Resources for New York City

Administration/Mayor’s Office

• New York City BigApps Competition 2009
• New York City DataMine
• NYC DOT Data Feeds

City Council

Legislation

• New York City Council Legislation to mandate standardized release of data in a timely fashion across all city agencies, Int. 029-2010 - Pending to a Committee and Full Stated Council Vote

Internal

• Transparency Resolutions for FY’10
• Speaker Quinn Announces Budget Reforms, Launching a searchable database Council Discretionary Spending
  • FY’11 Council Discretionary Funding

Comptroller

• MyMoney NYC
  • NYC Checkbook, Comptroller’s Transparency Initiative - City Expenditures in real-time, launched July 2010
    • Press Release
  • Clearview NYC, Comptroller’s Transparency Initiative - Vendors and Contracts information, launched July 2010
  • OpenAudit NYC, Comptroller’s Transparency Initiative - Public Feedback on NYC’s spending practices and audits, launched July 2010
• FAQ & Community-based Support Questions

Public Advocate

• Open Government NYC, an initiative of the Public Advocate’s Office on Council spending
  • Announcement

Other Resources

• See Through NY
• COPIC’s 1993 Directory of Public Data
• DataNYC (site currently managed by Phil Ashlock of OpenPlans)

Best Practices for New York City

From BigApps I (2009)

• Interacting with developers through Meetups to speed-up development of applications and create diverse partnerships
• As the NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) and NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) monitored and executed the Mayor’s Initiative, they saw the need to collaborate with all interested parties, including developers, to ensure BigApps I will be a success
• Monetary incentives (and for BigApps I, a dinner with Mayor Michael Bloomberg) and overall excitement to improve the NYC quality of life proved to be an economic and tech “stimulus”

From New York City Council Legislation

Intro. 029-2010, blog/materials, archived video via livestream, archived video playlist via Youtube

• The New York City Council Committee on Technology (formerly Technology in Government) and Council Member Gale A. Brewer sponsored legislation to ensure NYC is at the forefront of President Obama’s federal Open Government Directive.
• Amends the Administrative Code of the New York City Charter
• Data requirements of Int. 029-2010 would publish data in formats allowing the tech community to interact with City government in a new and exciting manner
• Requires the City to create a centralized online repository (such as New York City DataMine) of all publicly available information that is either produced or retained by the City. Furthermore, data published under this legislation will be readable by any computer device, whether that is a laptop or a phone.
• Developers support the aggressive timelines set by the legislation and the flexibility of future administrations to adjust standards
• While the Administration and City Council face differences in definition and ways to approach of standardized and open data, both parties understand the cost-savings and efficiency gains.

Comptroller

• The site lets anyone search a database of every expenditure New York City has made this year by agency, contract number, payee name, purpose and amount. Read More 1
• Real-time and dynamic updates to the City’s books
• Consistent and professional feedback from Comptroller staff is crucial to the success of CheckbookNYC. While in beta mode, it has the potential to become a central repository of NYC government spending without filing FOIL requests. In addition to this movement, City Council legislation will make this information raw and unprocessed for further analysis and development.