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.
If you’re from Chicago – it’s definitely worth a look.
The site is backed up by an active social media account (@Chicago2011org) who responds to citizens, publishes suggestions, and promotes the site.
If you check out a lot of the suggestions, you see a theme emerge. Chicagoans want open government and want to have some of the same cool tools that other cities do. (being able to find information online, using web apps, mobile apps, QR codes, and more) There’s a big demand for using technology to make city government better – and the Mayor-Elect has said as much.
Chicago has a lot of things going for it: with a new administration comes the chance to start the ball rolling on some significant changes, and as a world class city we can attract the talent needed to make it happen. (
By the way, the first meeting of the Government Reinvention and Budget Committee happened at Google’s headquarters. Convenient? Or a sign of things to come?
Don’t be surprised if you see a lot of innovation coming out of Chicago in the near future.
[Full Disclosure: I’ve submitted proposals and my resume to the site]
This is pretty fascinating, Christopher. I wasn’t aware of any of this, and I appreciate your bringing it to my attention. I just submitted my resume as well – what the heck! Even though I’m currently self employed, this could be an exciting new venture to embark on. I’m a big fan of government 2.0 and would love to see it implemented in a significant way in Chicago.
Not to bring up an old thread, but I figured this would be worth an update.
Mayor-Elect Emanuel had a meeting at Microsoft’s Chicago Office and talked up opening up city data and some Gov20 applications. Exciting stuff: http://www.chicago2011.org/blog/mayor-elect-talks-open-city-data/
Today, Cook County launched it’s own OpenGov program http://bit.ly/f5vvOD – Progress! Progress I tell you!