Open Data Week Events (2017–Present)

Open Green Map 2 - OGM2 and YOU!

Green Map System and the GIS Collective will introduce the new open mapping platform designed for community users charting sustainability, nature and culture.

This webapp is adaptable for engaging a diversity of local voices and issues, generating compelling maps and organized data. Green Maps have already been made by city agencies, schools and NGOs in 65 countries. #OGM2 makes it easy for anyone from a town planner to a teacher to a permaculturalist to map a fresh perspective of their home place.

Wendy Brawer, director of Green Map System will provide background on how we got to #OGM2, and mapmaker Mary Hunt from FEEDJeffCo will share how she's using it. Open-source developers Bogdan Szabo and Alexandra Casapu of the GIS Collective will show the webapp’s exciting features and workflow, with time for discussion.

Updates, events and features are at GreenMap.org/stories/ogm2

The platform is at new.opengreenmap.org with:
• points, routes and areas with icons, images and sound files
• import - export - embed
• Green Map Icons and custom icon sets, too
• team permissions
• Open Street Map with Stamen's Toner and Terrain. Add a base map, too
• Yes, it's free for all non-commercial users!
Questions: hello@giscollective.com or info@greenmap.org

Individuals: Alexandra Casapu, Bogdan Szabo, Mary Hunt, Wendy Brawer | Organizations: GIS Collective, GIS Collective, FEEDJeffCo, Green Map System, LES Breathe

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/FRdZ0x7--ks","description":"https://youtu.be/FRdZ0x7--ks"}

Analyzing NYC's 311 Street Flooding Complaints from 2010 to 2020

Flooding poses a serious threat to coastal cities all around the world, and New York City is no exception. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 devastated the area, with many communities still suffering from its effects or unable to fully recover. What can citizen science data tell us about where flooding occurs and how it is changing over time? Additionally, how can this data potentially play a role in how New York City prepares and ultimately mitigates flooding in the future?
In this virtual talk, I will explore NYC's 311 street flooding complaints data. Attendees will leave with a basic understanding of:
1. The distribution of street flooding complaints throughout the five boroughs
2. How street flooding complaints are changing over time
3. Case studies from Midland Beach, Staten Island and Arverne, Queens
Talk Level:
Beginner
Prerequisites:
- Basics of Python or other programming languages (R, SQL, etc.)
- Knowledge of Data Analysis
- Basics of Jupyter Notebooks
This presentation recommends beginner-level proficiency with Python and is focused on applying Python to data analysis; however, those new to Python are gladly welcome!
Materials:
See GitHub repo: https://github.com/mebauer/nyc-311-street-flooding
About the speaker:
Mark is a Data Analyst at the New York City Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He was awarded the New York City Mayor’s Graduate Scholarship in 2018 to pursue an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Urban Science and Informatics at NYU and holds a BA/MCRP in Urban Planning from Rutgers University. Since attending NYU, he has developed many tutorials in Python that assist beginners with extracting and analyzing data from NYC Open Data. He currently lives in New York City.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/markbauerwater
GitHub: https://github.com/mebauer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markebauer/

Individuals: Mark Bauer | Organizations:

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/ejgrO5-RatE","description":"https://youtu.be/ejgrO5-RatE"}

Creating a Broadband Bill of Rights for NYC

What do teachers, students, library workers, open data advocates, design justice visionaries, essential workers, organizers, and those most impacted by New York City’s uneven broadband market want to see in NYC’s internet?  The lack of affordable, quality internet service has meant lack of access to education, opportunity, and health care.  Right now we have an opportunity to build out of this crisis for long-term transformation.

During Open Data Week, Community Tech NY invites you to share your vision of a more equitable, holistically healthy digital ecosystem for New York City.  In this deliberative session, we will then discuss and weave together a set of principles and demands as a scaffolding for a Bill of Rights that can be used to inform advocacy for local and citywide efforts.

Community Tech NY has been working directly with New Yorkers since 2016 to build local power to create the digital ecosystems we want and need for our communities. We believe that as a community builds and stewards its own digital ecosystem, it reclaims collective power.

