noneck-blog

[noneck-blog]

An exclusive look into AirBnB's NYC rental data.

If you’ve been following the discussion around AirBnB, many see it as a platform for illegal hotels. Absent from the conversation has been raw data around who is sharing their home, apartment, or who is acting as a broker for a number of units. Here is your opportunity to draw your own conclusion. 

Check out InsideAirBnB.com for exclusive access to NYC’s AirBnB rental activity. Don’t forget to download the data.

[noneck-blog]

The Crunchies reinforce the certainty that they've already made a difference, which may explain the lackluster response to the civics segment of the show. Angel investor and philanthropist Ron Conway, the white-haired "godfather of Silicon Valley" reprimanded the crowd like a disappointed principal for shirking their duties as a citizen of San Francisco or the South Bay (for him, the East Bay doesn’t exist). After Conway scolds the audience, he touts the achievements of Sf.citi, a civic group for tech companies, that's widely regarded to be a dud, despite his efforts. Last year, Conway took the podium with Mayor Ed Lee, a man-sized political puppet. This time, the local official was London Breed, the first female president of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 16 years. Breed talked about growing up down the street in a public housing development in an apartment with five people that cost $700 per month. She appealed to the bootstrappers in the audience — the presenters for "Best Bootstrapped Startup" acknowledged that the days of self-sufficiency are over. "You have created new jobs and new revenues for the city," she said, "Yet right or wrong your success has also created tension." Breed acknowledged the protestors outside, and she almost had me until she added, "But to them I say, 'What is your solution?'" Silicon Valley prides itself on a solutionist worldview. Founders are told to think of a problem and then build a company that solves it. They invent problems no one has just to say it's been fixed. She should have asked the auditorium.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/9/8004101/sexism-and-consequences-at-techcrunch-s-annual-award-show

[noneck-blog]

Few things are more annoying than waiting for a bus when the weather isn't good. You're cold, you're wet, and the bus schedule said it would arrive at 9:05. It's 9:21. Where's your bus? Technological advancements have given New York City straphangers some relief with the Real-Time Bus app, which allows users to see how far away their bus actually is. More recently, a collection of city council members used discretionary funding toward more countdown clocks for additional bus stops, an especially useful tool for those without smartphones. But what if your bus is always late? Sure, it's good to know how long you will have to wait (and maybe have time to grab a cup of coffee nearby to warm up) - but is anyone actually doing anything about it? When Council Member Ben Kallos took office in 2014, he said slow or unreliable bus service was among his constituents' chief complaints. Kallos' district spans much of the Upper East Side and includes bus-heavy 1st and 2nd Avenues. The new council member began forwarding complaints to the MTA, but wasn't finding the relief he or his constituents were looking for. Also a software developer, Council Member Kallos decided to see if the MTA provided data so he could see exactly which buses were consistently late and by how much. With that kind of solid data Kallos felt that he could then dive into the why, especially given his platform as an elected official.

[noneck-blog]

What they did not want you to ever find out is that your generation, the generation born between 1980-1995, actually outnumbers the Baby Boomers. They knew that if you ever turned your eye towards political reform, you could change the world. They tried to keep you sated on vapid television shows and vapid music. They cut off your education and fed you brain candy. They took away your music and gave you Top Ten pop stations. They cut off your art and replaced it with endless reality shows for you to plug into, hoping you would sit quietly by as they ran the world. We as a society are only as strong as our weakest link. Give ‘em hell, kids. 

I’ve never loved a post so much in the history of tumblr

[noneck-blog]

There is something very wrong with [Uber]. It’s like Richard Nixon came back from the grave and is running a startup.

[noneck-blog]

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Citygram.NYC, a notification platform that works with New York City’s Open Data. Citygram allows you to subscribe to events in Open Data sets that happen near you. You can choose to receive daily SMS updates, or a weekly email digest.

[noneck-blog]

The report will say nearly three-quarters of all Airbnb rentals in the city are illegal, violating zoning or other laws. Commercial operators, not hard-luck residents, supply more than a third of the units and generate more than a third of the revenue. At least a handful of landlords are running what amount to illegal hostels.

