that in 2014. Looking back over the last calendar year, we did a lot - too much to recount in one blog post. But I can hit the highlights!", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 6, 2015" } , { "title" : "My Building Doesn't Recycle", "url" : "/projects/2015/01/01/my-building-doesnt-recycle.html", "description" : "My Building Doesn't Recycle is a app that allows Chicago residents of high-density (5 or more residential units) apartment buildings to report that their building management is not providing recycling services. The goal of the app was to get the city to strengthen and enforce the existing recycling law, which it succeeded in doing.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Projects", "tags" : "Issue advocacy, Mapping", "date" : "January 1, 2015" } , { "title" : "Open Source, Closed Data", "url" : "/blog/2014/12/20/open-source-closed-data.html", "description" : "One problem organizations have faced in the past when opening up their data is that, well, the data has to remain closed. For example, data with either HIPAA or FERPA provisions is pretty much stuck in a closed state. Furthermore, many organizations are reluctant to open up certain datasets. However, all hope is not lost - this post will advance the idea of Open Source, Closed Data and present several implementation strategies.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "December 20, 2014" } , { "title" : "A Jolly Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2014/12/16/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "December 16, 2014" } , { "title" : "Civic User Testing Group", "url" : "/events/2014/12/09/civic-user-testing-group.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Daniel X. O'Neil, Smart Chicago Collaborative", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "user testing", "date" : "December 9, 2014" } , { "title" : "Hour of Code", "url" : "/events/2014/12/02/hour-of-code.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Jamal Cornelious, Chicago Public Schools", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "December 2, 2014" } , { "title" : "An Intro to Web Scraping with Python", "url" : "/blog/2014/11/26/an-intro-to-web-scraping-with-python.html", "description" : "Web scraping is the task of extracting data from a website. It’s a nifty skill in any technologist’s toolkit because interesting data isn’t always accessible via an API or in a table/csv - sometimes, interesting data is just sitting on a webpage.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 26, 2014" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session (formerly Travel Modeling at CMAP)", "url" : "/events/2014/11/25/transit-modeling-at-cmap.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "November 25, 2014" } , { "title" : "Introducing Civic Tech Voices", "url" : "/blog/2014/11/24/introducing-civic-tech-voices.html", "description" : "Nowadays, more and more folks are paying attention to civic tech, seeing potential at the intersection of civics & all things digital. Civic Tech Voices is a collaborative blogging experiment, of sorts, with the goal of amplifying more diverse perspectives & stories in civic tech.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Blog", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 24, 2014" } , { "title" : "Open Source Tech at the American Red Cross", "url" : "/events/2014/11/18/american-red-cross.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Jim McGowan, American Red Cross", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "nonprofit, open source", "date" : "November 18, 2014" } , { "title" : "Social Service Eligibility with mRelief", "url" : "/events/2014/11/11/social-service-eligibility-with-mrelief.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Rose Afriyie, mRelief, Marina Goldshteyn, mRelief, Ellie Day, mRelief", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "social service, breakout", "date" : "November 11, 2014" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2014/11/04/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "November 4, 2014" } , { "title" : "Citizen Advocacy Center", "url" : "/events/2014/10/28/citizen-advocacy-center.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Maryam Judar, Citizen Advocacy Center", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy, foia", "date" : "October 28, 2014" } , { "title" : "Right to Information in India", "url" : "/events/2014/10/21/right-to-information-in-india.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Rakesh Dubbudu, Right to Information Fellow", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "international, foia", "date" : "October 21, 2014" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2014/10/14/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "October 14, 2014" } , { "title" : "Chicago Public Schools Website Redesign", "url" : "/events/2014/10/07/chicago-public-schools-website-redesign.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Jay Van Patten, Chicago Public Schools", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "October 7, 2014" } , { "title" : "Data + Design, An Open Source E-book", "url" : "/events/2014/09/30/the-making-of-data-plus-design.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Trina Chiasson, InfoActive", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "open source, design", "date" : "September 30, 2014" } , { "title" : "Chicago Cityscape", "url" : "/events/2014/09/23/chicago-cityscape.