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THE CITY OF NEW YORK 2013 ROADMAP NEW YORK CITY’S DIGITAL LEADERSHIP

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T h e CiT y of N e w yor k

2 0 1 3 R o a d m a p

New yoRk City’s

DigitalleaDership

New York City’s Digital Leadership

2013 roadmap

city of new york

New York City's Digital Leadership V

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

Deputy Mayor Robert K. Steel

mayor’s office of media and entertainmentCommissioner Katherine L. OliverFirst Deputy Commissioner Todd AsherAllie Kleva, Associate Commissioner, Marketing and Strategic Partnerships

nyc digitalRachel S. Haot, Chief Digital Officer Ivy Li, Digital Communications DirectorGrace Cheung, Media Center LiaisonSeema Shah, Strategic Partnerships Manager

Table of Contents

P ro g r e ss r e P o rT V I

I N T ro D u CT I o N bY M aYo r M I Ch a e L r . b Lo o M b e rg 1

T h e roa D M a P: aCh I e V e M e N Ts I N r e V I e w

aCCe ss 2

e D u C aT I o N 8

o P e N g oV e r N M e N T 18

e N g ag e M e N T 26

I N D usT rY 42

D I g I Ta L CI T I e s s Y M P o sI u M 50

T h e roa D M a P: Lo o k I N g a h e a D 52

N e x T sT e P s fo r aCCe ss 55

N e x T sT e P s fo r e D u C aT I o N 56

N e x T sT e P s fo r o P e N g oV e r N M e N T 57

N e x T sT e P s fo r e N g ag e M e N T 58

N e x T sT e P s fo r I N D usT rY 60

Co N CLusI o N bY T h e Ch I e f D I g I Ta L o f f I Ce r 62

Download the 2011, 2012 and 2013 Roadmaps at nyc.govSpecial Thanks ToBrooklyn Public LibraryDepartment of EducationDepartment of Information Technology & TelecommunicationsDepartment of Parks and RecreationDepartment of Small Business ServicesThe Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York CityMayor’s OfficeNew York City Economic Development CorporationNew York Public LibraryNYC 311Office of Emergency ManagementQueens LibrarySamantha Grassle

New York City’s Digital Leadership: 2013 RoadmapCopyright © 2013 The City of New YorkDesign by The Letter Office

New York City's Digital Leadership 1

`

In 2011, our Administration introduced the City of New York’s first Digital Roadmap with a simple goal: making New York the nation’s number one digital city, in both the private and public sectors. In just two years, we have made tremendous progress towards that goal.

New York City’s Digital Leadership: 2013 Roadmap serves as a prog-ress report, outlining the results to date of 40 initiatives. Across New York — in our schools, libraries, and community centers — our digital programs are increasing affordable broadband access and helping people improve their technological literacy and computer skills. The

Roadmap also details our first Digital Cities Symposium, which we convened to share these kinds of proven ideas with other innovative cities around the world.

The future of the global economy, in every industry, is tied to technology — and the future for cities that recognize this fact is very bright. Here in New York, our Administration has established a network of business incubators, including tech incubators. We also launched an entrepreneurial fund for tech companies, which has provided seed money to the first winner of our “Big Apps” competition.

In the private sector, tech startups and established companies now employ more than 120,000 New Yorkers, an increase of 30 percent since 2005. Once Cornell and the Technion Institute of Technology open their world-class applied sciences campus on Roosevelt Island, we will attract even more talented engineers and computer scientists. And, after they graduate, we look forward to them starting their own businesses right here in the five boroughs.

Thanks to these efforts and more, New York City is strengthening our position as a leader of the 21st century economy. As we strive to keep our city a capital of tech innovation and entrepreneurship, I invite you to learn more about our work in the 2013 Roadmap.

Michael R. Bloomberg Mayor

IntroductIon by Mayor MIchael r. blooMberg

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

“The future of the global economy, in every industry, is tied to technology — and the future for cities that recognize this fact is very bright.”

Progress report: 100% achieved

1. accessConnect high-needs individuals through federally funded nyc Connected initiatives ✓ 3Launch outreach and education efforts to increase broadband Internet adoption ✓ 3Support more broadband choices citywide ✓ 7 Introduce Wi-Fi in more public spaces, including parks ✓ 5

2. educatIonIntroduce Applied Sciences NYC, the initiative to bring more STEM institutions to New York City ✓ 1 0

Introduce Cornell-Technion Innovation Institute on Roosevelt Island ✓ 1 1

Introduce Center for Urban Science and Progress, led by NYU and NYU-Poly ✓ 1 1

Introduce Academy for Software Engineering, a high school that teaches development and design ✓ 9

Increase number of participants in Innovation Zone from 80 schools to over 250 ✓ 9

Develop Digital Ready, digital literacy curriculum for middle and high school students ✓ 9

3. oPen goVernMentDevelop NYC OpenData, an Open Government framework featuring APIs for City data ✓ 19Launch a central hub for engaging and cultivating feedback from the developer community ✓ 21Introduce visualization tools that make data more accessible to the public ✓ 20Launch app wishlists to support a needs-based ecosystem of innovation ✓ 21Launch an official New York City apps hub ✓ 21Host New York City’s first hackathon: Reinvent NYC.gov ✓ 21Host New York City's first sustainability hackathon: Reinvent Green ✓ 21Launch Code Corps initiative linking volunteer technologists with livesaving civic digital projects ✓ 23Host Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge on future of public payphones ✓ 22Introduce DART, a team of the City's data experts ✓ 25

4. engageMentExpand 311 Online through smartphone apps, Twitter and live chat ✓ 39Implement a custom bit.ly url redirection service on NYC.gov to encourage sharing ✓ 38Launch official Facebook presence to engage New Yorkers and customize experience ✓ 36Launch @NYCgov, a central Twitter account and one-stop shop of crucial news and services ✓ 36Launch a New York City Tumblr vertical, featuring content and commentary on City stories ✓ 36Launch a Foursquare badge that encourages use of New York City’s free public places ✓ 36Integrate crowdsourcing tools for emergency situations ✓ 40Introduce digital Citizen Toolkits for engaging with New York City government online ✓ 35Introduce SMART, a team of the City’s social media leaders ✓ 36Launch ongoing listening sessions across the five boroughs to encourage input ✓ 38Relaunch NYC.gov to make the City’s website more usable, accessible and intuitive ✓ 27

5. IndustryExpand workforce development programs to support diversity in the digital sector ✓ 43Support technology startup infrastructure needs ✓ 45Support small businesses through streamlined online resources and digital training ✓ 46Continue to recruit more engineering talent and teams to New York City ✓ 45Promote and celebrate NYC’s digital sector through events and awards ✓ 47

Pursue a new .NYC top-level domain ✓ 46Develop the Made in NY Media Center, a facility in DUMBO dedicated to the future of storytelling in a digital age ✓ 48Launch We Are Made in NY, an economic development initiative celebrating New York City's tech sector opportunities ✓ 47Expand the Made in NY Mark of distinction to digital companies that base at least 75% of development in NYC ✓ 47

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2 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 3

acce

ssAccess:connecting all new yorkers

Today over 99% of New yorkers have resi-dential access to high-speed broadband, and build-ing on this reach is critical. Since the introduction of the Digital Roadmap in 2011, over a dozen new initiatives have enhanced Internet infrastructure, increased adoption and expanded coverage— and today New Yorkers are more connected than ever before.

From public Wi-Fi in over 50 parks to subsidized broadband access for hundreds of thousands of low-income residents, Access programs have provided New Yorkers with a host of free options to connect to the Internet, supporting public safety, academic growth, economic development, tourism and community.

More Access for Low-Income New Yorkers

The plan starts by focusing on serving historically under-connected communities, and establishing the baseline that every New Yorker has a range of free and low-cost means to access the Internet to fulfill professional and personal goals.

Underscoring Mayor Bloomberg’s commitment to increasing technology inclusion and reducing the digital divide, the City of New York has helped nearly 300,000 low-income residents access the Internet and adopt service since the introduction of the Digital Roadmap.

A major driver of this accomplishment was the set of high-impact grants provided by the federally funded btop program (Broadband Technology Opportuni-ties Program). Programs included Connected Learn-

ing, which provides training, discounted broadband, technology curricula and equipment to 23,000 sixth graders and their families for a total impact of over 50,000 residents. The program, which surpassed its initial goal of serving 18,000 sixth graders, hopes to significantly impact the academic and professional trajectory of the selected students by providing them and their households with powerful digital literacy training at a critical age.

In addition, a separate program, Connected Com-munities, has expanded capacity and infrastructure to serve over 40,000 individuals a week via 100 new or upgraded public technology centers located in public libraries, recreation centers, public housing

NYCHA Digital Van. Images courtesy of NYCHA.

The foundation of a digital city is the connectivity of its people. access is the basis of the Digital roadmap because ensuring that all New Yorkers are able to connect to the Internet is the first step to realizing New York City’s innovative potential.

300,000

4,000+

50+

36 in 2013

6 in 2011

200,000

Additional Low-income residents able to access Internet since the launch of the Digital Roadmap

New Yorkers who benefitfrom Connected

Communities computer resources centers

Residents served by NYCHA Digital Vans

3,557,162Hours of computeruse logged by New YorkPublic Library membersin 2012

60%

80%

2011 2012 2013 2014

91%100%

Residential Streets withVerizon FiOS Access

Access in New York City undergroundsubway stations

Parks with free public Wi-fi

4 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 5

and community centers. This includes innovative initiatives such as the New York City Housing Au-thority (nycha) Digital Vans program, a program that outfitted mobile technology centers that travel across housing developments in all five boroughs to provide Internet and computer access. To promote services to the public, nycha posts schedules online and via Twitter; just over a year since launch, the Digital Vans have served over 4,000 residents. Altogether, Connected Communities computer re-sources centers benefit approximately 200,000 New Yorkers annually.

Finally, a third program called Connected Founda-tions, has focused on at-risk youth in danger of failing to complete high school, and has served 4,194 students to date—providing access and digital lit-eracy training to increase professional opportunities post-secondary school.

New York City’s library systems play a vital and ever-growing role in connecting New Yorkers to the information that they seek on the Internet. Altogeth-er, the City’s three library systems have increased the number of computers available to the public by 89% since 2002. The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) offers its members free Internet access and 1,111 public use computers, including 95 laptops added to its inventory in 2011 using BTOP funding. BPL also offers a 36-computer Tech Loft serving youth up to 16 years of age and computers with free access to costly specialty programs such as Rosetta Stone, Windows Live Movie Maker and Ancestry Library Edition. The New York Public Library provides free access to the Internet, online databases, library

catalogs and Microsoft Office applications from its 4,026 public-use computers. In 2012, NYPL visitors logged 3,557,162 hours of computer use, and made a total of 441,434 requests for its 1,303 laptops. The Queens Public Library also provides Internet access and 1,706 computers for public use, and through BTOP funding, provides one-on-one training and use of Microsoft Office applications.

These infrastructure achievements are complement-ed by the expansion of professional development programs that connect hundreds of diverse public school students with technology internships at com-panies across New York City, detailed in the Industry section of this report.

Increased Free Wi-Fi in Public Spaces

Building on full-service access to the Internet via hardline connections and public desktop comput-ers, the increased use of mobile devices, tablets and personal laptop computers in New York City has led to exponential public demand for free public Wi-Fi. While blanketing the five boroughs of the City with public Wi-Fi is currently costly and complex, the City of New York has supported the establishment of public-private partnerships. These partnerships represent tens of millions of dollars in investment that expand connectivity to hundreds of thousands at no cost to taxpayers.

Since the announcement of the Digital Roadmap, the City has implemented free public Wi-Fi in over 50 parks, supporting business, tourism and com-munity needs. Of those parks, 26 locations were connected by AT&T and feature unlimited Wi-Fi access for all users. Spurred by the experience of telecommunications needs during Hurricane Sandy, AT&T also recently piloted Street Charge, several solar-powered mobile charging stations that help New Yorkers maintain power, and, thus, connectivity on the go and in emergency scenarios. Cablevision and TimeWarner invested in infra-structure in an additional 32 parks, and allow up to 30 minutes of use per month free of charge for non-customers and $0.99 per day beyond that threshold.

Beyond the parks, the City of New York has part-nered with Google to provide free public Wi-Fi in Chelsea, covering an area that serves over 100,000, including over 2,000 residents of the Fulton Houses public housing development, and spanning from 15th Street to 19th Street and 8th Avenue to 10th Avenue.

Free public Wi-Fi networks are also coming to 10 commercial districts in all five boroughs: in Brook-lyn along the Fulton Street corridor, BAM Cultural District, Brownsville, and Downtown Brooklyn; in Manhattan in the Flatiron District, along the Water Street Corridor and the East River waterfront

in Lower Manhattan, the 125th Street corridor in Harlem and on Roosevelt Island; in Queens in Long Island City; in Staten Island in the St. George com-mercial district; and in the Bronx on Fordham Road, as well as other areas citywide.

The City of New York has also explored new uses of existing infrastructure to expand Wi-Fi coverage, including the opportunity to breathe new life into public pay telephones by augmenting them with Wi-Fi hotspots available to the public. Through a pilot between payphone franchisees Titan and Van Wagner Communications, the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications has launched Wi-Fi hotspots at 13 payphone kiosks, free of charge to the public and accessible at up to a distance of 200 feet.

New York City’s public libraries continue to provide crucial Internet access, including free public Wi-Fi at all branches of the three library systems that serve New York City’s five boroughs: Brooklyn Public Li-brary, New York Public Library and Queens Library.

Below ground, the expansion of cellular and wireless service in New York City’s subway system is crucial to the safety, productivity and communications needs of New Yorkers. Since the creation of the Digi-tal Roadmap, the MTA and vendor Transit Wireless have begun the expansion plan to bring Wi-Fi and

Street Charge. Images courtesy of Pensa.

Free Wi-Fi at pay-phone kiosks. Image courtesy of DoITT.

6 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 7

cellular service to all 277 underground stations. In 2011, six stations were connected; today 36 under-ground subway stations provide access.

Wider Internet Provider Choice for all New Yorkers

Beyond public Internet access, increasing market competition for private Internet service is key to ensuring a range of choices for consumers in New York City. And while the federal government deter-mines the range of approved Internet providers, the City of New York has used its negotiation leverage to ensure that large cable providers expand service to all residential areas.

When the first Digital Roadmap was released in 2011, 60% of residential streets had access to Veri-zon FiOS. As part of a contract requirement secured by the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, today the percentage of resi-dences with street access has increased to 91%, with Verizon on track to serve 100% of residences by the conclusion of 2014. This represents a crucial step in expanding the market and providing more options to consumers in New York City.

Expanded Commercial Fiber Optic Broadband

Finally, as New York City’s technology sector grows and other major industries modernize, the need for high-speed commercial broadband access has never been greater. To speed the deployment of fiber optic cabling, the City of New York has explored innova-tive new technologies and leveraged contracts with Internet service providers.

One example is the trial of micro-trenching technol-ogy to deploy fiber connectivity in commercial corridors. Micro-trenching is a process of installing small conduits in narrow trenches at sidewalk edges to house fiber optic cabling. It is faster, more efficient and less disruptive than traditional methods of in-stalling infrastructure. In partnership with Verizon, the City approved 14 pilot locations that will run through November 2013.

In addition, Deputy Mayor Robert Steel announced the launch of the ConnectNYC Fiber Challenge, a competition that provides free fiber connectivity in-stallation to businesses, up to a value of $14 million. The contest is in its second round, with over 200 applicants to date, and is described in greater depth in the Industry section.

Verizon FiOS Installa-tion. Image courtesy of DoITT.

8 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 9

educ

atIo

nEducation:Investing in the Future

Mayor Bloomberg’s administr ation has launched over 40 digital learning programs that have served over one million New Yorkers to date. These programs serve kindergartners and senior citizens alike, across all five boroughs, catering to a range of fluency levels.

The most recent launches include digital literacy programs for middle school students, targeted high schools for computer science learning and the game-changing Cornell Tech campus planned for Roosevelt Island, part of Mayor Bloomberg’s pio-neering Applied Sciences NYC initiative. Milestone education programs are highlighted below.

STEM Education Highlightsgrowth oF IZone PrograM, serVIng students K-12In New York City, digital learning begins at the kin-dergarten level, thanks to programs such as iZone, a community of New York City public schools that personalizes the learning experience through col-laboration tools, real-time assessment and an online curriculum. At the launch of the Digital Roadmap, the iZone included 81 schools; today that number has more than doubled to encompass a learning community of nearly 280 schools serving thousands of students in grades 6-12.

dIgItal ready: suPPortIng dIgItal lIteracyTo further increase digital literacy and technol-ogy sector awareness among students, the City has launched Digital Ready, a technology-driven program that uses new media tools in the classroom and offers internships and other learning experi-ences with startups. A collaboration between the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment and the Department of Education, Digital Ready launched in September 2013 in 10 high schools, using a student-centered model that integrates digital resources into lesson plans, leverages assessment data for instruc-tional decisions, and introduces students to careers in technology through mentorships and career development opportunities with local digital compa-nies. In its second year, Digital Ready will expand to 20 additional schools, including middle schools.

coMPuter scIence currIculuM exPands to More nyc schoolsAt the secondary level, students interested in an academic or professional career in technology have greater options than ever before thanks to the cre-ation of two new high schools focused on computer science learning, and the expansion of the Software Engineering Pilot to an additional 19 schools. The Academy for Software Engineering (AFSE) was the first school to open in fall 2012, welcoming its inau-gural cohort of 108 students. Located in the Wash-

If Internet infrastructure is the bedrock of the digital city, technology education empowers residents to fully participate in the digital ecosystem and reap the benefits of its innovations. from basic digital literacy—like sending an email or applying for a job online—to advanced degree programs in computer science, initiatives to support learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (sTeM) ensure that all New Yorkers are part of the future of the digital transformation of New York City.40

Mayor Bloomberg has launched over

1,000,000

$100 MILLION

44,000SQ-FT. FACILITY

2MSQ-FT. CORNELL TECH CAMPUS

2.5 ACRES OF PUBLIC GREEN SPACE

81 280digital learning programs that have served over

New Yorkers to date.

number of schools in theiZone since the launch of the Digital Roadmap hasmore thandoubled

The Academy of Software Engineering (AFSE) was the first new high school focused on Computer Science learning to open in fall 2012, welcoming its inaugural cohort of 108 students.

As part of the Institutefor Data Sciences and Engineering, Columbiawill construct a

The Applied Sciences NYC Competition offered access to City-owned land and up to

in City capital for world-class institutions to build or grow an applied sciences campuson Roosevelt Island

with sustainable construction

and hire 75 additional faculty members

15 15 15 15 15

10 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 11

ington Irving Educational Complex in the Gramercy Park area, AFSE teaches high school students pro-gramming in multiple computer languages, as well as the critical principles underlying each system—en-abling them to adapt as technology changes.

New York City’s local technology community has contributed enormously to AFSE’s success. From the start, venture capitalist Fred Wilson sparked the concept and provided significant funding to establish the school, citing the need for talent in the City’s growing digital industry. To guide curriculum development and support collaboration with the technology sector, AFSE developed an advisory board featuring prominent technologists and educa-tors from companies including Facebook, Four-square and Google.

Fall 2013 marks the entrance of the second class of students to AFSE, as well as the launch of an additional computer science-focused school - the Bronx Academy for Software Engineering (BASE). BASE leverages the successful curriculum template pioneered by AFSE, as well as an advisory board of technology, business and community leaders.

Beyond AFSE and BASE, the Software Engineering Pilot expanded to 19 middle and high schools in September 2013, with courses on topics including computer programming, embedded electronics, web design, and robotics. Selected through a competitive application process that assessed current technology curriculum and potential for growth, the 19 schools include:

• High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology

• Brooklyn Technical High School• The Bronx Compass High School• The Renaissance Charter High School

for Innovation• Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology• Queens Vocational & Technical High School• Cambria Heights Academy• Ralph McKee High School• New Dorp High School• Ditmas Intermediate School 62• I.S. 30 Mary White Ovington• Mark Twain I.S. 239 for the Gifted and Talented• Bronx Park Middle School• M.S. 223 The Laboratory School of Finance

and Technology• Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School 74• J.H.S. 185 Edward Bleeker• Pathways College Preparatory School• J.H.S. 157 Stephen A. Halsey• Eagle Academy for Young Men

NYC Generation Tech is a program that helps public high school students learn the fundamentals of programming and entrepreneurship skills. In 2013, 43 students completed an intensive summer training program and worked with technology mentors from Warby Parker, AppNexus, Spotify, Google and other local companies to develop mobile applications. The students then pitched their creations to compete for $5,000 and a meeting with Union Square Ventures. The program was developed by NYCEDC in partner-ship with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

Applied Sciences NYC: Landmark Achievements in Higher EducationTo support the exploding demand for computer sci-ence expertise in New York City, and to assure New York City’s enduring position as a hub for innova-tion, in 2010 Mayor Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Robert Steel launched Applied Sciences NYC, an unparalleled public competition with the goal to build or expand engineering institutions across the five boroughs. The schools established as part of Applied Sciences NYC serve postgraduate students, helping to further develop the technology ecosystem and fortify-ing New York City’s economy for the future.

The competition offered access to City-owned land and up to $100 million in City capital for world-class institutions to build or grow an applied sciences campus in New York City. Its results were staggering: the initial Request for Expressions of Interest garnered 18 responses from 27 prominent schools across the country and around the world. Soon after, the formal Request for Proposals resulted in seven qualifying responses from 17 outstanding institutions. After ex-tensive evaluation, the City announced in December 2011 that the proposal from Cornell University and the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology was the first winner of the competition.

cornell techAn initiative that has ignited the imagination of New York City’s digital community, Cornell Tech’s mis-sion is to modernize the applied sciences institution for the digital world, combining technology and entrepreneurship learning in advanced degree

Cornell Tech. Image courtesy of Kilograph.

NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress. Image courtesy of NYU CUSP.

Mayor Bloomberg announces 19 schools to participate in new software engineering pilot.

programs that feature academics alongside industry practitioners. The home of the future campus is New York City’s Roosevelt Island, where the two-million-square-foot Cornell Tech campus will feature sustainable construction and blend seamlessly with the surrounding neighborhood, including 2.5 acres of green space open to the public.

In 2013 Cornell Tech’s first cohort, a seven-member “beta class,” completed the initial year of its com-puter science Master of Engineering program. The group is housed in space donated by Google, and its term concluded with Open Studio, a presentation of real-world master projects executed with the men-torship of active industry leaders from Betaworks, Google and Qualcomm.

12 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 13

Its work already underway, Cornell Tech is a power-ful investment in cultivating the talent needed to fuel the future of New York City’s economy and maintain its status as the intellectual capital of the world.

nyu center For urban scIence and ProgressThe second Applied Sciences NYC winner an-nounced was the Center for Urban Science and Progress, a visionary public-private research center focused on the emerging field “Urban Informat-ics”—solving the challenges that cities face and exploring creative solutions to improve metropolitan life. NYU CUSP’s advanced degree programs will focus on developments in urbanization and digital technology, with New York City as its “living labora-tory.” The research center will help to ensure that the best and brightest continue to innovate in New York City and that their breakthroughs and talent are ap-plied across the five boroughs.

CUSP is led by New York University and NYU-Poly, with contributions from partners the City University of New York, Carnegie Mellon

University, University of Toronto, University of Warwick, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and technology leaders IBM and Cisco.

InstItute For data scIences and engIneerIng at coluMbIa unIVersItyThe third and most recent winner of the Applied Sciences NYC competition is the Institute for Data Science and Engineering (IDSE) at Columbia University. IDSE will focus on another rapidly grow-ing, emerging field—data science—and support the launch of entrepreneurial ventures inspired by the program. The Institute’s six centers focus on the topics of smart cities, new media, health analytics, financial analytics, cybersecurity and foundations of data science, with the aim to produce commer-cially viable technology initiatives and help grow the economy. As part of the program, Columbia will construct a new 44,000-square-foot facility and hire 75 additional faculty members. To support this growth, the City of New York will invest $15 million in critical funding in the form of energy transmission abatements, debt forgiveness and lease flexibility.

Left and far Left: Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island. Images courtesy of Kilograph. BeLow: Interior of NYU CUSP. Image courtesy of NYU CUSP.

14 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 15

New York City's Digital Education Impact:One Million Empowered

GRADES K–5 GRADES 6 – 8 GRADES 9 – 12 HIGHER EDUCATION CONTINUING EDUCATION SENIOR CITIZENS

BASIC DIGITAL LITERACY

DIGITAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & WORKFORCE TRAINING

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, ARTS & MATHEMATICS

TECH INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP 20.

2.

17.

36.

9.

21.

8.

13.

30.

37.

34.

14.24.

31.

37.

26.25.

38.

7.

27.

40.

29.

3.

4.

18.

19.

5.

23.

6.

11.

33.

New York City’s Digital Education Impact: One Million Empowered

24. LADDERS FOR LEADERS: 1,300 participants, 28% were offered employment beyond the end of the program

COLLABORATION LAB FOR MIDDLEAND HIGH SCHOOLS

THE BROADBAND TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES

PROGRAM PROGRAMS ALONE IMPACT MORE THAN

266,000NEW YORKERS

27.

20. GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SERVES OVER 18,000 NEW

YORKERS

This chart maps City-supported digital education programs by age group and subject matter. A numbered list on the following page provides short descriptions of each initiative. Full details are available on nyc.gov.

1.

17. DEP’T OF YOUTH & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

35.

8. COALITION FOR QUEENS: ACCESS CODE Affordable tech education for underserved populations.

32.

22. iZONE: Impacting 225,000 by the end of 2013

33. OATS: (Older Adults Technology Services) Brings technology skills to New Yorkers aged 60 and over

7. CITIZEN SCHOOLS: Partners with middle schools to provide academic support, apprenticeships, and college and career preparedness resources

10.12.

16.15.

APPLIED SCIENCES NYC represents a significant long-term investment in the future of tech education and entrepreneurship in New York City

33. P-TECH: Unique grade 9-14 applied science school

22.

GRADES K–5 GRADES 6 – 8 GRADES 9 – 12 HIGHER EDUCATION CONTINUING EDUCATION SENIOR CITIZENS

BASIC DIGITAL LITERACY

DIGITAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & WORKFORCE TRAINING

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, ARTS & MATHEMATICS

TECH INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP 20.

2.

17.

36.

9.

21.

8.

13.

30.

37.

34.

14.24.

31.

37.

26.25.

38.

7.

27.

40.

29.

3.

4.

18.

19.

5.

23.

6.

11.

33.

New York City’s Digital Education Impact: One Million Empowered

24. LADDERS FOR LEADERS: 1,300 participants, 28% were offered employment beyond the end of the program

COLLABORATION LAB FOR MIDDLEAND HIGH SCHOOLS

THE BROADBAND TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES

PROGRAM PROGRAMS ALONE IMPACT MORE THAN

266,000NEW YORKERS

27.

20. GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SERVES OVER 18,000 NEW

YORKERS

This chart maps City-supported digital education programs by age group and subject matter. A numbered list on the following page provides short descriptions of each initiative. Full details are available on nyc.gov.

1.

17. DEP’T OF YOUTH & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

35.

8. COALITION FOR QUEENS: ACCESS CODE Affordable tech education for underserved populations.

32.

22. iZONE: Impacting 225,000 by the end of 2013

33. OATS: (Older Adults Technology Services) Brings technology skills to New Yorkers aged 60 and over

7. CITIZEN SCHOOLS: Partners with middle schools to provide academic support, apprenticeships, and college and career preparedness resources

10.12.

16.15.

APPLIED SCIENCES NYC represents a significant long-term investment in the future of tech education and entrepreneurship in New York City

33. P-TECH: Unique grade 9-14 applied science school

22.

16 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 17

New York City's Digital Education Impact

NYC Generation Tech. Images courtesy of NYCEDC and Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).