Airbnb Listings Mostly Illegal, New York State Contends - NYTimes.com

[noneck-blog]

Competing visions of the future of the city’s digital engagement with the public came to light Wednesday morning in a hearing on proposed legislation to create a city petition platform similar to the White House’s We The People site.

NY City Council pushes Obama petition model, City Hall resists | Capital New York (via betanyc)

[noneck-blog]

You can set a message like “!Gather 7pm at 1st and Main” or “@press please don’t photo faces” or “#Legal Aid is 2125551212″, or even just motivational messages “#staycalm #noviolence” or “#theworldiswatching”. If people like what you have written, they can change their status that message, and rebroadcast another 30 feet in whatever direction they are headed. Again, it is basically Twitter combined with doing “the wave” at a football game, except the wave is powered by these little super computers radio stations we have in our pockets.

Hacking on a basic Bluetooth mesh-y concept – n∞fr∞'s open web

[noneck-blog]

THE_MESSAGE 2014.39 - This week's hacknight, #CfASummit, & Best of #CfASummit event!

This week, BetaNYC is in two places at once!

Tomorrow, a new crew of community leaders will take over hosting hacknights & #CivicFreeSchool. As we grow, we're excited to grow BetaNYC's leadership team. Join them tomorrow at Dev BootCamp and keep hacking the planet!

Also, _THE CODE FOR AMERICA SUMMIT_!!

Chris, Ariel, and I are out in San Fransisco for the nation's primer civic technology and design conference. Code for America is putting together one of the world's best open government and civic technology conferences: http://bit.ly/cfasummit2014

Additionally, CfA will live webcast their main stage speeches.

During the event, catch the buzz on Twitter #cfasummit: http://bit.ly/cfasummittwitter

On October 15, BetaNYC and Microsoft will co-host a #CfASummit in NYC / best of BetaTalk. Join us online or on October 15th and learn about the latest in technology and design!

Also, Code for America has archived 62 speeches from 2013 here:

http://bit.ly/cfasummit2013video

http://bit.ly/cfasummit2013videobyviews

Webcast time zone converted (starts 2:30 pm Pacific time, Tue Sept 23. then 1:30 pm day two and three): 

http://bit.ly/cfawebcastday1worldtime

http://bit.ly/cfawebcastday2worldtime

http://bit.ly/cfawebcastday3worldtime

See you on the internets!!!

- BetaNYC Leadership Team

[noneck-blog]

In the summer of 2009, The New York Senate was the first government organization to post code to GitHub, and that fall, Washington DC quickly followed suit. By 2011, cities like Miami, Chicago, and New York; Australian, Canadian, and British government initiatives like GOV.UK; and US Federal agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, General Services Administration, NASA, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were all coding in the open as they began to reimagine government for the 21st century.

Government opens up: 10k active government users on GitHub

[noneck-blog]

Penate scoffs at those in the United States who suggest that Central American kids are using the violence merely as an excuse to seek asylum in the United States. “How can you argue with it?” he says. “You see it every day here on TV, kids getting recruited by the gangs, and if they refuse to join they get shot.” Ideally, he says, the ATF would have one or two people in each Northern Triangle country. He hadn’t heard that his agency had passed on the emergency funding. “That money would come in very handy,” he said ruefully. That he is doing his work with so little support symbolizes the U.S. attitude toward its responsibilities in Central America. We turn from the refugees fleeing north, as our firepower heads south.

Guns Fueling Immigration from Central America Come from U.S. | New Republic

[noneck-blog]

"Hopefully we can put the government in the people's pocket"

De Blasio Signs Bill, Embraces Civic Tech Community for City Record Online

[noneck-blog]

Sharing an office with a direct competitor could be a contentious working situation in some business’, but not for Rosen or Drumm. Although technically competitors for clients, the different Drupal vendors are in constant contact, not only because they come from an intimate group of friends, but because of the open source business model that Drupal is based on.

Drupal Nation: Software to Power the Left | Digidave "There are so many civic hacking lessons to re-learn from the #CivicSpace days." - Noel Hidalgo

[noneck-blog]

I f'ing love New York City.

[noneck-blog]

Akil Harris has created new tool to look at NYC Crash Stats. This online map takes NYPD’s improved crash stat data and gives you easy access to the following views - City Council districts, Community Board zones, Neighborhoods - as defined by the city, Police Precincts, or Zip Codes.