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Steven Vance, Chicago Cityscape", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "open data, housing", "date" : "September 23, 2014" } , { "title" : "The Story of Large Lots", "url" : "/events/2014/09/16/the-story-of-large-lots.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Derek Eder, DataMade, Demond Drummer, Teamwork Englewood", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, nonprofit", "date" : "September 16, 2014" } , { "title" : "Narrative Science", "url" : "/events/2014/09/09/narrative-science.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Dan Platt, Narrative Science, Craig Booth, Narrative Science", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "data analytics", "date" : "September 9, 2014" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2014/09/02/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "September 2, 2014" } , { "title" : "Red Light Camera Tickets", "url" : "/events/2014/08/26/red-light-camera-tickets.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Alex Bordens, Chicago Tribune, Alex Richards, Chicago Tribune", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism", "date" : "August 26, 2014" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2014/08/19/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "August 19, 2014" } , { "title" : "Three Final Presentations from DSSG", "url" : "/events/2014/08/12/three-final-presentations-from-dssg.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Matt Gee, Data Science for Social Good", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, nonprofit", "date" : "August 12, 2014" } , { "title" : "Honorary Chicago", "url" : "/events/2014/08/05/honorary-chicago.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Linda Zabors, Honorary Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "August 5, 2014" } , { "title" : "City of Big Data - Hacking the 3D City Model", "url" : "/events/2014/07/29/city-of-big-data-hacking-the-3d-city-model.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Bo Rodda", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "open data", "date" : "July 29, 2014" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2014/07/22/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "July 22, 2014" } , { "title" : "Improving Social Service Delivery", "url" : "/events/2014/07/15/improving-social-service-delivery.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Paras Desai, Mayor's Innovation Delivery Team, Daniel Riff, Mayor's Innovation Delivery Team", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "social service, govtech", "date" : "July 15, 2014" } , { "title" : "Data Science for Social Good", "url" : "/events/2014/07/08/data-science-for-social-good.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Matt Gee, Data Science for Social Good", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, nonprofit", "date" : "July 8, 2014" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2014/07/01/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "July 1, 2014" } , { "title" : "2014 Urban Sustainability Apps Competition", "url" : "/events/2014/06/24/urban-sustainability-apps-competition.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Ed Oser, Center for Neighborhood Technology", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "environment", "date" : "June 24, 2014" } , { "title" : "The Array of Things", "url" : "/events/2014/06/17/the-array-of-things.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Charlie Catlett, University of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "data analytics", "date" : "June 17, 2014" } , { "title" : "Tracking the Built Environment with Building Permits", "url" : "/events/2014/06/10/tracking-the-built-environment-with-building-permits.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Tina Fassett, DePaul Institute for Housing Studies, Steven Vance, Streetsblog Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "open data", "date" : "June 10, 2014" } , { "title" : "Englewood Codes, North Central College & GitHub", "url" : "/events/2014/06/03/englewood-codes-north-central-college-and-github.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "education", "date" : "June 3, 2014" } , { "title" : "National Day of Civic Hacking", "url" : "/events/2014/05/27/national-day-of-civic-hacking.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Christopher Whitaker, CivicWhitaker", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "May 27, 2014" } , { "title" : "Why Don't We Own This / Loveland!", "url" : "/events/2014/05/20/why-dont-we-own-this-loveland.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Jerry Paffendorf, Loveland Technologies", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "mapping", "date" : "May 20, 2014" } , { "title" : "Civic Artworks", "url" : "/events/2014/05/13/civic-artworks.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Zach Borders, Civic ArtWorks", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "design", "date" : "May 13, 2014" } , { "title" : "GitHub for Government", "url" : "/events/2014/05/06/github-for-government.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Ben Balter, GitHub, Arfom Smith, GitHub", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech", "date" : "May 6, 2014" } , { "title" : "Experimental Station", "url" : "/events/2014/04/29/experimental-station.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Danny Burke, Experimental Station, Daniel Evans, Experimental Station", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "health", "date" : "April 29, 2014" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2014/04/22/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "openhack", "date" : "April 22, 2014" } , { "title" : "Affordable Care Act Outreach App", "url" : "/events/2014/04/15/affordable-care-act-outreach-app.