Civic Innovation Summer Documakers Curriculum
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Civic Innovation Summer Documakers Curriculum
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This is curriculum created by Jacqui Cheng and Daniel X. O'Neil for the Smart Chicago Collaborative under their #civicsummer program in July and August 2013. Go here for more information about this program: http://www.smartchicagocollaborative.org/projects/civic-innovation-summer-2/ This is one of six custom sessions that cover the concepts of open and specific content that relates to the theme that the youth are working on in their summer program. The Free Spirit Media DocuMakers are working on media throughout the summer. Smart Chicago will be working with this group on EveryBlock and the significance of citizen journalism, tutorials on using open-source data tools, and a review of Creative Commons and other useful tools you in youth reporting.
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Civic Innovation Summer Documakers Curriculum
- Civic Innovation Summer Documakers @ejacqui @danxoneil
- Welcome students! • Introductions • Dan X. O’Neil: director of Smart Chicago Collaborative, cool tech guy • Jacqui Cheng: tech writer, editor at large at Ars Technica • Why are we here? @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Who are you? • Student introduction • What’s your history with tech? • What devices do you use? • Which services do you rely on? • What technology gets you the most excited? @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Which social networks do you use? @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Why you’re here • What is this class for? Five topics: • History of the web and principles of “open” • Field trip to 1871 and a look into startups • Open data and privacy • Getting into programming • How to be a civic “hacker”/tech person @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- History of the Web
- What constitutes the Web? • What do you think of when you think of the Internet? • Web pages are not the Internet, but they have become synonymous with the Internet @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Pre-Internet (days of the cave man, a.k.a. pre-1968) • A phone call works by connecting one end of the line to another end • This is called circuit switching • Neither side of the conversation can communicate with anyone else during the time they are connected @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Building blocks of today’s Web • Neither side can communicate with anyone else during the time they are connected @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Building blocks of today’s Web • Unlike circuit switching, packet switching allows computers to group “packets” of data and deliver them to the receiving ends from multiple sources at once • Packets of text, video, images, audio, other data could be grouped together • Efficiency is the name of the game @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Building blocks of today’s Web • Packet switching is like having a mailbox that receives things instantly. Can receive from many sources at once. @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Building blocks of today’s Web • Packet switching was developed into TCP/IP by the Department of Defense as ARPANET, or Advanced Research Projects Agency Network • TCP/IP sets the standard for how certain kinds of data is delivered, like addressing an envelope • Packet switching + TCP/IP together formed the base for the Internet @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Building blocks of today’s Web • ARPANET researchers Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf were responsible for TCP/IP @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Building blocks of today’s Web • One of the key elements to TCP/IP is the IP address, or Internet Protocol address • IP address is a series of numbers assigned to every device on the Internet that tell other devices how to get there @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Building blocks of today’s Web • Devices can figure out the “route” to get to another device (or a Web page, or a service) based on the IP address • If a building’s address is 1500 W. Roosevelt, and the apartment is 310, we can figure out how to get there @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Building blocks of today’s Web • A website is a collection of “pages” on the Internet • Each website has its own IP address, but you don’t see it. You see google.com, or smartchicagocollaborative.org • For your browser to find the IP for Google, it must look up Google’s IP on a Domain Name Server, or DNS @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Building blocks of today’s Web • Look up a name and find the corresponding number. Same with a domain name (google.com) and IP address (139.130.4.5) • When you get there, a page is displayed that you can read and interact with @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- What constitutes the Web? • Previously, there was no way to just “bring up” information online • Instead, you had to dial into specific networks, and you were limited to the documents they had stored there • Like going to a library that only had a handful of books @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- What constitutes the Web? • The code behind a Web page tells a browser how to present it to the user and how it’s supposed to behave • Not like a magazine, where I decide how it looks and send it to you • I provide the instructions for how it’s supposed to look, and your browser “translates” it to you • This makes the information travel faster @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- The code behind the Web • HTML is HyperText Markup Language • It’s a series of programming “tags” that tell a browser how to format something • <blink>Back in the day, this text would blink because of the surrounding tags</blink> • First tag is an opening tag, and the second tag is a closing tag @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- The code behind the Web • HTML is even in some mobile (phone) apps that you might not think of as the “web” @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- The code behind the Web • CSS, JavaScript, Ruby, and other languages help dictate the behavior of these pages • JavaScript and Ruby help the page decide how to act when you interact with it using your mouse or finger • Other languages generate, or sometimes interact with, the HTML on a Web page @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Creative Commons • Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization • Creative Commons is also a type of copyright license available as part of US Copyright Law • But what is copyright? @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Creative Commons • Things that are copyrightable: • Artwork • Music • Poetry • Writing • Crafts • Photography • Code @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Creative