Month: September 2013

#betaNYC: The fate of Open Government in New York City

#betaNYC: The fate of Open Government in New York City

What if you had a thriving Open Government / Civic Tech community and somehow a Chief Executive or Legislative body did not want to continue its investment? 

In 2011, Washington DC’s mayoral turnover significantly impacted the local Open Government and Civic Technology community. Last fall, many wondered what would happen to the future of Federal Open Government initiatives if the Presidency changed hands. After the November 2012 elections, the same consternation entered my head. What if the next Mayor of New York City did not care about the technology community, open government, and the future of a digital city?

Cyclists exist in a political and physical space that has been largely ignored,” said StreetsPAC board member Steve Vaccaro. “StreetsPAC aimed to make them a political force, as part of a broader livable streets movement, by reaching out to them where they are found — at bridge plazas, meetup spots like Grant’s Tomb, parked on the street, via text and in the #bikenyc Twitter feed. We had significant success with this novel physical-virtual grassroots organizing approach, and look forward to building on it.

Big Winners on Primary Day: de Blasio and StreetsPAC | Streetsblog New York City

Because meditation is a practice involving focusing our attention and being aware of when it drifts, this actually improves our focus when we’re not meditating as well. It’s a lasting effect that comes from regular periods of meditation. Focused attention is very much like a muscle, one that needs to be strengthened through exercise.

From OM To OMG: Science, Your Brain, And The Productive Powers Of Meditation | Fast Company | Business Innovation

My guess is that most encryption products from large US companies have NSA-friendly back doors, and many foreign ones probably do as well. It’s prudent to assume that foreign products also have foreign-installed backdoors. Closed-source software is easier for the NSA to backdoor than open-source software.

How to remain secure against NSA surveillance | Bruce Schneier | World news | theguardian.com

From BetaNYC:
It has been six hot months since we changed our name. In that time, we’ve been ironing out an update to our Purpose, Values, Goals, Mission, and Tools.

For now, this is the language we are working with. If you would like to add your comments or tweaks, visit our GitHub and comment away.

#betaNYC, a Code for America Brigade: Some BetaNYC housekeeping – Purpose, Values, Goals, Mission, and Tools 

Moving from potholes to policies requires more than technical fixes or killer apps. But as we build and use these technologies around principles like these, we are starting to see better results in solving seemingly intractable civic problems, and people are starting to believe that peer-produced governance is actually possible. Help us move farther along this path by sharing your principles for this work, giving us feedback on ours, and telling your own stories about how these principles have played out in your experience.

From Potholes to Policies: Technology, Civic Engagement and the Path to Peer-Produced Governance