Chi Hack Night - Chicago Missing Persons Project

Chi Hack Night is a free, weekly event to build, share, and learn about tools to create, support, and serve the public good.We are a group of thousands of designers, academic researchers, data journalists, activists, policy wonks, web developers, and curious citizens who want to make Chicago more just, equitable, transparent, and delightful to live in through data, design, and technology.C﻿urrently, we meet once a month in person and three times a month virtually. Please visitour websiteto learn more.

Chi Hack Night

Chi Hack Night is a free, weekly event in Chicago to build, share and learn about tools to create, support, and serve the public good.

TeamWorking at TechNexus

Join us for our in-person Hack Nights at TeamWorking at TechNexus! On May 14th, we welcome folks from the Chicago Missing Persons Project!City Bureau and the Invisible Institute partnered in the reporting and development of the two-year investigation “Missing in Chicago” in 2021. City Bureau Senior Reporter Sarah Conway and Invisible Institute Data Director Trina Reynolds-Tyler collaborated using an innovative blend of data science and a machine-learning model to ultimately analyze over 1 million police records.They paired this analysis with community engagement and investigative journalism techniques, interviewing more than 40 sources, hosting community events and pinpointing significant discrepancies in official police data that revealed systemic patterns of mismanagement in the Chicago Police Department’s handling of missing person cases.This multidisciplinary reporting led to the discovery of four cases where detectives explicitly noted that the missing person had returned home despite family members saying their loved ones had not. In two of these instances, reporters found these cases by searching for murder charges and news stories and cross-referencing the names of the missing. Their technique also led to identifying 11 cases that ended in homicide that were marked “non-criminal” in the data, more than doubling the number of official homicides in missing persons police data.City Bureau and the Invisible Institute also collaborated in publishing the seven-part Missing in Chicago series on <a href="https://chicagomissingpersons.com/" title="https://chicagomissingpersons.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">chicagomissingpersons.com</a>, with excerpts tailored for local readership and reach appearing in the Chicago Reader, South Side Weekly, The Triibe and Word in Black News syndication.Project description from <a href="https://www.citybureau.org/notebook/city-bureau-and-invisible-institute-win-2024-pulitzer-prize-in-local-reporting" title="https://www.citybureau.org/notebook/city-bureau-and-invisible-institute-win-2024-pulitzer-prize-in-local-reporting" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">City Bureau’s announcement of the Pulitzer Prize awarded to the Missing in Chicago project</a>. We are a group of thousands of designers, academic researchers, data journalists, activists, policy wonks, web developers and curious citizens who want to make our city more just, equitable, transparent and delightful to live in through data, design and technology. What happens at a hack night?Every week, we have a <a href="https://chihacknight.org/events/index.html" title="https://chihacknight.org/events/index.html" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">45 minute presentation</a> by a government agency, non-profit, company or group who've made use of open data or built a civic technology application. The goal of these presentations is to showcase the different uses and opportunities, as well as challenges and successes in the civic technology movement.After the presentation, the format of the event is similar to that of a hackathon where breakout groups self-organize to work on civic apps, discuss policies and their implications, learn technical skills and network with a welcoming and diverse community at the intersection of technology and government. But I'm not a techie!That's ok! We encourage non-technical folks to pair up and learn from our community's designers and developers. We've seen time and time again, the best civic projects come from teams with a diverse background.Remember, there's much more to making a great app than just coding. ASL interpreting availableIf you have need for an American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreter, let us know when you register for the event and we will provide one, provided enough lead time. Questions about the event? We have answers:Q: I won’t be able to make it in person. Will the event be live streamed?A: Yes. The event will be livestreamed on our YouTube channel: <a href="https://youtube.com/chihacknight/live" title="https://youtube.com/chihacknight/live" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">youtube.com/chihacknight/live</a> Q: Will there be food?A: Serving communal food in a pandemic is a tricky problem. For our first go-around, we will be providing some light snacks and drinks, so you may want to grab some dinner ahead of time!

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Chi Hack Night - Chicago Missing Persons Project

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