Posts By Christopher Whitaker

Should OpenGov advocates be worried about the attacks on @FiveThirtyEight?

First, the came for the statisticians, and I said nothing because I was not a statistician One of the things I noticed was an increasing amount of attacks on Nate Silver’s 538 blog and his methodology. Some range from concern trolling from Politico to downright name calling by the man behind Unskewed polls. What NateRead… Read more »

Too Small To Win? Civic Hackers Thwarted by Procurement Rules!

Peoples of the Procurement Departments! Hear me now! What in the world have you done? Have you doomed us all!? I present to the people of #OpenGov some of Chicago finest civic coding craftsmanship – ChicagoLobbyists.org Don’t keep reading, click the link first then come back to me. See the awesome disclosure powers of thisRead… Read more »

Chicago Apps Contest Round II: Community Apps that bring the civic awesomeness

Round II: Apps for Metro Chicago Community Round App contest produces more civic minded apps For those of you who may not have heard, Chicago is hosting an application contest using open data produced by the city, counties, and the state. The contest is three rounds each with a different focus. The first round winnerRead… Read more »

Rahm VS The Digital Divide – Winner? Chicago’s Kids!

Link to Sun-Times Article Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his administration continue to make great strides in making Chicago the next great digital city. However, as many GovLoopers know: no amount of tech will do us any good for the people across the digital divide. Yesterday, Mayor Emanuel announced a deal with Comcast to provide 330,000Read… Read more »

Facebook Translate for Government?

You may have noticed that a few years ago Facebook created a translation app to crowd source translations. The basic concept works like this: Step One – Translate the Glossary with all the core terms, people vote translations up or down to determine which ones stick. Step Two – Translate all of Facebook into theRead… Read more »

Chicago Inspector General launches OpenGov Initiative (and joins Twitter!)

Chicago Inspector General Joesph Ferguson has just announced a new Open Government Initiative that aims to “promote efficiency, effectiveness and integrity in the City’s operations that can come only from accountability achieved through meaningful public scrutiny.” This is very very good – If you’ve seen my twitter feed you’ve noticed there have been a numberRead… Read more »

Could Chicago be the next hotbed of Gov20 and OpenGov?

For those outside of Chicago, you may not be familiar with the Mayor’s new transition website. It’s pretty awesome. You can submit your resume if you’re interested in being part of the new administration. More importantly, the site is also letting citizens submit proposals and features and interactive page that lets citizens comment on suggestions.Read… Read more »

Chicago is first city to let 911 receive pics/videos from cell phones

Chicago residents can now send pictures and photos from their cell phones when contacting 911. We’re the first city in the country to offer the service. The full article is here: http://goo.gl/S98YN It’s not the most Gov 2.0 thing that’s ever been done, but it is a cool use of mobile technology. I think we’llRead… Read more »

What you need to know about Unemployment (if you need it)

So… I’m hoping that none of you need to visit me at the office anytime soon – because that is not awesome. However, it’s better to face the beast prepared – so here’s what Federal Employees may want to know about filing for unemployment. BIG DISCLAIMER: Unemployment is a state program and it varies whereRead… Read more »