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A light blue image with BetaNYC's The Message logo and an embedded image of a table set with candles and pumpkins for the holiday.

The Message November 2024: What’s New in NYC?

Gabby Langston

Hello BetaNYC family,

While we’re always living through history, it feels awkward to wake up every morning with another news story seeking to reframe our understanding of where we’ve been. It’s been a long week. We hope you’ve been able to spend time with your loved ones and check in with your friends. We’re sure many of you are asking, “Where do we go from here?”

Organizationally, BetaNYC is excited to be an inaugural member of the Alliance of Civic Technologists (ACT). This solidarity network fills the gap left by the sunsetting of Code for America’s Brigade program (RIP). ACT is building a decentralized network of organizations and individuals who want to volunteer to work on community projects and perform trainings. Annually, there will be a Congress where members will gather to plan programming and take ACTion. Some of the first few things we’re working on are information security training for vulnerable/preyed upon populations and data scraping of federal datasets that the next administration might delete. (If you’re a member of a “civic tech’ish” organization and want to join us, consider joining us.)

As we have said and will say repeatedly, the only way through tough times is through solidarity and community. We also know that this seems like a platitude. In the coming days, various elected officials will host town halls, coffee meets, and community conversations. This Sunday, we will cohost a park mapping event, with many more planned.

In good local news, the Governor will “un-pause” congestion pricing. MTA CEO Janno Lieber gave us a shoutout in yesterday’s press conference. Also, the City Council approved a bill to eliminate broker fees for most tenants. These actions come from years of advocacy combined with hard data to justify their directions. We have so many opportunities to build a better city IF we can elect people who will focus on delivering services and building programs that minimize harm and have it all grounded in research.

In the meantime, we have a long road ahead. We need to prepare for a new federal administration, organize, and act to protect our digital safety. One thing you can do now to preserve digital federal government records is to submit a website to the End of Term Web Archive.

PS – If you missed our message last week, here are a few resources and numbers to note. Please let your friends in crisis know they are not alone.

— Noel & Gabby 🚀 

Special Announcements 🫶 

Whale Failed — We’re Now on Bluesky
Like many, we leverage social media and microblogging sites for news, events, research, and resources. We’ve decided to stop using Twitter/X. We’ve configured our Bluesky account, and our team will develop creative strategies to engage with the PiTech/CivicTech community. We hope to see you there! You can find us at https://bsky.app/profile/betanyc.bsky.social. 

Open Data Week is Around the Corner
Thank you for your continued interest in NYC Open Data Week and School of Data 2025! The deadline to submit your proposals is now December 15. If you need help filling out your session application, tune into our call for proposals information session to learn more about what we’re looking for. To maximize your chances of having your proposal reviewed and accepted, please submit your application as soon as possible.

WE’RE HIRING a Consultant to Help us Produce NYC Open Data Week and NYC School of Data
We’re looking for an enthusiastic, well-organized individual who can work out of our lower Manhattan office and help us reach out to digital equity organizations. We want to work with someone passionate about digital and data literacy while celebrating the people and organizations that deliver that programming. Learn more and apply here.

What’s New at BetaNYC? 📊

Discover NYC Open Data in the last class of the year! 

If you are new to Open Data or need a refresher, join us! Everyone is welcome, and no previous experience is necessary. Learn more and sign up at nyc.gov/discoveropendata.

CUNY’s Public Interest Tech Lab and BetaNYC secured a New America PIT-UN Challenge grant! 

Learn more from Rev. Dr. Katie Cumiskey’s announcement. The award will allow us to explore expanding our Civic Innovation Fellowship into a career pipeline, regardless of CUNY school and major! Furthermore, we will have a NYC PIT POP-UP — imagine an Apple Store for Public Interest Tech, Open Data, and Service Design!! Thank you to everyone who made this moment possible! 

Support our Work: Donate Today

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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

How did NYC vote in the federal election? Check out CUNY’s Center for Urban Research’s NYC Election Atlas or THE CITY’s neighborhood turnout or electoral shift maps.

How will the election impact immigrant and migrant communities? Reporters are raising red flag concerns about new policing powers from NYC Sanitation and how mass deportations could play out in NYC. FAQ NYC has a good take on all of this.

What does the next administration mean for technology and AI policy? Tech Policy Press has a great take on where things could go. The Verge focuses on AI and crypto, and Arstechnica looks at AI deregulation and removal of safeguards. In general, we’re seeing the framework of Project 2025’s deregulation applied to everything: fighting.

The NYC Council held two hearings on artificial intelligence and automated decision systems, as well as establishing a new Charter Revision Commission. Thank you Vikram Oberoi for recapping these meetings!  

Participatory Budgeting is ongoing in most Council Districts! The City wants to know how they should spend $1 million in your district. Share your ideas on how to improve your community!

Civic Tech Updates 👀

Projects and News from Community Members

How an ‘Army of Robots’ Is Transforming Open Data in NYC: The NYC Open Data portal has remained robust for more than twelve years after the Open Data Law. As we enter a new era, building and maintaining the portal is becoming increasingly automated.

Mayor Adams has directed NYC agencies to launch Bluesky accounts in response to the platform’s recent growth and the exodus from X, formerly known as Twitter.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine called on the MTA to release data on the congestion pricing tolling cameras, specifically on ghost cars that cross Manhattan. The camera technology has been operating despite the congestion pricing pause. 

Tech Policy Press highlights The Three Levels of Public Interest AI in light of an incoming new federal administration.

The U.S. Treasury’s use of AI helped prevent over $1 billion in fraud this year, a sixfold increase from 2023, reinforcing payment security across major federal programs.

Jason Forrest created an interactive steam graph of NYC immigration dating back to 1820! 

James Steinberg launched a Subway Art Hunt competition to honor the Subway’s 120th birthday. It’s time to roll up your sleeves; there are 381 pieces of art lurking in the MTA stations around you!

Mapping enthusiasts visualized the MTA’s public ridership dataset in light of the NYC subway celebrating its billionth rider of the year. As it turns out, there are a lot of stories!

The Public Policy Lab and The SCAN Foundation debuted The People Say. The platform brings the voices of older adults into the spotlight to shape impactful policies and programs.

Upcoming Events 📆

November 16 at 2pm R-Ladies NYC November Book Club!

November 17 at 10am McCarren Cleanup Day 

November 18 at 6pm Transit Techies #29: The Weekendest by Sunny Ng

November 19-20 Urban Tech Summit

November 19 at 12pm Pedestrian Mapping with OpenStreetMap

November 20 GIS Day 

November 26 Queens Tech Night 2024

December 4 at 6pm Discovering NYC Open Data: Online Session

December 15 at 11:59pm Submission deadline for NYC School of Data

March 21 to April 6, 2025 Data Through Design’s Corpus: Bodies of Data 

March 22 to 30, 2025 NYC Open Data Week

March 29, 2025 NYC School of Data

June 19 to 21, 2025 State of the Map US, Boston

Announcements, Job Openings and Opportunities 📢

See Slack #Jobs for more

Join our community! 🚀

Want to add to this list? Submit to the next newsletter.

Header photo image credit: Martin Cathrae, Thanksgiving Dealies, Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA 2.0), https://flickr.com/photos/suckamc/4014605524.

See you next month! Peace, openness, and gratitude 🗽