Individuals: Claudina Sarahe (cs), Erica Kermani, Greta Byrum | Organizations: Composites Collective, Radical Networks, Community Technology NY, Community Technology NY, Digital Equity Lab

2021

Making NYC’s COVID-19 Data Accessible to the Disability Community

Data is increasingly becoming more integrated into the day-to-day lives of New Yorkers and people around the world. From neighborhood statistics to public health data, there is a lot of data to consume. Because data is often displayed in complex data visualizations, it is not always easy to access by people with disabilities.

During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, disability advocates all over the country spoke out about city and state governments failing to provide them access to their local COVID-19 data. In this event, the NYC Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities and the department of Health and Mental Hygiene will share our story working together to make NYC’s COVID-19 data accessible to disabled New Yorkers.

Individuals: Walei Sabry, Matthew Montesano | Organizations: NYC Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

2021

Open #DATA4COVID19: Lessons Learned on the Systematic Sustainable, and Responsible Use of Open Data to Address COVID-19

One year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic became real for people across New York. Though the spectre of the virus had been seen in the days and weeks before, by March 13, 2020, normalcy gave way to a new reality. A year on, New York’s leaders and leaders around the world are still figuring out ways to address the pandemic and its consequences.

This panel discussion will focus on ways New York City can better use open data to support its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with real-world data stewards from New York and other major cities, we will reflect on current practice, impacts, and challenges facing data-driven approaches to the pandemic. This discussion will aim to identify specific lessons New York can learn from other cities responding to the pandemic; hone in on practices the City can use to promote responsibility and legitimacy; and pinpoint ways the city might promote broader data re-use. This discussion will build on The GovLab’s work through #Data4COVID19 (https://www.data4covid19.org), which examines both the reuse of private sector data and open data for COVID-19 response. Panelists will also reflect on key messages and design principles from the Responsible Data Re-Use Framework (https://thedataassembly.org/)—developed based on deliberations with stakeholders in New York City, including the New York and Brooklyn Public Libraries.

The last 20 minutes of the event will be devoted to a breakout session that will allow participants to discuss their own experiences with data amid the pandemic and gaps and opportunities they see in current response efforts. At the end of the breakout session, a representative of each group will share their ideas on how New York can build the data infrastructure and ecosystem needed to tackle pandemics and other dynamic societal and environmental threats facing the city now and in the years to come.

Individuals: Stefaan Verhulst | Organizations: The GovLab

2021

Open Data: Keys to equitable innovation with Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams

Open data serves a vital role in adding transparency and accessibility to the areas our government is operating and solving issues. The Office of the New York City Public Advocate serves a vital role in advocating for all New Yorkers in the areas that government and the city need to work better for them. Open data allows our office to empower our constituents and partners to organize and enact change across a host of issues facing our city. As we look to the future and engage with New Yorkers on what problems they are facing and where technology and innovation can play a role in creating impactful and equitable solution  join us for a conversation on where Open Data plays a pivotal role in that process.

Individuals: John Katt, Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams | Organizations: OPA, OPA

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/OtYtCAyRQf4","description":"https://youtu.be/OtYtCAyRQf4"}

Data by the People, For the People: Flash Talk & Q&A

Tiasia O'Brien, Founder of co:census -powered by Seam Social Labs, shares a personal story about her experience with contextual insights that led to her team’s mantra: data by the people, for the people. In her talk, she explains how qualitative data serves as a tool for empowering the voices of the unheard by accessing deep insights and how this can be powerful for businesses as they explore more inclusive & ethical data.
Our goal: to share 3 key principles aimed at democratizing data, building more inclusive data systems, and structuring data in a more community-driven and collaborative fashion.

Individuals: Tiasia O'Brien | Organizations: co:census, Seam Social Labs

2021

Exploring NYC 311 complaints during the lockdown with python

In this python workshop session, users will walk through a programming tutorial to load, and explore data from the "NYC OpenData" portal, to generate insights and build data-driven answers. We will explore the NYC311 dataset, ask questions about the dataset, visualize, and predict complaints from the past lockdown period. All levels of data enthusiasts are invited to this session. Participants are welcome to follow along with the workshop, by downloading any compatible open-source data science software such as 'anaconda' or use a free web-based platform such as 'google colab', 'kaggle'...etc.

Individuals: Abdullah Hussein | Organizations: Rochester Institute of Technology

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/9bccpSi-0GU","description":"https://youtu.be/9bccpSi-0GU"}

How to make maps in Python using Folium

This demonstration is an introduction to creating interactive web maps using the Python package Folium. We will go over how to make Marker maps, Heat maps, Cluster maps, and working with shapefiles. We will use a modified NYC OpenData Natural Gas Consumption Dataset.This workshop can help you if you are looking to visualize geographical data with simple Python code. For this, you have the option of watching the demonstration or coding along.

For more information visit about coding alongside, including installing the required packages visit:
https://github.com/blh119/NYC-Open-Data-Week-2021-How-to-Create-Maps-using-Folium

Individuals: Brian Holliday | Organizations:

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/zM7AAFGgTmY","description":"https://youtu.be/zM7AAFGgTmY"}

Ground Truth — Data Through Design 2021 Artist Panel

Statistics and datasets form representations that are shaped by the unique point of view and methods of their creation and are never truly objective. This year’s Ground Truth theme invited artists to step out into their world to examine the relationship between public data and the lived experience. We encouraged artists to ask questions like, how do our observations align, or misalign, with what is presented through abstracted data? Does missing information and gaps in context affect our understanding of reality?
Join some of our 2021 DxD artists in conversation with former DxD organizer Stephen Larrick as they discuss their inspiration, process, and inevitable challenges in revealing the human stories behind the data. @DataxDesign

Individuals: Stephen Larrick, Jessie Braden, Will Geary, Can Sucuoglu, Brian Foo, Snoweria Zhang, Cindy Stockton Moore, Alec Barrett, Ivan Himanen, Jennifer Dalton, Julia Bloom, Michael Hsu, Noah Garcia, Renée Crowley, Alexander Kennedy, Jason Forrest, Kubi Ackerman, Sara Eichner | Organizations: Stae, KPF Urban Interface, Museum of the City of New York, Data Through Design

2021

Virtual

Panel Discussion

{"url":"https://youtu.be/K9qCSdyjHj8","description":"https://youtu.be/K9qCSdyjHj8"}

Who's In? Barriers to Participation in NYC Open Data.

What does the NYC Open Data community look like? And what does it take to be a member? Conversely, who might currently be excluded? What are the barriers to their participation? And what can be done to bring these barriers down? 
In this moderated forum we will discuss participation in NYC Open Data, investigate new places we might want to take it, and ask how to reach these desired goals. A diversity of voices and experiences are welcomed to openly and safely share stories and experiences, and to discuss the present and future of NYC Open Data. This event will be recorded.

Individuals: Graham Dove | Organizations: New York University

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/NF9MQ7nm2zk","description":"https://youtu.be/NF9MQ7nm2zk"}

Open Legal Data Forum

2020

Mapping Community Needs & Resources in NYC

2020

Open Data Portal Workshop

2020

NYC Open Data 101 – Langston Hughes Library

2020

Understanding and Addressing Algorithmic Bias in Hiring

This online session is designed to generate insight into algorithmic bias in employment assessment software tools (aka hiring). Using a rotating presenter/panel format and building on timely field-based debates, the goal is to establish a common point of entry into the issue by: 
1. tackling the socio-historical foundation of bias in technology that is present in today’s systems, especially algorithmic auditing initiatives (Mona Sloane); 
2. engaging in a deep dive into how these tools actually work, including the role of data in decisions, through the accessible metaphor of baking sourdough bread (Julia Stoyanovich); and 
3. sharing concrete evidence of current impacts through recent research, first-hand experience of such tools and critical perspectives on algorithmic auditing (Hilke Schellmann).
Presenters and attendees will discuss through chat and submitted Q&As. The session is geared towards anyone interested in the social context of current tools, employment and equity policies, compliance, and research on impacts. Presentation will synthesize larger ethical questions with the practical technicalities of how these systems dys/function.
Regarding accessibility, we will use automated captions, have people describe themselves before they speak, and if images are presented, use image description.

Individuals: Hilke Schellmann, Julia Stoyanovich, Maria Grillo, Mona Sloane | Organizations: NYU, Center for Responsible AI, NYU, R/AI Center for Responsible AI @NYU, NYU

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/GBdzQe3C_is","description":"https://youtu.be/GBdzQe3C_is"}

Open Data, Privacy, and NYC's Identifying Information Law

How does New York City government encourage transparency and protect New Yorkers’ privacy? The City leverages large amounts of information to offer its services, and New York City's Open Data Law requires the City to make certain data public. At the same time, the City’s Identifying Information Law makes sure it uses and shares identifying information responsibly. Come learn more about how these two laws together help the City share information in a way that encourages public trust. This session will be presented by attorneys from the Mayor’s Office of Information Privacy (MOIP), who will also discuss some of MOIP's other privacy-related work.

Individuals: Howard Chen, Kahini Ranade | Organizations: Mayor's Office of Information Privacy, Mayor's Office of Information Privacy

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/_1NjrcBge4g","description":"https://youtu.be/_1NjrcBge4g"}

Ethics of Data Archives: Crowdsourcing Hyperlocal NYC Data Workshop

Come share your crowdsourcing story and hear others! 
Archives hold the public repository for future historical knowledge but they also bring up ethical questions about who does the keeping and what datasets are missing. During the pandemic and social unrest, we each began to track information with attention to our immediate location. Hyperlocal communities formed around a neighborhood, a store, city block, a building, or maybe even a floor in your apartment complex.   
How did you use shared spreadsheets and cloud documents? What did you need to know that was not available elsewhere? What do you want to know about your hyperlocal area and why? How should we archive, preserve, and share this information? We’ll reflect where we might want less data and where we might need more sovereign data. 
This community discussion and workshop will consider the ethics of data archiving with a focus on hyperlocal data. We will start with a brief introduction to data justice and see images from Mimi Onuoha's art piece on the “Library of Missing Datasets," before breaking into small group discussions. We'll also hear about successful examples including: the NYC Neighborhood Food Resource Guides that battles food insecurity and BetaNYC data for shoppers with health vulnerabilities.  Then, together we will create a list of new data sets we would like to see and think about how information patterns of our daily lives should be preserved.
We encourage participants to come to the workshop with a specific story or example of hyperlocal digital information sharing.

Individuals: Anne L. Washington Ph.D., Jonathan Chin, Matt Bui PhD., Angela Spidalette, Karen Bannan | Organizations: Applied Statistics, Social Science and Humanities at New York University’s Steinhardt School, NYC Food Policy Center Food, Faculty Fellow NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology, New America, New America

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/_4KKt5tk3Ok","description":"https://youtu.be/_4KKt5tk3Ok"}

An Open Path Forward: a Technology Roadmap for a Health Data Team

How can your team benefit from an Open Source strategy to engage the public in your agency's data? A small data team at NYC Health worked with Open Tech Strategies recently to develop that answer into a roadmap that can provide guidance to agencies in approaching open source. Come and hear from the authors and discuss how you might use this document as a starting point for any municipal agency’s use as it makes plans regarding its technology needs. Important aspects that we will discuss include agile (iterative) methods, de-risking with modular contracting, working out a GitHub policy, handling web accessibility, working with users, and simplifying technology for maintainability.

Individuals: James Vasile, Grant Pezeshki | Organizations: Open Tech Strategies, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

2021

Presentation

{"url":"https://youtu.be/IujclAtm0JY","description":"https://youtu.be/IujclAtm0JY"}

Using Data and Design to Bring Older Adults Online

As part of New York City’s COVID relief efforts, the Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (MOCTO) distributed 10,000 internet-connected tablets to low-income older adults over the months of April and May. This program was a broad effort across our office, working with a number of partners, and had many components including user research, service design, data visualization, and digital product design and development.

The first part of this talk will be a brief background on the state of connectivity in NYC and the impact of COVID-19, as well as an overview of the program’s service design and delivery. The majority of the talk will focus on how our team used Open Data in our participant identification, distribution, and metrics monitoring. There will be a demo of the digital product created using Open Data; an internal dashboard with tracking metrics and geographic visualizations for monitoring the progress of the distribution against goals.

Finally, there will be a few snippets of the delightful stories from our user research with older adults who were tablet recipients, and the ways in which they incorporated their tablets into their everyday lives (Music! Gaming! Cooking!).

