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Are you located in Chicago? If so, sounds like your project would fit in perfectly at ChiHackNight: http://chihacknight.org/ http://chihacknight.org/ I'm guessi

Are you located in Chicago? If so, sounds like your project would fit in perfectly at ChiHackNight: http://chihacknight.org/ http://chihacknight.org/ I'm guessing that you are already familiar with ChiHackNight, but if not I recommend checking it out.

bpchaps 10y ago
edit: sorry for the rant! Yep, I've been there a few times. Meant to go there today, actually. Cool crowd, but I have some general criticisms of the way they do things. I'm almost to the point of thinking that their work is an overall detriment to the city, since there's a strong tendency towards group thought rather than individual exploration. Their workshops also get nothing done since the barrier for entry is so low that they're so busy answering pretty basic questions. They actually brought in a hired gun political data scientist who does research on his employer's opposition to help paint a bad picture of opposition. It was seriously presented in a positive light and everything! Hell, when I asked him his thoughts on FOIA, he basically completely shrugged me off and called it useless, despite things like that graph, which was created through FOIA data. Chicago's head data guy is there almost every time, working on workshops, which is pretty neat. Incredibly interesting guy. But, I have a hard time finding legitimacy in his presence when Chicago's only analysis of parking ticket data (something ChiHackNight would love to work with) is this [0]. Received through FOIA after specifically asking for any analysis they've done on parking tickets... You'd think the head of data would have addressed that. It all just feels very Feel Good. Once I get this project to a certain point, I'll probably head back there and show it off and ask if someone else wants to take it over. Eventually, starting one of my own group would be nice, but I'd like to have something under my belt beforehand to help with legitimacy. [0] https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3A6c_C6BZZuYWwwRmJQTXhnZnVFemJoS0F3WVV1ajVsdEsw https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3A6c_C6BZZuYWwwRmJQTXhnZnV...

bpchaps 10y ago

edit: sorry for the rant! Yep, I've been there a few times. Meant to go there today, actually. Cool crowd, but I have some general criticisms of the way they do things. I'm almost to the point of thinking that their work is an overall detriment to the city, since there's a strong tendency towards group thought rather than individual exploration. Their workshops also get nothing done since the barrier for entry is so low that they're so busy answering pretty basic questions. They actually brought in a hired gun political data scientist who does research on his employer's opposition to help paint a bad picture of opposition. It was seriously presented in a positive light and everything! Hell, when I asked him his thoughts on FOIA, he basically completely shrugged me off and called it useless, despite things like that graph, which was created through FOIA data. Chicago's head data guy is there almost every time, working on workshops, which is pretty neat. Incredibly interesting guy. But, I have a hard time finding legitimacy in his presence when Chicago's only analysis of parking ticket data (something ChiHackNight would love to work with) is this [0]. Received through FOIA after specifically asking for any analysis they've done on parking tickets... You'd think the head of data would have addressed that. It all just feels very Feel Good. Once I get this project to a certain point, I'll probably head back there and show it off and ask if someone else wants to take it over. Eventually, starting one of my own group would be nice, but I'd like to have something under my belt beforehand to help with legitimacy. [0] https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3A6c_C6BZZuYWwwRmJQTXhnZnVFemJoS0F3WVV1ajVsdEsw https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3A6c_C6BZZuYWwwRmJQTXhnZnV...