NYC School of Data 2019

What challenges do our neighborhood small businesses and commercial districts face daily and what can we do to help? The NYC Department of Small Business Services took a creative approach: connect community-based organizations and technology start-ups to develop solutions that will tackle local challenges. Five different neighborhoods across NYC received a total of $500,000 to test various technologies that enhanced their commercial districts in a variety of creative ways. Join us to learn more about each project, lessons learned, and the growing civic tech community in NYC!

Team: Glenn Rodriguez, Senior Case Manager at Center for Community Alternatives & Cynthia Conti-Cook, Data & Society fellow 2018-2019, Staff Attorney at the Special Litigation Unit of The Legal Aid Society (NYC)

The "Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions" or "COMPAS" risk assessment instruments used in Florida criminal sentencing hearings sparked a national debate in 2016 when ProPublica published Machine Bias. That debate centered on whether the algorithm was biased against people of color, who were more likely to be identified by the instrument as "high risk". COMPAS is also used in prisons across the country to determine whether someone should be eligible for release. One of the questions a prison counselor must answer on the COMPAS risk assessment is whether the person appears to have "notable disciplinary issues: yes, no or unsure." Within prisons where this instrument is used, Question 19 has become a notorious example among the men and women who are its subject of how risk assessment instruments in the criminal justice system get it wrong. Meet Glenn Rodriguez and learn about his struggle to get the state prison to change his answer from “yes” to “no” based on the many years he had gone without any discipline. Learn about the legal hurdles to challenging this question or even learning more about how it operates within the larger risk assessment tool. Discuss how this issue is an example of larger issues with how technology built on already unjust systems amplify, rather than address, systemic unfairness.

Learn how the New York City Council’s new Data Team uses a data-driven approach to improve the New York City Council’s policy making process. The New York Council Data Team answers policy questions and informs laws about everything from public housing residents’ heat, to school bus delays, and marijuana arrests. The Data Team also uses data to conduct oversight of City Agencies. We source datasets, create data analysis and models, maps, and dashboards to assist Council staff and Council Members to use data to make decisions. Our unique strength is in marrying data with public policy making. At School of Data, we'll talk about how the New York City Council Data Team uses data to make informed decisions and how you can too.

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.

This session will convene a range of perspectives and experiences with community networks to explore questions of self-determination, community ownership, access, privacy, and objectives. Audience members will be invited to participate in an interactive activity and have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with the technology and tools that underpin various community networks in New York City.