Methods for Resident Engagement in the Civic Innovation Process

Over the last year or so, there's been a growing consensus and practice in the Chicago OpenGov community that inclusion of residents is an important (and often missing) element of successful civic innovation.

Join us for a night of discussion of three methods for engaging with residents in the design / build process.

George Aye (https://twitter.com/georgeaye) of Greater Good Studio (http://www.greatergoodstudio.com/) will discuss their unique asset-based approach (http://greatergoodtest.com/approach/) to design for solving social issues and talk about some current projects, with a focus on inclusive methods for public engagement.

Patrick C. Cunningham will discuss work with Design Cloud Chicago (http://designcloudchicago.com/) focused on collaborative approaches to development and use adoption. As a hybrid design firm + art gallery + business incubator + community hub, he will also cover the overall D:CL business and creative structure. Additional inclusive design projects such as AirLab (http://airlab.landonbonebaker.com/) and an Archeworks Research Fellowship (http://www.archeworks.org/) will be presented as well.

Daniel X. O'Neil (https://twitter.com/danxoneil) will review work to date on the Civic User Testing Group (http://cutgroup.smartchicagoapps.org/), a set of regular Chicago residents who get paid to test out civic apps. He'll review the process of setting up the CUTGroup platform, the methods used to engage with residents, and talk about how Smart Chicago (http://www.smartchicagocollaborative.org/) has signed up nearly 400 people from all over the city to test out the work we all make.