Commons • A Creative Commons (or CC) license is for photographers, artists, writers, musicians to make their works available to others in the public interest • Normal copyright reserves “all rights” for you to determine on a line-item basis • Making your work CC gives all rights to the public except for the ones you choose to take back @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Creative Commons • What does CC mean to you as a consumer of content? • Basic idea: you can search for CC works and use them in your own work without worrying about breaking someone else’s copyright • There are some restrictions, like crediting the original creator, but no payment or licenses @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Creative Commons • What does CC mean to you as a poster of content? • Works don’t become CC by default, but you own the copyright to something you created by default • You get to decide whether you want your work to be CC licensed and what restrictions to use • CC helps the public by making work available to others @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Creative Commons • Where is Creative Commons in everyday life? • Wikipedia: all images are available for you to use anywhere (not just school) via CC license • YouTube videos and elsewhere on the Web often use CC licensed music • Flickr Creative Commons search • Google Images Creative Commons search @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- “Open Source” • “Open source” is to code and software as Creative Commons is to photos/art/music/writing • Software that is released as open source means it’s a “free” license to use AND modify without having to pay • Benefits the public good, encourages innovation @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- “Open Source” • As a computer user, it means you can use open source software without paying because the software creators want you to benefit • As a programmer, it means you can download someone else’s code and modify it freely • Under normal copyright, you cannot just take someone else’s code for use in your own work @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- “Open Source” • As a programmer yourself, releasing something as open source means you’re making it available to others • Others can use it or modify it to make it better/different • People like open source because multiple brains are better than one @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- “Open Source” • Even though there are no paid licenses, people build careers on open source software • Examples of companies who have built empires using open source? • What do we know about Twitter? • What about Reddit? • Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple • Public Library of Science, Whitehouse.gov @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- “Open Source” • It’s nearly impossible to build a modern company without open source • Open source software makes things more efficient, more cost-effective • Lends goodwill to the community • Our modern tech landscape would not exist as it does today without open source @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- What is EveryBlock? @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- EveryBlock’s history • EveryBlock originated as chicagocrime.org, a project by programmer Adrian Holovaty • Adrian mashed up Google Maps with Chicago’s publicly available crime data • This is before the days of our modern crime tracker tools, and before Google Maps even had an API (to allow third parties to work with it) @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- EveryBlock’s history • In 2005, Adrian Holovaty won a Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism, and was recognized by the New York Times • EveryBlock became big and covered 16 cities • Gave community members a way to discuss and report things to each other online without having to know each other in real life @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- EveryBlock’s history • In addition to crime data, EveryBlock evolved to include local news postings that affected each neighborhood • Enabled neighborly discussions about new businesses • Public safety issues • Upcoming events @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- EveryBlock’s history • One of EveryBlock’s cofounders is in this room • Dan O’Neil worked to uncover new data sets • He worked with the city to identify new ways to research/present data @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- EveryBlock’s history @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Chicago Crime Map • EveryBlock was eventually bought and shut down my MSNBC • The Internet community mourned • Still, EveryBlock opened up so many doors to where we are today @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Chicago Crime Map • EveryBlock made serious inroads when it came to open city data • Opened the door for: city crime tracking tools (not just big files full of data) • Apps that make use of Google Maps • More cities publishing more data • More developers & tech jobs @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Chicago Crime Map • Crime data near where we are @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- Chicago Crime Map • Why is this important from a journalistic standpoint? • You can compare types of crimes between neighborhoods • Compare the number of crimes • Compare trends over time (are robberies going up but shootings going down?) • There are stories buried everywhere just waiting to be told @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- School Cuts • What is School Cuts? http://schoolcuts.org • Presents data about schools facing closings, like demographic info, school quality, stability, capacity • Allows you to sort the data depending on what you’re looking for @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- School Cuts @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- School Cuts • The data comes from: Chicago Public Schools • Illinois State Board of Education • University of Chicago Urban Education Institute • What kind of stories might come out of this website? @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
- School cuts: one more thing… • There’s another site: Apples2Apples • http://cpsapples2apples.wordpress.com • It’s not interactive like schoolcuts.org • Started by a concerned mother who doubles as a data scientist • Uses some of the same data as School Cuts, but adds more data that was not made open • Great place to find more school closing info @ejacqui @danxoneil #civicsummer
Editor's Notes
- This is the first day of the first week. This will take ~15 minutesThe goal is to tell the students about ourselves and establish a relationship.Begin to highlight technology from the get-go from our backgrounds; show how getting involved in technology has led us to be successful.Since much of the goal here is to attract students into tech, there is going to be a regular focus on careers and success in tech.
