Open Data Week Events (2017–Present)

Creating a Multimodal Urban Planning Simulation for Diverse Publics using NYC Open Data (NYC School of Data)

This panel will discuss the development of a multimodal urban planning simulation that will launch at the New York Hall of Science, in Queens, NY, in April 2025 as part of a new exhibition called CityWorks. The discussion will be of interest to anyone who is using open data to increase opportunities for city residents to reflect on and engage with the urban planning processes that shape their neighborhoods.
This simulation allows public audiences to use physical representations of different kinds of land use (schools, parks, and small and large commercial buildings) to make changes to three different types of NYC neighborhoods (residential, commercial and industrial), and to examine the impact of their changes on neighborhood traffic, flooding risk, and waste production. The simulation was created by a collaborative, interdisciplinary team of multimedia designers (Trivium Interactive), data scientists (Beta NYC’s Data Innovation Lab), and exhibit designers (New York Hall of Science).
After sharing the design, functionality, and goals of the simulation, the group will then discuss two key challenges: how to balance interpretability and data integrity in this simulation, and how to leverage public engagement with the simulation to create new opportunities for more equitable and inclusive participation in urban planning processes.

Individuals: Amelia Merker, Exhibit Manager, New York Hall of Science; Andrew Kittredge, Director, Beta NYC Data Innovation Lab; Jenna Lang, Content Producer, Trivium Interactive; Katie McMillan Culp, Chief Learning Officer, New York Hall of Science | Organizations: New York Hall of Science, Beta NYC's Data Innovation Lab, Trivium Interactive

2025

DSNY Monthly Tonnage Data [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/ebb7-mvp5], NYC Stormwater Flood Maps [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/9i7c-xyvv], PMMR 2020 Services, Goals and Indicators [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/wujc-r8zv]

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Panel Discussion

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Let's Build a NYC Public Interest Tech Lab - A Visioning Game (NYC School of Data)

Imagine a publicly accessible lab space where we can come together to showcase projects aimed at unlocking the power of Open Data and digital tools to empower communities. We are committed to creating such a venue in NYC.

Through a fun and interactive "visioning game," participants will collaborate to design a blueprint for a NYC Public Interest Technology Lab. We will be using an IRL game format and arts and crafts to engage participants. Our goal is to emerge from this workshop with a bold, shared vision of a collaborative hub that bridges sectors and communities: promoting digital equity, tech transparency, and community empowerment. The outcomes of this workshop will help guide our planning for the NYC PIT Pop-Up that we are going to be creating in Fall 2025 that will feature our collective work.

In this workshop, you’ll learn what public interest technology is and how it can be understood as part of community-driven data solutions. Working together in a gamified format, teams will map the lab’s potential priorities, generate focus areas, and identify resources to make the biggest impact. Using collaborative storytelling and creative exercises, we’ll synthesize your ideas into actionable next steps. Participants will have the opportunity to win prizes. Join us to help shape the future of public interest technology in NYC and make this vision a reality!

Anyone attending School of Data/Open Data week who are engaged in projects/orgs that promote digital equity, public access to data science, performance & protest art, public interest technologists, civic technologists, data practitioners and early career technologists are encouraged to attend. Student, community, academic and non-profit leaders welcome.

Individuals: Kathleen (Katie) Cumiskey, Professor & Director, College of Staten Island & CUNY PIT Lab; Effie MacLachlan, Director of Grants and Research Programs, CUNY Office of Research & PIT@CUNY; Ian G. WIlliams, Doctoral Student, CUNY Ph.D Program in Social Welfare; Social Media Fellow; Anthoni Garcia, Lab Manager, CUNY PIT Lab; Raj Korpan, Assistant Professor & Director, Hunter College & Trustworthy, Intelligent and Explainable Robotics (TIER) Lab

2025

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Workshop

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Improving how we target developers and users of open data

Open data can help connect smart cities, but is it fit for purpose? Open data portals collate information from many sources, and while this diversity is a strength, it also challenges developers. What role should data portals play in coordinating and targeting open data efforts? Our panel will start with introductory words from Els Breedstraet, representing data.europa.eu. From here, David Regeczi will lead a panel of practitioners to discuss their thoughts on target audiences for open data. Our panelists include:
<ul>
<li>Els Breedstraet, host, data.europa.eu</li>
<li>David Regeczi, moderator, data.europa.eu</li>
<li>Luke Binns, panelist, City of Dublin</li>
<li>Zachary Feder, panelist, City of New York</li>
<li>Benedikt Kotmel, panelist, City of Prague</li>
</ul>

David Regeczi, Capgemini Invent, data.europa.eu

2022

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NYC Urban Heat Portal: workshop to leverage data for heat resilience advocacy and planning (NYC School of Data)

Our team will demonstrate how to use the NYC Urban Heat Portal for heat resilience advocacy. The NYC Urban Heat Portal maps and visualizes several outdoor heat exposure data layers. We will show users how to navigate the website, map, and data visualizations, understand weather station data, evaluate neighborhood profiles, and how to download data for further analysis. You will learn about the fundamentals of urban heat and about how to use data available through the NYC Urban Heat Portal.
If you are interested in heat resilience and the ways we can measure it, this workshop would be useful for you. You will learn about heat mitigation resources in different neighborhoods.
Participants will have the opportunity to work with the data, and download specific data layers. We suggest that participants bring a laptop for hands-on experience.
This portal is designed by Hunter College's Urban Policy and Planning department, BetaNYC, and Penn State University in collaboration with community partners such as WE ACT and Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice.
The speakers:
1- Ashley Louie, former Beta NYC CTO
2- Mehdi Heris, Assistant Professor at Hunter College City University of New York
3- Andrew Kittredge, Beta NYC - Civic Innovation Lab Director
4- Lun Hung, Beta NYC - Civic Innovation Lab Associate, Frontend Developer
5- Hailee Luong, former Beta NYC Civic Innovation Lab Associate, User Experience Designer
6- Zhi Keng He, Beta NYC - Software Engineer

Individuals: Ashley Louie, Former Chief Technology Officer, formerly at BetaNYC; Mehdi Heris, Assistant Professor, Hunter College; Andrew Kittredge, Civic Innovation Lab Director, BetaNYC; Lun Hung, Civic Innovation Lab Associate, Frontend Developer, BetaNYC; Hailee Luong, Former Civic Innovation Lab Associate, User Experience Designer, formerly at BetaNYC | Organizations: BetaNYC, Hunter College's Urban Policy and Planning Department

2025

Land Cover Raster Data (2017) – 6in Resolution [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/he6d-2qns]

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Workshop

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A year of using AI @ city meetings.nyc: what it took, how it works, and the impact it has had (NYC School of Data)

citymeetings.nyc uses AI to make NYC council proceedings accessible to everyone using AI.

Since launching it last February, the site's traffic has grown to hundreds of visitors daily, over ten-thousand visits a month, and it is now used widely among professionals in NYC's government, lobbyists, trade associations, advocacy groups, and the media.