Individuals: Elyse Voegeli | Organizations: NYC Mayor's Office of the Chief Technology Officer

2021

{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTaFepsViM0","description":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTaFepsViM0"}

Fostering STEM Futures: Bridging the Divide Between Tech & Foster Youth

The First Star CSI Academy presents: Fostering STEM Futures: Bridging the Divide Between Tech and Foster Youth to create public awareness of the lack of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) exposure. Through various art mediums, students will integrate arts and open data to promote the importance of exposing youth in foster care to STEM.

First Star CSI Academy

2020

The Neighborhood Data Portal

2020

Cross Platform vs Native Development

2020

Digital Twin — Data Through Design Opening Reception

2020

In-Person

Exhibition

Exploring Data Using Your Voice

2020

Commuting during COVID-19: Using Open Data to Predict NYC Subway Crowds

This talk/demo is about SubwayCrowds, an open source tool that enables commuters to explore the potential crowdedness of different NYC subway routes. As the city continues to tackle the pandemic, people are slowly heading back into work and some students are attending colleges or schools in-person. A central question on many minds is how exactly this will all work given NYC commuters reliance on public transportation. Is it possible to safely and effectively move so many people while maintaining social distancing?
 
Using Open Data from the MTA, we developed an app that provides the city and commuters a way to measure how crowded their route might be from the perspective of an average subway car. This presentation will dive into the methodology and challenges involved in estimating subway crowdedness. We will also discuss some of the lessons learned from this project to further improve the role open data portals could play in supporting civic tech projects.

Individuals: Kaushik Mohan | Organizations: Data Clinic

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/PijbqdeNSSs","description":"https://youtu.be/PijbqdeNSSs"}

How open data can help in the fight against climate change

The Open Data Charter and World Resources Institute have developed an Open Up Guide on Climate Action, a tool that allows to explore key datasets that any government should open while promoting transparency at their climate change policy. We have been able to test-drive it both in Chile and in Uruguay and have now learnings, challenges and lessons to share on this growing topic.

Individuals: Jesse Worker, Natalia Carfi | Organizations: World Resources Institute, Open Data Charter

2021

Grow Your Business with Open Data

CEO of HubSpire, Thomas Abraham, will talk about how to access and strategically leverage open data to create companies that scale.

Zoom virtual fireside chat. Open to all. No experience needed. Free.

Individuals: Ismael Hasan, Jasmine Cardona, Jeffrey Derose, Nora Santiago, Thomas Abraham | Organizations: College of Staten Island Tech Incubator, College of Staten Island, College of Staten Island Tech Incubator, College of Staten Island, HubSpire

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/Ool8S6dI96s","description":"https://youtu.be/Ool8S6dI96s"}

Using Open Data for Grassroots Hyperlocal COVID Response

Last Mile has distributed more than 150,000 respirators, face shields, and surgical masks free of charge to frontline workers in New York City, leveraging open data to do targeted deliveries in the hardest-hit areas. In this hour-long presentation and Q&A, we'll cover the design of the Last Mile's PPE Now! program, walk through a case study using hyperlocal data to identify gaps in PPE supply, and present our next hyperlocal data initiative that fills in the gaps of government-supplied open data with information about workplace safety policy implementation in a variety of settings. This is a great event for civic technologists and grassroots organizers interested in leveraging open data for emergency response. Our panelists will include data designers and healthcare workers as well as local and national labor organizers.

Individuals: Bitsy Bentley | Organizations: Last Mile

2021

Civic Roam - tour a new research tool for searching civic data and documents

Civic Roam is a new research tool that makes it easy to search civic data and documents. Come explore data about New York City community boards and more pulled from multiple places (from the open data portal, other civic tech tools, and across multiple PDF documents) all organized in one place.

Civic Roam (civicroam.org) is a tool in development, built on new graph database software (Obsidian and Roam Research) that makes it easy to create personal wiki pages of linked data. Civic Roam harnesses this software, and combines it with standardized naming and aliases to create a public knowledge graph on top of open data. Community boards, organizers, journalists, researchers and others can use Civic Roam to do exploratory research that is not easily done with traditional search engines.

A lot of work needs to be done to make Civic Roam more user friendly for the communities it hopes to serve. This project builds on work from NYC Open Data, Beta NYC, Planning Labs, WeGov, and others. Civic Roam is an early stage experiment trying to figure out how to become a useful tool.

Help us identify what data and features would be useful to include in the future and get trained on how to explore open data using a graph database!