- This will probably take ~30 minutes or soAsk the students to raise their hands:-How many have a computer at home?-How many have a mobile device?-flip phone? -iOS devices? -Android devices?-How many use Twitter?-How many use Facebook? -How many use Instagram?If they haven’t already (?), have them fill out the tech profile surveyIf possible to have a discussion period or Q&A on the stage, ask a few students to talk about why they’re interested in tech
- Ask the students to raise their hands on who uses different social networks. Ask them to volunteer answers that others haven’t said or aren’t on this slide. Why do they like those networks more than others?
- Explain the purpose of this class: begin with the basic idea of becoming up-to-speed with tech and the InternetBasic overview of the data-focused part of the coursePrinciples of open: we’ll talk about how innovation on networking and the Web led us to where we are today, and how the code behind the Web functions in order to bring us the data we’re looking for. Then, what is Creative Commons, what is “open source,” and how the concepts with those two things are similar.1871 day: we’ll go to Chicago’s new tech hub to see what it’s like and talk to some people who are working in startups in Chicago. We’ll also learn about different kinds of jobs (hint: they’re not all programming) there are at a tech company, and hear about some of the things those people do.Principles of open data:, we’ll talk about what it means to create data and how everything we do is data. We’ll go over privacy, what it means to create data as a citizen. We’ll take a look at the data floating around us online, and then talk about some careers in data/open data.Getting into programming. This will be a hands-on day where we’ll begin to get into some of the skills that will open doors to programming. We’ll install some open source software and learn a few command line skills. The final week will be to bring it all together: civic engagement plus all the tech skills and lessons we learned in the class. Pairing technology with real world problems and data. We’ll have some more guest speakers here to talk about their projects and how they helped the city.
- Today’s “traditional” Internet is essentially the WebWe don’t think of having to dial into different networks anymore, we’re essentially connected all the time and just load up a web page wherever we areThe Web has become synonymous with the Internet, but it’s fairly modern compared to all the networking work of the pastNowadays, we deal more with data and apps that deliver information in different ways besides just plain Web pagesLesson here is that the Web laid the groundwork for the data-driven, mobile world that we live in now
- The idea for these next few slides is to help the students make a connection between something “old” like a phone line to something “new” like Internet dataCircuit switching establishes a direct communications channel between two sources.Upside: full bandwidth is dedicated to each other. You can hear the other person clearly.Downside: you can’t communicate with anyone else during that time. Must end communications with one source before beginning communications with another.
- The idea for these next few slides is to help the students make a connection between something “old” like a phone line to something “new” like Internet dataCircuit switching establishes a direct communications channel between two sources.Upside: full bandwidth is dedicated to each other. You can hear the other person clearly.Downside: you can’t communicate with anyone else during that time. Must end communications with one source before beginning communications with another.
- Packet switching: essentially the opposite of circuit switching, but almost just as fastCan receive info from multiple sources at once instead of one at a timeNot only opens up lines of communication to lots more people at once, it also makes it possible to deliver different kinds of data (text versus an image) efficiently
- Packet switching: essentially the opposite of circuit switching, but almost just as fastCan receive info from multiple sources at once instead of one at a timeNot only opens up lines of communication to lots more people at once, it also makes it possible to deliver different kinds of data (text versus an image) efficiently
- This may not seem special to students because they’re surrounded by similar concepts today. E-mail, Facebook, text messages, they all share similar ideas in that you can receive them near-instantly and at once from different places.Important to emphasize that things were not always this way in communications; try to imagine a world where we still had to make direct connections to someone for every single communication.
