The_Message: October 2023

We wish you a belated Italian Heritage Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day! 

We are excited to launch our NYC Open Data Week AND School of Data 2024 Call for Proposals and grow our team. We have a few welcoming words from our FIRST Chief Technology Officer, Ashley Louie, and new Civic Innovation Lab Manager, Erik Brown. 

Ashley and Erik will lead the Civic Innovation Lab. Welcome to the family! Also, Reinvent Albany has already highlighted their work! You can learn more about them in our interview.

Last month, the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation published its Annual Open Data Report. Again, if you work with open data, we want to feature your work! Submit a proposal for ideas to be featured at our 2024 festival.

Read below for more information on events, legislative updates, job opportunities, and next month’s election — enjoy!

Best wishes,
— BetaNYC

A Special Message from the Civic Innovation Fellowship 💗

Hello everyone! We’d like to introduce you to Joseph Liu, a wonderful BetaNYC Civic Innovation Fellow alum who is looking for a part-time or full-time role as a data analyst or in a data-related role. Joseph has an exceptional work ethic and a proactive approach to problem-solving, which fueled his curiosity to analyze NYPD complaint and arrest data for his final project with us.

Joseph is looking to work in a government or a civic-focused organization. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Data Science from the New York City College of Technology, and he’s participated in many fellowships to boot: the CUNY Tech Prep Data Science Fellowship, BetaNYC’s Civic Innovation Fellowship, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Summer Research Program at the Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis Center. 

Joseph is proficient in Python, R, and SQL programming languages, and learned how to perform data cleaning, exploratory data analysis, time series analysis, data visualization, natural language processing, and some of the simpler machine learning techniques. He’s a regular user of Microsoft applications, and he’s learned to use Power BI and Tableau in DataCamp.

If you have a role that sounds like a great fit for Joseph, please reach out to him at < j.liu2707@gmail.com >. We know his next employer will be lucky to have him on their team.

With gratitude,
Jazzy Smith
Civic Innovation Fellowship Director

What’s New at BetaNYC?

Upcoming Open Data Ambassadors Class 📊

Tomorrow at 6pm is the next iteration of the Discovering NYC Open Data Class as part of the NYC Open Data Ambassadors Program. This class is in partnership with the Office of the Bronx Borough President — visit nyc.gov/discoveropendata for the full schedule.

NYC Open Data Week 2024 call for proposals is open! 📝

We’re building our program for next year’s festival, and are looking for event ideas that share your insight, expertise, and enthusiasm for public data about New York City. The submission deadline for Open Data Week and School of Data is November 22, 2023. And the deadline to submit a concept to Data Through Design is November 15, 2023. If you’re interested in participating in School of Data, check out this announcement.

Community News, Events and Announcements

Here are some content picks from our community. Share yours in next month’s newsletter.

Civic Tech and Legislation Updates 👀 

October marks another busy month for New Yorkers — election day is officially one month away! Here are the key dates to know:

Last month, the Mayor’s Management Report was released and received extensive coverage. The full fiscal report is a public account of City agencies’ performances and measures if they deliver services efficiently, effectively, and expeditiously. News organizations such as Hell Gate, City & State NY, and THE CITY provided recaps of the report. 

A milestone for NYC’s Open Data portal: There are now over 4.6 billion rows of data on the NYC Open Data portal! NYC Chief Analytics Officer Martha Norrick sat down with Cities Today to reflect on Open Data’s evolution, and look forward to next steps.

A call to action for police transparency laws: City & State NY published an editorial calling for the NYC Council to strengthen existing laws, citing current proposals on modifying language and adding new provisions. 

The Brooklyn Borough President released The Comprehensive Plan for Brooklyn and outlined a vision for a more equitable borough.

Congestion pricing update: The Traffic Mobility Review Board recently provided two updates — the fee for drivers is under negotiation, and the list of potential exemptions has grown.

Transportation Alternatives released a dashboard tracking serious traffic injuries in the City and highlighted how we can prevent serious injuries.

New York State needs your input for the future of transit! Learn more about the New York State Transportation Master Plan 2050 and complete the survey. 

How does New York’s property tax system operate? Turns out there are widespread disparities, as shown in these visualizations.

A One-Stop Shop to Access NYC Mapping Data: The Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity announced the release of EquityNYC 3.0.

Innovative work on NYC’s Capital Spending: The Data Engineering Fellows at the NYC Department of City Planning launched an insightful Capital Spending Database.

Upcoming Events 📆

Oct 11, 16 and 22 Coding it Forward’s 2024 Fellowship Information Sessions

Oct 11 at 6pm Discovering NYC Open Data: Online Session Hosted by The Office of the Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson

Oct 12 at 9am Government Modernization Summit 2023, hosted by City & State NY

Oct 14 at 9am TransportationCamp NYC 2023

Oct 14 City of Forest Day

Oct 16 at 6pm Danielle Szafir: Using Color in Visualization

Oct 17 at 12:30pm An Advocate’s Guide to a Livable City

Oct 17 at 6pm Latinos in Tech: A Hispanic Heritage Month Event, hosted by the Office of the Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine 

Oct 19 at 1pm Democratizing AI: Principles for Meaningful Public Participation

Oct 29 at 11am Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/Wikidata Day 2023

Nov 14 – Nov 15 Urban Tech Summit 2023 – Cities: Driving Decarbonization Technology

Announcements, Job Openings and Opportunities 📢

Submit to this list by filling out this form and see our #Jobs channel in Slack for more posts.

• The American Museum of Natural History is hiring a Manager of Education Initiatives: Data Science and Computational Thinking.
• City Bureau is seeking a Web Developer.
• The Civic Engagement Commission’s applications for Borough Assembly Facilitator are due October 13.
• Coding it Forward’s applications for their 2024 Fellowship open on October 16 and close on October 29. 
• Human Rights Watch is hiring a Director of Technology and Human Rights. 
• New America is searching for a Policy Analyst for the Open Technology Institute and Wireless Future Project.
• The NYC Department of Environmental Protection is seeking a Director of Technology.
• The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is hiring a School Surveyor for Veterinary and Pest Control Services. 
• The NYC Department of Transportation is searching for a Technology Project Management Analyst.
• The NYC Office of Technology and Innovation is seeking a Cyber Senior Data Engineer.

Join our community! 🛸

• Slack (View more job announcements in our Jobs Channel!)
• Twitter
• 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 🗽