Vikram Oberoi, creator of citymeetings.nyc, will share:

- The impact and coverage the site has had to-date
- How his approach changed so he could break down 5-20 hours of public proceedings comprehensively, same-day
- How his tools work and how he uses AI to make citymeetings.nyc possible
- Tips and takeaways for folks working on products that use AI

LLMs have the power to bring more transparency to unstructured government data, but they're tough to use well! Practitioners will come away with learnings they can use in their own projects and leaders will get a glimpse into what investing in using AI to navigate public records will require of them and their teams.

Individuals: Vikram Oberoi, Creator, citymeetings.nyc

2025

NYC Council Meeting Videos (https://legistar.council.nyc.gov)

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Presentation

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Corpus: Bodies of Data — Data Through Design Artist Panel

Organizations: Data Through Design (DxD)

2025

In-Person

Panel Discussion

Explore Your Community Through U.S. Census Bureau Data

Discover how U.S. Census Bureau Tools can help you find free data for your community. Learn about Community Resilience Estimates and how to navigate My Community Explorer; an interactive map-based tool which highlights demographic and socioeconomic data that measure inequality. See how to access the latest American Community Survey and 2020 Census data for various geographies including New York City at data.census.gov. This session will involve live demonstration and hands-on exercises for participants.

Joli Golden, Data Dissemination Specialist, U.S. Census Bureau;

David Kraiker, Data Dissemination Specialist, U.S. Census Bureau

2024

American Community Survey and Decennial Census Data (data.census.gov), My Community Explorer (https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/13a111e06ad242fba0fb62f25199c7dd/page/Page-1/), Census Narrative Profile (https://www.census.gov/acs/www/data/data-tables-and-tools/narrative-profiles/)

Virtual

Class / Training

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Excel Power Query and Dashboards

Join us for an engaging workshop on leveraging Microsoft Excel Power Query to process and visualize data! In this hands-on session, we will dive into the powerful features of Power Query, exploring how to efficiently combine, clean, and organize data for insightful analysis.

Session Objectives:
- Learn how to access data with Power Query and set up pivot tables and charts to uncover valuable insights from your data
- Create dynamic dashboards that visually communicate key information and takeaways
- Share skills and ideas in a collaborative learning environment

For this session we will be using NYC Parks data sets from NYC Open Data, but the tricks we learn can be applied to any data you may be interested in using in the future.

A little about me:
I'm Anna, a self declared Excel nerd and data hobbyist. I gained most of my data wrangling experience as a cost estimator and project manager in the construction industry and as an analyst for NYC Parks. I have used different data visualization tools over the years, but I love that Excel is relatively easy to access and simple to learn.

A little about you:
This workshop is ideal for Excel users with a basic understanding of formulas and tables. Whether you are a beginner looking to expand your skills or a seasoned user seeking new insights, there is something for everyone in this interactive session.

Looking forward to learning together!

Anna Kelting

2024

Parks Inspection Program – Inventory [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/86a8-pqby]

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Workshop

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Empowering Human Services: A Data Journey Through NYC's Budget

FPWA, a leading anti-poverty advocacy organization, invites advocates, analysts, and anyone interested in understanding NYC funding to join their Fiscal Policy team in exploring NYC Budget History through data. The presentation will showcase FPWA’s NYC Funds Tracker, an interactive dashboard that leverages CheckbookNYC data to shed light on the fiscal workings of the city government, with a particular focus on the human service sector.
Attendees can expect to gain an understanding of budgetary trends over the past decade and learn how to utilize FPWA's dashboard, data, and coding tools for research and advocacy

FPWA

2024

CheckbookNYC (https://www.checkbooknyc.com/)

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Presentation

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Data in Action: Bridging the Public Benefits Enrollment Gap

Government programs and services provide vital support such as housing and food to people experiencing poverty, yet thousands of New Yorkers still do not sign up for the benefits they qualify for. Navigating all of the available options can be confusing and difficult due to the complex requirements around eligibility. How can we create a more streamlined way for New Yorkers to find out all the benefits they are eligible for? 

In this interactive workshop, the NYC Office for Economic Opportunity invites you to imagine new ways of bridging the benefits enrollment gaps in NYC and reducing poverty. You will have the opportunity to  explore and try for yourself a set of open tools our Office has created for this purpose including:
- The NYC Benefits Screening API: Comprehensive benefits screening criteria and calculations for 40+ benefits
- The NYC Benefits and Programs Dataset: Plain-language, standardized information for 100+ benefits and programs.

Join this virtual session to get to know these open source resources and explore how these tools can support benefits outreach work.

NYC Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity

2024

NYC Benefits Screening API [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/qcqw-kzj6]

Virtual

Workshop

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Equity in Action: Opportunity and Accountability Through EquityNYC

EquityNYC, a project of the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, reports the status of racial and social equity in New York City and the City’s work to address disparities. The site visualizes and contextualizes over 225 disaggregated metrics that measure population-level well-being, who the City serves, where services are located, who the City employs, who receives City contracts, and how the City promotes equity internally.
Join us to learn more about EquityNYC, understand the technology behind the site, discover how to use equity data in decision-making, and suggest potential use-cases to explore. To learn more, visit https://equity.nyc.gov/

Bermet Kydykova , Technical Product Manager , Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity;

Oonagh Jordan, Product Specialist , Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity;

Pavel Ilin, Software Engineer , Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity

2024

EquityNYC Data (Previously Social Indicator Report Data) [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/8ek7-jxw6]

Virtual

Presentation

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Map Your City: A Creative Cartography Session

New York is the city that never sleeps, but maybe that's why we all need a little more rest and play. This is a participatory, analog mapathon event will be held day-long, with a special session over lunch. We invite New Yorkers of all backgrounds, ages, and experiences, to create their map of places of play and rest in their neighborhood - It could be a bench, a ledge, or even a favorite shady spot that doubles as a shelter in the rain. After the workshop, these maps will be digitally archived (with participants' permission) as part of a new and ongoing project: A Social Atlas, cataloguing a collective, experiential map of NYC. This informal, hands-on session is open to anyone interested in exploring their spatial memory and connections to place.

Queenie Wu is an artist, researcher, and cartographer exploring how our memory and emotions affect the way we experience space and place. She is currently a part of NEW INC's Social Architecture - an incubator program at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, developing her practice through multidisciplinary projects in the digital space and the built environment.

Queenie Wu, Designer & Researcher

2024

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Hackathon / Data Jam

Census Data Explained, Explored, Extracted!

In this session, we will learn about the different facets of Census Bureau data (American Community Survey, Decennial, Population Estimates), how the data are collected, and how to find them in our principle portal, data.census.gov. We will learn the background of data collection, the parameters around what is available and when, and how to manipulate our system to better locate a piece of relevant data. We will also take time to use the mapping application that is located in data.census.gov to create tailored choropleth maps. Time permitting, we will work on a collaborative exercise (or two) to help ourselves better remember how to find data.

