Archive: December 2009

Sneak Peek: Tech Recommendations for HUD

At a lunch in Chicago this fall, Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Open Government Beth Noveck encouraged a group of civic sector techies to make recommendations about open government and data transparency for various bureacracies. Noveck referenced the recently issued White House Open Government Directive (for more see the excellent analysis by TechPresident), and noted that they were interested in organizations pledging what they would build / do if the government did __blank__.

Since he took office this spring, I've had the privelege to see Asst. Sec. for Fair Housing John Trasviña speak a number of times. On every occassion he references the importance of taking fair housing "online", but to date his comments have focused on enforcement activities his office might take.

In response to this call and because we believe that there are a number of non-enforcement tech opportunities for HUD in general and Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in particular, MoveSmart.org has been working with two large fair housing organizations to craft a set of tech recommendations for HUD and their office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO). While they're not ready for release just yet, the Directive's aggressive time frame and our holiday plans compel us to give you a sneak peek.

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Year in Review

As 2009 draws to a close, we wanted to update you on our progress, thank you for your support, and encourage you to get involved with MoveSmart.org.

When this year started, MoveSmart.org was just a simple blog about a website we hoped to build. In the spring we partnered with the Chicago Technology Cooperative to offer a fellowship to Rebecca White to start work in earnest on the site. The first iteration of the current site launched in May. At the time, it was just the blog and a tiny Guides section - although by August of this year the Guides would expand to include nearly 80 articles on a wide array of topics.

The summer brought great news - we received a $10,000 outright grant and $10,000 challenge grant from the Field Foundation. This funding enabled us to bring Rebecca on half time in August and get the Neighborhood Finder system up-and-running in early November. Since then, our progress has continued to accelerate; we have been launching new features and data sets on an almost weekly basis while at the same time raising funds for the challenge grant (check out our Twitter stream for the play-by-play).

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Live Blogging: "Race & Public Policy: A Dialogue to Remember"

MoveSmart.org is 'slightly delayed blogging' (there's limited wifi access in the room; this will be udpated as frequently as possible) for the IDHR-sponsored “Race & Public Policy: A Dialogue to Remember” on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at the Thompson Center.

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10:40am – Bobbie Wanzo, the deputy director of the Illinois Department of Human Rights, calls the room to order and introduces the panel. She frames the discussion as a celebration of Human Rights Day 2009, for which the United Nations has set as a theme “celebrating diversity”. She notes that IDHR is a 'human rights' agency and operates out of a human rights framework. IDHR has produced brochures and materials in 11 languages (and is working to expand into even more) and has staff that is fluent in Spanish, Polish, and Korean. They have trained more than 12,000 individuals over the past year.

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