A public-interest technologist who turns advanced data capability into systems people actually use — across private industry, public health, media, government, and civic organizations.
Throughout my career I've invented civic systems — and then built the organizations, methods, and tools to make them last. I co-founded EveryBlock, one of the first platforms to turn municipal data into news for your block. I founded Smart Chicago Collaborative and, inside it, created the Civic User Testing Group — paying everyday residents to test civic apps — and co-created Documenters, which pays community members to cover the public meetings that shape their cities.
The pattern repeats across private industry, public health, media, and government: find where data and public life meet, build the thing that connects them, and design it so the people it serves actually use it. Today that work runs through the Rural Health Transformation Grant Tracker and the consulting practice of Civic Operator.
A few of the systems I've invented, founded, or co-created.
State-by-state tracking of RFPs, contracts, and implementation activity for the $50B CMS Rural Health Transformation Program.
Visit ↗A program that pays and trains community members to document public meetings — created at Smart Chicago and now running in cities across the country.
Read the history ↗A model for everyday Chicago residents paid to test civic apps — pairing UX research with community participation and digital-skill building.
Read the book ↗A tech philanthropy and incubator devoted to improving lives in Chicago through technology — expanding access, building digital skills, and shipping data-driven public products.
Visit ↗First-ever meetup for residents who treat government as "us, not them," organizing around open-government and civic-tech principles.
Visit ↗A pioneering hyperlocal platform that filtered municipal data and local news down to your block — launched in 2008, spread to 14 cities, sold to msnbc.
Read the story ↗Where else to find me.
danielxoneil.com — two decades of essays, projects, and the stories behind them.
Visit ↗Tell me what your organization runs on, and where it's breaking down.