Welcome to August! As summer winds down, it’s time to consider the upcoming elections, continue to stay informed, and use your voice to shape the future.
We cannot afford to be apathetic toward policy, democracy, or elections. Tools are not neutral; all technology is representative of ideology. While the race to the White House and the future of American democracy is in full swing, the race to control citywide policy is also taking shape. We encourage you to understand how the press explores issues such as digital equity, government accountability, administrative regulation, open data, net neutrality, AI, the green economy, technology, or service design in government.
Local issues matter! As you pay attention to national policy proposals, don’t forget to tune into our local newspapers, podcasts, and newsletters. A small and informed community can have a mighty influence! Our local press and candidates pay attention to community opinion pieces, letters to the editor, and what’s said in meetings with their offices. Whether you’re a new voter or a tried-and-true one, and especially if you are a non-citizen, everyone has the right to knowledge and the power to inform others. We encourage you to use this time to learn, share facts, and actively dispel misinformation while getting your neighbors excited about future opportunities.
Every day, New Yorkers actively engage in community meetings that drive municipal policy. These local democratic practices are the bedrock of community issues that boil up to city issues and state funding. The four most accessible meetings are City Council Hearings, Police Precinct Councils, Community Boards, and Community Education Councils (CEC). If you don’t know your districts, check out Boundaries Map.
So gear up, roll up your sleeves, inform yourself, inform others, volunteer, and let’s get to work. We want to know what local media you are consuming! Tell us by replying to this email or via a message on Slack, Threads, X/Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
Stay cool, and have a great rest of the summer!
— BetaNYC ❤️
Special Announcements 🫶
Tomorrow: Discover NYC Open Data!
Join us for a data journey tomorrow at 6pm. This class will be taught by Nathan Storey, an Open Data Ambassador who was instrumental in creating the original curriculum. Plus, there’ll be a short demo using ChatGPT’s Advanced Data Analysis. Don’t miss out on this unique chance to use NYC Open Data!
What’s New at BetaNYC? 📊
We’ve begun planning NYC Open Data Week 2025! Our call for proposals will launch later this month, and we plan to hold a launch event this fall. Stay tuned via our Open Data Week newsletter to be among the first to know the latest updates!
Welcome Open Plans! Last month, we hosted the summer 2024 cohort interns at Open Plans, a leading open space nonprofit promoting people-first streets in NYC! We discussed BetaNYC’s work and explored the NYC Open Data platform. Thank you Open Plans, for a great conversation; we look forward to meeting again!
Meet-and-Greet with the Manhattan Borough President’s Office’s (MBPO) summer interns! We recently met the MBPO’s summer interns and had a fun activity where interns became open data requests and modeled the NYC Open Data Platform in real time! We had a blast sharing our work and spreading the word on Open Data.
Support our Work: Donate Today
Like this newsletter and what we do? Donate to our 2024 campaign. Your support will help our Civic Innovation Lab’s work and allow us to mentor emerging technologists!
Community News, Events and Announcements
Submit to this list to have your picks featured in next month’s newsletter.
Legislative Updates 🏛️
Updates about NYC and Governance
Leaves and (money) trees: the MTA recently published three budget open datasets and discussed the technical challenge of working with multidimensional budget data.
Court challenges and costs for congestion pricing: environmental and civic groups sue Governor Hochul. Meanwhile, the MTA announces that the congestion pricing delay will cost hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
The Charter Revision Commission approved five ballot proposals on Clean Streets, Fiscal Responsibility, Public Safety, Capital Planning, and (M/WBEs) and Modernization of City Operations, setting the stage for us to vote on them this November. The vote comes amidst tensions over the power consolidation criticized by City Council members and advocates.
A coalition of New York State Senators are calling on the Board of Elections to revise the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) language ahead of November’s election. In the days since, the Board of Elections has been sued over the ERA language.
Pro-Housing members on community boards: Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine is revamping community boards by appointing pro-housing members to community boards.
NYC’s Data-Driven Future: 46 Algorithms and Counting: Government Technology explains the city’s growing reliance on digital solutions and how algorithms affect the average citizen.
Civic Tech Updates 👀
Projects and News from Community Members
The MTA released new datasets on Subway Origin-Destination Ridership Estimate, and their blog post on their behind-the-scenes work is a must-read!
Bikeshare Is More Popular Than Ever. But It’ll Cost You. The proliferation of e-bikes and e-scooters in US and Canadian cities means shared micromobility programs are getting expensive. (Bloomberg)
Where are signs located in the city? Hongqian Li’s award-winning project, CITY OF SIGNS, detects signage in NYC’s Street View images and analyzes its types, languages, and content.
Zack Youngren’s Citi Bike Station Data provides real-time and historical data about Citi Bike usage in New York City.
The Community Speaks survey is open. Tell policymakers about the unique challenges you and members of your community are facing in NYC.
Do you have a problem on your block or in your building? Gothamist has a guide on how to start your own block (or tenant) association.
Upcoming Events 📆
August 7 at 11am Theme 2: Collaboration (Advancing Research Community Workshop)
August 7 at 6pm Discovering NYC Open Data: Online Session
August 8 at 6pm NYC Hackathon Happy Hour
August 8 at 7pm Tech Gather NYC: Women In Tech
August 9 at 9am AI for Organizing & Campaigns Hackathon | NYC
August 14 at 2pm LIVE ChatGPT for Data Scientists Workshop
August 15 at 1pm Buildings Tech Lab: Information Session
August 27 at 7pm NYC Mesh org meetup
September 16 at 3pm Responsible Tech Summit
September 26 at 10am NEW CLIMATE FUTURES 2024: A Newlab Event
Announcements, Job Openings and Opportunities 📢
See Slack #Jobs for more
- Call for proposals are open for the AnEx Learning Summit, which will take place virtually in October. Submit a proposal if you have data analytics, engineering, or governance skills you’d like to share!
- The City of Syracuse’s Office of Analytics, Performance and Innovation (API) announced its Civic Data Challenge, which is open for anyone to participate in until August 18!
- The Civic Engagement Commission is hiring a Community Engagement Specialist.
- The Department of Records & Information is seeking a Director of Municipal Library.
- GitHub is searching for a Data Analyst.
- GovWell is seeking a Founding Backend Software Engineer among other roles.
- The Knowledge House is recruiting a Director of Finance & Administration, among other roles.
- The Mayor’s Office of Contract Services (MOCS) is recruiting a Reporting Analyst.
- The Mayor’s Office of Operations is seeking a Policy Analyst, Project Management.
- The Mayor’s Office of Talent and Workforce Development is looking for a Director of the Tech Talent Pipeline.
- MTA Data & Analytics is hiring a Senior Data Scientist.
- The MTA’s Digital Services team is seeking a Product Manager and Backend Software Engineer.
- The New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) is searching for a Data Enginerring Director and EDII Program Manager.
- The New York Times is hiring a Vice President, Data Products, Advertising.
- The NYC Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI) is hiring a Cyber Intelligence Analyst College Aide.
- The NYU Furman Center is hiring a Director of Data Strategy and Operations.
- The Office of the New York State Comptroller is hiring an Information Technology Specialist 1.
Join our community! 🚀
- Slack (View more job announcements in our Jobs Channel!)
- X/Twitter
- Threads
- NYC Civic Tech Facebook Group
- Mastodon
- Open Data Week
- YouTube (Catch the latest School of Data and Open Data Week Videos!)
- Meetup
- GitHub
Want to add to this list? Submit to the next newsletter.
See you next month! Peace, openness, and gratitude 🗽