Attendees: check out optional background material here: bit.ly/civicroam-odw

Individuals: Nathan Storey | Organizations: Civic Roam

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/0CDKzpZKlLc","description":"https://youtu.be/0CDKzpZKlLc"}

Democratizing Data: The Opportunity Project Data Curation Hub

The Opportunity Project (TOP) team will showcase their new open data product, the Data Curation Hub. After 5 years of curating data related to specific challenges, the TOP team created this tool to democratize access to open data that also made data easier to find and understand. Civic technologists, open data enthusiasts, designers, and community organizers can use this data product to find data relevant to their communities and use it for their own projects. Attendees will be able to view a live demo of the Data Curation Hub, be given links to it so they can explore it on their own, and also hear about successful products that have used data from the Hub that have made an impact in various communities around the country, including NYC. The TOP team will also talk about best practices in data curation and why it’s relevant for civic techies, local government, data aggregators, data producers and other stakeholders to use to tackle challenges in their communities.

Individuals: Anna Valuev, Emma Brennan, Radhika Bhatt, Drew Zachary | Organizations: The Opportunity Project, U.S. Census Bureau; Census Open Innovation Labs, Census Open Innovation Labs, The Opportunity Project, U.S. Census Bureau; Census Open Innovation Labs, The Opportunity Project

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/Mpd_Ft0iRHs","description":"https://youtu.be/Mpd_Ft0iRHs"}

Data Dialogues - Presented by Data Through Design, Featuring an Opera Performance, and in Partnership with The US Census Bureau

Art critique? Philosophy meetup? Games night? Data discovery? Empathy workshop? Opera performance? Census celebration? All of the above!

Join us for a collaborative exploration of the artwork in DxD 2021’s exhibition and how it intersects with our diverse personal histories, perceptions, values, and identities. This year, Data Dialogues is partnering  with the US Census Bureau’s The Opportunity Project (TOP). We will start by discussing DxD artist Brian Foo’s audio-visual renditions of income inequality data gathered by the Census. Ideas generated during the dialogue will inform TOP’s Data Jam the following day. In addition, soprano Rose Hegele will perform an aria rendition of Hear, one of DxD artist Snoweria Zhang’s fluxus-inspired “recipes.” Through facilitated games, deep listening, and compassionate dialogue, we will surface connections between the themes in DxD 2021 artwork and  our own lives, the communities we’re a part of, and our increasingly data-mediated society.

Individuals: Rose Hegele, Brian Foo, Snoweria Zhang, Alexander Kennedy | Organizations: KPF Urban Interface, Data Through Design

2021

Virtual

Presentation

{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqo6FNbzadg","description":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqo6FNbzadg"}

Government Accountability: Transparency and Privacy

2020

Civic Hacking for Transit Equity

Join co:census for a Civic Hacking for Transit Equity happy hour event to bring together civic leaders, transit agency staff, public servants, designers, coders and engaged citizens to tackle transit equity challenges in New York City.

Schedule
6:00 - 6:30 pm: Kickoff Talk: A panel discussion hosted by co:census founder, Tiasia O’Brien and Urban Institute Principle Research Associate, Christina Stacy for a conversation about transit equity challenges in NYC.
6:30 - 8:00 pm: Civic Hacking: Each team will discuss and brainstorm ideas to increase transit equity based on problem statements. Teams will then ideate and prototype their solution.
8:00 - 8:30 pm: Presentations & Closing Remarks: Each team will present their idea to a panel of judges and prizes will be awarded to the top team.

Individuals: AJ Reycer, Christina Stacy, Michael Lau, Tiasia O'Brien | Organizations: co:census, Urban Institute, co:census, co:census, Seam Social Labs

2021

Engaging with the WhatsOpenEV.com map Part 2

The East Village Community Coalition will host socially-distanced community outreach events on the Ave B Open Street to promote the use of the WhatsOpenEV.com map, an open-source tool created by BetaNYC and maintained by EVCC, with tips from local blogger evgrieve.com and dedicated virtual volunteers. 
The EVCC will work with our SVA thesis team partners to highlight local BIPOC- and Womxn-owned restaurants along the Open Street, demonstrate the advantages of locally-sourced data, and encourage local residents to use and contribute tips to the WhatsOpenEV.com map! All are welcome.

