Empower New Yorkers to help one another by sharing their knowledge and understanding of government services on a "wiki" for NYC.GOV. Explanation: Wikipedia, founded in 2001, has changed the world by making almost 3 million articles available in a mission to cover all of existing knowledge that is written, edited, and maintained by a self managed volunteer community. This "wiki" technology was also integrated into... more »
Even with recent improvements by the Independent Budget Office, the New York City budget process still remains opaque as journalists and residents try to understand differences between the Mayor's budget, the City Council budget and the final budget. Details are often presented through press releases that discuss reductions, restorations and other often indecipherable budget lingo. A “User Friendly” budget would list... more »
Many of our public notice laws were written generations ago when the best way to share information was through the mail or radio, long before television, the telephone or even the Internet. As new communication technologies have appeared, they have lowered communication costs and improved access to information for non-English speakers and the disabled. Like many of you, my family has opted into getting paperless banking... more »
We have all become accustomed to web portals, such as AOL, My Yahoo, iGoogle or Windows Live, that allow us to personalize the information provided to us. NYC.GOV should implement “My.NYC.GOV,” as a similar portal to provide New Yorkers with access to local information that they think is important such as alternate side of the street parking, school closures, mass transit service advisories, deadlines for Department of... more »
Websites can be frustrating and difficult to navigate even if you know what you are looking for. For this very reason many websites offer an option to click a button for a live support person who can help guide you through the website over the phone or answer questions through an online chat. For NYC.GOV, clicking this feature could connect someone with a 311 operator in New York City from anywhere in the world. The operator... more »
Many people now tweet. I tweet @Green4NY, the City Council tweets @NYCCouncil, and now 311 does as @311NYC. Twitter is a great way to get a message out to the world in 140 characters or less, recently becoming a major news source in the aftermath of the Iranian Elections. With the launch of @311NYC, the City has pledged to "'tweet' information regularly about such things as alternate side of the street parking status,... more »
While we build a Universal Internet in New York City, it is also important for elected officials to keep in mind that giving everyone access to the Internet doesn’t matter without “net neutrality,” which protects a person's rights to send and receive any information without limitation, and would prohibit Internet Service Providers, like telephone companies, from telling consumers who they can call and what they can say.... more »
Government often provides for public hearings on many issues -- on pending legislation and regulations, for examples -- because proposals can be improved through the advice and input of the public. Similarly, new software is generally released as ""beta"" which allows it to undergo usability testing with users who provide feedback so that improvements can be implemented and malfunctions fixed prior to the final version.... more »
Seed money to build a start-up business usually involves an investment of a quarter million dollars or more. But NYC Seed was recently appropriated only $2 million, which led it to announce that their smallest investment would be $200,000 or more, meaning that only 10 companies or fewer would benefit. In this economic crisis, we should offer micro-seeds of $50,000 or less to as many creative entrepreneurs as possible.... more »
Require New York City government to always consider Open Source or Free Software for new software so that our City can reduces costs and new software can also benefit the rest of New York State and United States.
Digital Roadmap goals include open government & strengthened civic engagement; 2011 update promises "listening sessions" in all 5 boroughs. @nycgov meetup page is ,ore than a year old, but no meetups scheduled. Broad-based participation is essential for a Roadmap worthy of NYC
Improve the NYC election process by the following
+ Get to Know Your Candidates Tool
+ API around election / voting data
+ ability to donate via SMS
+ a one stop shop app with all election information and donating options within the app
+ early voting
+ electronic voting registration
NYPD
+ Release all data as machine readable and via an update API
+ Detailed Crash (motor vehicle, bike, and pedestrian) Data
+ 911 location and types of calls
+ Precinct Locations and Chain of Command Structure (where permissible)
FDNY
+ Fire Hydrant data so we can build adopt-a-hydrant (See Boston)
+ 911 location and types of calls (see seattle)
+ 911 response times (see L.A.)
NYCityMap should have a full fledged API < http://gis.nyc.gov/doitt/nycitymap/ >. + All datasets should have a clear GeoTaged locations / Improvements to open data catalog of all available data sets plotted on a base map. + MapPLUTO data should be free < http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bytes/applbyte.shtml > + Improve/add additional maps - 311 integration - 911 Call integration - Crime map - Green infrastructure... more »
After years of not being printed, the NYC Greenbook was finally digitized. As the 20th Century's gold standard for Government transparency, this tool needs to be updated. < http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/about/greenbook.shtml > For the 21 Century, we imagine a Yelp.gov like service that is a dashboard into our city. From Parks to Agencies with customer service tellers, this site will layout all of the Agency's contact... more »