Webcast: 'Accountability, Transparency and The Digital City' forum

Webcast: ‘Accountability, Transparency and The Digital City’ forum

Posted March 7, 2012 By Alyssa Katz

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

The New York World is published under Creative Commons' BY-ND 3.0 license. Unless otherwise noted, you are welcome to reprint The New York World's reporting. Except by prior arrangement, the following guidelines apply:

Credit The New York World, preferably by appending “The New York World” to the bylines already on the stories. Bylines must remain in the stories.
Do not edit stories, except to reflect relative changes in time or location (eg. “Yesterday, following months of uncertainty, Governor Cuomo...” may be changed to begin “In January,” or “Early this year”)
You may edit stories to accommodate style variations or to expand acronyms (eg. “TWU Local 100” may be written “Transport Workers Union Local 100”)

Stories reprinted online must:

include a link to the original story on http://www.thenewyorkworld.com
retain all links included in our original reporting
Retain in republished HTML a simple tracking code, provided in the body of each story as published on The New York World website.
include a syndication source tag directing search engines to the original story in The New York World
Do not republish The New York World wholesale or automatically
Contact our editor with any questions about this policy or to make arrangements to reprint The New York World stories under other terms.
This reprint policy is subject to change.

<h1>Webcast: ‘Accountability, Transparency and The Digital City’ forum</h1><iframe style="border: 0; outline: 0;" src="http://cdn.livestream.com/embed/columbiajournalism?layout=4&clip=pla_44f6604e-6a7a-451a-8da1-d38eaaf16df5&height=340&width=560&autoplay=false" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="560" height="340"></iframe>
Last night, The New York World and <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/towcenter.org/');" href="http://towcenter.org/">Tow Center for Digital Journalism</a> 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 <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.thenewyorkworld.com/2012/02/29/council-votes-today-on-law-to-liberate-most-of-new-york-citys-data/');" href="http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/2012/02/29/council-votes-today-on-law-to-liberate-most-of-new-york-citys-data/">make their data openly available to the public</a> through a central portal. 

Watch the webcast above, or tune into <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23opennyc');" href="https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23opennyc">#opennyc</a> 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.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.@<a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/JohnKaehny');" href="https://twitter.com/JohnKaehny">JohnKaehny</a> says even @<a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/NYGovCuomo');" href="https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo">NYGovCuomo</a> ‘s admin constantly struggling internally to find NY data <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/search/%2523openNYC');" href="https://twitter.com/search/%2523openNYC">#openNYC</a>
— peishan (@peishanhoe) <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/peishanhoe/status/177191803869609984');" href="https://twitter.com/peishanhoe/status/177191803869609984" data-datetime="2012-03-07T00:39:52+00:00">March 7, 2012</a></blockquote>
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Dum dum dum <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/search/%2523nypd');" href="https://twitter.com/search/%2523nypd">#nypd</a> RT @<a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/thenyworld');" href="https://twitter.com/thenyworld">thenyworld</a>: .@<a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/powellnyt');" href="https://twitter.com/powellnyt">powellnyt</a>: We came up with CompStat but SF is lightyears ahead of NYC in releasing police data <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/search/%2523openNYC');" href="https://twitter.com/search/%2523openNYC">#openNYC</a>
— peishan (@peishanhoe) <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/peishanhoe/status/177189684856889344');" href="https://twitter.com/peishanhoe/status/177189684856889344" data-datetime="2012-03-07T00:31:27+00:00">March 7, 2012</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/search/%2523open311');" href="https://twitter.com/search/%2523open311">#open311</a> is an API which enables transparency in both directions says @<a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/philipashlock');" href="https://twitter.com/philipashlock">philipashlock</a> It can be replicated in other cities. <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/search/%2523opennyc');" href="https://twitter.com/search/%2523opennyc">#opennyc</a>
— alicitabrennan (@alicitabrennan) <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/alicitabrennan/status/177187627496251392');" href="https://twitter.com/alicitabrennan/status/177187627496251392" data-datetime="2012-03-07T00:23:17+00:00">March 7, 2012</a></blockquote>
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.@<a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/JohnKaehny');" href="https://twitter.com/JohnKaehny">JohnKaehny</a>: Cities are lightyears ahead of states in technology because they provide local services that people interact with. <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/search/%2523openNYC');" href="https://twitter.com/search/%2523openNYC">#openNYC</a>
— The New York World (@thenyworld) <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/thenyworld/status/177191895523528706');" href="https://twitter.com/thenyworld/status/177191895523528706" data-datetime="2012-03-07T00:40:14+00:00">March 7, 2012</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">@<a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/galeabrewer');" href="https://twitter.com/galeabrewer">galeabrewer</a> says local data is what excites people — Comparing neighborhoods. <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/search/%2523opennyc');" href="https://twitter.com/search/%2523opennyc">#opennyc</a> @<a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/thenyworld');" href="https://twitter.com/thenyworld">thenyworld</a>
— alicitabrennan (@alicitabrennan) <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/twitter.com/alicitabrennan/status/177181727700168705');" href="https://twitter.com/alicitabrennan/status/177181727700168705" data-datetime="2012-03-06T23:59:50+00:00">March 6, 2012</a></blockquote>

Increasing number of New York school children skipping vaccinations

More than 22,000 medical and religious exemptions were granted to students for the 2013-14 school year, up 27 percent from 2010-11, according to the state Health Department. Public and private enrollment over the same period remained largely flat.

New data provides first detailed look at military gear held by New York law enforcement agencies

Over the past several years, more than 120 law enforcement agencies across the state, from the NYPD to Tuckahoe, have obtained military-grade equipment through the Pentagon’s 1033 program, which transfers excess military equipment to state and local police across the country.