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Dominique Williams, LISC Chicago, Josh Kalov, Kalov Strategies", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "nonprofit", "date" : "April 15, 2014" } , { "title" : "Transit Future and Large Lots", "url" : "/events/2014/04/08/transit-future-and-large-lots.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Ed Oser, Center for Neighborhood Technology, Nick Doiron, Demond Drummer, Teamwork Englewood, Derek Eder, DataMade", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transportation, housing", "date" : "April 8, 2014" } , { "title" : "The Chicago Tribune Elections Website", "url" : "/events/2014/04/01/the-chicago-tribune-elections-website.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "David Eads, Chicago Tribune", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "journalism, elections", "date" : "April 1, 2014" } , { "title" : "Divvy Data Winners", "url" : "/events/2014/03/25/divvy-data-winners.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Elliot Greenberger, Divvy", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transportation", "date" : "March 25, 2014" } , { "title" : "Zoning in Chicago", "url" : "/events/2014/03/18/daniel-hertz-zoning-in-chicago.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Daniel Kay Hertz", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "housing", "date" : "March 18, 2014" } , { "title" : "Chicago CIO Brenna Berman on Procurement", "url" : "/events/2014/03/11/chicago-cio-brenna-berman-on-procurement.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Brenna Berman, City of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "govtech, procurement", "date" : "March 11, 2014" } , { "title" : "FWD.us", "url" : "/events/2014/03/04/fwd-us.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Bojan Francuz, FWD.us", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "immigration", "date" : "March 4, 2014" } , { "title" : "Expunge.io", "url" : "/events/2014/02/25/expunge-io.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Cathy Deng", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "juvenile justice", "date" : "February 25, 2014" } , { "title" : "Cartografika", "url" : "/events/2014/02/18/cartografika.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Adam Jentleson, Cartografika, Jose Alarcon, Cartografika, Taylor McKinley, Cartografika", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "mapping", "date" : "February 18, 2014" } , { "title" : "Divvy Data II", "url" : "/events/2014/02/11/divvy-data-ii.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Steven Vance, Streetsblog Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "transportation", "date" : "February 11, 2014" } , { "title" : "The Handbuilt City", "url" : "/events/2014/02/04/the-handbuilt-city.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Nat Zorach, The Handbuilt City", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "housing", "date" : "February 4, 2014" } , { "title" : "Get Covered Illinois", "url" : "/events/2014/01/28/get-covered-illinois.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Charles Watkins, Get Covered Illinois", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "health", "date" : "January 28, 2014" } , { "title" : "GeoGit", "url" : "/events/2014/01/21/geogit.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Nick Doiron", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "mapping", "date" : "January 21, 2014" } , { "title" : "CivicLab", "url" : "/events/2014/01/14/civiclab.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Benjamin Sugar, CivicLab", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "advocacy", "date" : "January 14, 2014" } , { "title" : "2013 Year in Review", "url" : "/events/2013/12/17/2013-year-in-review.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Derek Eder, DataMade, Christopher Whitaker, CivicWhitaker", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "December 17, 2013" } , { "title" : "Chicago Park District Data", "url" : "/events/2013/12/10/chicago-park-district-data.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Ed Rynearson, Chicago Park District", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "December 10, 2013" } , { "title" : "Chicago Open Data Hidden in Plain Sight", "url" : "/events/2013/12/03/chicago-open-data-hidden-in-plain-sight.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Forest Gregg, DataMade", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "December 3, 2013" } , { "title" : "Is There Sewage in the Chicago River", "url" : "/projects/2013/12/01/is-there-sewage-in-the-chicago-river.html", "description" : "Whenever Chicago gets a lot of rain or there's a significant snowmelt, the Chicagoland water management agencies must dump excess wastewater into the lake and river in order to prevent flooding. Is There Sewage In The Chicago River? Notifies you whenever these combined sewer overflows happen to raise awareness around our impact on the environment and those downstream of us.", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Projects", "tags" : "Issue advocacy, Mapping", "date" : "December 1, 2013" } , { "title" : "Geeks Getting Involved in Disaster Response", "url" : "/events/2013/11/26/geeks-getting-involved-in-disaster-response.