• THE_MESSAGE 2014.37a – Recap of Hacknight/#CivicFreeSchool

    Neighbors, Thanks for coming to last night’s hacknight and #CivicFreeSchool. It was fun meeting many new faces and experimenting with our community engagement framework. For those of you who missed last night, this is all the news fit to scan! Here’s a brief recap of things you should note: * Calls to action / Notes*…

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  • Mayor Bill de Blasio named Minerva Tantoco as first New York City CTO Tuesday night in an announcement that was greeted with applause and cheers at the September meeting of the New York Tech Meet-Up. In his remarks, De Blasio said her task would be to develop a coordinated strategy for technology and innovation as…

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  • THE_MESSAGE, BetaNYC’s experimental newsletter #2014_37

    Editor’s note – We’re experimenting with the creation of a monthly or weekly newsletter. Give us feedback on our Facebook group. -=-== THE_MESSAGE for 8 Sept 2014 ==-=- Here’s all the news fit to scan! #. VIDEO – BetaTalk – The future of NY State’s Open Government #. At this week’s hacknight, we’re evolving the…

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  • RFCI on BetaNYC’s 2014-2015 Diversity and Desires Report

    Last week, we launched a campaign to broaden BetaNYC’s leadership. (Note – applications are open till Sunday night.) This week, we take another step into collaborative organizational goal setting. As Noel said at Personal Democracy forum, “to be a community of the people, we need all the people!” For the past few months, BetaNYC’s board…

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  • Help lead @BetaNYC & build a #SafeSpace for neighbors & government to collaborate.

    BetaNYC was founded to be a communal safe space for neighbors and government to solve problems. Since 2009, we have matured this idea and have continued to expand our ability to build a city for the people, by the people, for the 21st century. Now, in our 5th year, we are 2,000 strong and pioneering…

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  • Canarsie Tops List of Most Flooded Neighborhoods According to ClaimStat Data

    Canarsie Tops List of Most Flooded Neighborhoods According to ClaimStat Data iquantny: In a quest to do for claims against the city what Crime Stat did for crime, Scott Stringer recently released ClaimStat. It maps out claims against the city, including the date of occurrence, type of claim, location and amount paid out in the claim.…

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  • Ariel Kennan on innovation within government

    Ariel Kennan on innovation within government Government is full of people who are incredibly well intentioned and who want to improve our cities. But sometimes I think public servants get held back by the larger systems of government, like procurement, human resources, and technology delivery. I’m really interested in how to bring new skills to…

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  • the aspiration of a well-run city should not be to hold claims even but to shrink them. And, at a time when anecdotes and rampant theorizing are fueling furious debates over police crime-fighting strategies, it seems beyond arguing that the more actual information, independently examined and publicly available, the better. Better Governing Through Data –…

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  • “What was the decision process to make the parcel data publicly available? B. Bartlett: It was a confluence of several factors. A key one was that our staff was responding to increasing numbers of FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) requests for the data; also we’ve had a push at the state level for policies on…

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  • Before community activists can tackle issues like income inequality, residential segregation and environmental racism, they first have to identify the extent of the problem they hope to address and the scope of its impact on stakeholders. While the federal government is good at compiling a variety of demographic data for public use, finding the tools…

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  • This is a fascinating look into the legalization of marijuana in New York City. R/GA take a look at the City’s ‪#‎OpenData‬ and compares it to Washington State’s strict guidelines on dispensaries. By the NY State law, only 20 dispensaries can open in the state. Using a tight formula, there are 6 areas where dispensaries…

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  • Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn) just introduced a bill to make courts across the state collect, track and release summons data to the public. Bratton’s hiding broken-windows data  – NY Daily News GO JOE, GO!!

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