New York Turns to Wikis to Encourage Transparency, Engagement – Next American City Credit: Flickr user justgrimes VIA THE NEW YORK WORLD Last Tuesday, New York City took a double leap into the future of open government. TheDepartment of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) released preliminary policies, technical standards and guidelines under the new Local Law 11, which requires city agencies to publish all public data in one online portal in a machine-readable format. And it did so in the form of a wiki, an interactive document that enables any registered user to add to or amend the draft policies, so the public and city agencies can literally write in their own version of what they think the new rules should be. All revisions are saved under a page’s “history” tab so changes are recorded. Think of it as Wikipedia for government. As far as anyone can recall, the wiki is the first of its kind for a city administration. The wiki format, said, DoITT’s director of research and development Andrew Nicklin, “is an attempt to drive things in an interactive and iterative manner. Why pass a Word doc around when we can all make changes collaboratively?” The process also lets the agencies that will be answerable to the new law be a part of the conversation, he said. The wiki will be open for comments for the next couple of months, at which point DoITT staff will compile the input, review it internally and issue final data standards in September.

New York Turns to Wikis to Encourage Transparency, Engagement – Next American City

Credit: Flickr user justgrimes

VIA THE NEW YORK WORLD

Last Tuesday, New York City took a double leap into the future of open government. TheDepartment of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) released preliminary policies, technical standards and guidelines under the new Local Law 11, which requires city agencies to publish all public data in one online portal in a machine-readable format.

And it did so in the form of a wiki, an interactive document that enables any registered user to add to or amend the draft policies, so the public and city agencies can literally write in their own version of what they think the new rules should be. All revisions are saved under a page’s “history” tab so changes are recorded.

Think of it as Wikipedia for government. As far as anyone can recall, the wiki is the first of its kind for a city administration.

The wiki format, said, DoITT’s director of research and development Andrew Nicklin, “is an attempt to drive things in an interactive and iterative manner. Why pass a Word doc around when we can all make changes collaboratively?” The process also lets the agencies that will be answerable to the new law be a part of the conversation, he said.

The wiki will be open for comments for the next couple of months, at which point DoITT staff will compile the input, review it internally and issue final data standards in September.

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Crowdsourced Air Quality Mapping - For Citizens By Citizens

Why not capture Air Quality Data while you walk to work?

Inspired by a DHL project which used people’s daily walking routes through a city to crowd-source package delivery, some colleagues and I put together an idea for a smartphone add-on and associated software which could let the citizenry of a city map out areas of bad-quality air in their city. 

Product

            The product is a data collection system that includes a smartphone-based “sensor” to gather environmental air quality information in dense urban environments, analytics software to transform this data into a usable form (i.e., a map of how air quality changes in a city over the course of the day), and a dashboard application to display this data for easy accessibility.  Data collected will reflect changes to air quality due to traffic congestion, commercial and industrial emissions and other activities.  This program could be used to inform macro-level users (i.e., government), micro-level consumers who would use the information to make lifestyle changes (i.e., runners, bikers, commuters), as well as companies that wish to advertise to health-conscious urban consumers via smartphone application.

Essentially, get a whole ton of people to walk their normal  routes with a smartphone accessory, and you can collect tons of data on hot-spots of high CO, CO2 and other greenhouse gases which you may want to avoid if you’re exercising, taking your kids for a walk, or just generally concerned for your health. 

We put together a fun development plan, risk-management and all the trimmings. 

For details and more information see: Crowdsourced Air Quality Mapping

CrowdSourcing, Air Quality, Mobile App, Smartphone, Accessory

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SeeClickFix Announces Launch of Innovative New Facebook Application With the launch of its new Facebook application, SeeClickFix proudly announces yet another tool for empowering citizens and improving communities. Available today, the SeeClickFix App allows Facebook users to report and monitor non-emergency community issues. It also connects them with neighbors to address their shared concerns ranging from bugs in the municipal fabric such as potholes and graffiti to feature requests such as new trees and murals.With over 50,000 reported issues already resolved through SeeClickFix.com and its mobile phone applications, the most important feature of the new Facebook App will be the offline results generated from users’ online activity. It will tie directly into SeeClickFix’s already-powerful reporting platform, allowing citizens to broadcast their issues directly to the site’s 14,000 registered public officials.

