Date: March 27, 2018
Venue: TWG
Presenter: Andrew Hilts from Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, UofT
Presenting: Andrew Hilts, Senior Researcher & Developer at UofT’s Citizen Lab, will be speaking on consumer personal data access in Canada following the release of “Approaching Access”, a report that sheds light on what you can learn by filing data access requests.
Andrew will be highlighting Access My Info, a web application developed by the Citizen Lab for the public to easily file data access requests from three areas of interest: telecommunications, dating applications, and fitness trackers.
Announcements:
Post-Hacknight HangoutsAfter most every hacknight, we head out to a nearby accessible venue for casual hangouts and optional drinks. Java House! On Queen. We’ll be meeting in the lobby downstairs. If there are any chances of plans, we’ll post to #general. |
Civic Tech Organizing VolunteersWe need volunteers to help Civic Tech run! We really need volunteers THIS MONTH! Specifically:
Come talk to Chris or any of the organizers |
Grantbook is Hiring!GrantBook is hiring! They are a social impact business, working to digitize the philantrophic and nonprofit sector by providing strategic advisory and tech consulting services. They are looking for a Philantrophy Solutions Advisor, which is a Project Manager type role, and an Implementer/API developer. Postings can be found on grantbook.org |
FutureMakers Talk: Agility in the New WorldRBC Tech Community Team is proud to present our next FutureMakers Talk! Please join us for an evening of networking, refreshments, and thought-provoking talks! We will learn about the aches and pains faced by agile practitioners in small to large enterprises in an increasingly disruptive business landscape, including how they overcame it and lessons learned. The evening will feature the following talks:
The link: http://bit.ly/2DrRK3A CivilTechTO <- discount code |
Call for Participation: State of Our Networks 2018July 13 -18, 2018 Toronto, ON Our theme this year focuses on how we Do It With Others (DIWO) as opposed to just ourselves. We have seen a growing number of peer-to-peer, inclusive, and privacy-respecting projects mobilizing against setbacks to resilient, accessible, equitable communications in 2017. Yet many open questions remain. In the face of threats to the open internet, which tools and tactics will help us recognize the opportunities and challenges of this moment? What kinds of creative and critical engagement with technology practices can enable meaningful change when we do it with others? We are inviting proposals for talks, workshops, discussions, demonstrations and interventions to explore these questions. Topics could include, but in no way are limited to: – decentralization is not enough – making equitable network infrastructures – rebuilding or repairing existing infrastructure – being/becoming network neighbours – skill- and capacity- building for maintaining alternative networks Deadline for proposals is April 27, 2018, check out our full call for participation for submission instructions: https://ournetworks.ca/cfp Not sure? Ask us! We are hosting two open hour calls for people to ask questions about potential topics and the conference itself: Saturday March 24 at 12:00-1:00 pm ET, and Tuesday April 17 at 8:00-9:00 pm ET. No prior registration needed, just visit: https://appear.in/ournetworks |
Pitches:
Takes a Village (Marica)Description of project: < Collecting stories about good deeds (unrewarded) > What you’re doing today: < scoping, gathering ideas > What you need: People with stories, deed-doers and receivers, storytellers, media producers, influencers AUDIENCE MEMBERS |
Budgetpedia (Henrik)Description of project: Making Toronto’s budget more accessible to the people of Toronto. See budgetpedia.ca What you’re doing today:
What you need: Researchers, writers, communications people, branding people |
Find Me Canada ProjectDescription of project: No one wants to go missing for being Missing. There are thousands of missing people in Ontario alone hundreds of them are in the GTA are. Find Me Canada is a project that aims to help Police departments in Canada (starting TPS) finding Missing people using Artificial Intelligence especially connecting missing people to a possible criminal act. Hopefully expand more features in future. What you’re doing today: I work in the I.T. field in the Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security What you need: Volunteers to work with in future when the project idea matures better. |
CivicTech101 (Marica)Description: Introduce you to Civic Tech Toronto and learn about one another. Please go here if it’s your first time! Location: Board Room 1. |
BikeSpace (Sharly)Description of project: A webapp which will allow cyclists to drop a pin on a map of Toronto indicating insufficiencies in bike parking infrastructure. We believe that the most valuable data to improve Toronto’s bike parking will be crowdsourced. What we’re doing today: We’re reviewing our user interface, developing our database to support data analytics and prototyping dashboard designs! What we need: Developers, Designers, Researchers, Data Analysts, Communicators MVP: https://app.bikespace.ca/ |
Women and Color (Sharon)Description of project: Online community of talented women and people of colour available for speaking opportunities at tech-related events. What we’re doing today: User testing and fixing bugs! What we need:
Visit: womenandcolor.com |
HomeTO (CG Chen)Description of project: We empower at risk, low income, and homeless individuals through inclusive digital tools. What you’re doing today: Working on our first project, a digital product. What you need: Front-end web developers, anyone with connections to shelters, or anybody interested in helping out! |
