Month: June 2013

  • New Story: Emanuel to nominate Brenna Berman to be city’s chief information officer

    Today Smart Chicago was reffed in this article about Mayor Emanuel’s appointment of Brenna Berman to be CIO for the City of Chicago. Snip: DoIT is working with groups such as the Smart Chicago Collaborative, a tech-focused civic backed by the city, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and The Chicago Community Trust.…

  • Announcement of the Winners of the Illinois Open Technology Challenge

    Today I presented awards to the winners of the Illinois Open Technology Challenge at the Cultural Center in Chicago. Here’s the press release from Governor Quinn with the official announcement of the winners: Governor Quinn Announces Winners of Illinois Open Technology Challenge Unprecedented Release and Compilation of Municipal Government Data Fuels Competition to Develop Civic-Minded…

  • Writing: Seeing open government & civic innovation as drivers of economic development

    Today I wrote an article for the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition’s Catalyst publication. Seeing open government & civic innovation as drivers of economic development. Snip: Yesterday was a big day in Illinois for open government and innovation. The Illinois Innovation Network website was launched, the second quarterly Illinois Innovation Index revealed new data on STEM education and employment, and Gov.…

  • Knight News Challenge Open Gov Round

    I served as a Reader for the Knight News Challenge Open Gov Round. It was a great experience that helped me sharpen the focus of my work in the civic innovation sector of the technology industry. Some of my writing was reffed in the preview blog post: News Challenge on open gov launches Feb. 12…

  • The Shining Girls

    The Shining Girls

    This book, by Lauren Beukes, is set in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood, and I lived there with my family starting in 1985. I spent some time giving Lauren background on what it was like to live here at that time: