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The New York City Department of City Planning is now hosting a new tech services unit called the NYC Planning Labs, which is aimed at applying modern technology best practices to Urban Planning problems, and delivering lightweight, open, and impactful tools to support the agency. The Labs are founded on the idea that government can build digital services better/faster/cheaper in-house, and achieve better outcomes by openly sharing code and knowledge.
Open Data portals are in place, increasingly backed by solid Open Data policies. Cities have an important role to play here. This report investigates the Open Data initiatives in eight medium-sized European cities, after having analysed Open Data initiatives in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Paris, Stockholm and Vienna in a previous report. Cities covered in this report include Dublin, Florence, Gdansk, Ghent, Helsinki, Lisbon, Thessaloniki and Vilnius.
American Panorama is an historical atlas of the United States for the twenty-first century. It combines cutting-edge research with innovative interactive mapping techniques, designed to appeal to anyone with an interest in American history and more generally in cartography. The Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond has produced a series of incredible online tools that compose an historical atlas of the United States of the last century. The Chronicle of Higher Education already recognized this project in 2016 as one of nine tech innovators for 2016.
Cities today collect and store a wide range of data that may contain sensitive or identifiable information about residents. As cities embrace open data initiatives, more of this information is available to the public. While releasing data has many important benefits, sharing data comes with inherent risks to individual privacy: released data can reveal information about individuals that would otherwise not be public knowledge. A detailed guide from Harvard helps governments protect residents’ personal information in open-data initiatives.
Τhe report recognises governments that are experimenting with emerging technologies to provide government services more efficiently, effectively and have proven results showing how they have created greater public value and transformed people’s lives. The report analysed and identified 29 Emerging Technologies, grouped in 9 categories that include technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, Robotics & Space, Smart Platforms, amongst other.
In partnership with Microsoft Cloud, Atlantic Re:think explored how cloud technology is transforming cities around the world. From public works to transportation authorities, city agencies are turning to cloud-based data gathering and analytics, mobile apps, remote-access programs, and more to facilitate better outcomes in all aspects of city living.
The book, written by Mark Headd, one of the first municipal Chief Data Officers in the United States, is meant for public servants and people working inside government who want to connect with innovators and technologists outside of the bureaucracy. It highlights strategies they can use to collaborate with people doing interesting and valuable work that can benefit or support the mission of government.