David Kraiker, Data Dissemination Specialist, U.S. Census Bureau

2024

Census Bureau Data (https://data.census.gov/)

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Workshop

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The inside story from New York City's top data journalists

Want to know how New York City's leading data journalists find their stories, wrangle both public and non-public information from sources and present their findings? Hear from five newsroom leaders on how they use data for their daily and in-depth reporting on politics and city government, immigration, transportation, business, criminal justice and more.

Panelists include Bianca Pallaro, senior data reporter for THE CITY, the nonprofit city-focused newsroom started in 2019; Jesse Coburn, investigative reporter for Streetsblog NYC, which focuses on transportation in the five boroughs; Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky, data reporter for public radio station WNYC and the Gothamist; and Max Siegelbaum, co-executive director of Documented, New York's go-to source for immigration news. The interactive panel, which will include a live Q&A, will be moderated by Derek Kravitz of the nonprofit public records and data site MuckRock.

We'll share resources and guides from our panelists and their newsrooms via our GitHub page and we'll also take questions and story ideas using this AirTable form.

Bianca Pallaro, Senior data reporter, THE CITY;

Jesse Coburn, Investigative reporter, Streetsblog;

Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky, Data reporter, WNYC/Gothamist;

Max Siegelbaum, Co-executive director, Documented NY;

Derek Kravitz, Editor, MuckRock

2024

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Panel Discussion

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Pay Equity in NYC

Data Scientists from the New York City Council will discuss how pay equity was assessed through a statistical investigation of data covering the NYC public workforce. Issues with the data will be addressed, and the modeling explained and justified. Outcomes of the analysis, and potential impacts will be covered.

New York City Council

2022

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Intro to SQL

This session will cover the basics of SQL syntax for SQL newbies. No prior coding experience necessary!

SQL (Structured Query Language) can be useful to answer complex questions with data and make more informed decisions. We'll do a short presentation on why and how to use SQL and then break out into small groups to get some hands-on practice with a NYC OpenData dataset.

By the end of this session, you should be familiar with some of the core terms and syntax used in SQL, and you'll leave with some additional resources to continue practicing and learning.

Meghan is a Staff Analytics Engineer at Datadog with a decade of experience working in data, primarily focusing on querying/visualization in BI tools and data modeling/transformation using dbt. In her free time, she loves exploring open data from different cities and is working on completing a certificate in Applied Urban Science and Informatics through NYU CUSP.

Meghan Maloy, Staff Analytics Engineer, Datadog

2024

For Hire Vehicles (FHV) - Active [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/8wbx-tsch], Open Parking and Camera Violations [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/nc67-uf89]

Virtual

Class / Training

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Why Everyone Wins When NYC Embraces Disaggregated Data

Interested in how NYC can better collect demographic data by ethnicity? Join us at "Why Everyone Wins When NYC Embraces Disaggregated Data" on Monday, March 18 10:30am-12:00pm where the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) will present on the critical importance of disaggregating demographic data by ethnicity for Asian communities in NYC and convene a engaging discussion for diverse stakeholders across communities, agencies, elected officials among others to brainstorm how we can collaborate together on making disaggregated ethnicity data a reality for NYC. For over a decade, CACF has led the Invisible No More Campaign, fighting for disaggregated data, steering a coalition of diverse partners across communities and industries that successfully garnered the NYC's 2016 demographic data laws and NYS's first-ever Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander data disaggregation law in 2021. CACF is focused on ensuring that implementation of ethnicity-based data disaggregation leads to the data representation that all communities urgently need and deserve.

This event will be in-person and 1.5 hours in duration. CACF's Invisible No More team will present an overview of its longstanding advocacy for ethnicity-based data disaggregation and share an analysis of a recent Department of Education dataset on class size and demographics by middle school and high school. Then there will be a discussion between attendees about how we can work together toward agency-level ethnicity-based data disaggregation and a shareback. The final portion of the in-person event will be a networking session for attendees to meet one another.

Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF)

2024

NYC DOE Updated Class Size by School Report for 2023-2024 (https://infohub.nyced.org/reports/government-reports/class-size-reports), NYSED Enrollment Race and Ethnicity Data by School 2023-2024 (https://www.p12.nysed.gov/irs/statistics/enroll-n-staff/home.html)

In-Person

Presentation

Virtual & In-Person: Jamming with Environmental Data

Presenters ⭐️
Kiley Matschke (Post-Baccalaureate Fellow at Barnard College's CSC),
Marko Krkeljas (Senior Software & Applications Developer and CSC Technical Manager at Barnard College)
Event details 📊
Join us in celebrating NYC Open Data Week at Barnard College's Vagelos Computational Science Center (CSC)! This two-part workshop and data jam will explore data analysis and visualization utilizing NYC environmental data. In the first half of this workshop, participants will explore ChatGPT’s data capabilities and contrast them with their own analyses via Google Co-lab. In the second half, participants will work in small groups to ideate and produce creative, accessible projects that showcase their data findings (i.e., in the form of collages, songs, stories, etc.). This workshop will explore the importance of data presentations and their impact on viewer perceptions. Those from all backgrounds and coding levels are welcome, beginner friendly! Register here!
Location 📍
This will be a hybrid event!
Important note: Attendees who are not affiliated with Barnard College or Columbia University are strongly encouraged to attend this event via Zoom. This is due to increasingly strict/fluctuating policies surrounding campus access for the general public.
In-person location: Barnard College, Milstein Center Room 516 (5th Floor); 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027
Online location: Zoom (Register here to receive the link, which will be emailed in advance of the event)

Kiley Matschke, Post-Baccalaureate Fellow, Barnard College Vagelos Computational Science Center;

Marko Krkeljas, Senior Software & Applications Developer and CSC Technical Manager, Barnard College Vagelos Computational Science Center

2024

Energy Usage From DOE Buildings [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/mq6n-s45c]

Hybrid

Other

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Opening NY’s Criminal Courts - Expanding Access to Court Decisions and Criminal Data

The panel will open with a 10-minute presentation about the state of criminal justice data in NY, highlighting Scrutinize and Reinvent Albany’s December 2023 report, Open Criminal Courts, which found that only 6% of criminal court decisions are published online (https://www.scrutinize.org/opencriminalcourts). The presentation will outline the report’s findings, including how the lack of transparency hampers voters’ ability to assess judges, legislative oversight, and legal insight.

Then, a panel of experts will discuss what criminal justice data and information is currently published, how it is made acccessible to the public, and what is missing. The panel will also discuss legislative efforts to publish court decisions and improve criminal justice data. Particular focus will be given to privacy considerations.

Current panelists include:
- Rachael Fauss, Senior Policy Advisor, Reinvent Albany
- Oded Oren, Founder and Executive Director, Scrutinize
- Raelynn Walker, Assistant Director of Research and Data Processing, Measures for Justice
- Terry Ding, Staff Attorney, New York Civil Liberties Union

Time permitting, there will be a Q&A concluding the session.

