Happy State and Municipal budget season!
And a happy New Year, everyone! We hope your year has gotten off to a good start and you had a serviceful Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. 2023 was an active year for us, and we have some exciting events to kick off 2024.
- Get ready to festival!!! — NYC Open Data Week will be from March 16 till the 24th! NYC School of Data will be on March 23 in Long Island City. Sign up for early bird tickets and announcements to be among the first to see this year’s program.
- Discovering NYC Open Data classes are back. The next one is this Friday, January 19 at noon. Check out the full NYC Open Data Ambassadors program schedule at nyc.gov/discoveropendata!
- Our very own Dimitri Mimy will present at OpenStreetMap’s virtual Mapping USA 2024 Conference on Friday, January 19, at 3:35pm ET! Drop by to learn about the public space data playbook he’s helping to create.
- This Saturday, January 20, at 10am, the NYC Housing Data Coalition is hosting a free hackathon. Be part of the crucial maintenance of their housing database! Plus, our Lab Manager, Erik Brown, will be there. Stop by and say hi!
How else can you use your public interest technology and data skills? It is community board application season. Applications for Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, and Queens are open. By joining your community board, you can help proactively address problems and build government services for ALL. Not to mention, it is the ultimate way of engaging with your neighbors.
Don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter on LinkedIn!
— BetaNYC ❄️
What are you thankful for and looking forward to in 2024? 🤔
We recently sat down with our team to reflect on the year ahead. Read below to see their responses!
“I’m thankful for the friends and family in my life. In 2024, I would like to focus on being more present and prioritizing quality time with people who are important to me.”
— Ashley
“I am thankful for precious time spent with loved ones and many opportunities for personal growth in 2023. In 2024, I aspire to take more consistent care of my health and to cultivate myself personally and professionally.”
— Dimitri
“I am looking forward to meeting more passionate people and learning what I can from them, in any discipline or variety of topics. Seeing passionate and driven individuals, no matter the field, is extremely invigorating, and you can never encounter too many of them!”
— Erik
“I’m thankful for a loving family and the chance to strengthen relationships in 2023. This year, I want to be more physically active and continue exploring new landscapes.”
— Gabby
“I’m thankful for my completion of the master’s program this year and my growth after finishing it. In 2024, I would like to focus more on my health and my physical strength.”
— Hailee
“I’m looking forward to developing more body awareness. My goal is to take a lot of dance classes in 2024.”
— Jazzy
“I’m thankful for growth— for the opportunity to be challenged by my friends, family and colleagues every day. I am looking forward to the fruit that BetaNYC will bear this year!”
— Kate
” I am looking forward to making more progress on my professional skills, and knowing my body better in 2024.”
— Lun
“I’m grateful for all of the welcoming, supportive and inspiring environments I was able to enjoy in 2023! Looking forward to nurturing relationships and cultivating skill, experience and resilience in 2024.
— Naeema
Next month, we’ll have a special message from Executive Director Noel Hidalgo, looking forward to the year ahead! 🌟
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 👀
- Streetsblog named BetaNYC as part of their Honorary Mentions for Activist of the Year! A special thank you to our Lab for their RADAR support and Tim McDermott, a volunteer leadership team member, who helped obtain this honor!
- Community board applications are open for Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, and Queens.
- Governor Hochul announced the Empire AI Consortium as part of the 2024 State of the State address and plans to include Sammy’s Law in her executive budget.
- A New Map on the Horizon: The New York State Independent Redistricting Commission will draw a new congressional map ahead of the 2024 election after the Court of Appeals scrapped the current districts.
- Budget Updates: Mayor Adams released the Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2025; Gothamist has a recap of some of the reactions. THE CITY has an analysis of the behind-the-scenes action.
- Earlier today, the full list of committee memberships for this year’s NYC Council was unveiled, and there are some big changes.
- Congestion Pricing Update: The United Federation of Teachers and Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella filed a lawsuit to halt the upcoming congestion pricing in Manhattan.
- The MTA Data and Analytics team launched a blog post series illustrating the current work at the MTA.
- Gothamist found that there is a misalignment in city and state data on school safety amid multiple stabbings at NYC schools last month.
- Data analysis by the NYCLU illustrates racial disparities in the way people are treated as part of the child welfare system.
- THE CITY and JustFix collaborated to provide an update on the rent-stabilized apartment tally.
- Moms First recently launched PaidLeave.ai, a pilot program to help parents across New York State access and apply for paid family leave benefits.
- Sebastian Hallum Clarke created an interactive map of NYC’s property taxes. Check out Sebastian’s blog post for more info!
Upcoming Events 📆
Jan 19 at 12pm Discovering NYC Open Data: Online Session
Jan 19-20 Mapping USA 2024 Conference – our very own Dimitri Mimy will be presenting!
Jan 20 at 10am NYC Housing Data Coalition Hackathon
Jan 23 at 6pm Civic Tech’ish Jan 2024
Jan 23 at 6pm ML in Practice
Jan 25 at 1pm January 2024 – AI, Machine Learning & Data Science Meetup
Jan 29 at 6pm Responsible Tech Mixer + Data Action Day | NYC, in-person
Jan 29 at 5pm Transit Techies #21: Navigating Big Data Challenges in the MTA
Feb 8 at 7pm Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/Hacking Night February 2024
Mar 16-24 Open Data Week – Sign up for announcements
Mar 23 NYC School of Data – Save the Date!
Announcements, Job Openings and Opportunities 📢
Submit to this list by filling out this form and see our #Jobs channel in Slack for more posts.
- Graham Windham is seeking a Database Developer.
- HOPE (Homeless Outreach Population Estimate) needs volunteers to conduct their annual HOPE survey.
- The Knowledge House is hiring a Director of Strategic Partnerships and a Civic Science Fellow.
- The Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget is searching for an Assistant Director – Technology Budget & Management.
- The MTA is recruiting a Chief Customer Officer, Manager, Service Quality/Performance Analysis and Senior Data Systems Analyst, Policy & Operations Analysis.
- New Visions for Public Schools is hiring a Product Marketing Manager.
- The NYC Civic Engagement Commission is searching for a Technology Strategist.
- The NYC Department of Parks and Recreation is seeking a Senior Project Manager (Digital Media).
- The NYC Office of Asylum Seeker Operations is hiring a Data Analyst.
- OpenMined is searching for a Senior Software Engineer.
- TickPick is seeking a Junior Data Engineer and Data Analyst.
Join our community! 🛸
- Slack (View more job announcements in our Jobs Channel!)
- X/Twitter
- YouTube (Catch the latest School of Data and Open Data Week Videos!)
- Threads
- NYC Civic Tech Facebook Group
- Mastodon
- Meetup
- Open Data Week
- GitHub
Like this newsletter and what we do? Donate to our 2024 campaign. Your support will help sustain our apprenticeship programs, civic data research and assistance capabilities, and public programming in 2024.
See you next month! Peace, openness, and gratitude 🗽