Local Law 11 of 2012 has ushered in a new era where technology, data, and design are used to improve the city and build up opportunities of equity. We are far from a perfect data union. The last four years have highlighted a path for us to explore. This path leads us to a door we affectionally are calling NYC School of Data.
This past weekend, New York City celebrated the fourth birthday of the City’s open data law. This law is credited as the first open data law that forces agencies to proactively disclose data into a unified portal and with a functional administrative support structure around it.
Through BetaNYC’s many incarnations, this is our ninth city-wide civic tech / open government annual gathering!
The New York City School of Data is a collaborative network improving the City’s data ecosystem. This network seeks to enrich our lives and communities through technology, data, & design. This year, we invited civic hackers and community based organizations to learn from each other and share how we can improve our communities and our data.
This year’s School of Data conference was a day-long showcase of New York City’s open data ecosystem and its innovative users. Additionally, we held breakout sessions for the community to collaborate on some of NYC’s most pressing open data issues—including a data jam to address economic justice.
On Saturday, 5 March 2016, New Yorkers of all stripes joined the Speaker of the City Council, the Manhattan Borough President, the Chairperson of the City Council’s Government Operations Committee, the City’s Chief Technology Officer, Board members from the NYCLU, and Code for America’s Executive Director to connect, learn, innovate, and collaborate.
This weekend was a global celebration of Open Data, aka #OpenDataDay. Nationally, we celebrated Code for America’s Code Across, aka #CodeAcross. Locally, there were *two* events of note. Ours at Civic Hall, and the Rudin Center’s pioneering Staten Island Bus Hackathon at LMHQ. Congratulations open data comrades!
Our morning keynotes featured many great speakers, two received the most tweets:
- Many thanks to Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito for her moving words on how we need a government that is intentionally inclusive and represents everyone.
- Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer announced the formation of a task force exploring data science & digital engagement curriculum for New York City High School students.
Event stats:
- We featured 18 sessions, 40 presenters, 22 are women, 16 came from NYC Government, & three are elected officials.
- 372 tickets; checked in 260+ people; 11 children under 10 y.o. attended the event.
- 49 people offered to volunteer. 30 labored.
- Eight NYC High Schoolers learned to navigate NYC’s open data portal, manipulate NYC’s 311 data, & map this data into CartoDB.
- One family attended and represented three generations: Grandma—organizer and data visualizer, Father—data advocate, & Daughter—aspiring civic hacker. 😉
- Our event leadership team consisted of seven, three are women & five are people of color.
- For a third of the day, our hashtag was a trending topic on Twitter — #nycSoData.
Slides from Presentations:
- Thanks to Internet Society of New York for live streaming our main stage. Via YouTube, you can tune into 7h30 of our main stage presentation. In the coming weeks, we hope to have these presentations sliced and diced.
- We’re building a folder of presentations
- Executive Director Jennifer Pahlka, Code for America < http://bit.ly/1pdEwkn >
- Dominic Mauro, Reinvent Albany on FOIL 101 < http://bit.ly/1Xad9lU >
- Citizen Science Session Jessie Braden, Pratt Institute, < http://bit.ly/1Sxi94A >; Eric Brelsford, 596 Acres < http://bit.ly/1pxwTFw >.
- Intro to CartoDB, Santiago Giraldo, CartoDB < http://namessanti.github.io/iframe-carousel/ >
- NY City Council Labs Staff < http://bit.ly/1M4T2zv >
- Manhattan Borough President’s / BetaNYC’s Civic Innovation Fellows < http://bit.ly/1Ubl8j2 >
- Introduction to GeoClient, Matthew Lipper, NYC DOITT GIS < http://bit.ly/24OCHut > and Joel Natividad, Ontodia < http://bit.ly/21Wn4lF >
- Bert Spaan, New York Public Library Labs < http://bit.ly/1pdyIaP >
- NYC 311 < http://bit.ly/1UQIZ8m >
- NYC Parks TreesCount! session < http://bit.ly/1R6yFJG >
- NYC Parks & TreeKit recap of 2015 tree census < http://bit.ly/1TroSOH >
Event insights:
- In the coming week, we’ll be hosting an organizing meeting and will append these notes.
- Childcare is critical to diversifying attendants. Several of our speakers couldn’t attend if we didn’t offer childcare. For older children, make it explicit they can attend. Make sure you have kid friendly snacks and some type of activity for the little ones. We loved working with Sitter Studio and look forward to working with them again.
- We offered several admission points: $10, donate as you wish, volunteer for two hours, or scholarship. The former were done via eventbrite. The latter were organized via screendoor. We also offered “day of” tickets. In general, charging a little bit of money helped us recoop event costs AND increased turn out. In the past, free events had hovered at 50% attendance. For this event, we had over 75%.
- Walkie Talkies are great. Get them with ear pieces.
- AHF! Always, have fun!
Next Steps:
- Write up the outcomes of our Economic Data Jam. NYCLU Board Member Steven Adler has provided some of his thoughts and we have a few we want to explore in a longer post.