39,010 CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION STUDENTS WITH DIGITAL/TECH PROGRAM FOCUS

CITY PARTNERS INCLUDECenter for Economic Opportunity

Department for the Aging

Department of Education

Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications

Department of Parks and Recreation

Department of Small Business Services

Department of Youth and Community Development

Economic Development Corporation

Fund for Public Schools

Human Resources Administration

Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City

Mayor’s Office

Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs

Mayor’s Office for International Affairs

Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment

Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence

New York City Council

New York City Housing Authority

Women’s Commission

Young Men’s Initiative

COMPUTER RESOURCE CENTER PROGRAMS SERVE UP TO

NEW YORKERS ANNUALLY200,000

1. ACADEMY FOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Specialized high school with a focus on innovative software engineering and computer science

2. BRONX ACADEMY OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING High school teaching programming, design & app development, promoting creative thinking and community engagement

3. BLUEPRINT FOR THE MOVING IMAGE Standards-based curriculum and workshops for the study of the moving image and new media for K-12

4. BROADBAND TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES PROGRAM (BTOP)

Computer access and digital literacy training for high needs communities with a focus on raising student achievement among MS students and their families

5. BTOP: NYC CONNECTED COMMUNITIES Expands public computer centers in New York City’s highest poverty areas through investments in equipment, training and outreach efforts

6. BTOP: NYC CONNECTED FOUNDATIONS Provides transfer students with the digital skills and access to technology necessary for graduation, college and career

7. CITIZEN SCHOOLS Partners with middle schools to provide academic support, apprenticeships, and college and career preparedness resources

8. COALITION FOR QUEENS: ACCESS CODE Affordable tech education for underserved populations. Puts graduates on path to careers in tech and entrepreneurship

9. CODENOW Teaches high schools students to code through free, extra-curricular training

10. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR DATA SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING*

Significantly builds Columbia University’s applied science focus with an emphasis on new media, smart cities, health analyt-ics, cybersecurity and financial analytics

11. COMPUTER RESOURCE CENTERS Provide low-cost computer access and digital literacy courses to a diverse range of New Yorkers

12. CORNELL TECH* Applied science program led by Cornell and the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, fusing educational excellence with real-world commercial applications and technology entrepreneurship

13. CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION High schools fusing academic rigor, real-world relevance and workplace skills with a focus on digital media and technology

14. CTE SUMMER SCHOLARS Technology related summer internship experience matching participants with a diverse range of companies and City agencies

15. THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK CUNY system offers degree programs and work opportunities in applied sciences, digital media and entrepreneurship

16. CUSP: CENTER FOR URBAN PROGRESS* Public-private research center and applied sciences graduate program in downtown Brooklyn led by NYU and NYU-Poly

17. DEPARTMENT OF YOUTH & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

A range of out-of-school programs for elementary, middle and high school students focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics learning experiences

18. DIGITAL READY Delivers technology and digital learning to high schools classrooms and connects students with the tech community in NYC

19. EXPANDED SUCCESS INITIATIVE SCHOOL DESIGN FELLOWSHIP

Fellows will design breakthrough high school model that will yield new schools in 2014

20. GENERAL ASSEMBLY Transforms thinkers into creators through education and opportunities in technology, business and design

21. GLOBAL PARTNERS JUNIOR Online exchange program connecting NYC youth to peers around the globe through a collaborative project-based curriculum.

22. HIVE NYC Collaboration lab to develop innovative learning experiences to prepare 6–12th graders for success in the digital age

23. iZONE An innovation program that delivers tech tools, strategies and supports to classrooms across NYC

24. LADDERS FOR LEADERS Internship and professional development program for young New Yorkers emphasizing 21st century skills and education

25. LINK (LEVERAGING INNOVATIONS & OUR NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY): LEARN AS YOU EARN

Paid internship program to obtain relevant, in-demand skills, work experience, wage and credits alongside classes

26. LINK: DIGITALWORK NYC Participants train to complete digital tasks, build employment history, and create pathways to digital jobs while earning money

27. LINK: IMMIGRANT BRIDGE Career counseling, low-interest loans, licensing paths, job placement for foreign-trained immigrants with high demand skills

28. MADE IN NY MEDIA CENTER BY IFP Incubator, co-working space, classes, gallery & screening room where innovators learn, share ideas, and build businesses

29. “MADE IN NY” TALKS: TECH Career panels featuring digital media practicioners and leaders

30. MOUSE Organization that empowers underserved middle and high school students to learn, lead and create with technology

31. NYC GENERATION TECH Provides hands-on learning and mentorship for high school students interested in tech-based innovations

32. NYC STEPS Program offered at Family Justice Centers to prepare participants for careers in the technology sector

33. OATS: OLDER ADULTS TECHNOLOGY SERVICES Brings technology skills to New Yorkers aged 60 and over through community programs and online resources

34. P-TECH (PATHWAYS IN TECHNOLOGY EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL) Unique grade 9-14 applied science school that prepares students for competitive jobs in the IT industry

35. PUBLIC LIBRARY PROGRAMS Classes offered throughout Brooklyn, New York and Queens Public Library systems on digital literacy

36. RECYOUTH: REEL EDUCATION FOR YOUTH Multimedia extracurricular program for teens that teaches digital skills for creative media production

37. SCHOLARS AT WORK Brooklyn Tech Triangle-based paid internship and workforce development program for college students

38. SMALL BUSINESS DIGITAL TOOLKIT Training courses to help small businesses build a presence online, engage customers and expand using social media strategies

39. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PILOT PROGRAM Brings computer science and software engineering classes to students in grades 6-12 in 20 schools across NYC

40. WORKADVANCE Training program that prepares unemployed and low-wage working adults for jobs and carer growth opportunities

iZONE: IN 300 SCHOOLS WORKING WITH OVER 225,000 STUDENTS BY THE END OF 2013

Digital Education and the City of New

To learn more visit nyc.gov

THE CITY OF NEW YORK SUPPORTS MORE THAN 39 DIGITAL LITERACY AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS

N E W Y O R K C I T Y ’ S

D I G I T A L E D U C A T I O N I M P A C T :

O N E M I L L I O N E M P O W E R E D

Ensuring that New Yorkers have access to digital education resources is a critical element in Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s Digital Roadmap for New York City, enabling greater academic success, civic engagement and a healthy economy. From a basic course on using email, to sophisticated doctorate programs in engineering, the City of New York supports programs that serve over one million New Yorkers, from Kindergarteners to Senior Citizens.

The chart featured on the opposite side of this document maps City-supported digital education programs by age group and subject matter. To the right, short program descriptions offer a snapshot of content and context. For more information and to participate, visit nyc.gov.

* PART OF APPLIED SCIENCES NYC, AN INITIATIVE TO DEVELOP TOP-TIER APPLIED SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING CAMPUSES IN NYC

MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG, MAYORnyc.gov

39,010 CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION STUDENTS WITH DIGITAL/TECH PROGRAM FOCUS

CITY PARTNERS INCLUDECenter for Economic Opportunity

Department for the Aging

Department of Education

Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications

Department of Parks and Recreation

Department of Small Business Services

Department of Youth and Community Development

Economic Development Corporation

Fund for Public Schools

Human Resources Administration

Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City

Mayor’s Office

Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs

Mayor’s Office for International Affairs

Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment

Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence

New York City Council

New York City Housing Authority

Women’s Commission

Young Men’s Initiative

COMPUTER RESOURCE CENTER PROGRAMS SERVE UP TO

NEW YORKERS ANNUALLY200,000

1. ACADEMY FOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Specialized high school with a focus on innovative software engineering and computer science

2. BRONX ACADEMY OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING High school teaching programming, design & app development, promoting creative thinking and community engagement

3. BLUEPRINT FOR THE MOVING IMAGE Standards-based curriculum and workshops for the study of the moving image and new media for K-12

4. BROADBAND TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES PROGRAM (BTOP)

Computer access and digital literacy training for high needs communities with a focus on raising student achievement among MS students and their families

5. BTOP: NYC CONNECTED COMMUNITIES Expands public computer centers in New York City’s highest poverty areas through investments in equipment, training and outreach efforts

6. BTOP: NYC CONNECTED FOUNDATIONS Provides transfer students with the digital skills and access to technology necessary for graduation, college and career

7. CITIZEN SCHOOLS Partners with middle schools to provide academic support, apprenticeships, and college and career preparedness resources

8. COALITION FOR QUEENS: ACCESS CODE Affordable tech education for underserved populations. Puts graduates on path to careers in tech and entrepreneurship

9. CODENOW Teaches high schools students to code through free, extra-curricular training

10. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR DATA SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING*

Significantly builds Columbia University’s applied science focus with an emphasis on new media, smart cities, health analyt-ics, cybersecurity and financial analytics

11. COMPUTER RESOURCE CENTERS Provide low-cost computer access and digital literacy courses to a diverse range of New Yorkers

12. CORNELL TECH* Applied science program led by Cornell and the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, fusing educational excellence with real-world commercial applications and technology entrepreneurship

13. CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION High schools fusing academic rigor, real-world relevance and workplace skills with a focus on digital media and technology

14. CTE SUMMER SCHOLARS Technology related summer internship experience matching participants with a diverse range of companies and City agencies

15. THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK CUNY system offers degree programs and work opportunities in applied sciences, digital media and entrepreneurship

16. CUSP: CENTER FOR URBAN PROGRESS* Public-private research center and applied sciences graduate program in downtown Brooklyn led by NYU and NYU-Poly

17. DEPARTMENT OF YOUTH & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

A range of out-of-school programs for elementary, middle and high school students focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics learning experiences

18. DIGITAL READY Delivers technology and digital learning to high schools classrooms and connects students with the tech community in NYC

19. EXPANDED SUCCESS INITIATIVE SCHOOL DESIGN FELLOWSHIP

Fellows will design breakthrough high school model that will yield new schools in 2014

20. GENERAL ASSEMBLY Transforms thinkers into creators through education and opportunities in technology, business and design

21. GLOBAL PARTNERS JUNIOR Online exchange program connecting NYC youth to peers around the globe through a collaborative project-based curriculum.

22. HIVE NYC Collaboration lab to develop innovative learning experiences to prepare 6–12th graders for success in the digital age

23. iZONE An innovation program that delivers tech tools, strategies and supports to classrooms across NYC

24. LADDERS FOR LEADERS Internship and professional development program for young New Yorkers emphasizing 21st century skills and education

25. LINK (LEVERAGING INNOVATIONS & OUR NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY): LEARN AS YOU EARN

Paid internship program to obtain relevant, in-demand skills, work experience, wage and credits alongside classes

26. LINK: DIGITALWORK NYC Participants train to complete digital tasks, build employment history, and create pathways to digital jobs while earning money

27. LINK: IMMIGRANT BRIDGE Career counseling, low-interest loans, licensing paths, job placement for foreign-trained immigrants with high demand skills

28. MADE IN NY MEDIA CENTER BY IFP Incubator, co-working space, classes, gallery & screening room where innovators learn, share ideas, and build businesses

29. “MADE IN NY” TALKS: TECH Career panels featuring digital media practicioners and leaders

30. MOUSE Organization that empowers underserved middle and high school students to learn, lead and create with technology

31. NYC GENERATION TECH Provides hands-on learning and mentorship for high school students interested in tech-based innovations

32. NYC STEPS Program offered at Family Justice Centers to prepare participants for careers in the technology sector

33. OATS: OLDER ADULTS TECHNOLOGY SERVICES Brings technology skills to New Yorkers aged 60 and over through community programs and online resources

34. P-TECH (PATHWAYS IN TECHNOLOGY EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL) Unique grade 9-14 applied science school that prepares students for competitive jobs in the IT industry

35. PUBLIC LIBRARY PROGRAMS Classes offered throughout Brooklyn, New York and Queens Public Library systems on digital literacy

36. RECYOUTH: REEL EDUCATION FOR YOUTH Multimedia extracurricular program for teens that teaches digital skills for creative media production

37. SCHOLARS AT WORK Brooklyn Tech Triangle-based paid internship and workforce development program for college students

38. SMALL BUSINESS DIGITAL TOOLKIT Training courses to help small businesses build a presence online, engage customers and expand using social media strategies

39. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PILOT PROGRAM Brings computer science and software engineering classes to students in grades 6-12 in 20 schools across NYC

40. WORKADVANCE Training program that prepares unemployed and low-wage working adults for jobs and carer growth opportunities

iZONE: IN 300 SCHOOLS WORKING WITH OVER 225,000 STUDENTS BY THE END OF 2013

Digital Education and the City of New

To learn more visit nyc.gov

THE CITY OF NEW YORK SUPPORTS MORE THAN 39 DIGITAL LITERACY AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS

N E W Y O R K C I T Y ’ S

D I G I T A L E D U C A T I O N I M P A C T :

O N E M I L L I O N E M P O W E R E D

Ensuring that New Yorkers have access to digital education resources is a critical element in Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s Digital Roadmap for New York City, enabling greater academic success, civic engagement and a healthy economy. From a basic course on using email, to sophisticated doctorate programs in engineering, the City of New York supports programs that serve over one million New Yorkers, from Kindergarteners to Senior Citizens.

The chart featured on the opposite side of this document maps City-supported digital education programs by age group and subject matter. To the right, short program descriptions offer a snapshot of content and context. For more information and to participate, visit nyc.gov.

* PART OF APPLIED SCIENCES NYC, AN INITIATIVE TO DEVELOP TOP-TIER APPLIED SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING CAMPUSES IN NYC

MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG, MAYORnyc.gov

18 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 19

oPen

goV

ernM

ent

opengovernment:enabling Innovation and transparency

Since the Digital roadmap’s introduction in 2011, the City of New York has led the nation in Open Government achievements, including the re-lease of thousands of public data sets, the convening of the first municipal hackathons and Mayor Bloom-berg’s passage of Local Law 11, the most progressive open data legislation in the country.

The impact of these initiatives are far-reaching. Beyond the development of a compelling new mobile app using City APIs or an eye-opening data visualization, the most lasting outcome is the bonds formed among technologists, government employ-ees and civic innovators.

NYC OpenData A technology framework that enables developers to effectively engage with City data is crucial to an Open Government strategy. Unlocking the vast data resources at the City’s disposal also provides a com-petitive advantage to entrepreneurs creating value and jobs in New York City. With this in mind, several months after the release of the 2011 Digital Road-map, the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications unveiled NYC OpenData, a platform supported by technology from Socrata that offers access to API-enabled data sets and a vari-ety of tools for interpreting, displaying and visualiz-ing data. At its launch, the platform offered 350 data sets; in 2013, the count has grown to 2,077.

Data sets include operational resources as well as performance metrics providing the building blocks for active civic participation and enabling the development of functional tools to improve daily

life. Popular data sets include restaurant inspection results and detailed maps of the City’s public parks. If users cannot find what they are looking for, they are able to suggest a data set via a public forum on the website.

In addition, NYC OpenData now offers free, public access to the valuable, high-demand MapPLUTO (Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output) and ACRIS (Au-tomated City Register Information System) logic and databases. MapPLUTO provides Citywide land use and geographic data from a range of agencies, merged with tax lot information. MapPLUTO information types include mass appraisal, landmark and zoning data. ACRIS offers digital access to City Register property records and document images related to real estate, including deeds, mortgages and leases.

Top 10 Most Popular Data Sets from nyc.gov/data1. Wi-Fi Hotspot Locations

2. 311 service requests From 2010 to present

3. subWay entrances

4. map oF parks

5. eLectric consumption by Zip code (2010)

6. Zip codes map

7. mta data

8. restaurant inspection resuLts

9. basic description oF coLLeges and universities

10. sat (coLLege board) 2010 scHooL LeveL resuLts

after establishing strong footing in access and edu-cation, the next step for a digital city is to cultivate an open, collaborative government culture and technol-ogy structure. open government supports transpar-ency and innovation, enabling the public to develop efficient, creative solutions to shared civic challenges.

Number of prototypes of new NYC.gov websites generated by Reinvent NYC.gov12

350 2,077At launch, NYC OpenDataplatform offered

data sets data sets

in 2013, the count has grown to

13Sustainability Apps Developed at Reinvent Green

125 Submissions to Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge

120

42NYC BigApps 2013:

517participants

spanning

$150,000

projects

offered in prize money

data providers

events throughout

the year.

20 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 21

nyc deVeloPer Portal An effective online platform that supports the developer community and connects it to Open Data resources and information is crucial to ensuring con-structive outcomes from Open Government initia-tives. Following the success of the NYC OpenData Tech Standards wiki, which provided valuable public input into the City’s data strategy, the City’s Depart-ment of Information Technology and Telecommu-nications and the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics launched the NYC Developer Portal (nyc.gov/de-velopers), a tool that brings together resources and feedback tools to support technologists using City data. The platform includes:

• User account management, including the ability to register, obtain Developer Keys for City APIs, track usage statistics and submit an application to the App Showcase

• An App Showcase that includes both official and publicly submitted mobile applications developed using City data

• A directory of all official City APIs, with de-scriptions and comment functionality

• A forum for developer feedback, questions and suggestions

• Centralized links to the City’s OpenData Plat-form, NYC BigApps and the OpenData Tumblr presenting compelling data visualizations

• A listing of upcoming technology events rel-evant to Open Government initiatives

hacKathonsIn the summer of 2011, months after the introduc-tion of the Roadmap, the City of New York con-vened the first municipal hackathon in the United States, Reinvent NYC.gov. A hackathon is a collab-orative developer event in which technologists build tools serving a shared goal within a short, specified time constraint — often culminating in public dem-onstrations and prizes for winning innovations. By creating an environment that encourages experimen-tation, minimizes risk and establishes a timetable that requires rapid prototyping, hackathons are a valuable way to spark organizational innovation.

The aim of the Reinvent NYC.gov hackathon, organized by NYC Digital, was to design and build

a more modern iteration of NYC.gov, the City’s website. Over 100 volunteer designers, developers, technology partners and City employees participat-ed in the 48-hour event, hosted in coworking space donated by General Assembly. The outcomes set a new bar for civic collaboration, as teams delivered 12 working prototypes of new NYC.gov websites and established design references that would pave the way for the modern, intuitive user experience of the recently updated NYC.gov. Winning designs were user-centric and informed by web traffic analytics and current interaction standards such as predictive search and mobile design. Reinvent NYC.gov proved a powerful way for the public to impact New York City’s digital strategy, helping to shape the future of civic engagement and creating lasting bonds be-tween government employees and technologists.

Building on the success of Reinvent NYC.gov, the City subsequently hosted Reinvent Green. Reinvent Green, the brainchild of the Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability, was jointly hosted with NYU-Poly, Brooklyn Beta and NYC Digital, and drew over 100 participants who produced 13 functional web and app prototypes that aimed to make the lives of New Yorkers greener and greater.

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

In addition to more than 2,000 data sets, the City of New York today offers access to six Applica-tion Programming Interfaces (APIs) to the public, enabling developers to build real-time applications that enhance urban life. APIs require Developer Key registration via the NYC Developer Portal, and include:

CheCkbook NyC 2.0—The Checkbook NYC 2.0 API offers access to the annual budget of the City of New York, including documentation links for contracts, spending and payroll domains.

City hall data Feed—This RSS Feed provides the latest news, announcements and emergency alerts issued by the Mayor’s press office.

dot data Feed—This API provides access to a range of data resources from the Department of Trans-portation (DOT), including traffic advisories, street construction worksites, the bicycle parking and cycling map, Staten Island Ferry status, alternate side parking and parking regulation status, low bridge locations, truck routes, and closed streets. The API also offers feeds from traffic cameras and traffic speed detectors.

hpd data Feed—Maintained by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, this feed offers access to data related to buildings, charges, complaints, litigation, registrations and violations.

GeosuppoRt api—Geosupport allows developers to use Department of City Planning’s location-naming conventions, correlating addresses to a Building Identification Number (BIN) and using BIN as a key to link all that the City knows about a location.

opeN311 iNquiRy api—Open311 provides access to City services, facilities and frequently asked ques-tions based on the information of the City 311 customer service department.

Developer Engagement: Hackathons, Portals and CompetitionsProviding the raw materials needed to collaborate is critical, but the greater challenge is catalyzing the participation of the developer and data science community to engage with that data in meaningful, productive ways. Through a combination of events, competitions and digital tools, the City of New York has launched several initiatives to support successful outcomes from Open Government initiatives.

NYC OpenData platform.

A winning design from the 2011 Reinvent NYC.gov Hackathon.

22 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 23

To provide inspiration and strategic guidance, participants were equipped with extensive app wishlists that reflected public demands and infor-mation requests. Concepts ranged from FreshFix, a location-based mobile tool that allows the public to find green markets nearby, to GreenCan, an app that enables the public to enter any kind of trash item and identify the closest appropriate waste receptacle. The Reinvent Green hackathon led to the release of 20 new, high-value data sets, and the apps developed will serve as models for future tools.

The third and most recent event in the Reinvent series was the Reinvent Payphones Design Chal-lenge, an unprecedented competition to engage the brightest minds in design, technology and urban planning to imagine the future of public, urban communications systems. With the City’s network of nearly 8,000 public pay telephones as its sandbox, contest hosts Department of Information Technol-ogy and Telecommunications asked participants to create prototypes that served the evolving com-munications needs of a diverse public and provided critical support in emergency situations. Participants had three months to complete and digitally submit their concepts and benefited from background resources and public information sessions with City officials such as the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, the Department of City Planning and the Department of Transportation. At the conclu-sion of the challenge, the City received more than 125 outstanding submissions, and with the help of the competition’s judging panel, named six winners. Several participants developed impressive physical prototypes, with features including Wi-Fi mesh net-works, mobile device and electric vehicle charging stations, community art installations, urban environ-ment sensors and displays with gesture recognition to increase hygiene.

The winning concepts of Reinvent Payphones will be incorporated into the formal Request for Propos-als to be issued by the City of New York when the City’s current franchise expires in 2014. Thanks to the creativity and vision of hundreds of designers, architects, technologists and researchers, New York City has an opportunity to chart the future of public communications in urban areas aided by this col-laborative public planning process.

Since the introduction of the Digital Roadmap, the City has independently hosted six hackathons, including events organized by NYC BigApps and the Department of Consumer Affairs. In addition, the City has participated in more than 20 external hackathons, ranging from HackNY to Techcrunch Disrupt—fostering deeper collaboration with the technology community.

NYC BigApps: A Competition to Spark InnovationsNow in its fourth year, NYC BigApps was one of the first public application competitions to launch in the United States, providing incentives for the creation of digital tools fueled by public data. NYC Big-Apps capitalizes on the City’s landmark open data initiatives, offering prizes and exposure that help to encourage new businesses, critical tools and broader awareness of the valuable data offered by the City.

For the fourth NYC BigApps, DoITT and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) partnered with CollabFinder, a locally-based platform for matching independent projects and talented team members. 2013 participants were asked to address the theme of “BigIssues,” focusing on developing apps that improve Jobs and Economic Mobility, Lifelong Learning, Healthy Living, and Sustainable Living for City residents. With 517 participants, 120 projects, $150,000 in prize money, 42 data providers and 13 events throughout the year, this year’s BigApps competition was the most suc-cessful event to-date.

Introducing Code Corps: Linking Volunteer Technologists with Lifesaving Digital ProjectsOpen government initiatives take on a different dimension during emergency situations, as public and private sectors work together to deliver critical information and build powerful tools. During Hur-ricanes Irene and Sandy, the availability of accurate, actionable open data such as hurricane evacuation zones enabled vital City updates to reach millions more people than through City channels alone. Perhaps the most crucial examples are the various third-party interactive hurricane evacuation zone maps that allowed the public to input an address and determine evacuation status instantly.

In addition to the City’s own powerful map, built using the Google Maps API, several other external entities expanded the visibility of this information, including Google, The New York Times and WNYC.org. Altogether, these tools reached millions more New Yorkers, leveraging existing audiences and de-livering factual information from City sources. This

top: Smart Side-walks, winner of Best Functionality. Image courtesy of Chorpash/ Snyder/Napawan /Namara/Busse/Ganes/Foster. BeLow: NYC I/O: The Responsive City, winner of Best in Community Impact. Image courtesy of Control Group/Titan.

NYC BigApps 2013 Grand Prize Win-ner HealthyOut. Image courtesy of NYCEDC.

Select BigAppS NYc 2013 WiNNerS / cHiLdcare desk • HeaLtHyout* • HeLping Hands • Hired in ny • HopscotcH • poncHo • soLarList *Overall Winner

24 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 25

decentralized, collaborative approach is at the heart of Open Government, and engages non- government entities as active partners in innovative service delivery.

code corPsBuilding on these successes, and accelerating the ability of New York City government to partner on technology initiatives beyond those enabled by the NYC OpenData platform, in February 2013, Mayor Bloomberg announced the launch of Code Corps. Inspired by Hurricane Sandy, when hundreds of volunteers offered their technical expertise to support City disaster response and recovery efforts, Code Corps is a group of technology companies, nonprofits and academic institutions with advance legal clearance and strategic vetting that enables them to work with the City in emergency situations. Currently, interested partners include:

• Code for America, NYC Brigade• Codecademy• Columbia, Institute for Data Sciences

and Engineering• Cornell Tech• Etsy• Facebook• General Assembly• Homepolish NYC• Kaggle• MongoDB• New York Tech Meetup• New York University, Center for Urban

Science and Progress• New York University, Department of

Computer Science• NYU-Poly, Entrepreneurship and

Innovation Association• Octopart• Rent the Runway• Sparkrelief• Twitter NY

To support Code Corps, and to collaborate with the external partners on team-building projects during non-emergency situations, the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics and NYC Digital partnered to launch the Data Advisory & Research Taskforce (DART), a group of the City’s foremost data experts. DART meets monthly to discuss data policy, strategy, part-nerships and new ideas to advance the City’s Open Government efforts.

DART MembersemiLy asHton, department oF HeaLtH and mentaL Hygiene

JeFF cHen, Fire department

cHristopHer corcoran, mayor’s oFFice oF data anaLytics

JosHua FLorsHeim, department oF buiLdings

micHaeL FLoWers, mayor’s oFFice oF data anaLytics

Lauren givner , nyc service

racHeL Haot, nyc digitaL

ivy Li, nyc digitaL

JacqueLine Lu, department oF parks and recreation

Jim mcconneLL, oFFice oF emergency management

micHaeL porter , department oF HeaLtH and mentaL Hygiene

coLin reiLLy. department oF inFormation tecHnoLogy and teLecommunications

Lynn seirup, oFFice oF emergency management

danieL starobin, department oF sanitation

katHerine WinningHam, LaW department

26 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 27

enga

geM

ent

engagement:new ways to connect with nyc government

in order to constantly measure success and refine best practices across more than 340 social media channels, City government agencies begin their digital engagement plans by setting the perfor-mance goal they plan to meet and then research and identify the right technology and tool to reach their constituency and achieve their aims.

Overview of the City’s Digital Reach

The City’s digital engagement strategy is based on le-veraging the social media platforms and digital tools with the highest adoption rates by New Yorkers. Today, those channels include the official govern-ment website NYC.gov, mobile texting programs, newsletters, smartphone applications and social media platforms such as Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube.

The total size of the City’s digital reach is 7.5 mil-lion, with an approximately even split between the City’s average monthly web traffic to its destination website nyc.gov (3.7 million) and those who follow or subscribe to its third-party digital media channels (3.7 million). This reflects a significant increase in the number of New Yorkers using social media to connect with New York City government. Since the

release of the Digital Roadmap in May 2011, the City’s social media audience has more than tripled, growing from 1.2 million to a current peak of 3.7 million social media followers across 340 channels.

Overall, the City’s digital reach has nearly doubled since the introduction of the Roadmap, increasing from 4 million in 2011 to 7.48 million in 2013, an increase of 85%.

The New NYC.govWith over 35 million unique annual visitors, one million pages and thousands of services, NYC.gov is the digital manifestation of New York City govern-ment. It is a powerful tool with nearly limitless potential to impact the future of government by streamlining complex processes, surfacing critical information and enhancing the lives of New Yorkers by connecting them to events, programs, services and civic engagement.

With this in mind, the City began a process in 2011 to redesign NYC.gov with an emphasis on usability, consistency, accessibility and scalability. The goal was not merely to meet standards for existing munic-ipal web destinations, but to provide a superior expe-rience that rivals the best-designed, most intuitive platforms across both public and private sectors—

The way that New Yorkers communicate and connect with one another is changing rapidly, and for govern-ment to continue to be effective, it must evolve in parallel. Digital engagement is the fourth element in the Digital roadmap, steered by a data-driven, goals-oriented approach. with a monthly digital audience of 7.5 million, the City of New York is committed to serving and informing New Yorkers on their own terms, on the digital devices, platforms and media most familiar to them.

1.2M + =

3.7MCity of new York’s

Social Media Audience

7.48M

4M

New York City’sDigital Reach

*Since the introduction of The Digital Roadmap

85% increase

(2011)

(2011)

Average monthly webtraffic to nyc.gov

*Since @nyc.gov’s social media launch last year

Facebook followers100,000

Twier followers100,000

Foursquare Friends56,000

Tumblr followers34,000

300Questionsansweredon Twier

2,000Tweets bycity agencies

200,000New subscriberson social media

320,000Facebook usersshared content

1MYoutube views of Mayoral pressconferences

HURRICANE

SANDY

3.7M

28 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 29

and to set a new bar for government websites.

the reInVent nyc.goV hacKathonThe first step was to convene Reinvent NYC.gov, a hackathon described in the Open Government section that drew over 100 volunteer participants and produced 12 working prototypes imagining the future of NYC.gov. Technologists were encouraged to approach the challenge with a “blank slate,” and their work dramatically reimagined the City’s user experience. At the conclusion of the hackathon, a panel of judges from the City and technology com-munity awarded five groups prizes, ranging from Best User Interface to Most Social.

the request For ProPosalsThe winning ideas were included as design referenc-es in the City’s official Request for Proposals (RFP) to redesign the City’s website, directly impacting the future design of the site and kicking off the initiative with a collaborative approach inclusive of the City’s leading designers, developers and civic technolo-gists. Seventeen interactive firms responded to the City’s RFP for NYC.gov, and after extensive evalu-ation, the City selected HUGE Inc, a digital agency based in DUMBO, Brooklyn, as the highest-rated respondent.

Guided by input from the public, informed by visitor metrics and influenced by the successful customer service approach of 311, NYC.gov has been rede-signed to put the user first.

the new nyc.goVIn September 2013, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the new NYC.gov. In line with the priorities first articu-lated in the Mayor’s 2011 Digital Roadmap, the new website is driven by five core objectives:

1. Anticipate user needs based on traffic and search data2. Respond to requests with improved search results via optimization of Google Search Appliance3. Serve users with improved digital customer ser-vice functionality4. Inform New Yorkers of important news and pro-grams with dynamic content and accessible language5. Engage visitors on any device and digital screen,

with a range of social features that enhance their lives and extend to where they live online.

Through a collaborative process with HUGE, the City identified service priorities, researched website analytics and used informative methods such as card sorting and live usability testing to identify user needs.

Today, the new website reflects that public input and research, featuring enhancements to the following elements:

Search EnhancementsThe ability to locate relevant information is critical to successfully navigating the vast resources of NYC.gov. To that end, the overhaul of NYC.gov included significant optimization of the website’s search engine. Leveraging Google Search Appliance, the search tool indexes hundreds of thousands of pages, and following optimization, it now provides more accurate, relevant results to queries and the ability to filter by media format. In addition, to accommodate those with visual impairments, users are able to filter out PDFs, which are not easily accessed via screen readers.

Navigation and Top ContentThe website’s updated homepage and navigation are based on high-demand content and services to help visitors find what they are looking for right away. The new homepage and portal navigation immediately prioritize links to top content, such as jobs with the City of New York. In addition, the website promi-nently displays real-time status updates on Alternate Side Parking, waste collection and school status—which together represent the top driver of questions to the City’s 311 customer service system.

Look & FeelNYC.gov’s overall “look and feel” has been en-hanced to be more engaging and usable. It features a simplified, streamlined design with a brighter color palette, larger images, bigger text size and both live and on-demand video embedded directly on the homepage, enabling the user to easily search, browse information or locate programs. In order to make City information and updates more accessible to

The New NYC.gov

30 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 31

the public, images are larger and easier to view, and key facts are highlighted as part of every announce-ment, accompanied by a direct link to the service, program or agency. Throughout the new design, users are able to more seamlessly share content to social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+, encouraging more New Yorkers to discover relevant resources.

AccessibilityTo engage and support all users, the new NYC.gov website is accessible in over 100 languages and surpasses Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. To support translation needs, search engine optimization and the use of screen readers for the visually impaired, all text is machine-readable and all images must provide alternate captions. This means, for example, that the title of a page will not be presented within an image file, which is not recognizable to most electronic screen readers. In addition, the website’s greater contrast and larger fonts makes it more accessible to the elderly and oth-ers with visual impairments.

Customer Service: The 311 Booker and the 311 WebsiteNYC.gov now more deeply integrates 311 customer service content and functionality into its homep-age, reflecting the high volume of web traffic related to 311. Users can now launch a service request or find 311 information directly from the homepage of NYC.gov, whether by browsing NYC Resources or using the 311 Booker. The 311 Booker is a promi-nently featured NYC.gov tool that expands like an accordion as the user specifies the nature of a complaint, payment transaction or the information request. From the 311 Booker, users can also enter an address to find local resources for that location.For example, through My Neighborhood, entering an address provides:

• School district• Police precinct• Garbage and recycling collection schedule• Community board• Borough block & lot number (BBL)—used as

an identifier in important City records systems

The 311 Booker is also present on the newly re-vamped homepage of 311, which also leads with the 15 top 311 requests, dynamically updated via API to reflect and resolve timely concerns as they emerge. Further down the page, 311 offers a useful status bar—a clear and concise dashboard that provides in-formation about status and service interruptions for Alternate Side Parking, garbage collection, schools, MTA subway system and emergency alerts from Notify NYC. At the base of the page, 311 highlights City social media feeds as well as links to download official apps and view the 311 Service Request Map, which presents a constantly updated map of recent 311 requests.

NYC.gov in Emergencies: Keeping New Yorkers Safe (page 35)In order to safely and effectively engage the public during emergency scenarios, the new NYC.gov includes a range of features to facilitate communica-tion and the exchange of information.

In the event of severe and imminent emergencies impacting the majority of New Yorkers, the City will temporarily replace its typical homepage with a pared down, simple design limited to content related to the emergency situation, such as travel interrup-tions, safety announcements and links to resources. To enable the website to load on devices that may have limited connectivity, the emergency layout is devoid of images, and videos are linked but not directly embedded throughout the duration of the emergency.

My Neighborhood feature of 311 Booker.

32 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 33

Nyc.gov | 11

311 Page Emergency Homepage

34 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 35

In order to fully leverage the reach of NYC.gov, during an emergency situation, the headers of all

NYC.gov pages will display an alert banner that links to the temporary emergency homepage.

Design for Mobile and Tablet UsersOne of the most compelling elements in the new NYC.gov design is its fully responsive framework. This means that whether the website is accessed on a desktop computer, a smartphone or a tablet, on a browser of any size, its look and feel will be seamlessly optimized and easy to navigate. NYC.gov accomplishes this via a single code base, making maintenance more manageable as elements of the website evolve.

Providing a website that is easily viewed on mobile devices is crucial to the success of NYC.gov because a significant and growing percentage of visitors access the City’s destination property via mobile devices. Today 25% of traffic to NYC.gov occurs on mobile browsers, and that number is projected to increase as smartphone adoption expands further.

Improving Content NavigabilityFor more intuitive browsing, the City refreshed the NYC.gov information architecture to reduce redun-

dancy, reflect public requests for content and more prominently feature 311-provided information on a wide range of City services. The new architecture is visible on the homepage and in the NYC Resources section, where the Categories section features easy-to-understand information on the services and pro-grams critical to civic life in New York City. Informa-tion is organized by content category, not agency, so that users do not need to know the actionable owner of function to resolve their concerns.

In addition, City content has been modified to make it easier to find and browse a range of resources at a glance. These include the introduction of new, highly visual, easy-to-navigate directories for agencies, pro-grams, social media channels, mobile applications and newsletters. Users can filter by ten consistent content categories, and new social media channels and mobile applications are regularly highlighted. In addition, responding to strong interest in City employment, the Mayor’s Office of Operations led the redesign of the City’s Jobs section, which brings together all employment-related resources for job seekers in one convenient location. Finally, as part of an ongoing development project, the City’s Department of Finance has made it easier to send payments digitally.

Users can also more easily browse and discover public events and activities by borough and inter-est, taking advantage of the all the City has to offer. Events are mapped using the Google Maps API for accessibility and sharable via social media.

To support civic engagement, the City has also introduced a Civic Toolkit, a resource in checklist form that consolidates a wide range of information and tools that help New Yorkers engage in civic life, from voting and polling locations, to schools and public services.

The City’s agencies also have access to a newly designed Agency Template that provides a more modern, engaging look and feel, and a more intui-tive navigation. The Agency Template is modular in nature, so that agencies can pick and choose from among a range of design and functionality elements to customize the template to their own needs and

goals. Transitioning agencies sites to the new tem-plate is currently in progress, and slated for the next phase of NYC.gov, beginning in late 2013.

A Strategic Approach to Digital Engagement: Leadership and CoordinationGreater strategic guidance and organizational leader-ship, coupled with an organic increase in New York-ers’ adoption of social media, has fueled the growth of the City’s digital scope. With the introduction of best practices guidelines, the Engage NYC summit, a policy advisory committee, workshops, style guides and customized consultation, the City’s digital content producers have increased their mastery of new platforms and the City’s audience has grown exponentially.

custoMIZed consultIngFor agencies seeking advice, NYC Digital functions as an in-house consultancy, providing one-on-one guid-ance on overall digital engagement strategy aligned with agency goals, including elements such as social media platform evaluation, measurement tools, online advertising, crowdsourcing and public competitions.

a starter KIt oF dIgItal MedIa resourcesTo equip agencies for success, when a new social media channel launches, its owner receives a range of helpful resources, including best practices, how-tos and style guides. To support the growth of the new channel, NYC Digital announces the channel and encourages all City agencies to promote it via an internal newsletter and welcomes new channels on the @nycgov channel.

cItywIde socIal MedIa dashboardAs introduced in the 2011 Digital Roadmap, the need for a Citywide social media management platform is crucial to supporting an approach to social media that is coordinated, data-driven and constantly measured. In 2011, as agencies indepen-dently used several systems, there was no unified

Mobile and tablet versions of NYC.gov

36 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 37

way of measuring social media growth across all of the City’s properties, and making it difficult to evaluate best practices and improve. To improve coordination, the City issued an RFP to select a social media dashboard, and vendor Hootsuite emerged as the highest scoring option. Thanks to the implementation of social media management tool Hootsuite, agency social media managers have enhanced tools that allow them to schedule content publication, manage constituent engagement and analyze growth.

In addition, the Hootsuite Citywide social media dashboard has proved invaluable in emergency situ-ations, as administrators and City hall officials are able to more effectively field questions and respond to requests from across City functions and agencies. Through publication tools, it also helps to serve the City’s objectives for informing the public in urgent scenarios, by enabling the simultaneous publication of a single message across many different platforms to amplify a crucial update.

engage nyc suMMItThe annual Engage NYC event has emerged as a valuable forum for professional development and the celebration of digital success stories in the City. Now in its third year, Engage NYC convenes approximately 200 digital professionals in City gov-ernment for a program that features presentations on winning engagement strategies by Facebook, Foursquare, Google +, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube, as well as awards and spotlight videos on standout agency use of social media. The summit is free of charge for all to attend, thanks to generous donations by venue partners.

sMart, the socIal MedIa adVIsory & research tasKForceThe City’s Social Media Advisory & Research Task-

force (SMART) was first established by NYC Digital in 2011, and features 17 of the City’s leading digital media experts. The group meets monthly to discuss social media policy, the approval of new platforms for use, notable recent digital media initiatives and overall City strategy. With a range of agency back-grounds including the Parks Department, NYPD, 311 and the Department of Transportation, SMART members bring great depth and variety of experience to the table. Since the group’s launch, SMART has approved six new social platforms for use, finalized Citywide social media protocol for emergency situ-ations, advised on the Digital Roadmap and assisted in the planning of Engage NYC.

User-Centric Social Media and Digital Tools

nycgoV on FacebooK, Foursquare, tuMblr and twItterIn line with the City’s simple, intuitive approach to social media, in early 2012 Mayor Bloomberg announced the launch of NYCgov, a new, one-stop suite of social media channels on Facebook, Foursquare, Tumblr and Twitter. NYCgov curates from across the City’s 340 social media channels, sharing crucial information, emergency alerts, major announcements, program deadlines and free events that span dozens of agencies and programs. NYCgov provides an accessible window into City news, supporting greater civic engagement without overwhelming the user. While the City’s 340 social media channels provide in-depth expertise on a range of topics from public schools to emergency preparedness, subscribing to all 340 feeds may not be a manageable option for the average user.

Left: Hootsuite social media man-agement dashboard. Image courtesy of Hootsuite. right: Engage NYC Summit at Google New York headquarters.

NYCgov on social media. top: Image courtesy of Facebook. MiddLe: Image courtesy of Twitter. aBove: Image courtesy of Bitly.

SMART Members:barbara cHen, nypd

JeFFrey escoFFier , department oF HeaLtH and mentaL Hygiene

micHaeL FLoWers, oFFice oF poLicy and strategic pLanning

Frances gonZaLeZ, 311

ian LeFkoWitZ, department oF parks and recreation

aLLison cerra, oFFice oF emergency management

robin Lester kenton, department oF transportation

amanda konstam, mayor's oFFice

adam kuban, nyc & company

JoHn Laduca, department oF education

cHristopHer Long, department oF inFormation tecHnoLogy and teLecommunications

stepHen Louis, LaW department

emiLy raHimi, Fdny

margot scHLoss, mayor's oFFice

trista sordiLLo, economic deveLopment corporation

katHerine WinningHam, LaW department

JuLie Wood, mayor's oFFice

38 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 39

With that challenge in mind, the NYCgov channel provides a vital link to the City’s critical information, edited from among all outgoing information, at a pace and quantity that is easy to consume.

NYCgov channels are located at facebook.com/nycgov, foursquare.com/nycgov, nycgov.tumblr.com and @nycgov on Twitter. As part of the launch, both Four-square and Tumblr donated significant resources to the City: Foursquare provided the City’s “Big Apple Badge” pro-bono, and Tumblr developed a custom NYCgov theme—including a pixelated skyline graphic that changes color based on real-time video feeds of New York City—at no cost. Both Four-square and Tumblr are locally-based social media platforms with strong followings.

Since their launch last year, the feeds on Facebook and Twitter have grown to over 100,000 followers each. Foursquare has more than 56,000 friends who are able to view tips and lists on how to enjoy New York City’s public spaces, and the City’s Tumblr blog has more than 34,000 followers.

BitlyIn addition to investing in the City’s own social me-dia channels, making it simple and seamless to share content from NYC.gov is crucial to New York City’s online engagement strategy. Thanks to a pro-bono donation from local startup Bitly, the City’s website NYC.gov now has its own custom link shortener via Bitly: on.nyc.gov. Link shortening is important because most specific website URL addresses are too long to share on platforms such as Twitter, which imposes a character limit on content.

With the City’s custom link shortener, instead of a generic brand, official content is clearly identified as affiliated with the City of New York from the outset. In addition, Bitly provides a valuable analytics tools that help digital media producers for the City of New York identify high-demand content and learn which social media platforms are most conducive to social sharing - enabling City communicators to custom-tailor efforts for efficiency and effectiveness.

To date, City employees and site visitors have cre-ated over 160,000 Bitly links, and since launch users have clicked more than 1.5 million times on nyc.gov Bitly links.

Mobile AppsMonths after the introduction of the Digital Roadmap in 2011, the City launched its first App Hub, now featuring 14 official City apps available in iOS and Android. The most popular apps include ABCEats, which enables New Yorkers to instantly look up the health inspection grades and records of restaurants nearby, and NYC 311, which accepts the most common 311 service types and allows users to look up the status of previous requests.

Citywide Listening Sessions for Digital Policy

In addition to the opportunities afforded by digital channels for ongoing civic dialogue, the City has launched its own “meetup,” a group that convenes in-person to discuss shared interests. The @nycgov meetup group, available at meetup.com/nycgov, has over 700 members and focuses on digital strategy and policy input.

To date, the in-person @nycgov meetups have drawn hundreds of participants across the City, engaging New Yorkers with diverse backgrounds and levels of technology fluency on the topics of the

Digital Roadmap: access, education, open govern-ment, engagement and technology industry support. From Staten Island to the Bronx, Queens to Brook-lyn, participants have suggested powerful ideas and thoughtful feedback on the City’s initiatives, and their work will help to shape New York City’s overall digital strategy.

Expanding 311, the City’s Customer Service Platform, for the Digital AgeOriginally established in 2003 as a toll-free tele-phone hotline for locals to report non-emergency concerns and ask questions about civic services, today 311 processes over 19 million requests per year. 311 is both a powerful tool for navigating City government, and one of the earliest examples of crowdsourcing; providing valuable insights into the needs of New Yorkers by analyzing request data.

Since the launch of the Digital Roadmap in 2011, 311 has added support to new channels that em-brace the changing way New Yorkers communicate. To connect to 311, New Yorkers can:

• Make a request or look up a ticket status on nyc.gov

• Send a text message (SMS) to 311-692• Call 311 or (212) NEW-YORK (212-639-9675)

from outside New York City• Skype NYC311• Contact using a TTY or Text Telephone at

(212) 504-4115.• Engage with @nyc311 on Twitter• Download the 311 app for iPhone or Android

Specifically, 311 now responds to all Twitter mes-sages directed at @NYC311, shifting to Direct Mes-sage (DM) when personal information is required. In addition, digital services have been enhanced as new request types, such as noise complaints, have been added to online channels. 311 also released an Android smartphone application and upgraded its 311 iPhone application to accept more service types, look up the status of previous service requests and receive Alternate Side Parking alerts if desired.

Online, 311 has begun to pilot live chat functional-ity for select service types, leveraging best practices from the world’s largest digital customer service plat-forms. And via the new 311 webpage, New Yorkers access an even clearer, simpler interface for resolving their needs, as described earlier.

In addition to coming to where New Yorkers live online and creating more choices for engaging with the City that reflect the preferences of constituents, these digital improvements improve customer ser-vice and efficiency across the board by reducing wait times for phone service.

Altogether, today 15% of 311 requests are processed digitally, a significant increase over 2011, when 4% of requests were processed digitally.

SMS as a Tool for EngagementIn addition to 311, a number of City agencies includ-ing the Department of Education, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Human Resources Administration (HRA) have begun to use SMS short codes to engage their constituents. Based on informal surveys to its clients, HRA found that

far right: NYC 311 iPhone app.

Mayor Bloomberg updates New Yorkers on City's response to Hurricane Sandy.

40 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 41

in one view. In addition, users can track specific keywords or hashtags to identify concerns such as power outages or flooding and publish reports reflecting trends in mentions over time.

As the City’s digital staff encounters recurring ques-tions, the City may issue public announcements from official social media feeds, or the Mayor may include them in press updates. For specific, personal questions, the City’s digital teams may respond directly via Facebook or Twitter; during Hurricane Sandy the City answered over 300 questions on Twitter alone.

To ensure complete messaging consistency across its 340 social media channels, the City of New York also activates an emergency scenario social media pro-tocol in disaster situations. This protocol centralizes all approvals of outgoing content, involving senior legal, operations and communications staff to ensure accuracy amid rapidly changing conditions.

Even with the increased oversight, City agencies were able to quickly and effectively publish content throughout Hurricane Sandy, sending over 2,000 tweets. The public response to the City’s digital engagement was resoundingly positive. Messages in-cluded one from @ninanyc on Twitter that, “Twitter = #1 thing that kept us informed during the black-out. Super useful to get @NYCMayorsOffice tweets as texts.” Another user, @visitordesign expressed, “credit to @nycgov for being so responsive to people looking for info. hard to imagine a personal resource like that 10 yrs ago.”

Quantitative data also shows the positive reception by New Yorkers. Over the two weeks surrounding Hurricane Sandy, the City saw record growth in its digital communities, gaining nearly 200,000 new subscribers on social media and reaching a peak Facebook reach of over 320,000 as audience mem-bers shared content with their networks.

In addition, the City streamed live video of every Mayoral press conference and update, later provid-ing access to video on-demand via YouTube. The public viewed those videos almost one million times throughout the course of the storm.

Digital PartnershipsThe pro-bono support of technology companies and nonprofits during Hurricane Sandy and other emergencies has been crucial to serving and inform-ing New Yorkers. During both Hurricane Irene and Sandy, Twitter donated promoted tweets to @NYC-MayorsOffice, enabling vital messages to reach hun-dreds of thousands more people in New York City. During both storms, the City also worked with the Google Crisis Response group, sharing geographic data related to hurricane evacuation zones, shelters and other resources that the Google team integrated into its public Google Crisis Map. Through the municipal data-fueled interactive maps developed and promoted by Google, the City reached at least one million more individuals, more than doubling its reach.

nearly all New Yorkers have access to either a smart-phone or feature phone, making SMS an extremely accessible means of communication.

One example of SMS in action is the “TXT-2-Work” program. For New Yorkers who receive cash assistance, food stamps or temporary housing, TXT-2-Work provides real-time alerts on local job openings that match their field of expertise. Previ-ously, it could take up to 12 days for a job listing to reach a potential applicant; now New Yorkers receive notifications within hours. Today over 11,000 HRA clients are subscribed to TXT-2-Work, and in addi-tion to job alerts, subscribers benefit from personal-ized responses to their questions.

Digital Crowdsourcing and Engagement in Emergency SituationsWhen Hurricane Sandy descended on New York City, rapid communication was critical to disaster response efforts, keeping the public informed and providing an invaluable window into the needs of New Yorkers. Throughout Hurricane Sandy, digital engagement played an unprecedented role in response and recovery, reflecting both record levels of public adoption of social media and the coordi-nated efforts of City employees. Hurricane Sandy also built on the lessons learned during Hurricane Irene, and since the launch of the Digital Roadmap in 2011, the City has instituted policy and strategy changes to support engagement and crowdsourcing in emergencies.

Social MediaThanks to the Citywide social media dashboard, in emergency scenarios senior City government staff are able to more effectively field and assess concerns from the public across hundreds of social media channels at a glance. All City channels from Twitter and Facebook are loaded to the platform, enabling administrative users to view all incoming comments and input from across the City’s digital community

Official Apps from the City of New York:

abceats

caLcutter

“made in ny ” discount vendors

nyc 311

nyc buiLdings

nyc city HaLL

nyc condom

nyc media

nycrecycLes

nyc stuFF excHange

nypd

teens in nyc protection+

WaterontHego.nyc

you tHe man

42 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 43

Industry:technology-Fueled economic growth

Indu

stry

with New York City’s base of achievement in Infrastructure, education, open government and engagement, New York City’s technology Industry is in prime position to flourish as the fifth element of the Digital roadmap. over the past three years, New York City’s technology companies have experienced powerful growth, with over $8.3 billion of acquisitions in 2012 alone. New York City has surpassed boston to become the nation’s second most venture capital funded area after silicon Valley, and added over 8,700 technology jobs in 2012.

Reports also reinforce the City as a magnet for entrepreneurs, stating that there are more startups in New York City than any other U.S. city. Finally, the We Are Made in NY initiative recently certified its 1,000th technology company as Made in NY—meaning it is locally headquartered and bases at least 75% of its development in New York City.

Together these indicators tell a powerful story of economic development in New York City. Sustain-ing and growing this momentum is critical to New York City’s future, as technology roles and ventures represent one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy, providing future jobs to New Yorkers and developing innovations that help improve daily life.

To highlight the technology sector and increase its visibility, Mayor Bloomberg has visited more than 20 technology companies and organizations since the release of the Digital Roadmap, including Boxee, Buzzfeed, Efficiency 2.0, Etsy, Facebook, Four-square, General Assembly, Google, Internet Week NY, MongoDB, NY Tech Meetup, On Deck, Seam-less, Spotify, TechStars, Tumblr, Twitter, Yelp, Urban Compass and Warby Parker. Each visit is an oppor-tunity for Mayor Bloomberg to express his support of industry leaders, drawing on his own experience as a successful technology entrepreneur.

40%

$1MREAL ESTATE GRANTS

44 STARTUPS

High school & collegestudents connectedwith internships at

New York Citytechnology companies

$8.3 BILLIONin technology acquisitions

provided by Take the H.E.L.M.to companies relocating tolower manhaan locations

1,047SMALL BUSINESS OWNERSand entrepreneurs have completed theSmall Business Digital Toolkit course,with thousands more accessing resources

8,700new technology jobs

Entrepreneurs whocompleted the“Made in NY” StrategicSteps for Growth forMedia Executives saw a

studentsconnected

with

OVER

300

2012

AVERAGE INCREASEIN COMPANY REVENUES

OVER 1,000 TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES

#2 IN THE NATION IN VENTURE CAPITAL FUNDING

14 Information sessions hosted by NYC Tech Talent Draft at 7 universities

100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Diversity and Workforce Development in the Tech SectorInput from entrepreneurs has demonstrated that a major need of New York City technology firms is the demand for more talent to fuel the economy. A diverse, expanding workforce is critical to both the growth of New York City’s technology sec-tor, and the future of New York City residents. To support more diversity, the City of New York has unveiled a number of professional development programs that aim to introduce young New Yorkers from a variety of backgrounds to job opportunities in the tech sector.

InternshIPsIn 2012, NYC Digital convened a group of civic-minded technology companies in City Hall with the goal of introducing them to the wide range of programs that provide professional develop-ment opportunities to students. The response was overwhelming, with nearly every attendee commit-ting to either host an intern or group site visit. Since that meeting, the City of New York has connected over 300 high school and college students from diverse backgrounds with internships at technol-

44 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 45

ogy companies in New York City. Program partners include Ladders for Leaders, Summer Scholars and the Brooklyn Tech Triangle Internship Program, initiatives that blend hands-on workplace experience with professional skills development curriculum. Participants also visited a range of prominent New York City startups, including AppNexus, Facebook and Kickstarter, to gain wider exposure to the sector.

The City continues to encourage technology compa-nies to participate as internship hosts. Interested par-ties can visit the “Volunteer” tab on wearemadeinny.com to learn more.

ProFessIonal deVeloPMentFor more experienced professionals, the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, along with the Department of Small Business Services, has unveiled programs that help small business owners expand their expertise and provide training to employees. One program, the “Made in NY” Strategic Steps for Growth for Media Executives, is a nine-month executive education program that culminates with participants developing a three-year growth roadmap for their companies, under the guidance of industry leaders. More than 300 entrepreneurs have com-pleted the program, and graduates see an average increase in company revenues of 40% after taking the curriculum. The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment also offers a “Made in NY” Media Employee Training grant program designed to equip employees with new skills in emerging technology. To date, the program has awarded over $170,000 in grants to 11 businesses, including Bureau Blank, which used its funding to train staff in producing e-books, apps and interactive websites.

In addition to the above programs, the Department of Small Business Services continues to offer cer-tification to support minority- and women-owned small businesses, a program that is also highlighted on the We Are Made in NY website.

recruItIng More engIneers to new yorK cItyAnother mechanism of expanding the talent pool in New York City is supporting the recruiting needs of local companies. As most early-stage startups lack the resources to successfully participate in campus career fairs around the country, the City launched a program in 2012 designed to help technology companies attract talent. The program, NYC Tech Talent Draft, organizes information and networking sessions onsite at leading engineering campuses, and to date has hosted 14 information sessions at seven universities—connecting 800 Engineering and Computer Science students with opportunities at 44 startups.

Another means of attracting talent to New York City is the Made in NY Digital Jobs Map, part of the We Are Made in NY initiative. The map is an effective intro-duction to New York City’s technology ecosystem, featuring technology companies, venture firms and co-working spaces mapped alongside subway lines, cafes and hotels—demystifying the sector and send-ing a clear message that the City is open for business.

suPPortIng InFrastructure needs oF startuPsBeyond talent, technology companies need physical infrastructure to grow. Through the City’s network of 16 launched and forthcoming business incuba-tors across sectors and geographies, startups and small businesses have access to affordable and flexible space - more than 170,000 square feet to date - as well as support services such as educational programming and networking opportunities. This network of incubators includes NYU-Poly DUMBO Incubator, Sunshine Bronx Business Incubator and the Harlem Garage. Over 600 startup businesses and 1,000 employees are currently located at City-sponsored incubators, and together, current and past incubator companies, have raised more than $130 million in venture funding.

oppoSite page, Left to right: Mayor Bloomberg at Buzzfeed; at Boxee; at Etsy; at Efficiency 2.0; at OnDeck; at Foursquare; at Tumblr. Left: Mayor Bloomberg at Seamless. right: Mayor Bloomberg at Urban Compass.

46 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 47

vision production in New York City. In 2012, Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Oliver announced the expansion of the mark to apply to digital compa-nies that base 75% of more of their development in the New York City. To date, over 1,000 technology firms have been certified to meet this criteria, high-lighting a rich engineering culture in New York City. Made in NY companies are listed prominently on the Made in NY website and are approved to display the Made in NY mark of distinction on their own digital properties.

the websIteThe We Are Made in NY website (wearemadeinny.com) is the focal point of the initiative, aggregating resources in the areas of technology education and entrepreneurship that span many organizations and government agencies. Under the “Learn” tab, visitors can discover programs such as free digital literacy courses at public library branches, afterschool coding courses for students, technology sector internships and advanced degrees in Computer Science in the new Cornell Tech campus. The “Launch” tab is for entrepreneurs who want to take their startups to the next level in New York City, presenting resources such as Media Employee training grants, the ConnectNYC fiber optic infrastructure competition, the Tech Talent Draft recruiting program and vendor certification re-sources for women- and minority-owned businesses.

the MaPIn addition to “Learn” and “Launch,” the We Are Made in NY website features an interactive Jobs Map, developed using the Google Maps API, that visually illustrates the vitality and scope of New York City’s technology sector. The map features thousands of New York City technology companies across the five boroughs, including a running tally at

level domains and is leading the process. In 2013, the application of the City of New York for .nyc passed its initial approval phase, paving the way for eventual roll out following finalization of a contract with ICANN. To administer the .nyc TLD, the City is working with vendor Neustar, which manages other TLDs such as .co and us. Current ICANN timeline projects delegation for .nyc in 2014. More informa-tion is available on mydotnyc.com.

We Are Made in NY: Supporting Technology in NYCReflecting a wide range of input from technolo-gists, entrepreneurs and investors, in February 2012 Mayor Bloomberg introduced We Are Made in NY, an economic development initiative that celebrates the local technology sector, highlights job opportuni-ties, attracts new companies to New York City and presents a host of education programs that support learning at every literacy level. We Are Made in NY brings together all of the Industry initiatives of the Digital Roadmap in a single, easily accessible resource.

The Made in NY Mark of Distinction

Originally introduced by Commissioner Katherine Oliver and the Mayor’s Office of Media and Enter-tainment in 2005, and designed by @radical.media, the Made in NY Mark of distinction was created to celebrate and incentivize locally-based film and tele-

High-speed Internet connectivity to support busi-ness operations and commercial real estate condu-cive to a startup environment are both critical to helping tech startups thrive. The City of New York, led by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, has introduced the following programs to further support these demands.

Internet accessConnectNYC Fiber Challenge, first introduced in 2012, is a City-sponsored competition that allows businesses to apply for free fiber optic construction and installation. Now in its second round, Connect-NYC offers up to $14 million in fiber installation cost coverage from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) including Time Warner Cable, Optimum, Lightower, TW Telecom and Stealth Communications. In order to be eligible, technology companies must be located in New York City, have less than 500 employees and state how increased Internet speeds will improve their business’s bottom line. If selected for free installation, participants are required to commit to a one-year contract at market rates with one of the participating ISPs. Companies can apply for Connect NYC through December 12, 2013 at www.nycfiberaccess.com. The projects that the competition will fund the installation of fiber connectivity for hundreds of businesses.

In addition, to increase transparency about broad-band infrastructure among landlords and tenants of commercial and industrial real estate across New York City, NYCEDC has introduced WiredNYC. WiredNYC is a certification system that provides clear, consistent measurement scores that assess the Internet services available in New York City build-ings, informing tenants and helping landlords un-derstand and market Internet offerings. WiredNYC currently lists over 150 buildings totaling more than 100 million square feet across the five boroughs.

coMMercIal oFFIce sPaceNew York City’s five boroughs offer a wide range of real estate options to growing technology compa-nies. To highlight Lower Manhattan as a commercial real estate destination and to incentivize businesses to expand there, NYCEDC launched Take the H.E.L.M. (Hire and Expand in Lower Manhattan). To date, Take the H.E.L.M. has provided over $1 million in real estate grants to companies relocating to spaces in Lower Manhattan, including technol-

ogy organizations Booker, Grapeshot, Paperless Post, StellaStar and The Flatiron School. Now in its second round, Take the H.E.L.M. will issue an ad-ditional $1 million in funding in November 2013.

Helping Local Small Businesses Use Technology to GrowIt is critical that the innovations and momentum of the technology sector reach all New York City busi-nesses, helping them to grow, evolve and compete in the changing economy. To help non-technical businesses successfully leverage digital technology, the Department of Small Business Services (SBS) and NYC Digital partnered to produce the Small Business Digital Toolkit. The Small Business Digital Toolkit includes a curriculum taught in-person at Business Solutions Centers across the City, as well as how-to guides and videos available online, on topics such as website development, social media and e-commerce. Technology partner Mashable was instrumental in developing the curriculum, along with others including Google, ShopKeep POS, Squarespace and Weebly. Since its launch in 2012, 1,074 entrepreneurs and small business owners have completed the course, with thousands more access-ing resources via the SBS website.

Unveiling .nyc, One of the First City Top-Level Domains in the WorldEmbracing New York City’s digital landscape is equally as vital as investing in its physical landscape, and the launch of the .nyc top-level domain is a pioneering development that will support local busi-nesses, residents and organizations as it highlights their New York City origin online. As announced in the 2011 Digital Roadmap, the City of New York is among the first municipalities in the world to apply for its own top-level domain (TLD), the last part of a domain name, such as .com or .org.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) manages the delegation of top-

Left: Informational website on .NYC initiative located at mydotnyc.com. Image courtesy of Neustar. right: Interac-tive Jobs Map on wearemadeinny.com.

48 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 49

the top that states how many firms are hiring— currently over 1,300. The map also enables the user to filter listings by hiring companies, investors, co-working spaces and locally-based Made in NY startups. On the employer side, companies are able to submit their listings for inclusion on the map and often use the resources as a hiring tool.

For those outside the City, the map sends a clear message that New York City is indeed a technology hub, with thousands of opportunities across the five boroughs.

The map was initially released in partnership with Internet Week NY as a standalone site called Mapped in NY by Mayor Bloomberg in 2012, and has inspired similar local resources around the world, including maps by Milan, Rio de Janeiro, Tel Aviv, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

the caMPaIgn To increase public awareness of We Are Made in NY, the City engaged local entrepreneurs to serve as am-bassadors for the initiative. The resulting marketing campaign features six technology companies—Ap-pNexus, DoSomething.org, Etsy, Learnvest, Songza, Kickstarter—from across the five boroughs whose founders represent a diverse range of backgrounds. Images of dynamic employee teams in their offices were overlaid with the statement, “We are over 900 tech companies, hiring for more than 3,000 jobs”— a message that conveys the scale of locally headquar-tered technology companies and the enormous job opportunity that they offer. The campaign garnered over 150 million impressions from placements in outdoor media, including subway stations, buses and bus shelters, as well as digital distribution through Taxi-TV and dozens of online outlets, including BuzzFeed, Mashable, Guest of a Guest, Songza and others.

In addition to local placement, the campaign placed advertisements through social media and in the pub-lications of leading engineering schools across the country, to encourage recent graduates to explore a career in New York City.

“Made in NY” Media Center

The City is committed to supporting the growth and evolution of its creative industries—essentially, ventures at the intersection of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, or STEAM. To help achieve this goal, Mayor Bloomberg and Com-missioner Katherine Oliver announced in October 2012 the development of the "Made in NY" Media Center by IFP, a new physical space in DUMBO, Brooklyn where storytellers from multiple disci-plines such as film, video, gaming and technology collaborate across a range of training programs, industry events and special initiatives. A partnership between the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertain-ment and Independent Filmmaker Project, with par-ticipation from General Assembly and NYCEDC, the 20,000-square-foot facility includes a transmedia incubator, co-working space, café, media arts gallery and state-of-the-art screening room, and opened in October 2013.

top: Made in NY Media Center by IFP. Image courtesy of Mesh Architectures. BottoM: We Are Made in NY campaign image in subway. Image courtesy of Rachel Haot.

50 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 51

Digital Cities symposium: Collaborative Leadership

Digital Symposium participants at Internet Week NY.

To foster greater global collabor ation and innovation, in the spring of 2013 the City of New York convened the Digital Cities Symposium, a forum for exploring best practices and approaches to common challenges in the digital sphere, featur-ing 15 cities from around the world. Participants discussed their cities’ progress in the five areas of the Digital Roadmap, and concluded the day with a public presentation at Internet Week NY, where each representative highlighted a compelling local technology initiative.

The Symposium was hosted by NYC Digital in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of International Affairs and General Assembly, a technology and entrepreneurship campus.

Participants in the inaugural Digital Cities Symposium:

To continue this important dialogue, the City of New York has established the Digital Cities Council, a group of international digital practitioners that will

meet annually and exchange advice on an ongo-ing basis. The first outcome of the Digital Cities Council will be the Digital Cities Library, an online collection of case studies in the areas of access, education, open government and industry, hosted by General Assembly.

Looking ForwardThe learning curve for innovation is unending, its work never done. As the City of New York cel-ebrates and thanks its partners for making it possible to realize its inaugural Digital Roadmap, it is critical to set new goals that further raise the bar of achieve-ment.

To that end, NYC Digital has gathered input from a diverse range of New Yorkers to help shape the city’s technology strategy. Through digital media, public listening sessions, and presentations that spanned all five boroughs, hundreds of New Yorkers have made their voices heard and provided valuable guidance on how the City can build on its current digital foundations. In each of the public listening sessions, hosted through the City’s Meetup group, partici-pants divided into discussion groups focused on ac-cess, education, open government, engagement and industry—and presented their ideas and recommen-dations at the conclusion of the event. The following recommendations are a reflection of input from the public, technologists and City employees.

The 2011 Digital roadmap recognized that every city is unique, but all share the goals of serving their people and ensuring a future of opportunity. since its launch, NYC Digital has made it a priority to connect, share and learn from other municipalities, meeting with dozens of government technologists from around the world.

• Beijing• Belfast• Boston• Buenos Aires• Chicago• Helsinki• London• New York City

• Ottawa• Paris• Philadelphia• Quebec City• Rio de Janerio• Singapore• Tokyo

52 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 53

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To guide efforts, in May 2011 Mayor Bloom-berg and Chief Digital Officer Rachel Haot intro-duced the Digital Roadmap, the comprehensive plan to establish New York City as a leading digital city through initiatives in infrastructure, education, open government, engagement and industry sup-port. As illustrated in this report, today that plan is 100% complete.

This achievement provides a powerful platform to launch the next generation of innovation initia-tives in New York City. As the City of New York celebrates and thanks its partners for making it possible to realize the inaugural Digital Roadmap, it is critical to set new goals that raise the bar even higher.

To chart future objectives, NYC Digital has gathered input from a diverse range of New Yorkers to help shape the City’s technology strategy. Through social media, public listening sessions and presentations that spanned all five boroughs, hundreds of New Yorkers have made their voices heard and provided valuable guidance on how the City can build on its current digital foundation. In each of the public listening sessions, hosted through the City’s Meetup group, participants divided into discussion sections focused on access, education, open government, engagement and industry—and presented their ideas and recommendations at the conclusion of the event. The following recommendations are a reflection of this diverse and insightful input.

The Role of the Chief Digital Officer

In creating the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) role, Mayor Bloomberg established a position unique in its approach to all City functions through the lens of technology. Against the rapidly changing backdrop of the digital sector, the CDO takes a global view, bringing together insights that span more than 80 agencies and constructing a strategic plan for opti-mizing and implementing resources that serve the public and equip the City for an innovative future.

The Chief Digital Officer leads NYC Digital, a team that functions like a startup, providing strategic guid-ance to digital professionals across City government and implementing innovative initiatives and public-private partnerships. The need to invest in a digital future is critical to municipalities, and NYC Digital serves to ensure that the City of New York builds critical infrastructure to enable growth, modernizes government service delivery, engages constituents

In 2011, Mayor Michael bloomberg and Commissioner katherine oliver introduced the world’s first Chief Digital officer in government, and made a powerful commitment to New York City’s innovative future. Nearly three years later, cities across the globe have followed suit, recognizing the need to strategically evolve as technology transforms the world.

Looking ahead

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for all

Investing in the future

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Innovation andtransparency

A vibrant digital sector

NYCgov Digital Roadmap Listening Session at Sunshine Bronx Business Incubator with Bronx Tech Meetup.

54 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 55

in-person resources resulting from a collaboration with the Department of Small Business Services and multiple private sector technology partners that teaches entrepreneurs how to grow their businesses using technology.

To enable these projects and others, NYC Digital has coordinated more than twenty public-private part-nerships, including collaborations with Bitly, Buddy Media, Facebook, Foursquare, General Assembly, Google, Internet Week, Mashable and Tumblr.

eVolVIng nyc dIgItalAs NYC Digital evolves and builds on the lessons of the past three years, a number of opportunities will help to expand the reach and effectiveness of the team.

To help execute new digital initiatives more rapidly, the City can create CodeLab, a small web and mobile development team that is able to quickly prototype and launch new projects, introduce pioneering technology enhancements to the City’s platforms and offer support to agency technology initiatives. CodeLab would be unique in adopting an agile, iterative methodology for development, and approach projects with a startup mentality that embrace cutting edge innovations.

Finally, to continue to share best practices and learn from leading practitioners, NYC Digital will expand and grow the Digital Cities Council, maintaining the online Digital Cities Library of case studies and helping to convene annual gatherings and ongoing dialogue with innovative cities around the world.

Beyond these updates, the programmatic recom-mendations that follow will help to further support New York City’s digital growth.

AccesswI-FILeverage City Infrastructure for Wi-FiWhen the City’s Reinvent Payphones initiative challenged designers to imagine new telecommuni-cations uses of pay telephones, public Wi-Fi was a

leading suggestion in submissions. With payphones as a starting point, the City can explore other op-portunities to leverage existing City-controlled infrastructure to connect New Yorkers through the installation of Wi-Fi technology. Options can range from buildings to street furniture, and could generate revenue for the City budget via licensing to providers. In other scenarios, the infrastructure can be available at no cost to providers in exchange for free public access and other services. Providers can offer free access to the public as corporate social responsibility measure, or subsidize costs through an ad-supported model. The initiative can begin as a small-scale pilot, with a public database of infra-structure available online.

