Name: Can open contracting hold smart cities accountable? With NYC Mayor's Office of Chief Technology Officer, Sunlight Foundation, & Reboot
Start: 2019-03-02T16:15:00-0500
End: 2019-03-02T17:15:00-0500

Welcome to NYC School of Data — a community conference that demystifies the policies and practices around civic data, technology, and service design. This year’s conference kicks off NYC’s annual Open Data Week & features OVER 30 sessions organized by NYC’s civic technology, data, and design community! Our conversations & workshops will feed your mind and empower you to improve your neighborhood. Follow the conversation #nycSOdata on twitter and tune into our live stream (provided by the Internet Society of New York).

Back To Schedule

Can open contracting hold smart cities accountable? With NYC Mayor's Office of Chief Technology Officer, Sunlight Foundation, & Reboot

City governments are increasingly looking to “smart city” technology, including urban sensors and artificial intelligence, to help solve local problems. This technology offers promise, yet many cities haven't prepared policy and best practices to address potential ethical concerns and privacy risks. At the same time, open contracting — the practice of publishing open information on government contracting — has been gaining momentum and offers major potential for public benefit through increasing transparency and accountability. Can open contracting be a tool for transparency around smart-city technology? How can we help the public keep an eye on government activity in this area, and ensure that community voices and concerns are heard? In this session, practitioners will share highlights from ongoing open-contracting and smart-cities initiatives, followed by panel discussion and audience Q&A.

Speakers

Zack Brisson

Principal, Reboot

Zack Brisson is a founder & principal at Reboot, a social enterprise dedicated to inclusive development and accountable governance. A practicing theorist, Zack has extensive experience bringing community-driven approaches to policymaking, program design, and implementation. At Reboot... Read More →

Katya Abazajian

Open Cities Director, Sunlight Foundation

Katya directs the Sunlight Foundation's Open Cities team in sharing best practices on open data policy and practice across the What Works Cities network to bring the benefits of local government data to residents. As a primary author on Sunlight’s Tactical Data Engagement framework... Read More →