Are you interested in learning more about technologies like Open Street Maps, or meeting officials from the City of Dallas who have interesting geospatial data sets just waiting to be used & mined in the next awesome civic app? Well, then you should join our group (more about our own projects later). 
However, you should also check out this next event: Maptime Dallas.
Their second meetup ever will be on Wednesday, January 14, 2015, at bcWORKSHOP (416 S. Ervay St, Dallas, TX 75201) from 6:30 PM to 8 PM. This is very close to Dallas City Hall, and it should be noted there is street parking available right across from the building (Dallas monitors most parking meters until only 6 PM). Maptime Dallas meetups will occur on a monthly basis, and are envisioned to consist of three parts:
Lecture: A short lecture on various topics of interest. For 1/14 there will be a short, fairly basic introduction to Using and Editing Open Street Maps.
Mapping: The group will break into fairly even teams and get to work mapping some subject. For 1/14 the theme will be Tunnels under Downtown Dallas – mapped in whatever ways your team imagines.
Sharing: The group will come back together and go over what we have done so far and where the map is going. The goal is for teams to finish these maps in-between meetings and share their maps with the Maptime Dallas twitter (@maptimedallas) and gmail ([email protected]).
I will definitely be there on 1/14, and you should come and invite your friends too. The more the merrier. Get ready to map! Also, bring laptops if you have them! The best part is I will be bringing at least one of their events to the Makerspace in the near future, so it’ll be super-easy for us to access!
Now, another request that will help advance the use & quality of local civic data: please take a survey on how you use civic data in your projects! The survey is here: http://goo.gl/forms/IOuqd2vvJe
Essentially, bcWorkshop is conducting this survey in partnership with the Communities Foundation of Texas in order to gauge where the Dallas area is at in relationship to data and analytics for civic and community-oriented research. The end-goal of the larger project is to come up with a model for an organization that would be able to collect, compile, and provide access to data AND perform research on our community. The inspiration for this is drawn from organizations such as Data Driven Detroit, the Smart Chicago Collaborative, and many others around the country that are doing this in their cities/regions.
Share this link with other networks you belong to where there may be civic data enthusiasts. The only way for us to figure out community needs is by getting the biggest sample with this survey.
TL/DR: If you use data to solve community problems please take this short survey from bcWORKSHOP: http://goo.gl/forms/IOuqd2vvJe.
Take care,
Stephen Wylie
Civic Hacking Cmte Chair