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Lisha Sterling, Geeks Without Bounds", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 26, 2013" } , { "title" : "RedEye Homicide Data", "url" : "/events/2013/11/19/redeye-homicide-data.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Tracy Swartz, RedEye Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 19, 2013" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2013/11/12/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 12, 2013" } , { "title" : "Tarbell", "url" : "/events/2013/11/05/tarbell.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "David Eads, Chicago Tribune", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 5, 2013" } , { "title" : "The City of Chicago Data Dictionary", "url" : "/events/2013/10/29/the-city-of-chicago-data-dictionary.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Tom Schenk, City of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 29, 2013" } , { "title" : "The Bike Index", "url" : "/events/2013/10/22/the-bike-index.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Seth Herr, The Bike Index", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 22, 2013" } , { "title" : "Center for Neighborhood Technology Hackathon III", "url" : "/events/2013/10/15/center-for-neighborhood-technology-hackathon-iii.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 15, 2013" } , { "title" : "Center for Neighborhood Technology Hackathon II", "url" : "/events/2013/10/08/center-for-neighborhood-technology-hackathon-ii.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 8, 2013" } , { "title" : "Center for Neighborhood Technology Hackathon I", "url" : "/events/2013/10/01/center-for-neighborhood-technology-hackathon-i.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 1, 2013" } , { "title" : "Chicago Works for You", "url" : "/events/2013/09/24/chicago-works-for-you.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Chris Gansen, Smart Chicago Collaborative", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "September 24, 2013" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2013/09/17/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "September 17, 2013" } , { "title" : "Smart Cities and Simulation", "url" : "/events/2013/09/10/smart-cities-and-simulation.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Matthew Shaxted", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "September 10, 2013" } , { "title" : "Go To School!", "url" : "/events/2013/09/03/go-to-school.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Tom Kompare", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "September 3, 2013" } , { "title" : "Data Science for Social Good", "url" : "/events/2013/08/27/data-science-for-social-good.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Tom Plagge, Juan-Pablo Velez", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 27, 2013" } , { "title" : "Englewood Codes", "url" : "/events/2013/08/20/englewood-codes.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Demond Drummer, Teamwork Englewood", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 20, 2013" } , { "title" : "Department of Labor App Challenge", "url" : "/events/2013/08/13/department-of-labor-app-challenge.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Matt Bruce, Chicago Community Trust", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 13, 2013" } , { "title" : "DataMandering", "url" : "/events/2013/08/06/datamandering.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "John Fahrenbach", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 6, 2013" } , { "title" : "Food Inspection App by Hoy", "url" : "/events/2013/07/30/food-inspection-app-by-hoy.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Fernando Diaz, Hoy, Wilberto Morales, Hoy", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 30, 2013" } , { "title" : "Mining 311 Calls", "url" : "/events/2013/07/23/mining-311-calls.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 23, 2013" } , { "title" : "Divvy Trip Planner", "url" : "/events/2013/07/16/divvy-trip-planner.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Adam and Andrew, BGL Consulting", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 16, 2013" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2013/07/09/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 9, 2013" } , { "title" : "Divvy Data!", "url" : "/events/2013/07/02/divvy-data.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Steven Vance, Streetsblog Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 2, 2013" } , { "title" : "Data Potluck #9: Data Science for Social Good", "url" : "/events/2013/06/25/data-potluck-9-data-science-for-social-good.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "June 25, 2013" } , { "title" : "Checkbook NYC, Learning Fusion Tables", "url" : "/events/2013/06/18/checkbook-nyc-learning-fusion-tables.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Karl Fogel, Open Tech Strategies, LLC, Derek Eder, DataMade", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "June 18, 2013" } , { "title" : "Intro to Git and Github", "url" : "/events/2013/06/11/intro-to-git-and-github.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Derek Eder, DataMade", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "June 11, 2013" } , { "title" : "Followup from the National Day of Civic Hacking", "url" : "/events/2013/06/04/followup-from-the-national-day-of-civic-hacking.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Christopher Whitaker", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "June 4, 2013" } , { "title" : "Gearing up for the National Day of Civic Hacking", "url" : "/events/2013/05/28/gearing-up-for-the-national-day-of-civic-hacking.