- Note, if you participated in the Economic Data Jam, please fill out this short survey.
- If you attended the day, please fill out our NYC School of Data Participant Survey. Our most important question, how can we improve?
- Lastly, we are investigating the creation of a quarterly open data / civic tech zine that documents the community’s wins and keeps the community informed. If that floats your boat, sign up for our newsletter.
Featured News Articles:
- As open-data law turns 4, officials, advocates outline plans, challenges (Politico.com, Archived PDF)
- Brewer announces initiative for high school data-science instruction (Politico.com, Archived PDF)
- Council releases constituent services data, revealing patterns (Politico, Archived PDF)
Featured Hacks:
Aliza was inspired by NYC311’s presentation and made Chrome plug-in that shows 311 service requests against NYC apartment listings! Download the chrome plugin.
Also check out callnyc.org which profiles the City Council’s constituent service data. V.cool!
Featured Tweets:
Que feliz estoy to finally hear @MMViverito speak in person during @nycSOdata as a Latina trying to better NYC feel so inspired to keep on.
— Magdelin Vargas (@_MagdeVa) March 7, 2016
When @galeabrewer explains #DataScience initiative, and using open data from within the city for Stat #nycSoData pic.twitter.com/he37anpBkO
— NYC Youth Council (@NYCYouthCouncil) March 5, 2016
THANK YOU to our panelists on Citizen-Gov Collaboration: @LizBarry @JackiewtLu @HeatSeekNYC & Kari Auer! #nycSoData pic.twitter.com/CE7XSWrCvQ
— John Paul Farmer (@johnpaulfarmer) March 5, 2016
“People should see this, people should know.” – Jose Manuel Cervantes on today’s 311 youth data track #nycsodata. pic.twitter.com/L2URm8QXgu
— Genevieve Gaudet (@GenevieveGaudet) March 5, 2016
How can you have a bad day when you are working with these cutie bananas?! #nycSoData @BetaNYC #eventchildcare pic.twitter.com/TFQBj3BpND
— Sitters Studio (@SittersStudio) March 5, 2016
Room full of excited data experts looking to help @NYCLU at Economic Justice Data Jam! #nycSoData pic.twitter.com/hkPVTiLNvi
— Richard Robbins (@rich1) March 5, 2016
At #nycsodata, @andycochran & @jchoi_li present terrific https://t.co/fxKlcXxbVI, @MMViverito Council 2.0 initiative pic.twitter.com/maRcUEpcJK
— David Moore (@ppolitics) March 5, 2016
A team that makes @CitiBikeNYC dataviz together wears cone hats together @dvndrsn #nycSoData https://t.co/enpqkcg77X pic.twitter.com/82FGs6tFiI
— Aliza Aufrichtig (@alizauf) March 5, 2016
Working on live video games today with the kids @BetaNYC #nycSoData @CivicHall event pic.twitter.com/RFCGFYs28V
— Sitters Studio (@SittersStudio) March 5, 2016
NYC Council Speaker- data will tell the story rarely heard of the most vulnerable @MMViverito #NYCSoData #data pic.twitter.com/dVcKwh3Pof
— Karen Bhatia (@karenbhatia) March 5, 2016
.@jackiewtlu “since @nyctreescount started we’ve been QAQCing & pushing data into our Forestry Ops Mgmt” #nycSoData pic.twitter.com/jZmR0LZauM
— Liz Barry (@lizbarry) March 5, 2016
“I want our data to move people, organizations, and of course, governments, to act differently.” –@MMViverito at #nycsodata
— Jennifer Pahlka (@pahlkadot) March 5, 2016
@MMViverito #nycSoData talking about unaffordable affordable housing. #civictech can serve to track displacement pic.twitter.com/zTZkOWfyVn
— JustFixNYC (@JustFixNYC) March 5, 2016
“New open data bills strengthen the Open Data Law…Openness is a priority:” @MMViverito @NYCCouncil #nycSoData pic.twitter.com/WXjAws9gVJ
— Minerva (@minervatweet) March 5, 2016
“In my time as Speaker, I’ve made it my priority to increase transparency and accessibility to the Council’s work.” @MMViverito #nycSOdata
— NYC Council (@NYCCouncil) March 5, 2016
.@minervatweet takes the stage at #nycSoData – open data & civic tech crucial for NYC’s Smart + Equitable Future! pic.twitter.com/nF0O3c4ZES
— NYC Tech+Innovation (@nycforward) March 5, 2016
Excited to start Economic Justice Data Jam with @NYCLU at @CivicHall with Board President Robin Wilner #nycSoData pic.twitter.com/qy28b08wKJ
— Wendy Stryker (@wes668) March 5, 2016
When I say “packed house,” I mean it! #nycSoData #CodeAcross #OpenDataDay pic.twitter.com/Um8fqgiGRu
— John Paul Farmer (@johnpaulfarmer) March 5, 2016
Getting Viv hooked on #civictech early at @BetaNYC School of Data at @CivicHall (bagels help) pic.twitter.com/rJZftsrtFV
— Matthew Klein (@mattklein_) March 5, 2016
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