Rachael Fauss, Senior Policy Advisor, Reinvent Albany;

Oded Oren, Founder and Executive Director, Scrutinize

2024

Court Data and Statistics (https://ww2.nycourts.gov/court-research/index.shtml), Pretrial Release Data (https://ww2.nycourts.gov/pretrial-release-data-33136), Law Reporting Bureau Portal (https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/lawReporting/Search)

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Panel Discussion

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The Voice of NYC Public Schools: Learning about K-12 Schools through their Comprehensive Education Plans

In this workshop, educators, researchers, and parents will explore data curated from the publicly available K-12 school Comprehensive Education Plans (CEPs) and have an opportunity to understand the full range of data available in these underutilized primary sources. Every year, a leadership team of teachers and administrators at each public school completes a CEP. The plans include information about the school’s instruction, interventions for special populations, support for multilingual learners and families and much more. Participants will leave the workshop knowing 1) what information can be found in the CEP, 2) how to access and search through the database of CEPs, and 3) run through a use case of the data.

Individuals: Aankit Patel, Jaylen Hackett, Steve Azeka | Organizations: City University of New York, Robin Hood Foundation, Robin Hood Learning + Technology Fund

2021

Is your data really that dirty? An in-depth look at the 311 Service Request data to determine its 'cleanliness'

Join David Tussey, formerly of the NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, and Dr. Jan Yun, a professor at UConn for a presentation that explores data cleansing, a necessary first step in any data science or analysis effort. It uses the 311 Service Request data for 2022-2023 as exported from the NYC Open Data portal. The data is then analyzed using custom software written in R. The dataset evaluated contains approximate 6.4 million 311 Service Requests covering two calendar years (2022-2023).

This presentation is targeted to any analyst engaged in data science efforts. It is intended to be illustrative of the kinds of challenges faced by data scientists when analyzing large datasets. After there presentation there an opportunity for Q&A.

The event will explore six areas of data cleanliness: structural issues, missing/blank data, validating data types, identifying invalid values, identifying logical inconsistencies, and identifying redundant data elements. The presentation identifies specific data cleanliness issues, reveals breakdown by NYC agency, and provides a visual presentation via various charts and graphs. The goal is to both illuminate data cleanliness issues and demonstrate such an effort using a real-world dataset.

David Tussey;

Jun Yan, Professor, University of Connecticut

2024

311 Service Requests from 2020 to Present [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/erm2-nwe9]

Virtual

Presentation

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Navigating the NYC Climate Dashboard

The NYC Climate Dashboard is a one-stop-shop webpage for all things climate and environmental information in NYC. The dashboard aims to help New Yorkers hold the City accountable to its climate goals to mitigate the threats of climate crisis, advance a just transition to renewable energy and a green economy, and build a city that’s more resilient in the face of rising seas and temperatures. The dashboard takes public information, mostly from NYC Open Data among other sources, and presents it in ways that are readily digestible and usable for the general public. This training will teach attendees on what data the dashboard contains and how to use this data in community and advocacy work.

Office of the New York City Comptroller

2024

NYC Stormwater Flood Map - Extreme Flood with 2080 Sea Level Rise [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/w8eg-8ha6], Energy and Water Data Disclosure for Local Law 84 2021 (Data for Calendar Year 2020) [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/usc3-8zwd], Lead Service Line Location Coordinates [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/bnkq-6un4], Projected Sea Level Rise [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/6an6-9htp]

Virtual

Class / Training

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Explore NYC Population MapViewer and best practices for mapping population data

Join the NYC Department of City Planning's Population Division for a live demonstration of NYC Population MapViewer [https://arcg.is/1LaKC00], a website that allows users to explore the diverse population landscape of New York City's neighborhoods through interactive maps and charts. The website, built using ESRI's ArcGIS Online and Experience Builder platforms as well as Tableau makes it easy to visualize complex demographic, socioeconomic, and housing data from the 2020 Census and American Community Survey. Users can explore maps that examine how individual neighborhoods compare to each other and to NYC as a whole in terms of population density, age composition, race & ethnicity, and average household size and tenure and how these characteristics have changed over time. This presentation will also include a discussion on best practices when mapping geographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Attendees are encouraged to explore NYC Population MapViewer on their own before attending the event. The site can be accessed at [https://arcg.is/1LaKC00].

Charles Christonikos, Geographic Analyst , New York City Department of City Planning, Population Division;

Erica Maurer, Senior Demographic Analyst, New York City Department of City Planning, Population Division

2024

2020 Census Redistricting Data (https://www.nyc.gov/site/planning/planning-level/nyc-population/2020-census.page), American Community Survey 5-year Data (2018-2022) (https://www.nyc.gov/site/planning/planning-level/nyc-population/american-community-survey.page)

Virtual

Presentation

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Mapping Environmental Justice and Flood Vulnerability

The Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) will introduce and provide a live demonstration of the soon-to-be-released Environmental Justice NYC (EJNYC) Mapping Tool. This exciting new tool allows users to view and interact with a wide variety of data layers to better understand the distribution of environmental burdens and benefits across the city on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood level. Over 100 datasets related to environmental justice concerns have been compiled and processed into a single platform, providing access to information and data that can help community-based organizations and residents advocate for the best outcomes in their communities.

MOCEJ staff will also give an overview of the City’s first-ever Flood Vulnerability Index (FVI), which is making its debut in the EJNYC Mapping Tool. Similar to the City's Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI), the FVI quantifies and maps vulnerability to flood hazards. The FVI reflects each of the three components of vulnerability: exposure to a hazard, harm from the exposure, and capacity to recover (Cutter et al 2009). It demonstrates how these dimensions of vulnerability are distributed across areas that have different social, political, and economic capacities in order to guide policies and programs to address vulnerability to multiple sources of flooding in the city.
 
This event is open to all, no prior expertise required! The EJNYC Mapping Tool is meant to be a useful and accessible resource for all. If you are interested in environmental justice, climate justice, pollution reduction, or public health, we encourage you to attend!

Carlos Piedad, Policy Advisor, Environmental Justice, Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice;

Hayley Elszasz, Climate Science Advisor, Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice

2024

Virtual

Presentation

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311 Boot Camp

Learn how to access open data and see the status of the addresses that interest you in this zoom webinar. Takeaways include how to research: 311 complaints, DOB violations and OATH hearings. Block associations and individuals are welcome! We'll use participant-generated examples to examine this readily available data, and empower users to conduct fact-driven advocacy on behalf of their neighborhoods.

Individuals: Clint Smeltzer, Laura Sewell | Organizations: East Village Community Coalition

2021

Class / Training

Exploring NYC 311 Open Data with ChatGPT

Explore NYC 311 Open Data using ChatGPT's Advanced Data Analysis mode in a dynamic course tailored for both beginners and seasoned data enthusiasts. Learn about the capabilities and current limitations of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. This interactive session offers a hands-on demonstration on leveraging ChatGPT to learn about a data science pipeline that includes research question formulation, data gathering, data cleaning, data analysis, and data visualization.

Participants will gain the skills to handle a cleaned, standardized subset of the 311 dataset, learning strategies to craft prompts to generate meaningful graphs, maps, and tables. The course emphasizes critical thinking for evaluating the ethical and practical considerations of using LLMs in data analysis. By the end, attendees will be well-equipped to use LLMs for insightful exploration of NYC Open Datasets.

