The_Message: November 2022

Hello everyone! We present to you the November edition of our monthly newsletter The_Message! 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!

Tuesday, November 8th 2022

Greetings and happy Election Day everyone! Here’s a breakdown of what we’ve been up to:

  • Welcome 2022-2023 Civic Innovation Fellows! Recently we welcomed our ninth cohort (yes our ninth!) of Civic Innovation Fellows. This year’s Fellows come from a beautifully diverse background, and we can’t wait to see them hone their civic tech skills in the months to come. Welcome Nicholas, Ahnaf, Prachi, Jeaneth, Mohammad and Kyla! 
  • NYC Open Data Week 2023: If you have an idea for a session, we are eager to hear from you — check out our call for proposals and submit! The next deadline to submit proposals is November 30Submit your proposals ASAP to have your event promoted and published well in advance. Please note that the deadline for the Data Through Design art exhibition is November 15.   
  • NYC School of Data 2023: We’re seeking mission-aligned sponsors to support conference costs including breakfast, coffee, lunch, and tickets. If you can think of anyone, please let us know via our interest form.  
  • Today is election day, please head out to the polls! If you’ve already voted, great! If not, make your voice heard today.  Find your poll site and sample ballot and be sure to read this guide on the four ballot measures. Unsure of your district lines? Use our updated Boundaries Map!  

Wishing you and your loved ones a great holiday and a Happy Thanksgiving!

— BetaNYC

Hungry for more civic tech?

Read on for recent content picks from our team and community. Share yours for next month’s newsletter.

👀  Civic Tech and Gov Watch

The National Center for Transgender Equality’s 2022 U.S. Trans Survey is open until November 21! The survey is the largest survey of trans people, by trans people, in the country. Please share this with your loved ones. 

Transportation Alternatives and MIT’s LCAU launched Spatial Equity NYC, a website that tracks inequities in the ways public space is designed, distributed and accessed.

The Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation and APHSA launched the Digital Benefits Hub —a platform that fosters collaboration among practitioners seeking to improve access to public benefits and services through data, design, and tech.

New York’s tech ecosystem is more diverse and has more job growth than other major hubs, but there is still work to be done to support Black tech startup founders.

New Yorkers with disabilities are suing the MTA to ensure gaps between the subway train and platform are closed.

Safety and crime have been hot topic issues in this year’s elections. Bloomberg news did an in-depth analysis of how safe NYC is in relation to small-town America.

The NYC Department of Transportation released a report highlighting the impacts of the Open Streets program. Streetsblog NYC has a breakdown of the report’s findings.

Will NYC life return to pre-pandemic levels? The City is tracking pandemic recovery with metrics such as unemployment, subway ridership, return to office, key industries and tourism. 

Why are there many vacant positions in NYC agencies? Hell Gate did a deep dive and had some interesting findings.

NYCs’ pay transparency law went into effect last week — here’s what you need to know.

The AI Hub at NYU McSilver hosted an insightful conversation on algorithms in our daily lives. You can now view their recording

Project Vibe created a tool that allows you to query which business types are a 5 or 10 minute walk from a given location. Feel free to leave feedback

📆  Upcoming Events

Nov 9 at 6pm Data Stream Processing Night – New York

Nov 10 at 6:30pm BQE North and South Events

Nov 10-13 WikiConference North America + Mapping USA 2022

Nov 11 at 11am DataKind 10 Year Anniversary Celebration

Nov 15 at 6pm “You Are Not Expected to Understand This” with Torie Bosch

Nov 17 at 8am Expanding on CS4All: Bolstering Computing Education in NYC’s Schools to Lay the Groundwork for a More Diverse Tech Sector

Nov 28-29 New York City Technology Forum

Dec 1 Queens Tech Night

Dec 1-2 R Conference: Government and Public Sector

📢 Announcements, Job Openings and Opportunities (Submit yours here and see our #Jobs channel in Slack for more posts.)

BlueLabs has numerous open roles, including a Data Analyst and Analytics Manager.

The Bureau of Environmental Surveillance and Policy at NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has numerous open roles

Datadog is seeking a Product Design Data Visualization Intern.

ExpandED is recruiting a Senior Researcher for High-Impact Tutoring.

JustFix is hiring a Software Engineer.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)’s Data and Analytics Team is searching for a Data Engineering Manager.

New America Public Interest Technology launched a student creative arts contest where students are asked to envision the future of PIT. Applications close December 2.

Noreen Whysel’s students at City Tech are learning about card sorts and are looking for input via an exercise appjob recruitment and photography.

Numina is hiring a Director of Business Development.

Transportation Techies is being revived! Join their Meetup group for more information.

🛸 Keep in touch with our community!

Like this newsletter and what we do? Donate $22 or more to our 2022 campaign and support employment opportunities for Civic Innovation Fellows and Apprentices to grow with us.

See you next month! Peace, openness and gratitude  🗽