CivicTechWR - with Matthew Dufresne of CanadaGPT
Tonight we welcome guest speaker Matthew Dufresne, creator of CanadaGPT. CanadaGPT is a Canadian parliamentary intelligence platform that connects AI to the complete record of federal government activity — 500,000+ Hansard statements, 100,000+ lobbying meetings, 2,000,000+ political donation records, all ingested through 24 automated pipelines into a Neo4j Aura knowledge graph. Canadian-built, hosted in Montreal, data never crosses the border.
Agenda
5:30 – 6:00 PM: Doors open - grab some food, say hi to everyone, get settled in.
6:00 – 6:15 PM: Introductions and announcements
6:15 - 6:45 PM: Guest speaker Matthew Dufresne
6:45 – 7:45 PM: Breakout groups
7:45 – 8:00 PM: Recap and wrap up
8:00 PM - late: Optional post-hacknight hangout
Current projects
We are working on the following projects this season:
Eviction Prevention - Improving the Social Development Centre's case management system for tenants at risk of eviction
Accessible Housing Bridge - Helping tenants find accessible units
LoMo - Mutual aid app for grassroots communities
Waterloo Region Votes - Candidate information website for the upcoming municipal election
What is Civic Tech?
CivicTechWR is a community group that brings together people from different sectors and backgrounds to actively solve civic challenges in our local community using design and technology.
People of all backgrounds and skill levels are welcome to participate! We meet every Wednesday from 6pm - 8pm at Builders Club.
Do you have more questions?
Feel free to reach out by email at [email protected] or join us on Slack via this invite link.