This course is presented by an experienced Open Data Ambassador who has recently joined the Data Governance team within the Office of Technology and Innovation's Office of Data Analytics.

Nathan Storey, Director of Data Governance, NYC Office of Data Analytics (OTI)

2024

311 Service Requests from 2020 to Present [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/erm2-nwe9]

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Workshop

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Mapping open school and census data in New York City

The Free Open Source Software python library, nycschools, makes it easier to work with and analyze open data regarding New York City Public Schools, including geospatial data. In this workshop the team behind the library, from Adelphi University's MIXI Institute, shares their recent work creating maps that help us understand school data in the context of US Census data. After presenting a series of maps and data visualizations we will offer a brief python tutorial to help participants make their own maps with school and/or census data.

No technical experience is necessary to attend, but their will be the opportunity to write some code and get started programming in an online environment.

Matthew Curinga, Associate Professor, MIXI Institute;

Jacob Grier, Graduate Researcher Assistant, Adelphi University;

Elizabeth de Freitas, Professor, MIXI Institute

2024

2019 - 2020 School Locations [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/wg9x-4ke6]

Virtual

Workshop

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Virtual & In-Person: Decoding Greenhouse Gas Emissions from NYC’s Residential Buildings

** To attend this event, you must register for it HERE **
 
The operation of buildings causes nearly 70% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in NYC. In recent years, the city government has made measuring and regulating these emissions from buildings a central plank of its climate policy - and has become a model for cities across the country to follow.
This talk from Two Sigma Data Clinic will delve into rich sources of publicly available data to help you understand the nuances of energy use and efficiency in NYC's residential buildings. Topics include the sources of building emissions, the factors that make some buildings more GHG intensive than others, and how efficiency is defined can have unexpected implications.

Who should attend?
·    NYC buildings enthusiasts
·    Sustainability advocates
·    Community organizations
·    NYC officials or staff
·    Open data users
·    Civic tech lovers
·    Anyone!
 
Virtual accommodations: Virtual Google Meet allows for live captioning. Please contact us at dataclinic@twosigma.com for any other accommodation needs.
In-person accommodations: Step-free access to the venue. Please contact us at dataclinic@twosigma.com for any other accommodation needs.

Two Sigma Data Clinic

2024

NYC Building Energy and Water Data Disclosure for Local Law 84 2023 to Present (Data for Calendar Year 2022-Present) [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/5zyy-y8am], Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output - Map (MapPLUTO) [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/f888-ni5f]

Hybrid

Presentation

Virtual & In-Person: Public Data for Public Health: Applications to NYC

As a part of NYC Open Data Week, come hear the graduate students of the School of Global Public Health present their research into the public health issues that affect to the city we live in, New York City. Talks will include:
- Zoe Lindenfeld: "Publicly Available Community Data to Address Social Determinants of Health in New York City: A Compendium of Data Sources"
- Jianan (Zoe) Zhu: "Simulation of New York City's Ventilator Allocation Guideline During the Spring 2020 COVID-19 Surge"
- Zoé Haskell-Craig: "Exploring Street Tree Care: a preliminary look at how different models of volunteer-based tree care can improve or exacerbate disparities in urban greenspace"
- Yucheng Wang: "Neighborhood walkability and obesity"
- Olivia Chien: "Urbanicity, neighborhood deprivation, and self-perceived financial stress"
- And more!
Open data Week in an annual festival organized by the NYC Open Data team to mark the anniversary of the City's first open data law, which was signed on March 7, 2012. We're excited to participate in the event, to contribute to the open data community in NYC, and discuss statistical research with an impact on the lives of our neighbors in NYC. The event will be hosted by Dr. Alex Dahlen of the Biostatistical Consultation and Collaboration Core (BCCC).

New York University's School of Global Public Health

2024

Hybrid

Presentation

NYC Agency Maps, Tools, and Geospatial Data for 2024

New York City agencies create and publish a huge volume of geospatial data each year. We use Geographic information Systems (GIS), computer-based tools to store, visualize, and analyze this geographic data. This panel will review publicly-available tools and data sets, discuss the state of GIS technology in the city, and consider how the City uses geospatial data to serve NYC residents. Join this conversation with agency GIS leaders about new maps & tools, geospatial data, and initiatives for 2024.
 Panelists
Lee Ilan, Mayor's Office of Environmental Remediation (moderator)
Matt Croswell, NYC Department of City Planning
Josh Friedman, NYC Emergency Management
Chris Gettings, NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene
Carlos Piedad, Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice

Lee Ilan, Chief of Planning, Mayor's Office of Environmental Remediation;

Matthew Croswell, GIS Team Lead, NYC Department of City Planning;

Josh Friedman, Executive Director, GIS, NYC Emergency Management;

Chris Gettings , Senior Data Scientist, Environment and Health Data Portal, NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene (DOHMH);

Carlos Piedad, Policy Advisor, Environmental Justice, Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice

2024

Data for the Environment & Health Data Portal (https://github.com/nychealth/EHDP-data)

Virtual

Panel Discussion

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IntegrateUSA: A New Tool to Visualize School Segregation

Is the New York City Public Schools the most segregated school district in the nation, as is often claimed? What county has the most segregated schools in the United States? By how much has segregation changed after recent school integration initiatives? IntegrateUSA is a new website -- launching at the NYC Open Data Week 2024 -- designed to answer these and other questions. Incorporating over two decades of publicly-available school enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Common Core of Data, IntegrateUSA can be used to easily visualize student demographics and track school segregation in all states, counties, and districts in the United States.

At this event, we (Jesse Margolis and Theo Kaufman) will discuss the motivation for IntegrateUSA's development, demonstrate its use, and talk about the process for building it. We will outline the three key steps in our process: 1) data cleaning and calculation (using R), 2) backend database hosting (using Django and PostgreSQL) on an AWS server and 3) frontend deployment using Next.js and React. We will compare the development of this national tool with its predecessor, IntegrateNY -- deployed in Tableau Public -- and discuss the pros and cons of each approach.

We hope this event will be of interest to researchers, policy makers, and reporters studying school segregation as well as analysts and programmers who build tools to better visualize publicly-available data. As an initial beta release, IntegrateUSA has much room for improvement and we hope our audience will suggest both what to improve and how to make these improvements. We are grateful to the Carnegie Corporation of New York for supporting the development of IntegrateUSA.

Jesse Margolis, Managing Partner, MarGrady Research;

Theo Kaufman, MarGrady Research

2024

NCES Common Core of Data (https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/files.asp), New York State Public School Enrollment (https://www.p12.nysed.gov/irs/statistics/enroll-n-staff/home.html)

Virtual

Presentation

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Cracking the Code: Making Sense of Data in Today's World

In an era of information, navigating the complexities of data has become an essential skill for individuals across various fields. "Cracking the Code" comprehensively explores data and its significance in our contemporary society. It aims to demystify its intricacies and empower participants with the knowledge to make informed decisions in today's data-driven world.