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Christopher Whitaker", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 28, 2013" } , { "title" : "Open Source Licenses, Transparency Camp '13 Takaways", "url" : "/events/2013/05/21/open-source-licenses-transparency-camp-13-takaways.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Elnaz Moshfeghian, Juan-Pablo Velez", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 21, 2013" } , { "title" : "School Cuts Team", "url" : "/events/2013/05/14/school-cuts-team.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Elnaz Moshfeghian, Jeanne Marie Olson, Josh Kalov", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 14, 2013" } , { "title" : "Energy & Sustainability Hackathon Winners", "url" : "/events/2013/05/07/energy-sustainability-hackathon-winners.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 7, 2013" } , { "title" : "Design-Thinking for Civic Hacking", "url" : "/events/2013/04/30/design-thinking-for-civic-hacking.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Miranda Mulligan, Knight Lab", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 30, 2013" } , { "title" : "PublicStuff", "url" : "/events/2013/04/23/publicstuff.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 23, 2013" } , { "title" : "Opengov Hack Night 1 Year Anniversary", "url" : "/events/2013/04/16/opengov-hack-night-1-year-anniversary.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 16, 2013" } , { "title" : "Majuro.js, Englewood Codes", "url" : "/events/2013/04/09/majuro-js-englewood-codes.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Demond Drummer, Teamwork Englewood, Nick Doiron, Code for America", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 9, 2013" } , { "title" : "CTA planners", "url" : "/events/2013/04/02/cta-planners.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 2, 2013" } , { "title" : "Data Potluck #8", "url" : "/events/2013/03/26/data-potluck-8.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Rayid Ghani, Obama for America, Tom Schenk Jr, City of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 26, 2013" } , { "title" : "Mote-0-bike and Physical Computing", "url" : "/events/2013/03/19/mote-0-bike-and-physical-computing.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Doug Pancoast, SAIC, Robb Drinkwater, SAIC", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 19, 2013" } , { "title" : "GoToSchool Preview", "url" : "/events/2013/03/12/gotoschool-preview.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Tom Kompare", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 12, 2013" } , { "title" : "Sunlight Foundation, Illinois Department of Employment Security", "url" : "/events/2013/03/05/sunlight-foundation-illinois-department-of-employment-security.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Laurenellen McCann, Sunlight Foundation, John Wonderlich, Sunlight Foundation, Gideon Blustein, IDES", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 5, 2013" } , { "title" : "GravityTank's Electronic Medical Record Redesign", "url" : "/events/2013/02/19/gravitytanks-electronic-medical-record-redesign.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 19, 2013" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2013/02/12/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 12, 2013" } , { "title" : "Getting Started with Open Street Maps", "url" : "/events/2013/02/05/getting-started-with-open-street-maps.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "February 5, 2013" } , { "title" : "Data Potluck #7", "url" : "/events/2013/01/29/data-potluck-7.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Elizabeth Fosslien, Young-Jin Kim", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 29, 2013" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2013/01/22/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 22, 2013" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2013/01/15/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 15, 2013" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2013/01/08/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "January 8, 2013" } , { "title" : "Chicago Architecture Foundation Big Data Exhibit, LocalData", "url" : "/events/2012/12/18/chicago-architecture-foundation-big-data-exhibit-localdata.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "December 18, 2012" } , { "title" : "Data Potluck #6", "url" : "/events/2012/12/11/data-potluck-6.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Greg Sanders, CMAP, Xiaohong Zhang, CMAP", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "December 11, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/12/04/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "December 4, 2012" } , { "title" : "Sunlight Foundation Apps & APIs", "url" : "/events/2012/11/27/sunlight-foundation-cook-county-jail-scraper.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Amy Ngai, Sunlight Foundation", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 27, 2012" } , { "title" : "Adopt a Sidewalk", "url" : "/events/2012/11/20/adopt-a-sidewalk.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 20, 2012" } , { "title" : "State CIO Visit, CPS Tiers Update", "url" : "/events/2012/11/13/state-cio-visit-cps-tiers-update.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Sean Vinck, State of Illinois", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "November 13, 2012" } , { "title" : "Data Potluck #5", "url" : "/events/2012/10/30/data-potluck-5.