Tag: gov20

betaNYC, a Code for America brigade for NYC: betaNYC May 2013 Newsletter

betaNYC, a Code for America brigade for NYC: betaNYC May 2013 Newsletter

betanyc:

It’s been quite the month! Here’s a brief update…

  1. Video from “Meet Code For America” meetup at OpenPlans.  Thanks Joly and NYC’s Internet Society for taping the night.
  2. Last week, we had DoITT’s Andrew Nicklin and eight of his colleagues debut NYC.gov’s developer portal. It is currently in beta and be explored at < nyc.gov/developers >.
  3. Also, Volkan and Curtis took Andrew Nicklin’s Open311 made some moves on the nodejs project. Check out their work on GitHub.
  4. Our friends at Personal Democracy Forum have offered a 20% discount if you use the code “BigApps2013” – (“I highly recommend this conference!’ – Noel)

 

A call for betaNYC Community Ambassadors!

We are looking for a few good people to help assist with our event schedule and weekly hack nights. Your main responsibility will be to represent our community, help produce our events, and help on-board new members.

Other responsibilities will include: setting up event spaces, coordinating [food and beer], greeting attendees, making announcements, etc. You should be able to attend at least 2 of our Wednesday weekly hacknights a month, as well as be available for a monthly volunteer meeting.

If you are interested in this position, please fill out this form.

 

NYC BIGAPPS

There are just a few more weeks to submit to NYC BigApps. In the lead up to the June 7th deadline, there are a few more events… Including NYC BigApps CityCamp!

NATIONAL DAY OF CIVIC HACKING!

On 1 June, New York City will have FOUR events as part of a National Day of Civic Hacking.

 

“National Day of Civic Hacking is a national event that will take place June 1-2, 2013, in cities across the nation. The event will bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs from all over the nation to collaboratively create, build, and invent new solutions using publicly-released data, code and technology to solve challenges relevant to our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and our country. National Day of Civic Hacking will provide citizens an opportunity to do what is most quintessentially American: roll up our sleeves, get involved and work together to improve our society.”

 

Upcoming Events

Community Announcements

* MTA App Quest Challenge

How to submit to this newsletter?

Email Ashley at ashley.williams@codeforamerica.org

Submit your announcement, event, etc. by the 10th of every month. We will be sending newsletters out in the middle of every month.

But even now, in an era of hyper-localization, of neighborhood blogs and Patch sites, many of us have little sense of what our community boards are doing, little time to pay attention, and the boards in turn often are short-staffed and cannot possibly disseminate information on every issue.

Sharing Bikes and Fury in New York Neighborhoods – NYTimes.com

Is the situation really so hopeless? Perhaps. But it’s certainly easier to think so when you preside over a paramilitary police force that frequently receives healthy doses of grant money from the US Department of Homeland Security to implement such surveillance programs. For years the NYPD has been using those resources to do things like infiltrate Muslim communities, employing alarmingly aggressive tactics in an attempt to ensnare average citizens as “terrorist suspects.” More recently, the department has come under fire for its infamous “Stop and Frisk” program, which establishes quotas for officers to search random passersby, and overwhelmingly antagonizes black and hispanic men in low-income neighborhoods.

A New York police state of mind: Bloomberg’s vision of a drone-filled city doesn’t fly | The Verge

NYC, We Want #eHailApps!

New York City wants to launch a pilot program for “e-Hailing” NYC taxis. With E-hailing, you use your smartphone to virtually hail a nearby cab, then pay using a pre-stored credit card.  It’s awesome, and lots of other cities are already up and running with it.  

Unfortunately, NYC is on the brink of losing this opportunity.  A group of car service companies, in a misguided attempt to protect their own businesses at the expense of the convenience of New Yorkers and visitors alike, is suing the city to block the pilot program.

E-hailing is already part of the transportation experience in London, Dublin, Toronto, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco, among others. Drivers and passengers in those towns have instantly adopted it as the new norm, and love it for its convenience the boost it gives the taxi industry. They will never look back. Without it, New Yorkers will feel like second class global citizens.

E-Hail apps like Hailo, Flywheel, and Uber have proven they will improve the livelihood of taxi drivers and the quality of life for their customers, and will do the same for New Yorkers.

Let’s not miss this opportunity. Let’s tell NYC, the taxi industry and the courts that we want NYC’s transportation network to be world class, and that e-Hailing is a critical step on that path.

Reblog this and Sign the damn petition!