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Civic tech in New York City
New York City hosts a thriving civic tech community. The tech sector itself has become a major force in New York City, already home to finance, real estate, and media industries. As a result, the city has birthed a disproportionate number of civic startups. Civic tech in New York takes place inside and in partnership with the massive city government, as well as with activists outside of government. New York also offers strong universities and public institutions across its 5 boroughs and metropolitan area.
Key links:
Projects
City of Memory
- docubase.mit.edu
- Archives, Civic data, Civic maps, Data visualization, Mapping, Media, Narrative tech, Story tech, The Tech
City of Memory is a participatory, dynamic story map of New York City curated by the cultural heritage institution, City Lore.
NYC Public Engagement Unit
The Mayor’s Public Engagement Unit (PEU) proactively connects New Yorkers to key City services, like housing and healthcare.
New York City Hall, City Hall ...
The New York City Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer
- www1.nyc.gov
- Citizen Engagement, Government tech capacity, Govtech, Innovation teams & Labs, Open innovation
The mission of the NYC Mayor's Office of the CTO is to ensure that technology is inclusive, accessible, human-centered, and works for all New Yorkers.
22 Reade Street, New York, NY,...
Mesa by Sidewalk Labs
An easy-install kit to help commercial buildings cut energy costs.
Sidewalk Labs, 10th Avenue, Ne...
COVID19.NYC
A knowledge base website that collects public health information on the novel coronavirus from WHO, CDC, NYS, and NYC.
2017 NYC Region Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project (STEW-MAP)
Mapping civic environmental stewardship
Accelerator Labs
The labs will also harness the potential of real time data and people’s energy to respond to rapidly evolving challenges that impact development.
Millennium Hilton New York One...
Outfox.ai
Helps optimize online advertising spends
Ford Foundation Tech Fellow
- www.fordfoundation.org
- Emerging Tech Fellowships, Emtech, Fellowships, Find a job or hire someone, High-tech civic tech, The People, The Tech
The Ford Foundation did something unique—it hired technologists and embedded them in its grant-making teams. It was part of a foundation-wide effort to better understand the growing influence of data and technology on social justice issues.
Ford Foundation Building, East...
Conversations with Bina
- www.stephaniedinkins.com
- Artificial Intelligence, Artistic interventions, Campaigns, Emerging Tech Projects, Emtech, High-tech civic tech, The People, The Tech
A quest for friendship with a humanoid robot turned into a rabbit-hole of questions and an examination of the codification of social, cultural and future histories at the intersection of technology, race, gender and social equity.
SAFELAB
- safelab.socialwork.columbia.edu
- Emerging Tech Projects, Emtech, High-tech civic tech, Learn about civic tech, Peer-reviewed research, Research and policy centers, The People, The Tech, Virtual and augmented reality
The SAFElab is a research initiative focused on examining the ways in which youth of color navigate violence on and offline.
1255 Amsterdam Ave, New York, ...
CovidMeasures.info
- www.covidmeasures.info
- Civic data, Coronavirus Data Projects, Coronavirus Engagement Projects, Coronavirus Government Projects, Crowdsourced data collection, Crowdsourcing
Citizens Tracker of Government COVID-19 Measures
A/D/O, Norman Avenue, Brooklyn...
Invisible Hands
- www.invisiblehandsdeliver.com
- Coronavirus, Coronavirus Organizing Projects, Help out, Mutual aid, Resource matching and sharing, The People
Safe, free deliveries for NYC’s most at-risk community members facing COVID-19.
New York City, NY, USA...
NYC Well Design Tools
- designtools.mhaofnyc.org
- Communicating with the people, Govtech, Organize campaigns, SMS campaign tools, The Tech
HUMAN-CENTERED TOOLS TO ADVANCE NEW YORKERS' MENTAL HEALTH
New York City...
Data for Health
The lack of data disproportionately affects low- and middle-income countries with 60 percent of these countries not reporting any data, covering 2 billion people.
25 East 78th Street
New York,...
FiB
A misinformation fighting extension for Facebook News Feed
222 Broadway, 19th Floor, New ...
Boardstat
- beta.nyc
- Civic data, Dashboards, Data visualization, Data visualization tools and platforms, The Tech
Empowers users to discover issues and trends within their district’s boundaries.
New York City...
Betanyc Slack
- betanyc.slack.com
- Civic tech forums, listservs, and Slacks, Meet the others, Socialize online, The People
An online forum for community discussion
New York...
Justice Tech Catalog
- justicetech.info
- Civic tech catalogs, Govtech, Justice tech, Learn about civic tech, The People, The Tech
A curated list of 186 criminal justice data and technology projects.
524 W 59th St BMW605, New York...
Displacement Alert
The Displacement Alert Project uses data and information visualization tools to proactively identify buildings that are facing a high risk of displacement. With this information, community organizations, decision markers, and local residents can push back with outreach, education, organizing strategies, and policy change.
50 Broad Street, Suite 1402
...
Candid
Candid gets you the information you need to do good.
