Display problems? Open this email in your web browser.

April 2018 Newsletter

Smart Cville promotes the use of technology and data to help communities find innovative solutions by facilitating the exchange of ideas between civic institutions and citizens.

In this issue:

Tech + Local Govt Happy Hour: Civic Technology Edition
Charlottesville Open Data Challenge
Civic Innovation Day videos - city and county challenges
Upcoming events

Tech + Local Govt Happy Hour: Civic Technology Edition

Join us on April 12 as Smart Cville and friends get together for a beer and a chat at Random Row.

Curious about civic technology?
Want to learn more about a specific example?
Interested in the mobilization that occurred during Georgia’s special Sixth Congressional District race?

Join us! Bring your civic technology idea, crazy questions, and/or thirst!

In attendance will be Former Executive Director of My Ride to Vote Ben Leiner and former Digital Director Taylor Erwin. To learn more about Leiner and Erwin’s work during the 6th Congressional District race in 2017 see here.

Even if you're not interested in above, these happy hours are a great, informal way to meet us and ask about our work.

Charlottesville Open Data Challenge

We're thrilled to see the interest in open data expanding locally. If you haven't heard, we're nearing the end of the Charlottesville Open Data Challenge. The goal of the Challenge is to support the City in better understanding pedestrian load in and around the Downtown Mall using anonymized wifi data. Astraea, the City of Charlottesville Open Data Advisory Group, and NVIDIA are supporting this challenge.

This is an exciting moment for the open data community in Charlottesville. The winning project team will receive $1,000 and will be announced at the Applied Machine Learning Conference. We hope you're following along and will consider joining challenges like this in the future!

Civic Innovation Day videos - city and county challenges

We have two new videos promoting the Civic Innovation Day challenges for the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

Albemarle County

The video above highlights the County's 2018 CID challenge. A lot of change is coming to Rio+29. County staff are keenly aware of the rich history of this area and see potential changes as an opportunity to bring to life that history in a meaningful way. How can technology support that? Can intentional planning+technology keep us from burying essential stories from our area's past?

City of Charlottesville

The video above highlights the City's 2018 CID challenge. Data can be a powerful tool when it comes to fire prevention. Charlottesville Fire Department (CFD) has long been a leader in leveraging data to support its services. Now, it's looking to new and unique data sources to build advanced predictive models in order to develop actionable fire risk insights.

JOIN US FOR CID 2018 - Data scientists, programmers, technologists, designers, and interested citizens all have something to contribute!

Upcoming events

April 10: UVA Smart Cities Enabling Sustainability Class Talk

On April 10, I will join Dr. Angela Orebaugh's Smart Cities class as a guest speaker. I will talk about how open data makes cities smart (empowers citizens, creates efficiencies, enables sustainability).

April 12: Tech + Local Govt Happy Hour: Civic Technology Edition

Curious about civic technology? Want to learn more about a specific example? Interested in the mobilization that occurred during Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District? Join us on April 12 as Smart Cville and friends get together for a beer and a chat at Random Row. Register today!

June 2: Civic Innovation Day

Join us and other action-oriented civic innovators as we tackle four civic challenges. Learn more.

How You Can Help...

Add yourself to our volunteer list by contacting us! Be sure to include interests and availability.
Donate to our non-profit or sponsor an event.
Share our newsletter with someone who may be interested.

Unsubscribe | Manage your subscription
Smart Cville, Charlottesville, VA