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 30, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open 311 and Service Tracker", "url" : "/events/2012/10/23/open-311-and-service-tracker.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Rob Brackett, Code for America", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 23, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/10/16/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 16, 2012" } , { "title" : "OpenPlans", "url" : "/events/2012/10/09/openplans.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 9, 2012" } , { "title" : "Data Potluck #4", "url" : "/events/2012/10/02/data-potluck-4.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Joe Germuska, Chicago Tribune, David Eads, Chicago Tribune, Jason Almergi", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "October 2, 2012" } , { "title" : "How's Business?", "url" : "/events/2012/09/25/hows-business.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Derek Eder, Open City, Forest Gregg, Open City, Matt Gee, Open City, Daniel Morton, Open City", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "September 25, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/09/18/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "September 18, 2012" } , { "title" : "Google Places API Contest", "url" : "/events/2012/09/11/google-places-api-contest.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "September 11, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/09/04/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "September 4, 2012" } , { "title" : "Data Potluck #3", "url" : "/events/2012/08/28/data-potluck-3.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Derek Eder, Open City, Matt Gee, University of Chicago", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 28, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/08/21/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 21, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/08/14/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 14, 2012" } , { "title" : "Intro to Programming with R", "url" : "/events/2012/08/07/intro-to-programming-with-r.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Juan-Pablo Velez, Open City", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "August 7, 2012" } , { "title" : "Data Potluck #2", "url" : "/events/2012/07/31/data-potluck-2.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Tom Schenk Jr, Nick Mader, Chapin Hall", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 31, 2012" } , { "title" : "Chicago Public Schools Locator Demo", "url" : "/events/2012/07/24/chicago-public-schools-locator-demo.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Jay Van Patten, Chicago Public Schools", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 24, 2012" } , { "title" : "Mi Parque, Designing Chicago", "url" : "/events/2012/07/17/mi-parque-designing-chicago.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Pallavi Anderson, Mi Parque, George Aye, Greater Good Studio", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 17, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/07/10/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "July 10, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/06/26/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "June 26, 2012" } , { "title" : "Deploying Websites with Heroku", "url" : "/events/2012/06/19/deploying-websites-with-heroku.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Anna-Marie Tamayo", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "June 19, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/06/12/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "June 12, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/06/05/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "June 5, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/05/29/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 29, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/05/24/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 24, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/05/17/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 17, 2012" } , { "title" : "Fusion Tables Workshop", "url" : "/events/2012/05/10/fusion-tables-workshop.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Chad Pry, Open City, Derek Eder, Open City", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 10, 2012" } , { "title" : "Demo Session", "url" : "/events/2012/05/03/demo-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "May 3, 2012" } , { "title" : "Chicago Crash Browser", "url" : "/events/2012/04/26/chicago-crash-browser.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "Steven Vance", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 26, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/04/19/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 19, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/04/12/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 12, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/04/05/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "April 5, 2012" } , { "title" : "Open Hack Session", "url" : "/events/2012/03/29/open-hack-session.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 29, 2012" } , { "title" : "The First Hack Night", "url" : "/events/2012/03/22/the-first-hack-night.html", "description" : "", "speakers" : "", "categories" : "Events", "tags" : "", "date" : "March 22, 2012" } ]