This week is the start of a new fiscal year for Microsoft. A new fiscal year, new challenges, new customers, new partners, new plans. It is also a good time to reflect on the Microsoft Technology and Civic Engagement Chicago’s first full year as a team. Looking back at the blog posts of our last fiscal year gives you a good, if small, glimpse into where we have come from. It shows how the foundation for the coming year was built, with the help of the broad and active civic community of Chicago that both embraced us and guided our thinking. Here is a brief reflection of the year that was:
STEM Education
This year, we tried to take in the breadth of organizations, initiatives, and activity that has emerged over the last few years around building a STEM Education ecosystem in the city.
- As we do every year, Microsoft participated in Computer Science Education Week, with emphasis on the Hour of Code. Working with CPS, the Chicago Public Libraries, Blue 1647, the Museum of Science and Industry, and others, we logged over 2000 hours of coding with Chicagoland youth.
- Microsoft continued our work with the Mayor’s office on the Computer Science for All Initiative (CS4ALL) an innovative Computer Science education program to tap the potential of every Chicago student and our wonderful Computer Science teachers at CPS who make it all happen were featured in multiple blogs. She got a “seat at the table” with Chicago Community Trust.
- We participated in initiatives to advance and measure civic impact on education, like Thrive Chicago. We challenged students to leverage their creativity and knowledge of STEM to solve world problems, with the initiatives like the YouthSpark Challenge for Change, and the ISTI STEM Learning Exchange Challenge.
- Finally, we moved beyond the present into the future. We participated in building the next generation of civic leaders with the Civic Leadership Academy. We dove in head first into Digital Badging. And all of the Technology and Civic Engagement team participated in judging apps competitions!
- We continued to build on our partnership with Lake View High School, our Early College STEM School and expanded programs for LVHS students, such as sponsoring summer internships and a STEM Challenge in partnership with the ISTI STEM Learning Exchange Challenge.
- View the WTTW video on Lake View High School, which is a capstone summary of the overall strength of the partnership with Microsoft.
Economic Development
This was a hugely significant year for economic development. Starting with the launches of several key centers of excellence.
- On the south side, Englewood Blue got off the ground with help from Microsoft, tapping into some huge talent potential.
- The Bunker, an incubator for veteran entrepreneur-driven businesses, expanded beyond Chicago to cover 7 cities.
- And UI LABS opened their beautiful new Goose Island facility, which hosts their smart cities project, as well as their digital manufacturing labs.
- Microsoft hosted a “seat at the table” with Chicago Community Trust’s On the Table, focusing on building a stronger Englewood.
Open Data
Open data took center stage this year, with more organizations, companies, and government agencies recognizing the value of data than ever before.
- The Chicago City Data Users Group (and our nearly 800 members) heard how a number of organizations use and consume data, including the Chicago Public Libraries, Cook County Elections, local journalists, Census, Argonne National Labs, and many others.
- We participated in the National Day of Civic Hacking, contributing our insights on how to use Excel with Civic Data.
- Supporting American Disabilities Act’s 25th anniversary, ADA 25 Chicago, we hosted a hackathon to solve challenges for people with disabilities.
- We got an amazing look at the talent of the data visualization community here in Chicago by sponsoring the Divvy Bike Challenge.
- We challenged neighborhoods to use open data, including Census Data, to support economic and environmental sustainability.
- We learned from Gartner about how to ascribe economic value to data by treating it as an asset. And we studied how other cities outside of Chicago have opened their data and engaged their citizens.
- And we participated for our second year in the Personal Democracy Forum, possibly the key event that celebrates and accelerates the open data movement.
Legal Issues:
Our Assistant General Counsel Dennis Garcia lent us his view on key legal and policy issues in this age of data including:
- What security looks like in a mobile-first/cloud-first world
- Issues around access to justice for lower-income and vulnerable citizens
- Privacy in the digital age through the eyes of law, and through the eyes of industry
Guest Bloggers:
And finally, we had guests weigh in with their diverse perspectives, including:
- Stephen Philpott from the Center for Neighborhood Technology talked about the importance of bringing together community organizers and devs.
- City Year alum Michael Venegas, participant Jemina Lyle, and Chalmers School Blair Wong discussed City Year’s impact on students.
- Susana Vasquez from LISC gave her very unique perspective on Civic Tech and its importance in building a stronger Chicago.
- Michelle Peterson from CompTIA talked about how internships can help close an IT skills gap
- Derek Douglass, VP of Civic Engagement from UChicago talked about how the Civic Leadership Academy will bring up the next generation of civic leaders.
- Educators Maureen Maureen LaRaviere and Brenda Remess celebrated Computer Science Education Week with us.
- Arnie Rivera, the Mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Education, and Civic Consulting Alliance’s Brian Fabes helped us understand the impact of THRIVE on STEM
- From the Mayor’s Office, Beth Swanson showed us how a whole city can mobilize around learning, and be recognized with digital badging.
- Chicago’s leading creative Jake Trussell from World Business Chicago helped us THINK about how to attract top talent to Chicago.
- And we profiled Civic Tech Fellows Erin Simpson, and (coming soon!) Maira Khwaja.
This list is simply a small part of what had transpired with this team last year: the places we went, the people we met and worked with, and the events and organizations that we partnered with. As I said, it lays the foundation for what we hope to accomplish next year. Thank you to everyone in the Chicago Civic Tech movement for embracing our participation. On to the next…
P.S. for a review in pictures, please take a look at this Sway: