Hi, I'm Derek Eder. I'm an entrepreneur, developer and one of the leaders of the civic technology community in Chicago. 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 Board President of Chi Hack Night, Chicago's weekly event to build, share, and learn about civic tech. Read my full bio »

Talks Public appearances and presentations | more »

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? Derek is joined by fellow Chi Hack Night Board Members Ryan Spencer and Samantha Evans to share our answers to these questions so that we can all work to make our communities more equitable and just.

The opportunity of civic tech

It is said that Chicago has one of the strongest and most vibrant civic technology communities in the world, but what is civic tech? What are the opportunities in the civic tech space and what has changed over the past few years that make these opportunities possible? As Founder of Chi Hack Night and DataMade, Derek answers these questions.

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

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

When Technology and Policy Work Together: Large Lots in Chicago

Demond Drummer and Derek Eder share the story of how community organizers, technologists, and the City of Chicago collaborated to roll out a new program to give local residents ownership of vacant land in their neighborhood and incentivize neighborhood-level investment.

Maps Mapping open data | more »

Searchable Map Template - Turf

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

2nd City Zoning

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.