Emanuel Administration Uses Tech for Transparency… As of June, when Rahm Emanuel marked 30 days as mayor, Chicago has made some progress on the technology pillars of his election platform, including the use of publicly posted data to improve transparency, efficiency and accountability for city government operations, with a particular emphasis on enhancing the way it collects lobbying data, increases the amount of available information and decreasing inefficiencies. Among other things, the city is posting information to its data portal to improve access to data on everything from performance benchmarks for city services, to the s budget in both human and machine-readable formats. GovWin.com …and Hopes to Use It to Grow Business: Local tech experts are discussing how the Emanuel administration can use technology to grow access and business in the city. Listen to this radio interview where John Tolva, the city's Chief Technology Officer, and Kevin Willer, President and CEO of Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, discuss Chicago’s tech future. WBEZ Contest Invites App Designs for Metro Use: Four governmental agencies. Over 175 data sets. Some $50,000 in awards. Real time technical assistance. Connecting communities with software developers. The Apps for Metro Chicago competition is an unprecedented software challenge. Developers, community groups, businesses, and individuals are invited to build apps that solve problems and improve services in the region. The goal is to increase government transparency by facilitating the building of software applications that are creative, useful and designed for long-term impact. Apps for Metro Chicago Local Websites Are Attracting Attention: Three Chicago-based websites are attracting attention for their innovative ideas, says Terry Howerton of the Illinois Technology Association: Power2Switch.com helps users change electricity providers in less than 10 minutes and save up to 30 percent on electric costs. Hireology.com helps small and medium size businesses figure out what kind of questions to ask interviewees as they seek the right people to hire. And Spothero.com lets drivers reserve parking spaces in Chicago neighborhoods like Wrigleyville during a Cubs game. Fox Chicago Several Illinois Hospitals Make Most Wired List: Hospitals & Health Networks magazine has named several Illinois medical centers among the "Most Wired Hospitals" in the nation, noting how use IT to streamline business, cut down medical errors and improve clinical outcomes. The hospitals include the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood and Methodist Medical Center of Illinois in Peoria. BND.com Chicago Is Third in Green Jobs: Chicago is the third-ranked U.S. metro area in terms of green-tech job creation. Its 79,388 jobs make up 1.8 percent of all jobs in the region. On this measure of concentration, the clean economy here ranks 45^th. Between 2003 and 2010 Chicago added 17,729 clean jobs to see the sector grow by 3.7 percent annually. Those place the region fourth and 60^th.  The Brookings Institution