Last week I helped announce the finalists for the Community Round of the Apps For Metro Chicago contest. Before reading the list of the 10 worthy apps that have moved on to the finals, I shared some thoughts (video here) about the current state of the movement around civic apps. Here they are, written down:
All of us who are involved in Apps For Metro Chicago is a part of something. At a minimum, we are part of a broad movement of developers who have participated in one of the many contests of this kind that have sprung up in the last few years.
But we can decide that we want look back some time in the future and see that we were a part of something bigger— part of a set of companies and projects that helped fundamentally change the way people interact with their cities and each other.
We have focused quite a bit on data in this world of ours, and with good reason. Civic data is at the center of the systems that we create.
But I have seen many glimmers of love in the applications submitted for this contest. And I believe we need a lot less data and a lot more love. Data and the technology that drives it are just delivery mechanisms for human love.
When the City puts asphalt in a hole on the street where my children play, that is love.
When the police help calm a family after a domestic dispute, that is love.
When the park district rolls out the basketballs on a Saturday morning, that is an act of love.
Let’s decide that we want to be a part of this— a sustained, historic drive to build new businesses around data using technology that changes the ways cities work. And let’s make sure we place love at the center.