- Here we’re drawing the connection between packet switching and TCP/IPBecause we’re already grouping “packets” of data for different kinds of stuff (images are different kinds of packets than text), but they all need to arrive in the same place, we give everything an IP address (expanding on this more on the next slide)TCP/IP is a set of rules on how data is going to be dissected and then re-assembled on the other side, like the movie “The Fly”
- Here we’re drawing the connection between packet switching and TCP/IPBecause we’re already grouping “packets” of data for different kinds of stuff (images are different kinds of packets than text), but they all need to arrive in the same place, we give everything an IP address (expanding on this more on the next slide)TCP/IP is a set of rules on how data is going to be dissected and then re-assembled on the other side, like the movie “The Fly”
- IP address is a series of numbers, and everything that can connect to other devices has oneDraw the similarity between your street address and your phone’s IP addressYour street address is what people put on their letters to send to your houseIP address is how packets know where to go in order to make their way to your device
- Here are some examples to drive the street address point homeIn Chicago, we have a grid system so it’s very easy to compareWhen you see an address that’s 1500 West, you know it’s approximately at Ashland300 West, then it’s near Lake MichiganWe can figure out how to get there based on the numbers and then the street addressSame thing with IP. The series of numbers tells another device the route to get packets to your device.
- Here are some examples to drive the street address point homeIn Chicago, we have a grid system so it’s very easy to compareWhen you see an address that’s 1500 West, you know it’s approximately at Ashland300 West, then it’s near Lake MichiganWe can figure out how to get there based on the numbers and then the street addressSame thing with IP. The series of numbers tells another device the route to get packets to your device.
- The purpose of this section is to show that IP addresses largely function outside the awareness of regular Internet usersDomain Name Servers help to translate plain words or Internet addresses (like google.com or apple.com) into IP addressesYou never really see a DNS server doing its work, it’s all happening behind the scenes when you try to go to a Web page
- Even though you don’t see DNS doing its job as the user, your computer doesDNS is like a phone book, where your computer is looking up the IP address(es) for the website you’re trying to go toWhen you open a phone book, you look for John Smith so you can find his phone number and then dial itYour phone or computer is doing the same thing when it contacts the DNS server, then when it gets the IP info, it goes there to get the data you’re looking for
- Even though you don’t see DNS doing its job as the user, your computer doesDNS is like a phone book, where your computer is looking up the IP address(es) for the website you’re trying to go toWhen you open a phone book, you look for John Smith so you can find his phone number and then dial itYour phone or computer is doing the same thing when it contacts the DNS server, then when it gets the IP info, it goes there to get the data you’re looking for
- Now we’re making the transition from just data packet deliveries to the Web as we know it todayWe think of the “traditional” Internet to be the Web, but just a few decades ago, this was a very new conceptTim Berners-Lee worked to make it possible for a browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc.) to load up info the way the creator intended as if it were a page from a book or encyclopediaNot just a dump of data (like a text file you might download to your computer from Usenet), but a page that could be navigated to with your browser
- Even though we could now receive all different kinds of info at once, we still could only connect to one “repository” of information at a timeLike going to a library that only had one kind of book, or CDs that only belong to one genre of musicIf the library you went to didn’t have the books you needed, you had to go to a different library, etc.
- What makes the Web interesting is that we’re not just sending giant scans of magazine pages to your computerA Web page sends information to your browser: text in a certain color or font, images at a certain size, background patterns or colorsWhat’s really being sent to your device or computer is code for the browser to interpret on your endI decide “this font should be this big and this color,” then write those instructions into the Web pageYour browser on your device sees those instructions and recreates what I wanted to display to youThis makes data transfer a lot faster than if you were sending big scanned images to everyone
- There are many kinds of code nowadays that can run a Web page, but the most basic part that has been around forever is HTMLHTML is really a set of tags that does what we just described: tells your browser how things are supposed to look and appear on your side as the viewerTalk about examples, like <blink> for making things blink, or <bold> for making things boldEvery tag that is opened must also be closed, talk about the emphasis of opening and closing tagsCould expand into today’s style of opening and closing tags at the same time, such as <img /> tags
- Web pages are no longer just HTML, that’s not nearly the only code that goes into a web pageBut even though there’s Ruby and JavaScript and Django and everything else, HTML remains at the baseCSS helps out HTML by taking some of the burden of formatting, they are linked but not the same thingHTML is even at the base of more modern things we use today, like phone apps and desktop apps
- As mentioned previously, there are other ways to code Web pages that not only decide how something will look, but also how it will behaveDiscuss different languages and what their general purposes areRe-iterate CSS focusing largely on looks and formatting, while JavaScript, Ruby, and others help a page perform actionsExamples of “actions” include clicking buttons or entering text into a page, scrolling, clicking links, etc.When you do those things, something else might happen. Those behaviors are determined by more modern code.
