A few weeks ago, we wrote about several of OpenPlans initiatives graduating from the internal new project incubator that is our “Civic Works” group. OpenPlans is fertile ground for new civic technology and media projects — from urban policy media outlets like Streetsblog, Streetfilms and GothamSchools, to public technology projects like Open311, all the way Read more…
OpenPlans has always been an incubator for civic technology initiatives. Since 2008, I’ve had the pleasure of leading our “Civic Works” group, where we explore new directions, opportunities, and businesses — many with the goal of becoming sustainable initiatives in their own right. Today, I’m proud to announce that two of our projects are officially Read more…
Today, we are excited to launch a new project: real-time bus locations for the B63 line in Brooklyn. For the past several months, we’ve been working closely with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build the open source and open data infrastructure for this new service. As open source software developers, as open data advocates, and Read more…
Civic Commons was born, appropriately, because several people had the same idea at the same time, and were able to pool their resources to get something off the ground. So far it has run as an informal consortium, led by the Office of the CTO of the District of Columbia, Code for America, and OpenPlans. Read more…
Today at the Gov 2.0 Summit, we had the pleasure of announcing an exciting new initiative: Civic Commons. Civic Commons’ mission is to help governments share technology more effectively. Governments spend an enormous amount of time and effort producing and procuring technology, and while sharing investment and expertise is completely logical, many barriers stand in Read more…
Earlier this summer, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Future of News and Civic Media conference at MIT. It was great to be around such a creative and talented group of people, and as usual, this year brought with it a new batch of Knight News Challenge winners. (For a roundup of some Read more…
Last month, we hosted a one-day workshop with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer‘s office called Speak Up, New York. The purpose of the event was to bring together NYC community groups and “civic hackers” to discuss how community groups are using technology to organize and engage. With a keynote from Deputy US CTO for Open Read more…