Throughout the course, participants will delve into the significance of data across various contexts, exploring its role in shaping everything from consumer behavior to public policy. By unraveling the complexities of data, participants will develop a deeper appreciation for its ubiquitous presence and transformative potential in today's society.

Resources we will be using:
NYC Open Data (https://data.cityofnewyork.us/browse): This resource provides datasets related to demographics, transportation, and public services in New York City. Participants can explore real-world examples of data in everyday life and discuss its importance in decision-making, business operations, scientific research, and societal impact. They can further analyze transportation data to understand commuter patterns or explore demographic data to identify population trends.
 
NYC Health - Data and Statistics (https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/data/data-publications.page): This resource offers health-related datasets that illustrate dataset characteristics and variables. Participants can define datasets, discuss their characteristics, and explore variables, including independent and dependent variables. Participants can also examine health outcome data to identify variables such as patient demographics, treatment methods, and health outcomes.
 
NYC Planning - Geosupport System (https://nycplanning.github.io/Geosupport-System/): This resource provides tools and techniques used in urban planning and development and offers an overview of data analytics. Participants can explore how analytics tools are applied in urban planning, such as analyzing spatial data to inform zoning decisions or transportation infrastructure planning.
 
NYC Crime Map (https://maps.nyc.gov/crime/): This resource offers crime data for New York City, allowing participants to distinguish between qualitative and quantitative aspects of data. They can explore examples of both types of data within crime statistics, such as qualitative descriptions of crime incidents and quantitative data on crime rates, locations, and trends.
 
NYC Environmental Data (https://www1.nyc.gov/site/oer/data/index.page): This resource offers environmental datasets for New York City, providing examples for discussing the choice between qualitative and quantitative approaches in data analysis. Participants can explore environmental data to classify examples into qualitative and quantitative categories and discuss when each approach is appropriate in different scenarios, such as assessing air quality or water pollution levels.

Queens Public Library

2024

NYC Environmental Data ( https://www1.nyc.gov/site/oer/data/index.page), NYC Health - Data and Statistics (https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/data/data-publications.page), Geosupport System ( https://nycplanning.github.io/Geosupport-System/), NYC Parks - Birds (https://www.nycgovparks.org/birding)

Virtual

Presentation

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NYC Health Data Tour

The health data resources on the New York City (NYC) Health Department website can help you incorporate data into research, planning, or evaluation. Learn how to access and use Health Department data from the experts who work on these public-facing data resources! All you need is a computer with internet browsing capability. We will cover the Community Health Profiles, EpiQuery, the Environment and Health Data Portal, COVID data, and NYC Open Data resources from the Health Department.

NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

2024

NYC Health Data (https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/data/data-home.page)

Virtual

Workshop

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How I Use AI to Make it Easy to Navigate City Council Meetings

Large Language Models (LLMs) feel magical, but they don’t always do what you want them to! Useful AI-powered features require good prompting technique, systematically evaluating LLM output, lots of trial and error, and workflows that allow humans to review, verify, and edit results.

In this presentation, I’ll walk you through how I built and run citymeetings.nyc, a tool I’m developing to make it easy to navigate and research government meetings. I’ll walk you through the prompting techniques I use, how I extract video chapters with LLMs, how I systematically improve the quality of automated chapter extraction, and how I've implemented (currently internal-only) powerful semantic search and Q&A tools.

LLMs have the power to bring more transparency to unstructured government data. Practitioners will come away with learnings they can use in their own projects and leaders will get a glimpse into what investing in using AI to navigate public records will require of them and their teams.

This session is presented by Vikram Oberoi. He’s a CTO-for-hire for early-stage startups, has been building software for almost 20 years, and is excited about how LLMs can help civic research and participation.

Vikram Oberoi

2024

NYC City Council Meetings (https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/Calendar.aspx)

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Presentation

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The hidden data behind teacher vacancies

Our education system has struggled with visibility into teacher supply and demand for decades due to the lack of data to accurately forecast and strategize around teacher shortages. This session promises an engaging teacher-focused dialogue on the transformative potential of accessible, comprehensible public teacher job data.

Introducing WorkInEd, an innovative platform leveraging real-time teacher vacancy data, we aim to empower educators with knowledge of opportunities both local and beyond. The conversation will then zoom into New York City, featuring insights from two distinguished NYC educators. They will recount their journey into the teaching profession and reflect on how such data could have shaped their initial decisions and their commitment to continue teaching.

Attendees are encouraged to actively participate, with a dedicated Q&A session facilitating a dynamic exchange of ideas and experiences. This event is a must-attend for educators, civic technologists, and anyone invested in the future of education. Join us to explore how data transparency can transform teacher recruitment and retention.

Allie Bogus, Sr Product Portfolio Manager, Emerson Collective

2024

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Presentation

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Explore Open Data Standards for Representative Government with Democracy Works and the Google Civic Information API

Access to election information is key to keeping New Yorkers civically engaged. This session will briefly introduce participants to the concept of political geography and its implementation through Open Civic Data Identifiers in the Democracy Works-powered Google Civic Information API. We’ll then demonstrate how you can use the Civic Information API to create a basic voter portal and how you could expand on that portal with supplemental data from NYC's Open Data and Democracy Works' elections API. Democracy Works is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in Brooklyn that collaborates with election officials, leading tech platforms, and world-class partners to drive voter access and participation.

Ursula Kaczmarek, Data Scientist, Democracy Works;

Danny Pease, Engineering Manager, Democracy Works

2024

Exclusive Pedestrian Signal (Barnes Dance) Locations [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/8kuj-2n3u]

Virtual

Demonstration

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Buses are Too Slow

Can Sucuoglu (Data Scientist, Numina) and Dr. Marco Chitti (NYU, Marron Institute) have been investigating causes of the very slow travel speed of buses in NYC (a little faster than the average jogging speed). We would like to present our initial findings and methodology of investigation to discuss how NYC compares to examples around the world.

Although NYC is usually associated with a wide-spreading subway network, the cost of building new lines have been prohibitive. We believe buses will be the future of NYC's mobility. They are flexible, cheap, and very effective. Unfortunately, the current experience of a bus rider is very different - service is often unreliable and slow. We are interested in discussing why and learning from people's experiences.

Our study primarily uses the GTFS data used in bus scheduling in combination to Open Street Map traffic data and bus lanes data from many cities around the world. Since every transportation agency uses data in a different way to suit their needs, this comparative study and standardization has been a challenge. We are curious to hear your opinion on how we can improve our methodology.

Join us if you have strong opinions about buses.

Can Sucuoglu, Data Scientist

2024

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Presentation

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WeGovNYC's DataBook: Combining 40+ NYC Open Data Sets into One Interface

The WeGovNYC Databook (databook.wegov.nyc) is a set of software and data tools that index, normalize, republish over 40 NYC Open Data datasets into a single interface. We produce this tool to give New Yorkers a better understanding of how our city works.

During this session, we'll review how the Databook's data pipeline works, how we prototype and build out our interface, tour you through the recently upgraded Capital Projects directory, and the new NYC Schools and School District section.