- Moving onto Creative Commons, another useful way to utilize “open”ness in copyright and dataImportant to highlight that Creative Commons is BOTH an organization, but also a type of copyright licenseThe organization helps to maintain and oversee the standards for the copyright licenseStudents should be made aware that everything they create anywhere, on any medium, is automatically copyrighted to them without any paperwork from the governmentAs such, they can choose to make any art, music, writing, etc. available via Creative Commons right now if they wanted to
- Here we draw the connection between the rights given to you by US copyright law and the rights you allow when you make something CCStudents may have heard “all rights reserved” before: ask them what does this mean? It means by default, you get to decide every single thing that happens to your work: whether you’re paid for someone to use it, whether you want royalties every time someone uses it, whether you want to allow mashups or derivatives, whether you never want to release it and just keep it locked up in a boxCC essentially flips that so the default is very open, and you just choose which ones you want to take backSome CC artists choose not to allow commercial use, for example, or not to allow derivatives of their workSome CC requires a reshare agreement, so if you do use their work, they must reshare it under Creative Commons
- First we’ll start with Creative Commons from your perspective as a “regular” person, someone who isn’t creating stuff, but using itNormally under US copyright law, you can’t just use someone’s music in a YouTube video without permissionSame goes for photography, writing, poetry, anything. Many people get away with it, but it’s not technically allowed under the law.Creative Commons offers a way for the creators (artists, musicians) to offer their work for free so that we can all use itCreative Commons licenses might require you to credit the original creator, or not use it for commercial (advertising purposes)But besides some basic restrictions, you don’t have to pay for a license to use CC-licensed work
- Now we’ll talk about what CC licenses mean to you as a content creator: someone who creates music or art or writingAgain, copyright law dictates that anything you create at any time is copyrighted to youStudents doodling in a notebook right now might be creating art that is now copyrighted to themYou automatically own the copyright, but CC lets you decide if you want to make it available for free to othersYou might want to do this to help your school or community, or your city, or fellow artists like youCC benefits the public by making it easier for people to use other people’s work in their own
- Creative Commons works can be found all over the place online, likely invisible to most of usImages you find at Wikipedia are all creative commons licensed, so you can use them in all manner of stuffYouTube now offers CC-licensed music when you upload videos if you want a free background trackCreative Commons works show up in Google Image searchesAsk students for other examples where they might find images that are CC licensed, talk about why they’re right or wrong
- Now we’ll draw the connection between Creative Commons for “art” works, and open source for software works“Open source” is essentially the software version of a Creative Commons licenseThere are many different kinds of open source licenses, may want to dig into a few of the restrictionsGenerally speaking, open source software is free to use, and sometimes the code is free for you to modify and release as your ownAgain, this benefits the public good by making tools available to people, and those people might create even better tools from it
- Like Creative Commons, users can download open source software without having to worry about piracy or companies coming after them legallyAs a programmer, you can usually download someone’s open source software code and make your own changes, turn it into your own project, even release it as something elseThis wouldn’t be allowed under normal copyrights for the same reasons we just discussed
- Driving this point home that open source is like creative commonsAs a programmer, you must make a choice to make something open sourceDoing so means you’re also allowing other people to modify your work and potentially release it as something different, or betterWhy would you want to do this? Ask the students to participate in a discussion about the pros and cons of releasing your own work so others can modify itTalk about why it benefits your community locally, but also the Internet at large
- Now we’ll talk about how it’s possible to build whole careers out of open source despite seemingly “giving away” your workTwitter is a huge, multi-national corporation that is built on open source softwareThey have a whole page where you can read about their open source effortsTwitter also contributes to the open source community with its own releasesSame goes with Reddit: one of the largest sites on the Internet with billions of views per monthYet you can download an instance of Reddit and release your own reddit-like platform for free thanks to open sourceThis hasn’t hurt Reddit’s business model; they contribute to open source while still making moneyhttp://creativecommons.org/who-uses-cc
- Drive home the point that modern tech companies, big or small, would not function these days without open sourceNot only does open source software help the bottom line by being cheaper and more efficient, releasing open source software helps foster goodwill among developersEvery company, whether corporate or a startup, makes use of some kind of open source software somewhereThis leads to our transition here about how open source has laid the groundwork for all the projects we’re talking about here during the Civic Innovation Summer
- Start the discussion on EveryBlock: ask the students if they’ve heard of it? If they have, ask them what they think it is/wasWhat does it look like? What do you imagine it does?
