Business and Community Partners: Apps for Metro Chicago News from MCIC

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From: "Metro Chicago Information Center" <kauerbach@mcic.org>
Date: Nov 21, 2011 4:32 AM
Subject: Apps for Metro Chicago News from MCIC
To: <brianlbanks@ameritech.net>

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Metro Chicago Information Center

In This Issue

Sustain Apps

Inspiring Technology

Energizing Developers

New Crime Data

Building Community

Important Links

New Special Awards

More About A4MC

Donate to MCIC!

Sustain Apps

Help MCIC continue with open data and civic apps initiatives! Invest in Chicago's tech start up company, help us build long term bonds between developers and community organizations, and support open data.

Donate today and sustain Apps!

Civic Cultivator, Connector & Curator :
MCIC & Apps 4 Metro Chicago IL-
Past Present & Future

Launched in June of 2011, Apps for Metro Chicago Illinois (A4MC) is a competition designed and facilitated by Metro Chicago Information Center (MCIC). Its mission is to inspire the development of software applications that benefit Metro Chicagoans.

But A4MC is unlike any other apps competition. MCIC has taken the unique role of fostering relationships between civic organizations, Chicago residents and apps developers. Through A4MC, MCIC has been instrumental in helping developers and start ups, creating bonds between community organizations and technological experts, and pushing for greater availability of public data.

Now in the Grand Challenge, the third and final round of the competition, draws to a close,the Competition has already created collaborations and applications whose depth, dimension and potential have surpassed not only previous open data civic app efforts but also MCIC and the A4MC Team's own expectations!! However, your help is critical to enuring these groundbreaking advances in community innovation continue beyond the Competition! Click here to donate and help MCIC continue with its open data and civic apps initiatives.

Read on to learn more about A4MC's successes.

Community Finalist IFindit Chicago's Story

A4MC Creating Inspirational Technology

"It's not technology at the core; it's people," says Elizabeth Park, the newbie Android developer whose app won first prize in A4MC's community round.

Park's app, iFindIt Chicago, is an android app that is designed to help low income and homeless residents connect with critical resources such as medical clinics, food pantries, and shelters. Park was inspired to put together the app and make a team after hearing Apps for Metro Chicgao Illinois speak at Tech Week.

A vital part of that team was Matt Peron, treasurer of the IL Hunger Coalition. Together, Park and Peron were part of an MCIC-facilitated collaboration for the Community round of the Apps for Metro Chicago competition. A4MC has aimed to bridge the tech and nonprofit communities, and Park's and Peron's relationship shows how these two groups of people, with their entirely different vocabularies, talk to one another.

Park and Peron designed a project beyond what either of them originally had in mind, and brought their strengths to bear on the award-winning app. Peron understood the population, and Park saw the difficulties in the data. Together they made something that Peron correctly predicted has "all reason to be a huge success."

Watch the video to hear Park talk more about creating her team and building iFindIt Chicago.

Check out the award winning iFindIt Chicago app here.

Apps 4 Metro Chicago IL Rd 1 Winner Spot Hero- Secrets to Success

A4MC Energizes Chicago's Developer Community

One of A4MC's goals has been to energize Chicago's growing tech and development company. In this video, Jeremy, developer of SpotHero, talks about how winning first place in the Transportation Round of A4MC has helped him with his app and business and gives advice to future finalists.

A4MC Makes Use of Ten Years of City Crime Data

Over the course of A4MC competition, MCIC's partners have released over 250 data sets. Recently, the City of Chicago released 10 years of crime data as part of an unprecedented open data initiative. To show what this date can be used for, MCIC and Rutter Design collaborated to create the Chicago Motor Vehicle Visualization, a visual demonstration of a time series analysis of reported motor vehicle theft throughout Chicago.

"This type of data is in very high demand from community organizations, and this will forever change lives of the people working in neighborhoods to combat crime because they can target interventions in ways they couldn't before, down to the block and down to the individual crime" said MCIC's President Virginia Carlson.

MCIC and Rutter Design hope their auto theft visualization example will help Chicago residents begin to understand invaluable program and advocacy resource provided by the City of Chicago's Data Portal.

Check out the motor theft crime data visualization!

Developing Smarts Team up with Environmental Justice

MiParque is a bilingual participatory placemaking web and smartphone application that helps residents of the community contribute and share their vision for the future of Little Village's new park. It encourages community involvement and was created by an all women team in collaboration with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO).

MiParque won second prize and the MPC placemaking prize in round 2. They donated all $5,500 of their winnings to their community partner LVEJO.

Watch the video to hear more from the developers. And check out this link to learn more about the app and Little Village's fight for a park.

A4MC is only one of many exciting projects conducted by MCIC. Founded in 1990, The Metro Chicago Information Center (MCIC) is a nonprofit (501C(3))research, consulting and information resource that is deeply rooted in the community. Our mission is to collect, analyze, and disseminate valuable data. Our partners are philanthropic organizations, businesses, civic institutions, local governments, and national agencies and our work extends across a broad range of issues. The breadth and depth of our experience leads us to creative solutions in data sourcing, preparation, and visualization. We give individuals and institutions digestible and useful information that empowers them to make informed individual, agency and social policy decisions. Simply put: We turn data into action.

Sincerely,

Kathryn Auerbach
Metro Chicago Information Center