RFF on 21st century community boards

RFF stands for request for feedback. Last year, Will Colegrove and I outlined a program that would help modernize NYC’s community boards and help them enter the 21st century. This framework is a the core of the New York City Civic Innovation Fellows Program.

If you have a chance, check out this paper and provide us your feed back.

To wet your whistle, here is the abstract.

New York City’s fifty nine Community Boards are an important part of local oversight of municipal service delivery. However, because each one is run by two full time employees and volunteer representatives, they struggle to engage effectively with the demands of the digital landscape. This project offers a curriculum that is designed to enhance the basic digital literacy skills of Community Board Members. For a period of six months, twelve CUNY Service Corp Fellows, selected for competency in a variety of relevant skills, will be assigned and partnered with one of twelve participating Manhattan Community Boards. It is our objective to empower these boards to develop open data best practices appropriate for the local constituencies they serve. This program, a partnership between BetaNYC, the Manhattan Borough President, and Data & Society, is supported by the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics’ goal of making “Open Data for All.”

announcing NYC’s inaugural civic tech & open data conference—NYC School of Data

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The New York City School of Data is a collaborative conference improving the City’s data ecosystem. This year, we invite government, civic hackers, and community based organizations to learn from each other and share how we can improve our communities and our data.
 
This year, we explore two questions:
  •  How is civic technology and open data working for you?
  •  Can we improve to build smarter communities?
This year’s School of Data conference is a day-long showcase. Additionally, we will host workshops and collaborate on some of NYC’s most pressing issues—including a data jam with the NYCLU to address economic and social injustice.
Join us as we celebrate the fourth anniversary of New York City’s Open Data Law and make open data and civic technology work for all of us.
Register for NYC School of Data, Saturday – 5 March, via http://schoolofdata.nyc