Greetings everyone, we present the June edition of our monthly newsletter! Read up and be sure to subscribe for future editions. Also, feel free to share your events, announcements, and anything else that’s happening. Take care and see you next month!
Wednesday, June 7, 2023
Happy Pride Month, Juneteenth and Eid Mubarak! We hope you’ve had a lovely spring and are looking forward to the summer. It’s also parade season with the Puerto Rican Day Parade this Sunday, the NYC Pride March on the 25th and much more!
June is a time to celebrate diversity and exude pride in our cultures, but it is also a time to reflect on our history, and come together to move forward as a nation. Wherever this message finds you, we wish you a wonderful summer season ahead. In honor of Pride Month, we are paying tribute to three LGBTQ+ pioneers in STEM in the section below, enjoy!
Take care and see you next month!
A Special Message from the Civic Innovation Fellowship 🫶
We’d like to introduce you to Ibrahim Khalil, a recent 2022-2023 BetaNYC Civic Innovation Fellow who just completed his Bachelor’s at CUNY City Tech in Computer Systems Technologies with an honors distinction as Magna Cum Laude.
Ibrahim is now entering the job sector and is looking for a job that would help him sharpen his skills in data collection, data analysis, and visual storytelling. He’s interested in learning more about Cloud technologies and is currently completing a Microsoft Azure Data certificate because he’s always looking to upskill his capabilities. In working with Ibrahim during the fellowship, we see he is diligent and communicative, and he genuinely enjoys learning new skills. The next objective for him is to attain a Master’s degree in Data Science and is looking to connect with other data science professionals.
If you have job opportunities where Ibrahim would seem like a great fit, please reach out to either us at < cif@beta.nyc > or to Ibrahim directly at < ibrahimkhalil1232@gmail.com >. At BetaNYC, we congratulate Ibrahim again and can’t wait to see what he does next!
— Jazzy Smith, Civic Innovation Fellowship Manager
Celebrating Pride Month 🏳️🌈
In honor of Pride Month, we honor these trailblazers and heroes from the LGBTQ+ community who have paved the road in STEM!
Amy Paris is one of the highest-ranking trans people serving in the federal government. She works for the U.S. Digital Service, and has done groundbreaking work to better LGBTQ+ lives, such as advocating for more inclusive TSA screening rules and gender-neutral passports.
Alan Turing was a mathematician who cracked the German enigma code during World War II. It is estimated that this triumph shortened the war by 2 years and saved millions of lives. He also created the Turing Test, or the Imitation Game, which serves as a foundation for today’s artificial intelligence.
Leanne Pittsford is the CEO and Founder of Lesbians Who Tech & Allies, which is the largest LGBTQ community of technologists in the world. She also has launched the Tech Jobs Tour and created include, a platform that fights bias in technology.
What’s New at BetaNYC?
Come Learn About NYC Open Data! 📊
Discover NYC Open Data in a virtual class with the NYC Open Data Ambassadors! The next class is tonight at 6pm and is free and open to the public. The NYC Open Data Ambassadors program is a collaboration between BetaNYC and NYC Office of Technology and Innovation’s Open Data Team. For a list of the full schedule, visit nyc.gov/discoveropendata.
We’re heading to the State of the Map US! 🗺️
Any chance you’ll be in Richmond, Virginia from June 8 to 11? Swing by the State of the Map US conference and say hi to Jazzy and Zhi! And help us promote the conference by using #SOTMUS23 across all forms of social media. Jazzy will be presenting on the Civic Innovation Fellows’ Mapping for Equity project, we’re cheering her on!
Looking back at NYC Open Data Week 2023 💖
We published a blog post looking back at this year’s festival, treasuring memories and sharing our stats. Check out the blog post, sign up to receive announcements for Open Data Week 2024 and catch this year’s event recordings.
Community News, Events and Announcements
Here are some content picks from our community. Share yours in next month’s newsletter.
Civic Tech and Legislation Watch 👀
Election season is here! It’s time to vote for your next City Council member, District Attorney, Civil Court judge or delegates. Here are the top things to know:
- June 12 is the deadline to request an absentee ballot (online or by mail) AND to update your address.
- You can now register to vote online! June 17 is the last day to register to vote for the primary and marks the first day of early voting, which ends June 25.
- June 26 is the deadline to request an absentee ballot in person at your borough board of election office.
- June 27 is election day! Find your poll site and hours for early voting and election day. It is also the last day to postmark your absentee ballot and drop it off at your poll site. Note: if mailing your ballot, the Board of Elections must receive it by July 4.
Be a part of NYC’s first Participatory Budgeting process! Now’s your chance to vote on projects created by your fellow New Yorkers, and decide how some of the budget should be spent. The voting phase for The People’s Money is open until June 25.
Roadblocks for Sammy’s Law: The New York State Assembly will not bring Sammy’s Law to a vote this session because the legislation lacks enough support. Advocates are currently on a hunger strike until Assembly Speaker Heastie holds a vote.
Gotham Gazette Article – MyCity under the microscope: civic tech experts are questioning the external technology contracts for MyCity, but remain hopeful for change.
The fight for accessibility on government websites continues: The American Foundation for the Blind published a report detailing accessibility barriers on government websites. Government Technology has a breakdown of the report.
Delays for food stamp applications: New York Focus did an analysis on the processing of food stamp applications across the state, and found discrepancies among counties.
A deep dive into building data! The HPD released an interesting portal for accessing building information.
Where can the NYC Subway take you in 40 minutes? Chris Whong built an interactive map that illustrates how far you can get from each NYC subway station in 40 minutes.
Upcoming Events 📆
Jun 7 at 5pm Designing Accessible Public Spaces
June 12 at 5pm Recoding America with Jennifer Pahlka
June 12-16 Pride Summit
June 14 at 9am Live from BenCon 2023
June 14 at 3pm New York City Internet and Digital Equity Listening Session
June 19-21 Mozilla Festival
Announcements, Job Openings and Opportunities 📢
Submit to this list by filling out this form and see our #Jobs channel in Slack for more posts.
- AWS re/Start Application is offering free training courses for careers in cloud technology.
- Citizen is seeking a Senior Product Designer.
- Code for Science & Society is recruiting an Operations Lead at the Distributed AI Research Institute.
- DCAS’s Civil Service Pathways Fellowship applications are open for graduating CUNY students.
- The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is hiring a Senior Data Project Analyst (Job ID# 580935).
- The NYC Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity is searching for a Technical Manager.
- The Presidential Innovation Fellows is recruiting a Presidential Innovation Fellow for the 2024 cohort. Applications are due June 23.
- Stack Overflow is hiring a Senior Data Scientist.
- Applications for the Techstars Economic Mobility Accelerator, powered by Samvid Ventures, close today!
Join our community! 🛸
- Slack (View more job announcements in our Jobs Channel!)
- YouTube (Open Data Week Videos are up!)
- NYC Civic Tech Facebook Group
- Mastodon
- Open Data Week
- GitHub
Like this newsletter and what we do? Donate $23 or more to our 2023 campaign and support employment opportunities for our Civic Innovation Lab, Civic Innovation Fellows and Apprentices to grow with us.
See you next month! Peace, openness and gratitude 🗽