The Databook's most popular interface is the Capital Project Directory, which combines four city open datasets to generate a profile page for every capital project in NYC. These pages compare a project's original planned budget and work timeline to its current one, revealing if projects are over budget or late.

Our latest addition to the Databook is a section on NYC Schools and School Districts. This section combines over a dozen datasets from Department of Education, Department of Health, and School Construction Authority to give you a uniquely detailed view of our city's public schools.

We want to make this tool as useful as possible to you so we'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas and feedback and more.

Some questions that will be explored during this session:
* How can we use open data to make the City's capital budgeting process more understandable?
* How can we help you track capital projects that you care about?
* What should we do, with whom should we partner, and how can we make NYC better using all of the City's fantastic open data!?

Devin Balkind, Director, Sarapis

2024

Virtual

Presentation

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Human Sides of Open Data: Bridging Digital Humanities and Public Interest Tech

The Graduate Center Digital Initiatives (GCDI) presents a panel and roundtable discussion featuring uses of open data that illustrate how digital humanities approaches can challenge and enrich established data science methodologies, while offering possibilities for creative expression and play. This session explores the potential of digital humanities in offering alternative frameworks for understanding and utilizing open data, particularly when addressing questions of civic technology, the public interest, social equity, and social justice. Featuring an interdisciplinary group of GCDI scholars who are all core members of a community of digital praxis at The CUNY Graduate Center, the panelists will leverage their domain expertise in their fields of English, Linguistics, Political Science, and Social Welfare, along with their digital skills, to provide a nuanced perspective on possibilities for working with NYC open data. Panelists will give short presentations on their diverse scholarly and creative projects including building a database of NYC Redistricting Commission texts, 3d printing blueprints of public buildings, exploratory analysis of language data sets, and critical exploration of how data such as 311 calls and US Census housing characteristics constructs and represents homelessness as pedagogical tools for social worker policy education. In discussion, they will also reflect on their shared work of creating and teaching digital skills workshops to graduate students at CUNY (including the Graduate Center Digital Research Institute).

Featuring
- <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/iangraywilliams/">Ian G. Williams, LMSW</a>, Program Social Media Fellow, Graduate Center Digital Initiatives | Doctoral Student, PhD Program in Social Welfare at The CUNY Graduate Center (Moderator)
- <a href="https://www.rebeccakrisel.com/">Rebecca Krisell</a>, Data Scientist, Digital Fellow (Alumnus), Graduate Center Digital Initiatives | Doctoral Candidate, PhD Program in Political Science at The CUNY Graduate Center (Panelist)
- <a href="https://www.samohana.com/">Sam O'Hana</a>, Digital Fellow, Graduate Center Digital Initiatives | Doctoral Candidate, PhD Program in English (Panelist)
- <a href="https://www.silviariveralfaro.com/">Silvia Rivera Alfaro</a>, Doctoral Candidate,  PhD Program in Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures (LAILAC), CUNY Graduate Center (Panelists)

The panel will emphasize values, representation, and the construction and definition of data objects and data worlds, pushing the boundaries of how we perceive and interact with data about the world through developing critical digital literacies. Our panelists will argue that perspectives on open data informed by a rich tradition of critical inquiry, can lead to more inclusive, value-driven interpretations of data, highlighting the often-overlooked stories and voices in civic tech. This approach underscores the importance of considering the ethical, cultural, and social dimensions in data analysis and application, especially in policy-making and community engagement.

Ian G. Williams, LMSW, Doctoral student, PhD Program in Social Welfare, CUNY Graduate Center;

Rebecca Krisel, PhD, Data Scientist, CUNY Graduate Center (Alumnus);

Sam O'Hana, Doctoral Candidate, PhD Program in English, CUNY Graduate Center;

Silvia Rivera Alfaro, Doctoral Candidate, PhD Program in Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures, CUNY Graduate Center

2024

311 Service Requests from 2020 to Present [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/erm2-nwe9]

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Panel Discussion

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Measuring up! Advocate for your Community with Spatial Equity NYC (by MIT&TA)

Spatial Equity NYC (SE), a tool developed by MIT’s Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU) in close collaboration with New York City-based nonprofit Transportation Alternatives (TA), visualizes mobility, environment, and health data. Through thoughtful analysis, visualization, and re-aggregation of publicly available data, SE reveals spatial inequities in how public space is designed, distributed, and accessed. In making data easily accessible and actionable, Spatial Equity NYC is a tool for data-driven civic engagement and urban policy-making that can help community members advocate for change

For this event, members of the LCAU and TA will introduce the tool and its use for governance and community advocacy. The event will begin with a demonstration of the tool, showing some of the highlights, including the ability to see how your community ranks on equity compared to other communities and how to determine solutions for some of your equity issues.  The development team will discuss their process in co-designing the tool for the greatest impact. Afterward, members will be split up into focus groups for hands-on learning and an interactive experience with the tool. In doing so, we hope to not only offer another data instrument for one’s civic toolbox but also facilitate a dialog about how to open up government data and the impact it can have.

MIT Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism

2024

NYC Planimetric Database: Sidewalk [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/52n9-sdep]

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Workshop

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Mapping for Equity in McCarren Park - Data Entry at the Greenpoint Library

Help us create open data about communities! North Brooklyn Parks Alliance (NBPA), Assembly Member Emily Gallagher, City Council Member Jen Gutiérrez, City Council Member Lincoln Restler, and BetaNYC invite you to map McCarren Park and learn about our Mapping for Equity project.
Join our team at the Greenpoint Library and learn how to turn the data collected at our field mapping event into publicly accessible open data on OpenStreetMap. Our staff and Civic Innovation Fellows will guide you through the process of uploading and tagging features on OpenStreetMap. All are welcome to share their skills or learn for the first time! Please bring your own laptop, charger, and mouse.
No experience is required to attend. This event will be delivered in English and all ages are welcome, provided that anyone under 18 years old is present with a parent or guardian. The Greenpoint Library is wheelchair accessible. If you have any needs or accommodations, please email events@beta.nyc.

This event is part of a series of Mapping for Equity events led by BetaNYC fellow. You do not need to attend both events to participate. Join us for one or both!
March 16, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm @ McCarren Park Fieldhouse
March 20, 3:30pm - 5:30 pm @ Greenpoint Library

About Mapping for Equity: BetaNYC Fellows are making sure there is equal representation in data while quantifying and mapping our public realm. Together, we will represent community assets to better steward our neighborhoods.