32 Old Slip, 24th Floor
New Y...
The Open Newsroom
THE CITY’s year-long project with Brooklyn Public Library to explore how to make local news more collaborative
243 5th Ave, #623
New York, N...
Hack League
Hack League is a friendly academic competition that invites all NYC middle and high school students to learn, design, and build projects to help their community.
Brooklyn...
Checkbook NYC
An online transparency tool that for the first time placed the City’s day-to-day spending in the public domain
One Centre Street, New York , ...
Composites Collective
- compositescollective.com
- Engagement tech, Participatory democracy, Social impact design firms, The Tech
Using deliberative democracy models to inform city decision making and to connect organizations and districts around NYC’s
New York, NY...
NYC CTO tech glossary
The technology industry is built on new and emerging concepts, meaning terms continually appear, change, and phase out. Those that do stick around can be technical and hard to understand. This glossary is our attempt to clarify some terms that are currently fundamental to our work and often confusing to the public (and occasionally to us).
New York City Hall...
New York City Economic Develop...
NYC Public Data Directory
The commission shall publish annually a directory of the computerized information produced or maintained by city agencies which is required by law to be publicly accessible.
New York City, NY, USA...
URBANTECH
Where innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology for the urban environment come to thrive.
New York City...
BetaNYC Slam
SLA Mapper (SLAM) is a tool that aggregates data that community boards often have to gather in order to review liquor license applications and sidewalk cafe applications. Displaying this information in a unified view saves community boards considerable time and resources.
New York City...
The Internet Master Plan NYC
- tech.cityofnewyork.us
- Active battles, Adjacent Fields, Community wifi, Connectivity, Foundational layers, The People
The Internet Master Plan is a new vision for broadband infrastructure and service in New York City.
New York City...
Tenants Map
TenantsMap shows residential buildings with rent-regulated units throughout Manhattan and their volume of housing safety-related 311 service requests, which is updated daily.
Manhattan...
Subway Deserts Map
This map shows the combined areas forming a 10-minute "walkshed" around NYC's 470 subway stations.
Brooklyn, NY...
The Org
Discover the people behind the world’s most innovative companies
33 Irving Pl New York, New Yor...
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ U.S. Mayors Challenge
- mayorschallenge.bloomberg.org
- Awards and prizes, Challenges, Fieldwide resources, Get funding, The People
It is a competition designed to help city leaders think big, be bold and uncover inventive – and, ultimately shareable – ideas that tackle today’s toughest problems.
25 East 78th StreetNew York, N...
233 Broadway
12th Floor
New ...
Fake News Horror Show
New technologies may make things exponentially worse.
2 Metrotech Center, Brooklyn N...
The Movement Cooperative
- movementcooperative.org
- Meet the others, Organize campaigns, Partner networks, Socialize online, The People
By leveraging the collective bargaining power of our members, The Movement Cooperative provides best-in-class data and technology resources that match the needs of progressive organizations at the cheapest possible price point.
Greeley Square Station
4 East...
Harmony Labs
Decoding Media's Social Effects
311 W 43 St, 12th fl New York ...
Brandwatch Consumer Research
- www.brandwatch.com
- Artificial Intelligence, Big listening, High-tech civic tech, Machine vision, Media, Media and social media analysis, Narrative tech, The Tech
Get consumer fit by accessing data from 100 million sources and over 1.3 trillion individual posts.
48 West 21st Street, New York,...
NYC Open Data Week
It is an opportunity to engage New Yorkers in the information that is produced and used by City government.
New York City...
New Media Mentors
We train nonprofits to expand their reach and influence so they can have maximum impact and achieve their goals.
New York City...
NY Times R&D team
How emerging technologies are applied to journalism
New York Times...
Main Street One
Main Street One, a fake-news and misinformation fighting technology that tracks narratives as they emerge and provides campaigns and causes with a distributed creative army to respond with force, helps progressive candidates and causes win the information war online.
New York City...
Decolonize This Place
Decolonize This Place is an action-oriented movement centering around Indigenous struggle, Black liberation, free Palestine, global wage workers and de-gentrification.
New York City...
Blue Feed, Red Feed
See Liberal Facebook and Conservative Facebook, Side by Side
Wall Street Journal, New York...
Memria
- www.memria.org
- Advocacy tech, Hyperlocal news and citizen media, Narrative tech, Story tech, The Tech
MEMRIA uses the power of voice to help our partners further their missions.
Civic Hall, West 22nd Street, ...
Wethos
Social change organizations job platform
Manhattan, New York, NY, USA...
Curated by Civic Hall
Built on the idea that together – technologists, government officials, community organizers, researchers, makers, social entrepreneurs, change-makers, hackers, academics, journalists, artists– we can organize to solve civic problems to scale.
We are a community of action-oriented, cross-sector professionals located in the heart of Manhattan, where we aim to better the world through civic tech.
Curators are not responsible for all of the entries in their categories.
Would you like to become a curator of the Civic Tech Field Guide? Drop us a quick note.