four freedoms of the 21st Century…

Four Freedoms of the 21st Century

First, The freedom to connect.

For a properly functioning 21st Century New York economy, all must have accessible and affordable high speed internet. Wireless or wired, all New Yorkers need unfettered access to connect.

Second, The freedom to learn.

For a properly functioning 21st Century New York economy, all New Yorkers need access to top quality education. Regardless of language, age, or class, all New Yorkers strive for the freedom to learn.

Third, The freedom from tyranny.

We must be able to know WHAT our government is doing. We must have the ability to interface with our government, wherever, whenever, and regardless of platform. We must have the power to affect change and truly be a government by the people for the people.

Fourth, The freedom to innovate.

This city was founded on innovation. From the fur trader to the 21st Century Maker, this City’s heritage is rich in entrepreneurial ideas. Our innovations don’t know nationality, race, gender, sexuality, age, nor language. We need laws and policies that keep us grounded in opportunity, provide for the general defense of the commons, and enable us to keep growing.

For the past few months, I’ve been thinking of the best way do describe our 21st Century values to elected officials and people running for office. I know there is the Declaration of Internet Freedom, but I don’t think it properly encapsulates our collective values for a fully functional economy and society. Working off of FDR’s Four Freedoms, I’m proposing these four freedoms for our 21st Century.

If you have an idea, comment, or point, use #4Freedoms hashtag.

Code Across America!

Code Across America!

We Built This City: The State of Civic Technology, with Code For America and IDEO

We Built This City: The State of Civic Technology, with Code For America and IDEO

Laggard agencies and agencies mismanaging contracts are going to be more exposed than they ever have been,” said John Kaehny, the executive director of Reinvent Albany and the co-chairman of the New York City Transparency Working Group. “We’ve looked around at dozens and dozens of fiscal transparency sites,” he added, “and this is pretty much the best one out there.

A call for technology driven Community Boards in NYC

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Jessica Lappin, currently a City Council member and Manhattan Boro President candidate, just released a paper on the future / reform of community boards. In this document, there is some juicy TECH DRIVEN POLICY tidbits.
Some take aways… 
1. Taking boards into the 21st Century 
  – Community Stat 
  – Live streaming 
  – Online surveys and crowd-sourcing maps 
2. Greater diversity on boards 
  – adding small business owners and engineers. 
4. Online training of responsibilities 
5. Digital tools for planning and development 
6. Onlineing the business application process
These are great TECHNOLOGY driven policies to bring our land use councils / aka Community Boards into the 21st Century. I will be adding this to the Open NY 2013 Goals and workshop reading list.
* This posting doesn’t not constitute an endorsement of this candidate.

“We want our policy to be more end-user-centric and not carrier-centric. That’s where there is a difference in opinion” with carriers and their partners, said a senior FCC official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the proposal is still being considered by the five-member panel.