SeeClickFix Announces Launch of Innovative New Facebook Application

With the launch of its new Facebook application, SeeClickFix proudly announces yet another tool for empowering citizens and improving communities. Available today, the SeeClickFix App allows Facebook users to report and monitor non-emergency community issues. It also connects them with neighbors to address their shared concerns ranging from bugs in the municipal fabric such as potholes and graffiti to feature requests such as new trees and murals.

With over 50,000 reported issues already resolved through SeeClickFix.com and its mobile phone applications, the most important feature of the new Facebook App will be the offline results generated from users’ online activity. It will tie directly into SeeClickFix’s already-powerful reporting platform, allowing citizens to broadcast their issues directly to the site’s 14,000 registered public officials.

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Five Benefits of the Crowd-Sourced City

With the rise of affordable consumer electronics and the explosion of the information age, the gap between professionals and amateurs has narrowed. In nearly every sector, the average Joe may have ideas and talents that are as good — or better — than those of the “powers that be.” When professionals give an open call to an undefined crowd, opening up policies and plans to receive their ideas and talents, the concept of “crowd-sourcing” is being utilized.

via humanscalecities:

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If you’re always on the lookout for thought-provoking ideas about issues facing our cities, then you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to City Forward, a free, web-based platform that lets you visualize and interact with city data while engaging with a community of people who are passionate about the future of our cities. Go ahead – get started by using the tabs on the left side of the home page. You can see what other City Forward users are doing, tell a story by combining text and data visualizations to create an exploration, view all the data currently available on City Forward, discuss a wide range of exciting topics in the City Forward Community or keep up with our latest ideas and future plans by reading the City Forward Blog.

If you’re always on the lookout for thought-provoking ideas about issues facing our cities, then you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to City Forward, a free, web-based platform that lets you visualize and interact with city data while engaging with a community of people who are passionate about the future of our cities.

Go ahead – get started by using the tabs on the left side of the home page. You can see what other City Forward users are doing, tell a story by combining text and data visualizations to create an exploration, view all the data currently available on City Forward, discuss a wide range of exciting topics in the City Forward Community or keep up with our latest ideas and future plans by reading the City Forward Blog.

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The Rockefeller Foundation on “the future of crowdsourced cities”

roomthily:

There are also some inherent issues with any foregrounding of a technologized vox populi.

The most obvious is that recourse to “crowdsourcing” dovetails all-too-neatly with the neoliberal retreat from governance, in a process thatLaura Forlano forthrightly calls “offloading” (a more…

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smarterplanet: CitySourced, a new app for Android, iPhone and Blackberry, helps you stay up to date on what’s going on in your area and helps get the word out on issues. For example, if you see a street light is out, you can take a picture of it and submit it. If you see graffiti, you can swipe a quick drive-by (careful!) picture and report it. Once an issue is reported, the app posts the problem, alerts City Hall, and puts a notice out on Twitter. www.androidphonesblog.com CitySourced for Android keeps you informed on issues in your city

smarterplanet:

CitySourced, a new app for Android, iPhone and Blackberry, helps you stay up to date on what’s going on in your area and helps get the word out on issues. For example, if you see a street light is out, you can take a picture of it and submit it. If you see graffiti, you can swipe a quick drive-by (careful!) picture and report it. Once an issue is reported, the app posts the problem, alerts City Hall, and puts a notice out on Twitter. www.androidphonesblog.com CitySourced for Android keeps you informed on issues in your city

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CovJam: Citizens in the driving seat (via IBMSmarterPlanetUK)

Coventry City Council wanted to engage in deeper, more dynamic conversations with all stakeholders about future directions for the city of Coventry. The city ran a three-day IBM Jam, enabling more than 800 different stakeholders to engage in debate in an interactive online forum. IBM and the Council are using sophisticated analytical tools to dig deep into the resulting data and unearth valuable insight and intelligence that will guide and inspire the city in its journey to becoming a Smarter City.

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