We built MyPB.community for Participatory Budget Project to display six years of NYC participatory budgeting proposals. Users can search by address, apply multiple filters, and view all data on maps, in charts, and export to CSV and PDF. The app won two awards from the Mayor’s Office: the Mayor’s Civics Award for the project that […]
Category Archives: Work
Building MyGov.NYC
myGov.nyc integrates public datasets and information resources together into a single data-driven website that gives New Yorkers a more complete understanding of how New York City’s agencies turn resources into actions that benefit New Yorkers. Its innovative backend allows users to connect data together even if it comes from different APIs and in different formats.
Upgrading BetaNYC’s Website
BetaNYC had a solid WordPress website with a few bugs and a few features that weren’t fully implemented. We worked with their team to understand the vision for the website, found the perfect theme for them and then built a child theme on top of it, enabling us to them customize the looks, feel and […]
MyGov.nyc Offers New Yorkers a More Transparent City, with a Page for Every Capital Project
Few things impact the lives of New Yorkers more than the city’s “capital projects.” These projects create, maintain, and improve the infrastructure New Yorkers use every day, including: streets, bridges, tunnels, sewers, parks, and so much more. In 2018, the capital budget will be $16.2 billion, approximately 17% the size of the city’s $85.2 billion […]
Presenting the “Open Aid Movement” at the Open Source Bridge Conference
“Open source” is a method for putting intellectual property in the public domain, allowing anyone to use it however they see fit. I’m an advocate of the “open source way” because I believe that if more people shared intellectual property of all types – whether its farming techniques, software code, music, etc – then we’ll […]
Introducing the Internet of Ownership Project Council
The social movements of the last decade demand democracy beyond the ballot box. If we want a more democratic society, we must model transparency, collaboration and collective decision-making in our own organizations, projects and networks. We are chartering the Internet of Ownership Project Council (IOPC) to create a democratic space for people working on concrete […]
Introducing Data Models for Human(itarian) Services
Immediately after a disaster, information managers collect information about who is doing what, where, and turn it into “3W Reports.” While some groups have custom software for collecting this information, the most popular software tool for this work is the spreadsheet. Indeed, the spreadsheet is still the “lingua franca” of the humanitarian aid community, which […]
Open Data for the Collaborative Economy
The collaborative sector is growing in New York City and around the world. More support, including funds from the New York City Council to promote cooperative development, means new opportunities for entrants into the new economy — an economy that promotes social justice, workplace democracy, and sustainability. We want to see this sector grow bigger, […]
NYC:Prepared’s Human Services Data Initiative
This post originally appeared on the NYC:Prepared blog New York City has over 8 million residents and over ten thousands 501(c)(3) nonprofits providing a vast variety of services to the public. After Sandy, the need for these “human services” has expanded dramatically. Problem If you dial “211” almost anywhere in America, you will be connected […]
reRoute Panel: FLO & the New Economy
On Sunday, July 21st, I participated in a panel at reRoute: Building Power for a New Economy, hosted by the New Economics Institute. reRoute’s tagline was “Building Youth and Student Power for a New Economy,” and it brought practitioners, organizers and students together for panels like “Financing a New Economy,” “Possibilities for Participatory Budgeting,” “Food Justice […]