Civic Innovation
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Open Data Product Idea: “City Worker Worth Modules”
One of the staples of municipal data is the Payroll Database. Long before the Emanuel administration released salary, position, and title information for every worker on the City’s data portal, organizations like the Chicago Sun-Times and the Better Government Association had done the work of requesting and publishing salary information. These databases are usually pretty…
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Methods for Monitoring TIF Info
The TIF Balance Sheets and TIF Projection Reports data published by the City of Chicago to its data.cityofchicago.org is great info on existing TIFs. But if you want to keep up with what’s going on with new TIF legislation, you still have to jump through some extra hoops. Here’s what I do. I use Update…
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Notes from the Champions of Change — Open Innovators Event at the White House
Last week I took part in a great event at the White House. About 3 minutes into the program, I set aside my own personal joy and realized that there were a whole slew of awesome thoughts, projects, and policies coming from dozens of people, so I started taking notes. On paper. With a pen.…
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So Apparently I Am A White House Champion of Change for Open Innovation
This morning I am in Washington DC to take part in a White House Champions of Change event focused on open innovation. Instead of trying to characterize this event myself, I'll just copy/paste some text: You have been selected by United States Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra to be highlighted as a ‘Champion of Change’,…
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Deep Dive: City of Chicago Payments Data
For open data geeks, there is much to be happy about in Chicago municipal government. John Tolva, a longtime open data advocate and city hacker, is now the Chief Technology Officer. Brett Goldstein, the early OpenTable technologist who most recently founded the predictive analytics practice at the Chicago Police Department, is the Chief Data Officer.…