Last night, The New York World and Tow Center for Digital Journalism hosted “Accountability, Transparency and the Digital City,” a forum on of public access to government data at the state and local level. The panel took stock of access to government data in New York City and Albany and ask what promises the era of “open government” delivers – and doesn’t – for civic journalism and engagement.
Our special guest, Councilmember Gale Brewer, prefaced the panel with her behind-the-scenes report on Intro 29A, the new New York City law – set to be signed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg today – that requires all city agencies to make their data openly available to the public through a central portal.
Watch the webcast above, or tune into #opennyc on Twitter to see highlights from our panelists:
Philip Ashlock, OpenPlans; Andrew Hoppin, New Amsterdam Ideas and former Chief Information Officer, New York State Senate; Amy Ngai, Sunlight Foundation; New York City Council Member Gale Brewer; John Kaehny Reinventing Albany; Michael Powell, The New York Times; Alex Howard, Government 2.0, correspondent, O’Reilly Radar, moderator.
.@JohnKaehny says even @NYGovCuomo ‘s admin constantly struggling internally to find NY data #openNYC
— peishan (@peishanhoe) March 7, 2012
Dum dum dum #nypd RT @thenyworld: .@powellnyt: We came up with CompStat but SF is lightyears ahead of NYC in releasing police data #openNYC
— peishan (@peishanhoe) March 7, 2012
#open311 is an API which enables transparency in both directions says @philipashlock It can be replicated in other cities. #opennyc
— alicitabrennan (@alicitabrennan) March 7, 2012
.@JohnKaehny: Cities are lightyears ahead of states in technology because they provide local services that people interact with. #openNYC
— The New York World (@thenyworld) March 7, 2012
@galeabrewer says local data is what excites people — Comparing neighborhoods. #opennyc @thenyworld
— alicitabrennan (@alicitabrennan) March 6, 2012