Chalmers Cards (Zach)Description of project: Chalmers Cards are laser-cut wooden handouts that explain how to access public resources for folks in tight financial situations. Stuff like toll free numbers for shelter referral, financial aid registration, and free legal aid. The cards are laser cut onto wood so the information doesn’t get crumpled. Plus people think they’re cool so the cards don’t get lost! What we’re doing today: Thinking about changing the card! What we need:
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Law & Design Team (Avery)Description of project: Improving access, usability of legal information. There is an access to justice crisis! What we’re doing today: Hacking What we need: User researchers, graphic designers, website builders, anyone with interest in legal issues |
Newcomer Recruitment System (Mahmoud)Description of project: As part of a non-profit language training organization, Nevy’s Language for Lower Levels, this project, the Newcomer Recruitment System was born out of the need to improve the outreach and recruitment (marketing and advertising) process to newcomers that don’t speak sufficient English that can be socially isolated within their own communities. Their research practices and consumer profiles are highly different than yours or mine, and conventional practices for outreach and recruitment are outdated and inefficient. What you’re doing today: I’d like to discuss the project and recruit those interested in looking at solutions to the research we’ve done and possibly joining us in building them. What you need: Everyone from digital advertising and marketing to software developers |
TTC Subway dashboard project (Raphael)Description of project: Build the political will to improve transportation. Transit agencies are bad at communicating successes and failures: leaving users with most salient experience in their memory: their worst one By communicating transit performance in a way that users understand, they might better appreciate how good transit is while understanding why it’s bad when it’s bad. What we’re doing today: Scraping a bunch of subway data from the TTC, still working on processing data What we need: Data geeks, A logo https://github.com/CivicTechTO/ttc_subway_times #transportation |
DemocracyKit Tech Team (Josh)Description of project: We are an open online platform to share advice, educational resources and technology with campaign teams/candidates running for municipal office. What we’re doing today:
What we need: Web developers, designers & civic technologists interested in opening the municipal election process. People interested in Django and front end development Keep in touch:
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Public Education App Idea(s)Description of project: Looking to develop an educational app idea for kids. What I’m doing today: -Seeking feedback on an idea that I have developed with some UI/UX designers -looking to create an idea with anyone in general about educating students -I can offer an educational perspective if needed (I work at a school teaching grade 6 students!) What I need: Looking for coders, particularly anyone who can give feedback from a back end perspective Info to learn more: @alternateacher allister.geonanga@gmail.com, Grade 6 Educator with a public school board I have a slide deck of an MVP to show if you’re interested! |
Shelter Map / Placement (Jason)Description of project: We’ve had a particularly bad winter, and ensuring everyone has safe overnight shelter is a challenge. We want to build a system to help frontline workers place people looking for temporary or emergency shelter. What we’re doing today: Reviewing research on the Ombudsman report What we need:
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Designing Public Engagement Tools for Government(Ontario’s Open Government Office) Description of project: The Open Government Office has been working with Civic Tech to design tools for Ontario Public Service (OPS) staff to help them better engage with the public in ways that are meaningful and consistent. What you’re doing today: We have been collecting internal and external experiences, formed a problem statement, and now we will be focusing in on case studies that can help both the staff and members of the public learning more about the decision-making processes that influence public engagement. What you need: Design-thinkers, researchers/academics, and just anyone interested in better engagement between the government and citizens |
Wild Combination Digital (Luc P)Description of project: The digital experience for Wild Combination ideation game. What you’re doing today: Testing some user interface prototypes, gathering feedback on designs and ideas What you need: Testers! |
3rd-Party Data Sharing ( )Pitch: Third party data sharing agreements are complex and government needs your help! Come join ______( Name to be decided) and write a policy white paper with the City of Toronto, Government of Ontario and Government of Canada! Tonight we need____ ____ ___. We have Open Data Candy! Description of project: Help the City of Toronto, Government of Ontario and Government of Canada identifying the key stakeholders, topics, values and guidelines around 3rd-party data Sharing agreements.
What you’re doing today:
What you need:
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Newcomer Recruitment System (Mahmoud)Description of project: As part of a non-profit language training organization, Nevy’s Language for Lower Levels, this project, the Newcomer Recruitment System, was born out of the need to improve the outreach and recruitment (marketing and advertising) process to newcomers that don’t speak sufficient English that can be socially isolated within their own communities. Their research practices and consumer profiles are highly different than yours or mine, and conventional practices for outreach and recruitment are outdated and inefficient. What you’re doing today: I’d like to discuss the project and recruit those interested in looking at solutions to the research we’ve done and possibly joining us in building them. What you need: Everyone from digital advertising and marketing to software developers |