Individuals: Laura Sewell | Organizations: East Village Community Coalition

2021

NYC Health Data Tour from DOHMH

Learn about how to access and navigate Epidemiological, Environmental, and Covid-specific data offered by DOHMH from staff who work on these shared data resources! Use these resources alone or in combination to inform policy to help the city recover.  Resources covered include:
- EpiQuery 
- Environment and Health Data Portal 
- Covid-19 Data page  
- NYC Open Data resources from DOHMH

Individuals: Martha Alexander, Grant Pezeshki, Matthew Montesano | Organizations: NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/xEWaQ23-V4I","description":"https://youtu.be/xEWaQ23-V4I"}

NYC Opportunity Digital Data Catalog: Promoting a Culture of Open (Meta)Data

Join the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity) as we host a virtual conversation on tackling the challenge of maintaining clear documentation (the good, the bad and the ugly!) about the data we collect, use and share. We will discuss common barriers to curating metadata and steps we are taking to overcome them, including the development of a custom data catalog.

Good documentation about data sets, products or the systems that produce them is almost as important as the data asset itself. Too often, when data is available, information about that data such as its origin, quality, meaning or use may be hard to come by. Without adequate documentation, it may take considerable effort to specify the right data suitable to answer the research question or achieve the program objective at hand. Even worse, it may increase the risk of inadvertently drawing the wrong conclusion or promoting misinformation.

In this presentation, NYC Opportunity will discuss our efforts to build better knowledge about the data we collect and share. This includes the development of a new digital data catalog intended to support these efforts and enjoin others with shared challenges to do the same.

Our goals for this session are to (1) enumerate the core challenges to building adequate data documentation (2) engage an audience around this issue for collective problem solving and (3) demo the NYC Opportunity Digital Data Catalog. The event is open to data scientists, researchers, analysts, developers, product managers and anyone who shares the frustration of seeking out critical information about the data they work with day to day.

Individuals: Alicia Mathews, Vanessa Edwards | Organizations: Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity

2021

The Opportunity Project: Using Open Data and Technology for Good

The Opportunity Project is a technology innovation program within the U.S. Census Bureau that brings together government, technologists, and communities from around the country to create digital tools that address our greatest challenges as a nation. In the 5 years the program has been running, over 135 tools have been created tackling the challenges related to disaster recovery, economic self-sufficiency, workforce, health, education, and more. Companies, universities, nonprofits, and many others have participated in the process and created tools like interactive games, mobile apps, mapping tools, data visualization websites, and others to help communities around the country.

In this talk, hear from members of The Opportunity Project team discuss how this entirely virtual open innovation program works, and how they tackled environmental challenges last year like air quality, recycling, reducing ocean plastics, affordable housing, geospatial data challenges, and many other topics. Attendees will learn about how TOP is scaling data innovation in the federal government, hear case studies on successful products that have impacted communities around the country, and how community building is one of the core tenets of this program. TOP has also open sourced this process through a digital toolkit that allows people to utilize this process on their own, and will walk through it to help attendees learn how they can run this process on their own and make an impact in their own communities. This talk is particularly relevant for those interested in civic tech, open data, and using technology for good, and for anyone interested in getting involved in The Opportunity Project. There will also be time for audience Q&A. This event is for anyone interested in utilizing open innovation methods in their own communities, informed by data, human centered design, and community building.

Individuals: Lorena Molina-Irizarry, Anna Valuev, Emma Brennan, Radhika Bhatt, Drew Zachary | Organizations: Census Open Innovation Labs, The Opportunity Project, U.S. Census Bureau; Census Open Innovation Labs, Census Open Innovation Labs, The Opportunity Project, U.S. Census Bureau; Census Open Innovation Labs, The Opportunity Project

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/7DzBQW_D4uY","description":"https://youtu.be/7DzBQW_D4uY"}

Community Driven Innovation: Challenges and opportunities of participatory policy design

No tech & equity policy should be about tech, is should be about solving people's problems

The NYCx Co-Labs was created to identify and address local community challenges through participatory research, tech education and open innovation initiatives.

Over the last 5 years, the NYCx Co-Labs has worked with communities in Manhattan and Brooklyn to craft global innovation challenges on  Safe and Thriving Nighttime Corridors, Zero Waste in Public Spaces, Accessible Mental Health, and Housing Rights.

