Chi Hack Night: Eyes on the heartland

Join us for our monthly in-person Chi Hack Night! We will be at a new location: i.c.stars,a non-profit tech training & placement program!

Chi Hack Night is a group of thousands of designers, academic researchers, data journalists, activists, policy wonks, web developers and curious citizens who want to make our city more just, equitable, transparent and delightful to live in through data, design and technology.

Presentation - Eyes on the heartland, Unraveled Press

A vast network of new license plate cameras has exploded across Illinois in recent years—paid for by state grants to fight retail crime. With the federal government clamoring for more information on people’s movements, how worried should we be about leaving our privacy in the hands of Flock Safety?

Journalists Steve Held and Raven Geary will talk through the groundbreaking reporting they have done on the proliferation of license plate reader cameras in Illinois, how the data from them has been mishandled and abused, and the actions state and local government have taken in response to it.

What happens at a hack night?

Every week, we have a 45 minute presentation by a government agency, non-profit, company or group who've made use of open data or built a civic technology application. The goal of these presentations is to showcase the different uses and opportunities, as well as challenges and successes in the civic technology movement.

After the presentation, the format of the event is similar to that of a hackathon where breakout groups self-organize to work on civic apps, discuss policies and their implications, learn technical skills and network with a welcoming and diverse community at the intersection of technology and government.

But I'm not a techie!

That's ok! We encourage non-technical folks to pair up and learn from our community's designers and developers. We've seen time and time again, the best civic projects come from teams with a diverse background.

Remember, there's much more to making a great app than just coding.

ASL interpreting available

If you have need for an American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreter, let us know when you register for the event and we will provide one, provided enough lead time.

Questions about the event? We have answers:

Q: I won’t be able to make it in person. Will the event be live streamed?

A: Yes. The event will be livestreamed on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/chihacknight/live

Q: Will there be food?

A: Yes! We will be serving Costa Rican empanadas, chicken casado and rice from Irazu!

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

750 N Orleans St, 750 North Orleans Street, Chicago, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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