-
This week in NYC’s #CivicTech – October 9, 2026
BetaNYC at the Council’s AI hearing, a maps and mobility mixer, new jobs, and more!
-
Three jobs AI won’t change: notes from the Council’s AI hearing, Noel’s reflections
Despite what the companies said about every job changing, three jobs in a democracy will never change. We still need dutiful elected officials, dedicated civil servants, and informed voters. On Monday, October 5, the City Council’s Committee of the Whole held a ten-hour hearing on the risks of artificial intelligence. The Speaker, Council Members, and…
-
BetaNYC testimony: NYC Council hearing on artificial intelligence, October 5, 2026
BetaNYC’s written testimony, bill-by-bill suggestions, and appendix for the NYC Council Committee of the Whole hearing on artificial intelligence, October 5, 2026.
-
This week in NYC’s #CivicTech – September 17, 2026
CityCamp is Saturday, and the Council just cleared its calendar for AI.
-
This week in NYC’s #CivicTech – September 11, 2026
Frozen crash data, 170,000 pages on 9/11 air, the 911 hearing, and eight days to CityCamp.
-
Hearing Overview – Seven hours, 113 callers, and no public log: what the Council learned about the August 2026 911 outage
On September 9, four Council committees spent three hours on the August 18 911 outage. Here is what we learned, and the one thing we are asking the city to do: publish 911 outages as open data.
-
This week in NYC’s #CivicTech – September 4, 2026
On September 2, New York City paused student-facing generative AI for nearly 600,000 public school students, 2-K through eighth grade, for one year. Companion chatbots are banned in every grade, K through 12, with no exemption — the widest part of the policy and the least discussed.
-
NYC’s DOE AI Ban? Here Is What the Policy Actually Says.
On September 2, New York City paused generative AI for nearly 600,000 public school students. We read the announcement, the press conference transcript, the March guidance that preceded it, and the parent organizing that forced it — then went back through nearly 10 years of our own conversations, because we have been writing about automated…
-
This week in NYC’s #CivicTech – August 20, 2026
Plus: an otter’s big NYC comeback, a PIT Crew debrief, and CityCamp news.
-
We are building a better tomorrow today: our impact in 2026, what we made, argued for, and won
Building civic infrastructure is never a thing you ever finish. The City we want to see will always be under construction. Bit by byte, we are at a unique moment in history with the tools, resources, and hope to address systemic issues and injustice, yet continuing to face the uncertainty of authoritarianism and climate change.…
-
Public Interest Technologist of the Month: Ariel Kennan
Ariel Kennan is the reason BetaNYC is a technology, data, and design community. When we were first coming together, we talked about data and technology and where the two met. Ariel reframed it.
-
Decades in the making: New York City launches its PIT Crew!
New York City has launched the Public Interest Technology (PIT) Crew: five in-house teams of product managers, designers, engineers, user researchers, and data experts building digital solutions to public problems. The more than $5 million initiative includes one crew supported by The Rockefeller Foundation through the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City. BetaNYC has…
