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#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?

A report back on NYC BigApps’ CityCamp & Demo Night

A report back on NYC BigApps’ CityCamp & Demo Night

betanyc:

NYC BigApps Demo Night winners and Judges This past weekend, the New York City Metro Area hosted five National Day of Civic Hacking events! (Two in Manhattan, One in Brooklyn, One in Queens, and One in Newark, NJ) One of them was the City’s first CityCamp and the last public event before the conclusion of NYC BigApps.

After three months of civic hackers working on solving NYC’s biggest issues, NYC BigApps 2013 hosted NYC’s first CityCamp. Participants hacked and polished their projects, while the general public explored NYC’s civic technology ecosystem and beta tested BigApp projects.

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.