Category: Blog

Making History – The First Hackathon Inside the historic New York City Hall 

In partnership with the Department of Education’s Computer Science for All and NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and Technology Committee Chair Council Member Peter Koo, BetaNYC co-hosted 130 students and 30 teachers in the City’s historic Council Chambers for the finale of the second annual Hack League. These Twenty-eight teams, from all five boroughs, used municipal open data and media literacy skills to identify community concerns, and computer science concepts to build prototypes to address the final challenge — identifying internal and external metrics, potential stakeholders, and extending their prototypes.

Testimony – Oversight – Committee on Governmental Operations Transparency

To: Chair of Committee on Governmental Operations, Council Member Cabrera From: Noel Hidalgo, Executive Director of BetaNYC Re: Oversight – Committee on Governmental Operations Transparency Monday, 25 February 2019 Dear Chair of Committee on Governmental Operations, Council Member Cabrera and Committee Members, It is an honor to have this opportunity to represent New York City’s […]

City Council Technology Committee Testimony — Re: Oversight – Commission on Public Information and Communication’s Collaboration in Developing City Information Policies and Promoting Governmental Transparency

Dear Acting Public Advocate and New York City Council Speaker Johnson, Committee Chair Koo, and Technology Committee Members It is an honor to have this opportunity to represent New York City’s civic technology, design, and data community. I am the Executive Director of BetaNYC, a member driven good government non-profit organization. We are advocates for […]

Register for NYC School of Data 2019

Join us on Saturday, 2 March 2019, for NYC School of Data — a community conference that demystifies the policies and practices around civic data, technology, and service design. This year’s conference kicks off NYC’s annual Open Data Week and features OVER 24 sessions organized by NYC’s civic technology, data, and design community for YOU! […]

BetaNYC Supports Int. 1137-2018 – Codifying MODA into the City Charter

Earlier this week, the NYC Technology Committee voted in favor of Int. 1137-2018 (introduced by Council Member Adrienne E. Adams), which would codify the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics (MODA) into the City Charter.  BetaNYC strongly supports the legislation. MODA was created through Mayor Bloomberg’s Executive Order 306. Since then the Office has played a pivotal […]

Introducing Year 5 Civic Innovation Fellows 2018 – 2019

Introduction to the Civic Innovation Fellows Program: The Civic Innovation Fellowship is the first and only comprehensive program dedicated to improving community boards’ use of data and technology while training the next generation of civic leaders from CUNY. Manhattan Borough President Gale A Brewer founded the program in 2014, and BetaNYC has run it since […]