BetaNYC is a civic organization dedicated to improving lives in New York through civic design, technology, and data.
This repository is BetaNYC's public "about" home: an overview of who we are, what we do, and where our organizational policies live. It is meant to be readable, versioned, and reusable.
- Website: https://www.beta.nyc
- Policies: policies/
- Get involved: Join our Slack · Events · Donate
Founded in 2008 as a meetup to discuss open government in New York City, BetaNYC has grown into a local leader and national partner in civic technology, open data, and open government.
We help New Yorkers access and use public data, and we advocate for public systems that are open, accountable, and built for everyone. Our work supports residents, community organizations, and government in using data, design, and technology to make public services more accessible and effective.
We envision an informed and empowered public that can use civic design, technology, and data to participate in the political process and hold government accountable.
BetaNYC's work is grounded in four digital freedoms, first articulated in the People's Roadmap to a Digital New York City (2013). They extend President Roosevelt's four universal human freedoms into the 21st century.
Freedom to Connect. Access to affordable, high-speed internet is a prerequisite for full participation in civic and economic life. Connectivity is infrastructure, as essential as clean water or electricity, and must be available to every New Yorker regardless of neighborhood, income, or background.
Freedom to Learn. Access to knowledge, data, tools, and learning opportunities, regardless of age, language, faith, gender identity, or class, is essential to an empowered citizenry. Education is a lifelong process, and digital literacy is its 21st century foundation.
Freedom to Innovate. New York's strength comes from its people. Laws, policies, and institutions should protect individuals while creating the conditions for entrepreneurship, creativity, and community-driven progress to flourish across every neighborhood and demographic.
Freedom to Collaborate. Participatory democracy requires the ability to engage with government and with each other, wherever and whenever. Every New Yorker must have the power to be heard, to organize, and to shape the city they live in.
- Open Data Week — our annual festival of events celebrating and interrogating New York City's open data.
- NYC School of Data — an annual community conference on open data, civic technology, and service design.
- CityCamp NYC — an annual unconference bringing together residents, technologists, and government.
- BetaBagels — regular community gatherings, open to everyone.
- Civic Innovation Lab — where we apply data analysis, geospatial tools, and civic design to problems brought to us by nonprofits, community boards, and city agencies.
- Civic Innovation Fellowship — since 2015, training CUNY students in public interest technology and open data.
- Mapping for Equity — mapping and data work in service of community equity.
See all of our work at beta.nyc.
- Join the community on Slack.
- Come to an event on our events calendar or Meetup.
- Read the newsletter — "This week in NYC's #CivicTech." Subscribe at beta.nyc/newsletter.
- Build with us on GitHub.
- Support our work by donating.
BetaNYC's organizational policies are tracked in policies/:
Retired policies are kept in policies/archive/ for the historical record.
- BetaNYC Logos/ — logos and brand marks. These are trademarks of BetaNYC and are not covered by this repository's content license.
- Hacknight Resources/ — printable signage and slide templates for community events.
- Open Source in Government/ — reference material on releasing and running open source in a government context.
- how_to_start_a_project.md — a short guide to starting a new civic project.
- Bluesky: @beta.nyc
- LinkedIn: BetaNYC
- Facebook: BetaNYC
- Instagram: @betanyc
- Threads: @betanyc
- Mastodon: @betanyc@urbanists.social
- Reddit: r/PublicInterestNYC
- YouTube: BetaNYC
- Meetup: BetaNYC
Noel Hidalgo, Executive Director and Co-Founder — noel@beta.nyc
For our current team, see beta.nyc/our-team.
Except where noted, content in this repository is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. BetaNYC logos and brand assets are trademarks of BetaNYC and are excluded; see BetaNYC Logos/readme.md.