- The history of EveryBlock: discuss how it originated as a mashup of Chicago’s crime data and Google MapsThis was before the days of our current “open source” mindsetGoogle Maps didn’t have an API, and open data was only just becoming something. Adrian transformed the use of this data in order to show the world why we need open data
- EveryBlock became widely recognized as the dominant online service for neighbors to share informationIt allowed people within a neighborhood to share information and converse, even if they didn’t know each other in real lifeIt made connections, did not sever them
- In addition to crime data, EveryBlock allowed neighbors to discuss all manner of topicsHave students volunteer ideas for what kind of things neighbors collaborate onHighlight EveryBlock’s central role to the online community in bringing online + offline together
- Time to drop the bomb that Dan O’Neal is an EveryBlock cofounderWe’ll talk briefly about Dan’s role at EveryBlock, then allow him to speak to the students about his experiences and what EveryBlock’s goals were during its existence
- Time to drop the bomb that Dan O’Neal is an EveryBlock cofounderWe’ll talk briefly about Dan’s role at EveryBlock, then allow him to speak to the students about his experiences and what EveryBlock’s goals were during its existence
- Transition from how EveryBlock was shut down to how EveryBlock can’t be gone forever, because its influence is everywhereEveryBlock laid the foundation for all kinds of city and Internet initiativesWe’re about to talk about the newer version(s) of Chicago’s crime map, which may never have existed if not for EveryBlock
- One of the most prominent data projects enabledby the city is the crime tracker/mapTake a look at the crime situation near where we are right now (if possible)https://data.cityofchicago.org/Public-Safety/Crimes-Map/dfnk-7re6This is just oneexampleofthecrimemap.Thereareothermanifestationsofit, writtenby different people, thanksto open dataThis map lets you zoom in to each area to the point where you can click on individual locations and see what kinds of crime happened there, when, was there an arrest, etc.
- If possible, we’ll go to data.cityofchicago.org to look at crime data from 2010 to presentWe’ll look at what’s near us, or near our neighborhoodsAsk students to look up on their own computers, or offer suggestions for instructor, on which addresses or neighborhoods to look atZoom in and out to find out different kinds of information about each crime
- Now we’ll lead the students in thinking about how to interpret crime data from a journalistic standpointTeach them to think about it from different perspectivesAsk the students to offer ideas on how else you can look at the data to find a storyThe emphasis should be that stories can be found everywhere in the data, you just have to look at it from different ways to see if there’s something to tell
- Next we’ll talk about School Cuts, an interactive website that allows users to sort by different demographic and school performance data in order to see different trendsAsk the students to discuss why this is useful, both to parents and journalists who are covering the school closingsOffer up some examples: it allows you to see the differences in closings between rich and poor schools, schools at max capacity versus not, etc.
- This is what the main School Cuts website looks likeIf you click along the tags at the top, it helps you filterYou can filter by multiple criteria at once to get a more specific picture of what you’re looking forHave students click around and/or offer up ideas on what to do on the projector so they can see how it works
- We’ll discuss where this data comes from: unlike some of the other projects we discuss this summer, the data for School Cuts doesn’t come from the city of ChicagoIt is still “open data,” however, it just comes from different sources that make it openAsk the students to think about different angles to see the data from school cutsEmphasize again that critical thinking about different angles from different perspectives is what makes a story
- Since the Documakers group will focus a bit on school cuts, we’re throwing in a brief discussion of another site that talks about school cut dataApples2Apples was started by a mother in Chicago who also works as a data scientistShe brought together some of the same data sources as School Cuts, but also gathered more from other places in PDF form and other databases that were not easily readableThere are many reports available on this site for students looking for more information on school cuts, and more angles for stories