Derek Eder

Civic Tech Builder


Hi, I'm Derek Eder. I'm an entrepreneur, developer, civic technology leader and climate advocate. During the day, I run DataMade, a civic technology company. We build open source technology using data to empower journalists, researchers, governments and advocacy organizations.

I am Co-Founder and President Emeritus of Chi Hack Night, Chicago's weekly event to build, share, and learn about civic technology. Read my full bio »


Electrifying Our Old Oak Park Home more »

Electrifying Our Old Oak Park Home

In 2022 and 2023, I documented our process of fully electrifying our 100-year-old home in Oak Park, IL. We installed solar panels on our roof (giving us a source of free renewable electricity), switched out our gas furnace with electric heat pumps, and replaced all gas appliances with electric equivalents.

Read all 3 parts »


Blog more »

Policy Memo: Opportunities for Expanding Chicago Digital

Policy Memo: Opportunities for Expanding Chicago Digital

Published on Oct 9, 2023
As 2023 budget season gets underway in the City of Chicago, I was contacted by the Chicago City Council Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight to provide background information on the state of and opportunities for digital services in Chicago. This is the memo I wrote for them, which I have now made public.




Talks Public appearances and presentations | more »


How to Fully Electrify Your Home

I was interviewed by the Village of Oak Park on our fully electrified home and showed off our heat pumps, induction stove, hot water heater, solar panels and electric car charger.


Introducing Decarb My State

As part of our 500th Chi Hack Night on July 12, 2022, I gave a lightning talk debuting DecarbMyState.com, a new website that shows where emissions come from in each state to galvanize action on climate change through clean electrification.


Intro to being anti-racist in civic tech

What does it mean to be anti-racist? What is white supremacy culture and how does it show up? Over the past months, Chi Hack Night’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee has discussed and researched these questions. I am joined by fellow Chi Hack Night Board Members Ryan Spencer and Samantha Evans to share what we learned in our blog post so that we can all work to make our communities more equitable and just.


How Chicago ‘Hacktivist’ Derek Eder Uses Public Data for Good

WTTW Chicago Tonight interview I did with Phil Ponce on Chi Hack Night, DataMade, and the work done by the Chicago civic technology community in the last 5 years. We discussed some more recent projects including Chicagos Million Dollar Blocks and Justice Divided.



Projects Civic tech projects I've built or collaborated on | more »


Illinois Solar Map
https://ilsolarmap.com

As of May 2023, 1,622,000 kilowatts of operating solar capacity have been installed in the State of Illinois thanks to the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA). The Illinois Solar Map allows you to explore solar projects by Census Tract, Place, County, and State Congressional Districts, as well as by category of project.


Decarb My State
https://decarbmystate.com

With volunteers at Chi Hack Night, we pulled together emissions and electrification data for all 50 states + DC and organize it based on the biggest sources of climate pollution: the machines we use to heat our homes, cook our food, get us places, and produce our power. We count and name every coal, gas and oil plant that needs to close, track how many of our buildings and cars have been electrified, and how much wind and solar has been built.


Searchable Map Template - CSV
https://github.com/datamade/searchable-map-template-turf

Put your data on a searchable, filterable map. This is a free, open source tool and template powered by javascript in the browser using Leaflet and Turf.js.


2nd City Zoning
https://secondcityzoning.org

To make Chicago’s zoning code digestible by humans, we took inspiration from one of our favorite games: Sim City 2000. Find out how your building is zoned, learn where to locate your business and explore zoning patterns throughout the city.


Chicago Councilmatic
https://chicago.councilmatic.org

Are you curious about what legislation the Chicago City Council has been passing? Search, browse, subscribe and comment on everything the City Council has done since 2010.


@derekederderek@derekeder.com • © 2024 Derek Eder