[OLPC-NYC] OpenNY Summit - December 11th and 12th

[Holt]

I'd /love/ to come, and hope lots of other OLPC/Sugar community representation and reportage is possible, but I've visitors in Boston these exact days who (might) not allow me!
--Holt

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The Open NY Summit

The Open Planning Project and the Open NY Forum invite you to The Open NY Summit, a two day event to coordinate solutions and develop technology for more transparent and participatory civic life in New York on the state and local level.

Learn more and RSVP at http://OpenNYForum.org

Throughout 2009 we have seen broad initiatives for open governance on the federal level, but have yet to see as much change at the local level where everyone has the opportunity to be intimately involved and create tangible results. Everyone should have greater access to means and tools for improving the livability of their communities. This could mean creating processes and technology for improving transportation, access to healthy food, government accountability, urban planning, crime prevention, public health, environmental stewardship, local democracy, general communications, or anything that improves the quality of civic life.

New York boasts a diverse and creative population with national and global influence, and it is already the home of many efforts to improve engagement, open governance, and participatory technology on all levels of civic life. The Open NY Summit is a venue to better connect these efforts with the challenges and opportunities presented by New York's public services and government offices. This summit is being coordinated simultaneously with other events throughout the country by The Sunlight Foundation, an organization that helps foster open government.

Are you available to give a short talk or help run a workshop for an issue you are interested in? If so, please contact summit at opennyforum.org

We are looking for people to engage in:

Moderated discussion (December 11 - 4-6pm)

What technology and participation needs or opportunities does government see? What does the tech community see? What are challenges and impediments? Policy? Access to raw data? Lack of data services? Real time data? Licensing? Privacy?

Lightning Talks (December 11 - 7-8pm)

What experiences do you have to share about open government and civic participation? Are you working on a specific initiative, do you have a call to action, are you trying to spread the word on a useful project or strategy?

--- Happy hour & sleep intermission ---

Codeathon (December 12 - 10-6pm)

Possible projects: FixMyStreet Django, Open Source UserVoice, EB Code, Who is my gov local representative lookup, CivicDB

See more: http://www.sunlightlabs.com/hackathon09/

Presentations + workshops (December 12 - 10-6pm)

Tell us about your project. Get help with your open government or civic participation initiative. Get help or share experience using Drupal in government. Brainstorm a new idea, etc.

Open Data Stories (December 12 - 10-6pm)

Have a problem you're trying to solve, but can't tackle because you can't get the data? Have a vision for doing something awesome but it's not possible without better access to data? Want to get real-time data, highlight government spending, show which intersections are the most dangerous for pedestrians or cyclists, get better access to school and teacher performance data, see more environmental data, etc.

If you would like to contribute to any of these sessions or talks, please contact summit at opennyforum.org