Hello! My name is Eric Sherman.

Background

My professional and academic background is highly interdisciplinary. I studied Political Science(focusing in organizational theory, political economy, and urban politics) and Geography and Environmental Studies (Focusing in Urban Planning, Sustainable Development and GIS).

As a first generation college student from a working-class family, much of my interests revolve around a desire to understand the struggles faced by disadvantaged communities or individuals, as well an overall curiosity for what makes functional communities ‘tick’, and to bring these stories to a wider audience.

I have a personal belief that conflating how people behave and interact in their real-life environment with the organizational structures they operate inside of can lead to profound and actionable observations. I got into working with technology as a way to answer these questions and address these issues in pragmatic but impactful ways.

I am also very passionate about the potential ways for art and technology to intersect to tell powerful, relevant stories, as you can see in this Ignite Talk.

Skills

Civic Engagement & Public Policy

As part of the leadership team for Chi Hack Night, I am closely involved with hosting, promotion, and strategic planning of our event. I have also volunteered and worked in Chicago Politics since 2012, which has included outreach work for political campaigns as well as lobbying work on behalf of Chicago Votes for automatic voter registration.

GIS & Cartography

I studied GIS software and tools as part of my undergrad, and have gone on to use these skills and others to support myself as a technology consultant and full-stack web developer specializing in GIS and Cartography. Several of these projects are detailed below.

Qualifications & Relevant Projects

• Experience in web design and development.

  • I have four years experience in web design and development. Most of my geospatial projects involve a published web component. I also have experience creating backend databases and APIs to be used by front end web applications. I also am a primary contact for updating and maintaining the website for Chi Hack Night.

• Enthusiasm for the landscape of cities, their people, and history.

  • I’ve lived in Chicago for 9 years and love it. I am an expert on it’s history and have great passion for everything that makes it a unique and special place. I’m always curious and looking for new things to learn about the city, as I think being featured by WBEZ’s Curious City demonstrates!

• Demonstrated familiarity with mapping applications.

  • I am trained and proficient using ESRI as well as Open Source tools. I’ve created a guide to using QGIS, an open source GIS application.

• Work Examples

  • Below are some select examples of work I’ve done that are relevant to this project. I’m happy to discuss the details of these projects further.

  • City Bureau’s Living With Lead Project (page 16 for cartography spread) online version of these maps

  • City Bureau Public Newsroom #20 (I created the maps and helped facilitate the community mapping/planning process)

  • Map-based Survey Tool for the Illinois Department of Transportation

  • Map My Story , more recent example of the concept

  • Mapping of Historical Dancing Tours

  • Slow Roll’s Bicycling Equity Project