Civic Hacking: Building Awesome Things With Community Organizations

This session will be a frank discussion of the opportunities and challenges in civic hacking; attendees will leave with a clear understanding of the various opportunities for collaboration with community organizations in Chicago and an understanding of how to effectively work with them.

Topics will include:
* finding collaborators and building real partnerships,
* setting clear and reasonable expectations,
* short-term vs. long-term engagements,
* finding funding for big projects;
* technology challenges faced by community organizations;
* and some issues that leaders in Chicago’s low income neighborhoods are addressing.

The speakers at this session are from the Smart Communities Program (http://www.lisc-chicago.org/display.aspx?pointer=9324), Webitects (http://www.webitects.com/), and from the Metro Chicago Information Center (www.mcic.org). They are not web developers by trade, but have extensive experience in working on community-based technology projects.