Please join us on April 20 and 21 for the live webcast of eChicago 2012.

Each year since 2007, eChicago brings together practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to share ideas and strategies for all communities becoming full participants in the digital age. Its mission is to facilitate discussion that will help Chicago become a more digital and democratic city. eChicago connects people who don’t find each other easily in their daily lives: librarians, community workers, cultural producers, volunteers, students, and various professionals. It also connects campus and community as well as government and grassroots organizations.

This year's keynote speakers include:

• Librarian-scholar Joyce Latham (University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee), “Empowering Citizens.” Joyce will draw lessons for today from the dynamic and proud history of the Chicago Public Library (CPL) that she understands as a scholar and before that as CPL’s first IT director.

• Philip Neustrom (Localwiki.org), “Edit Your City: Collaborative Media in the 21st Century.” As one of the originators of the localwiki software and movement, Philip will explain the explosive success of local wikis in Davis, California, and other towns around the world.

Other offerings will include panels and workshops on tech in the hood; the future of libraries and communities; Chinese Chicago; hiphop; new media and YOUmedia; and more.

To get a flavor for eChicago 2012, you can view the 2012 program and the full video record of eChicago 2011. You’ll see the city, county, broadband builders; local media, community computer labs, librarians, and cybernavigators; genealogy and local history experts; ebook users and critics; and more.

For those who plan to attend in person, eChicago is free to all, but space is limited. Be sure to register today.

Friday April 20, 8:30-5:00pm
Saturday, April 21, 8:30-3:30pm
Student Center East
750 S. Halsted
University of Illinois at Chicago (map)

Campus parking is available in the Halsted-Taylor parking lot/garage across the street for a fee, or take the Blue line El to UIC-Halsted and walk three blocks south.

Past and continuing organizers and contributors include: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Dominican University Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Chicago/Jane Addams College of Social Work, the Daley Library, and the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement, The Arturo Velasquez Institute Digital Workforce Education Society, The Benton Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Chicago Public Library, The Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Metropolitan Library System, Partnership for a Connected Illinois, and Skokie Public Library.

Maeve Reilly

Research Services Coordinator

Graduate School of Library and Information Science

University of Illinois

501 E. Daniel

Champaign, IL 61821

217-244-7316

[log in to unmask]