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New digital democracy tools for AI — MCPs for the Charter/Laws, Council, the City Record, and Checkbook
New Amsterdam’s Open Government History The argument about who controls what the public knows about its government is not a recent one in New York. It goes back to 1649. That year, Adriaen van der Donck — a Dutch lawyer and president of the Nine Men, the colonists’ advisory body to Director-General Stuyvesant — went…
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This week in NYC’s #CivicTech – May 7, 2026 (Week 19)
If you’ve watched as many YouTube videos on agentic software development as I have, you’ve been told we’re in a new world. So far that new world looks a lot like the old one: same oppression, same inequality, same distrust in democracy. Last Friday I spoke to NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP)…
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Check out NYSCI’s CityWorks & see our work
In collaboration with the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI), the Civic Innovation Lab at BetaNYC provided research and data analysis to support the connected city systems simulation exhibit within NYSCI’s new CityWorks exhibition. The Lab, which typically acts as an interpreter between raw data and end-users to support decision-making or policy, used 18 open…
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My story. My hope. Our future.
Hi. I’m Noel Hidalgo and am the cofounder of BetaNYC. This month, I’m going to tell you a personal story that guides me on how I look at leadership within BetaNYC’s activities. If you ask me how I’m doing, I will say, “Ok. I miss my family dearly, but I have hope.” In the summer…
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Statement from 7 Leading Civic and Journalism Groups on Legislature’s Repeal of Police Secrecy Law 50-a and Modification of FOIL
Statement on Legislature’s Repeal of Police Secrecy Law 50-a and Modification of FOIL Our groups thank Assemblymember Danny O’Donnell and Jamaal Bailey, Speaker Carl Heastie, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and the Assembly and State Senate for passing S8496/A10611. Our groups strongly support this bill and ask Governor Cuomo to sign it immediately, without modification or chapter…
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Making History – The First Hackathon Inside the historic New York City Hall
In partnership with the Department of Education’s Computer Science for All and NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and Technology Committee Chair Council Member Peter Koo, BetaNYC co-hosted 130 students and 30 teachers in the City’s historic Council Chambers for the finale of the second annual Hack League. These Twenty-eight teams, from all five boroughs, used…
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? ❤ ? — NYC SoData 2018 Recap
How we build is as important as what we build. – Chris Whong, NYC Planning Labs Thank you for making NYC’s School of Data an amazing day and making NYC’s second annual open data week an epic adventure across the Boroughs! 2018 is our second year where we simultaneously celebrated International Open Data Day and…
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Dear de Blasio, Re: NYC Automated Decision Systems Task Force — #NYCAlgorithms
For the past year, BetaNYC has called on NYC government to be a global leader on algorithmic government. In the fall of 2017, CM Vacca introduced a bill that was turned into Local Law 49 of 2018. This #NYCAlgorithms LAW gives the city up to 24 months to create a task force and articulate how…
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a HUGE win for NYC’s legislative data.
For the last four years, we have been working with various City Council members to get the City’s “source code” online — we’re talking about the City’s charter, laws, rules, and daily record. The City’s charter is equivalent of the city’s constitution. According to the City’s law department, “the charter is the document that defines…
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How to improve NYC’s open data law 2.0?
Last week, we had the chance to join with members of the NYC Transparency Working Group and provide feedback on the future of NYC’s open data law (video). As this bill is under discussion we encourage all to provided your thoughts via councilmatic. Intro 1525-2017 This bill would require updates to the agency compliance plan, to…
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NYC Planning Data Jam Recap
Event Summary On May 8th, fifty urban planners, data scientists, and civic hackers came together for the Department of City Planning’s first data jam! For the day, participants improved NYC’s most comprehensive dataset of facilities. This facilities database is produced by the NYC Department of City Planning and is used to shape NYC’s neighborhoods. It…
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Video: Represent NYC: Probing Open Data to Solve NYC’s Problems
For the last two years, BetaNYC has partnered with Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer to create the Civic Innovation Fellowship. This program has created the City’s first open data and civic technology curriculum, performed a gap analysis on Manhattan Community Board’s capacity to use civic technology, and is currently producing three new tools to…
