What we're about
"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
We believe that citizens should consider government to be "us", not "them." This meetup is for citizens who are interested in seeing their federal, state, and local government function more efficiently and responsively. We are inspired by people who are actively building tools and experimenting with solutions along these lines, like Sunlight Foundation (http://sunlightlabs.com/), GovTrack (http://GovTrack.us) and Egora, "The Worldwide Stock-Market of Ideas" of the International Logic Party (https://Egora-ILP.org).
We believe that open source software practices and internet culture provide good examples of how people can work cooperatively on complex problems to produce meaningful results, but you don't have to be a techie to be part of this meetup. Whether you are an activist or a government employee, or just a hacker looking for interesting projects, come to the Open Government Chicago group to meet other interested people and get involved in making things happen.
We use Meetup.com's group communication tools among other methods to stay connected. But there is nothing better than sincere face-to-face communication, so we encourage you to schedule your own "Citizen Office Hours" to make yourself available to your fellow citizens to discuss ideas, issues, and organizing matters. Please visit the group organizer, Cezary Jurewicz, at his office hours for the ability to schedule your own office hours.