Join us in a session to discuss:
- Strategies on how to collect and structure community feedback.
- How agencies can visualize data to inform design decisions. 
- How to identify opportunities for innovation.

Individuals: Elaine Hsieh, Oscar Jorge Romero Jr | Organizations: NYC Mayor's Office of the Chief Technology Officer, NYC Mayor's Office of the Chief Technology Officer

2021

Data Visions

Data Visions is an interactive community data experience. New Yorkers will get to analyze and learn about open data by creating data visualizations of their own with art supplies! Their art pieces will contribute to a larger data visualization, made up of all the art pieces combined and visually categorized by topic.

2020

In-Person

Workshop

Sustainability Uses of NYC Data

2020

Using Data Analysis and Mapping to Address Hate Crimes

In light of recent anti-API (Asian and Pacific Islander) attacks and hate crimes, we discuss the role of data in combatting hate crimes Citywide.

Join Hassan Naveed, Deputy Executive Director of the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes at the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ), Abdul Rad, Researcher Manager at MOCJ, and Shanna Crumley, Innovation Advisor at the Mayor's Office of the Chief Technology Officer, as they discuss the use of data to address hate crimes holistically.

OPHC found a need for a Citywide overview of hate incidents and areas of need to inform effective policy and community-based strategies. They partnered with the Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (MOCTO) and the NYC[x] Innovation Fellows program to identify data tools and processes for data-driven decision-making.

In 2019, Mayor de Blasio established the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC) as part of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ), a hub that coordinates activity across a number of agencies and leads targeted interventions to prevent long-term redress of systemic issues.

Individuals: Abdul Rad, Hassan Naveed, Shanna Crumley | Organizations: Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, NYC Mayor's Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes at the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, NYC Mayor's Office of the Chief Technology Officer

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/Sr4wj_Anf1o","description":"https://youtu.be/Sr4wj_Anf1o"}

NYC Homeownership: Removing bias and creating equal opportunity for all

Do racial disparities exist within New York City housing? And if they do, how do we resolve those disparities and create an affordable housing system for all?

Test your knowledge in an interactive learning session with SAS and The Center for NYC Neighborhoods. During this session, which will kick off with a live trivia event, you will have the chance to explore how organizations are using data and analytics to help inform and influence decisions around affordable housing.

Individuals: Ayana Littlejohn, John Baker, Sterlina Smith | Organizations: SAS, Center for NYC Neighborhoods, SAS

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/ESY-2stz5Mo","description":"https://youtu.be/ESY-2stz5Mo"}

Measuring the Digital Divide in NYC: An Open Data Guide

One of the most immediate and wide-ranging effects of COVID-19 has been the urgent need for internet access to pursue daily activities in a safe virtual setting. However, digital life is not available to all New Yorkers: close to 500,000 NYC households lack any type of internet connection (including broadband, dial-up, satellite, and cellular data).
This event will begin with a data walkthrough from Citizens' Committee for Children (CCC) on the digital divide across NYC's neighborhoods and communities. This presentation will be accompanied by a discussion on how barriers to internet access have impacted New Yorkers during the COVID-19 pandemic - from students in remote learning, to virtual enrollment in safety net programs, telehealth services, and more.
The second part of the event will invite participants to explore local datasets from Open Data NYC – like NYC Wi-Fi Hotspot Locations, Broadband Adoption and Infrastructure, and others – and discuss how local initiatives and infrastructure can bridge the digital divide. The session will conclude with an optional workshop, instructing participants on how to plot resources using Google My Maps and overlay Open Data NYC datasets alongside CCC’s neighborhood-level data.
Local advocates, service providers/policymakers, and everyday New Yorkers all encouraged to attend - especially those passionate about improving digital equity in New York City.

Individuals: Jack Mullan | Organizations: Citizens' Committee for Children of New York

2021

{"url":"https://youtu.be/2wRyfiXBKN8","description":"https://youtu.be/2wRyfiXBKN8"}

NYC Open Data for History Nerds & Archives

2020

User Experience With Spatial Data On The NYC Open Data Portal

2020

Uncovering the Hidden Gems of NYC Open Data

2020

Build An App with Open Data

2020

The Open Data Co-Design Clinic

2020

Exploring Bronx Community Health Data

2020