Category: Open Data for All

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.

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! […]

A showcase of Community Planning Fellows and Civic Innovation Lab / Fellows Program

We are honored to share a project showcase of the Fund for the City of New York’s Community Planning Fellows and NYC’s Civic Innovation Fellows hosted by the Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and BetaNYC. Both programs are using geographic information system (GIS), civic technology, and open data to improve Community Board operations.  This post […]

Press Release – Manhattan Borough President Brewer, BetaNYC launch BoardStat, new data research and visualization tool for Community Boards and everyday New Yorkers, at NYC311 #datajam

NEW YORK – Today, Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer and BetaNYC unveiled BoardStat, a new interactive tool help laypersons sort, display, and map 311 complaint system data without advanced technical skills or specialized software. BoardStat was built to bridge the gap between merely providing access to open data and making that open data truly […]

Announcing NYC 311 Data Jam – NYC’s National Day of Civic Hacking event

Join us on Saturday, 23 September, for a day dedicated to improving the people’s dataset! For 2017’s National Day of Civic Hacking, we ask you to roll up your sleeves and data jam with us. Last year, we worked with NYC Parks to improve their TreesCount! Census data. This year, we will shine a light on NYC 311’s […]

NYC Planning Data Jam Recap

Event Summary On May 8th, fifty urban planners, data scientists, and civic hackers came together for the Department of City Planning’s first data jam! For the day, participants improved NYC’s most comprehensive dataset of facilities. This facilities database is produced by the NYC Department of City Planning and is used to shape NYC’s neighborhoods. It […]

2016’s written testimony for NYC #opendata oversight hearing

Wednesday, 21 September 2016 To the NYC Committee on Technology & Chairperson Vacca, Introduction. BetaNYC is a civic organization dedicated to improving all lives in New York through civic design, technology, and data. We envision an informed and empowered public that can leverage civic design, technology, and data to hold government accountable, and improve their […]

Give feedback on NYC’s proposed geospatial #opendata standards

Since 2013, members of BetaNYC have advocated for the City’s open data to conform to open standards. Through our work trying to scrape the City Record, we unearthed headaches trying to define what is where. In a city as complex as the one beneath our feet, there are at least three ways to describe that location. Last […]