BetaNYC

2024

In-Person

Workshop

Tracking Citi Bike reliability & measuring service inequity using real-time data

When riders complained of more often getting stuck at Citi Bike stations that were empty or full of broken bikes, the Comptroller’s Office began an investigation into the system’s reliability. By using real-time data on the status of each station, we were able to get a detailed look at which stations were least reliable and where clusters of poor service compounded inequities between neighborhoods.
Come to learn:
- How to wrangle Citi Bike’s GBFS (General Bikeshare Feed Specification) data into an analyzable dataset or monitor ongoing performance
- How to make use of data that is public and available, but not published on NYC Open Data or ready for analysis
- How to use spatial analysis to find clusters or areas of poor service
- How to track Citi Bike’s availability and reliability
- How to use data analysis to guide policy recommendations

Dan Levine

2024

Citi Bike GBFS feed (https://gbfs.citibikenyc.com/gbfs/2.3/gbfs.json)

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Presentation

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Presenting the 2023 NYC Hayes Innovation Prize Winners

Join us for a captivating session spotlighting the winners of the NYC Hayes Innovation Prize. This prestigious award honors early-career city employees who have made extraordinary contributions to the city through innovative and impactful projects. The event will feature brief presentations from the award winners, allowing them to share insights into the game-changing initiatives that earned them this recognition. Past winners have re-vamped the City’s building code, led the effort to plant a million trees, built the first municipal genomics lab, designed and implemented the system for noting arrival times at bus stops, among many other public service achievements.  Following the presentations, a panel discussion will delve into the broader implications of their projects, leadership styles, and the evolving landscape of IT in city governance. 

You won't want to miss the chance to engage with our winners during the audience Q&A session. Pose your questions, gain deeper insights, and be part of the conversation as we explore the transformative power of technology in shaping the future of our city. Join us in celebrating the exceptional achievements of our city's rising stars in IT leadership. Let's collectively embrace the future of innovation in NYC! 

Participating winners will be listed following the March 12 award announcement.

NYC Office of Tech and Innovation

2024

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Panel Discussion

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How to Build an Electric Rideshare Service

Join Will Geary, Senior Data Scientist at Revel, as he delves into how to build an electric rideshare service & EV charging infrastructure from the ground up using spatial data science and NYC open data. Topics include how potential charging sites are being identified, how open data on bathroom locations was incorporated into the driver app, and how census data is being used to target driver recruitment.

Will Geary, Senior Data Scientist, Revel Transit;

Steven Heyen, Senior Product Manager, Revel Transit

2024

TLC Trip Record Data (https://www.nyc.gov/site/tlc/about/tlc-trip-record-data.page)

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Presentation

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Data Trends in NYC Immigration: A Dialogue on Ethics and Insights

Dive into the heart of NYC's immigration trends with us! This session is led by Carman Nareau and Justino Mora on Emerson Collective’s Technology team. Ideal for students, academics, policymakers, and data enthusiasts, this presentation focuses on the ethical usage of immigration data and its societal impact.

In this session, we will explore:
- NYC's immigration stats as told by analysis of data of the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), a publicly available data set that's notoriously hard to understand but unparalleled in its insights
- Considerations when using immigration data, including privacy, quality, and the potential harmful impact on immigrant communities if mishandled
- Custom data visualizations and use cases of responsible data handling,

Join us to gain a deeper understanding of NYC's immigration landscape and how we can ethically use data to move forward together. We’re excited to see you!

Carman Nareau, Portfolio Manager, Immigration Product, Emerson Collective;

Justino Mora, Senior Software Engineer, Emerson Collective

2024

EOIR Case Data (https://www.justice.gov/eoir/foia-library-0)

Virtual

Presentation

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Using data to close gender and social inequality gaps

Using data to close gender gaps panel session is focused on strategies and experiences implemented by governments to promotes gender equality through open data. For example, government policies and programs require quality data to estimate possible care needs and design interventions that reduce inequality gaps. From a policy view, it is clear that governments require new plans to deal with the humanitarian and care crisis. In this scenario, presenting examples of data policies that help make problems visible and offer effective solutions is an important step to closing gender gaps.

Mercedes de los Santos

2024

Virtual

Panel Discussion

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Investigating NYC’s Privately Owned Public Spaces

New York City offers building developers a trade: developers can provide a public space, and in exchange, they are awarded the right to build larger towers than zoning rules would have ordinarily allowed. As a result, New Yorkers have access to 598 privately owned public spaces (POPS), and developers have gotten more than 20 million sq. ft. of bonus floor area. But while the bonus area is worth approximately $10 billion, half the buildings with these spaces were found to be violating the agreement. Join us to learn about how we used NYC open data and other public data sources to report this story for The New York Times.

Urvashi Uberoy, The New York Times

2024

DOB Complaints Received [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/eabe-havv]

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Presentation

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Finding Family in the Records of the NYC Municipal Archives

Are you interested in researching your family's history in New York City? Then join Ken Cobb, Assistant Commissioner of the NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) and Marcia Kirk, Archives and Research Associate, as you discover the rich NYC data that will help you in your research journey. They will review the archives' Historical Vital Records collection with over 10 million digitized records and illustrate how to use the collection from home. You will also learn why these collections are so important to research and useful tips you can use in your research. 
Furthermore, this year, the session will be held at the magnificent Surrogate's Court building located in lower Manhattan at 31 Chambers Street. If you have not been here before, don’t miss the opportunity to see this impressive landmarked historic building. As soon as you enter, you will be mesmerized by the granite façade, marble interiors, and the beautiful mosaic tile ceiling. We have limited seating, so don't forget to RSVP.

NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)

2024

NYC Historical Vital Records: Index to Digitized Birth Certificates [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/5gq7-rgmv]

In-Person

Presentation

Public Interest AI: the Future of Generative AI in Civic Technology

Artificial intelligence is here! 

Civic society is constantly adapting to the evolving landscape of technology and the advancement of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is no exception. This panel discussion aims to collectively envision a roadmap for how to navigate the promise and peril of incorporating GenAI in civil society and government practices.

This panel discussion brings together perspectives from city and state government officials, public sector advocates, and philanthropy.

Mark Levine, Borough President of Manhattan, Office of the Manhattan Borough President

Reshma Saujani, Founder, Girls Who Code, Moms First

Elan Silver, Counsel and Committee Director, Internet and Technology Committee, New York State Senator Kristen Gonzalez

Jeannette M. Wing, Executive Vice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science , Columbia University

Ashley Louie, Chief Technology Officer, BetaNYC

2024

NYC School of Data Conference Session

Panel Discussion

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Exploring the NYC Workforce Development System through an Integrated Data Portal

The New York City workforce development system helps hundreds of thousands of people each year in their career journeys. Come learn about a multi year initiative to standardize, centralize, and analyze data from dozens of NYC programs.

The Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity helps the City apply evidence and innovation to reduce poverty and increase equity. Within NYC Opportunity, the data and product teams work with multiple city agencies to integrate data on workforce programs. The Workforce Data Portal is a product of this integrated data system that visualizes data from NYC funded workforce programs to provide policymakers, practitioners, and advocates a more complete picture of workforce development activities funded by the City of New York. The project is designed to overcome information silos using modernized technology and coordinate agency collaboration.

This session will include an overview of the project, a demo of the Workforce Data Portal, a summary of user research, examples of analysis, and an opportunity for participants to express ideas on various aspects of the project.

Adam Santos, Senior Data Scientist, NYC Opportunity;

Claire Reynolds, Data Scientist, NYC Opportunity;

Jelynne Morse, Digital Services Director, Mayor's Office of Talent and Workforce Development

2024

Performance Metrics for Workforce Development Programs [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/r2np-vamf]

Virtual

Presentation

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