Seamless Wi-Fi Usage Across HotspotsAs the number of Wi-Fi hotspots increase across New York City, ensuring seamless connectivity across these touchpoints will improve the overall quality of Internet access. Public input indicates de-mand for a single sign-on, consistent network experi-ence across all municipally provided Wi-Fi hotspots. For example, as a user transitions from network to network, or provider to provider, the user would not be required to enter another set of credentials, select a specific network in device settings or encounter an unfamiliar splash page. To achieve this, the City could issue a set of technical guidelines and require all vendors to provide a consistent, NYC-branded entry page for Wi-Fi access. Technical guidelines would reflect security research and steps to protect the privacy of users.

dIgItal InclusIonBroadband, Wi-Fi and Digital Learning in Public Housing FacilitiesTo expand the availability of free Internet access to low-income individuals as described in the Access section, the City can work with foundations and corporate partners to provide free Wi-Fi, hardline broadband and computer access in the outdoor and indoor common spaces of public housing facilities. A network of trained community members and volunteers can teach free, public courses in digital lit-eracy, job search tools and more advanced computer science and web development skills. Technology manufacturers can also provide donations of equip-

via new communications methods, prepares for the future of the economy and provides technology edu-cation opportunities to New Yorkers of all ages.

The role of the Chief Digital Officer and NYC Digital is part strategy and part execution. Its work is divided between internal coordination and external outreach, enabling the effective exchange of ideas and development of public-private partnerships.

strategyIn line with Mayor Bloomberg’s data-driven ap-proach to government, research and analytics are at the core of NYC Digital’s strategy development process. In addition to the annual publication of the Digital Roadmap, the office continuously monitors web traffic metrics, social media analytics, mobile application engagement and newsletter subscrip-tions to track trends and identify high-demand platforms and content. The team also evaluates the progress of the City’s digital programs and fields public suggestions and input on strategy.

Internally, NYC Digital serves as a catalyst for in-novation, supporting the work of digital pioneers across government and helping novices become comfortable on new terrain. As digital consultants, the team often advises on new projects and helps the technology community navigate government to better serve New Yorkers.

With over 200 digital media professionals in City government, more than one hundred City programs in the five areas of the roadmap and a continuous influx of partnership opportunities, coordination is critical. This is achieved through tools such as the Citywide social media monitoring platform, organizational developments like the SMART group and resources such as social media style guides. NYC Digital also provides a range of professional development opportunities in collaboration with digital platform partners, such as the Engage NYC Social Media Summit, workshops on how to master specific platforms and individualized consulting sessions.

Every year, NYC Digital combines insights from research, public input, technology experts and

government employees to update the Digital Road-map to best meet the evolving needs of the City.

executIonIn addition to setting strategy and supporting coordination across agencies, NYC Digital actively implements public-facing Digital Roadmap initia-tives that cut across multiple stakeholder groups to better serve New Yorkers.

Examples include:We Are Made in NY, the economic development ini-tiative and campaign that brings together resources from dozens of agencies, nonprofits and private sec-tor organization in a user-centric format that support technology sector growth.

The Reinvent Hackathon Series, initiatives that en-able open collaboration between public and multiple government agencies on projects that touch a wide range of groups and constituencies, such as Reinvent NYC.gov for the City’s website, Reinvent Green for sustainable mobile applications and Reinvent Pay-phones for the future of public pay telephones.

Centralized NYCgov Social Media Channels, which curate content from across more than 300 special-ized City agency handles to provide an edited, consolidated view of important alerts.

The NYC.gov user experience, developed by NYC Digital in collaboration with design firm HUGE, re-flecting insights from website traffic analytics, input from the public, emerging technolgies and modern design conventions.

The Small Business Digital Toolkit, online and

Noel Hidalgo of Code for America NYC Brigade at NYCgov Digital Roadmap Listening Session in Staten Island at Snug Harbor Cultural Center.

56 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 57

and prepare younger students in the elementary grades for academic careers in technology through beginner coding programs, game development and in-person talks from local technology leaders.

traInIng teachers: ProFessIonal deVeloPMent and engagIng PractItIonersIn order to expand computer science curriculum, it is critical to train the teachers who will support technology learning. With this aim in mind, the City of New York can explore professional development opportunities and public-private partnerships that enable teachers to embrace new technologies and learn from industry practitioners who are experts in subject matter. One model to leverage is Citizen Schools, a program that extends the school day with science and mathematics project-based courses taught by industry practitioners alongside seasoned teachers.

Increase dIgItal lInKs between classrooM and coMMunItyTo engage students in digital coursework and deepen ties with the community, New York City public schools can provide opportunities in project-based coursework that benefit local organizations and learn from successful businesses. For example, students learning about web development or social media marketing could provide plans and support to a community nonprofit or traditional small busi-ness that lacks digital expertise, tying into the City’s Digital Toolkit for Small Businesses. The impact of this work can be to increase local engagement in the learning process, help students see the impact and potential of their work and ensure that digital growth permeates the community. In addition, a speaker se-ries featuring local, diverse technology leaders with whom students identify can encourage more youth to imagine a personal future in the field, inspiring them to pursue studies in computer science.

aFFordable contInuIng educatIon oPPortunItIes In technologyAs more adults look to enter the technology indus-try, the support of continuing education programs is vital to providing more employment opportuni-ties. Today, many programs exist, detailed in the Education section of this report. Building on those resources, and evaluating private sector continu-ing education leaders, the City of New York can explore options to subsidize commercial programs and promote low-cost programs available at City University of New York campuses, such as Introduc-tion to Android Development and Introduction to Programming with Java. In addition, City agencies can provide professional development and mentor-ship opportunities through programming such as industry panel sessions and personalized guidance from technology sector volunteers.

Open GovernmentexPandIng the reach oF 311 through Its aPIAs a technology platform, 311 offers enormous potential to more efficiently gather, vet, analyze, exchange and ultimately act on data related to the City’s services and infrastructure. Today the City’s 311 Content Application Programming Interface, or API, enables external developers to build tools that let the public get rapid answers to service questions. And as more than 66% of 311 requests are resolved solely through the exchange of information, today the Content API can already support the majority of 311 inquiries.

The natural evolution of the 311 Content API is to add “Write” functionality, meaning that developers can create applications that send data directly to the City channels for processing Service Requests. Cou-

ment and high-speed broadband access to house-holds with students enrolled in public school or continuing education programs, using the template of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Pro-gram (BTOP). Community programs such as Red Hook Initiative Wi-Fi offer compelling models for deploying infrastructure and employing local youth in training initiatives and administration.

Fiber Optic Commercial Broadband In order to support the growth of New York City’s economy, the City can continue to support programs that expand fiber optic commercial broadband, such as WiredNYC, ConnectNYC and the Broadband Connect map, described in the Industry section of the Roadmap. The City can also explore the potential to support the utility of high-speed Internet connectivity via 311 and enable customer reports on commercial broadband installation and service concerns related to landlords and Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

In addition, the City can continue to use negotiation leverage with ISPs or external grants to provide a funding pool for fiber optic installation to small and medium businesses located in underserved areas.

connectIVIty In eMergency sItuatIonsMobile Resource DeploymentLearning from the experience of Hurricane Sandy, the City and local telecommunications providers can work together to rapidly deploy mobile charging stations and cellular service towers in emergency situations along with vital resources. Some examples of the charging stations, such as the solar-powered Street Charge described in the Access section, have already been piloted across New York City. This infrastructure can travel to where it is most needed before auxiliary power sources to stationary cellular towers are depleted, typically 24 hours after a power outage. TransmittersAccurate, location-specific information on power and connectivity infrastructure is critical in emer-gency situations. To monitor and optimize the allo-cation of resources, telecommunications infrastruc-ture can include battery operated transmitters that signal to a central City database when systems are

dangerously low or fully without power, providing device-by-device accuracy for situational monitoring.

Guidelines for Auxiliary PowerDuring Hurricane Sandy, even organizations that had planned for power outages encountered challenges with these systems. To minimize power interrup-tions for critical infrastructure as well as high-depen-dency commercial systems such as data centers, the City of New York can issue building guidelines that recommend that generators, fuel pumps and other technology be located on the second story or higher, reducing the potential for flood damage.

EducationdIgItal toolKIt For schoolsTo ensure that New York City’s youth are prepared for the future economy, the City can encourage technology literacy and lifelong learning by developing a Digital Toolkit for Schools that educators, administrators and parents can use to support their children’s academic career. Using the template of the Digital Toolkit for Small Businesses described in the Industry section, the City can design a Digital Toolkit that makes it accessible for any school to integrate digital learning tools that can enhance curriculum and teaching, leverage online assessment platforms that help schools track student progress, and match mainstream digital platforms to bring subject matter and coursework to life. The toolkit can explain to parents the technology their children are using, how to follow their progress online and ways to support learning and coursework at home.

coMPuter scIence currIculuM exPansIonToday, with the models of the Academy for Software Engineering, the Bronx Academy for Software Engineering, and the Software Engineering Pilot to build upon, the City of New York has an invaluable opportunity to expand computer science to all public middle and high schools. Afterschool programs can provide additional learning experiences in newer emerging technologies and diverse topics. In addition, the City’s Department of Education can further inspire

NYCgov Digital Roadmap Listening Session in Brooklyn at NYU-Poly DUMBO Incubator.

58 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 59

programs and initiatives that provide cost savings or other benefits.

Users can also select different modes of receiving relevant alerts and updates, such as daily email with Alternate Side Parking status and free local events, or a text message notifying that the user’s daily com-mute may be interrupted by a specific subway delay.

The personalized dashboard has the potential to completely transform the user experience of engag-ing with New York City government by making that interaction as seamless, rewarding and efficient as possible.

contextual Psa search results To further enhance the effectiveness of NYC.gov and connect residents with relevant programs, the City can implement a Public Service Announcement (PSA) network on NYC.gov. The PSA network can function similarly to an online ad network, displaying public programs based on keywords used by website visitors. For example, if a user searches for “events for children” on NYC.gov, the PSA network can display ads that are useful to parents, such as free summer lunch programs or child vaccination resources.

dIgItal coMMunIty aMbassadorsInspired by input from the Digital Roadmap listen-ing sessions described in the Engagement section, the City can explore the creation of a Digital Com-munity Ambassador program. Digital Community Ambassadors can act as liaisons between neighbor-hoods and the City digital team, providing local input into Digital Roadmap initiatives such as education and technology industry support and informing local constituencies of programs that may benefit them. Digital Community Ambassa-dors can help to ensure that outreach strategies are crafted to effectively catalyze digital development at the neighborhood level and strategically engage community organizations to encourage local par-ticipation and impact.

language exPansIon Building on the success of foreign language digital engagement tools such as @nycgob, the City’s Twit-ter channel for news in Spanish, there is an oppor-

tunity to further expand to New York City’s most widely spoken non-English languages. With 25% of New Yorkers unable to speak fluent English, foreign language digital engagement can help to inform more members of the public, share critical alerts in emergency situations and respond to questions from the immigrant community.

MobIle-FIrst engageMent aPProach As the percentage of New Yorkers using phones and tablets to access City content continues to climb, a mobile-first approach will help to make government resources more easily accessible. The City can apply the lessons of success stories such as TXT-2-Work, the mobile phone texting initiative that alerts job seekers instantly of relevant employment opportu-nities. With the revamped NYC.gov as a guide for mobile web experiences, City agencies can prioritize mobile access to digital content, providing greater convenience and accessibility to New Yorkers.

dIgItal eMergency alertsDigital media platforms represent an invaluable opportunity to alert and inform New Yorkers in emergency scenarios. Existing federal initiatives leverage radio, television and mobile networks to in-form New Yorkers, but none yet utilize major digital media platforms such as online content, advertising networks and social media. Using the Common Alerting Protocol, an XML-format for exchanging emergency information between alerting technolo-gies, there is an opportunity to work with major digi-tal content platforms to engage New Yorkers based on location, transmitting life-saving updates.

analytIcs IntegratIonTo fully realize the value of digital media, the City of New York can build on its digital engagement strat-egy by operationalizing insights gleaned from the public. Through a Citywide social media analytics platform, the City can analyze public requests, gauge feedback and potentially identify health and security concerns before traditional reporting structures. Social media analysis has especially high potential for aiding disaster response and recovery initiatives in emergency scenarios, by combining timestamp and location data with content submitted by users including text, video and photos.

pled with outreach to strategic digital platforms and media partners, the City can dramatically expand its reach, allowing, for example, users to request to plant a new tree through a social media platform or report a pothole through a blog.

exPandIng the nuMber oF cIty aPIsApplication Programming Interfaces (APIs) are in high demand because they enable the development of more timely, accurate and useful applications than those built using static data sets. Including the 311 API, the City of New York today provides access to six robust APIs. With more than 2,000 data sets available on the NYC OpenData Platform, the City of New York has an opportunity to provide access to even more municipal data via API, equipping developers to build powerful applications that help to serve the public.

Examples of future APIs can include:Payments API - Making it easier and more acces-sible to pay parking tickets, water bills and other transactions

Restaurant Inspection Results API - Allowing more New Yorkers to track inspections in real-time

sensorsTo further enhance service delivery and increase ef-ficiency, the City can explore implementing sensors or tags that automatically transmit status changes and enable the public to uniquely identify physical infrastructure such as a park bench or streetlight. This would allow work by field staff to be immedi-ately reflected to customers, and allow for more exact identification of conditions and problems, resulting in a better response.

crowdsourcIng For dIsaster resPonseIn a City with 8.4 million residents and 52 million annual visitors, there is an enormous opportunity to gain valuable insights by empowering New Yorkers to report at scale on emergencies, natural disasters and other urgent scenarios. 311 is a crowdsourcing success story for the City of New York, enabling millions of New Yorkers to share their input and improve City functions. While 311 fields incoming inquiries, crowdsourcing functionality can allow the

City to direct outgoing context-specific questions for voluntary response to members of the public. With deeper integration into City service platforms, there is an opportunity to operationalize the resulting situational awareness insights and help to inform di-saster response and recovery efforts. While carefully respecting considerations such as data integrity, user privacy, normalization of data and compatibility with City data formats, crowdsourcing can provide vital and life-saving information to first responders and recovery teams.

Engagementthe PersonalIZed cIty dashboardReinforcing the City’s user-centric engagement ap-proach and the NYC.gov design strategy articulated in 2011, the City can further improve customer service by launching personalized online dashboards that make it easier to interact with local government.

Employing a single ID to access all City services, users can log in to NYC.gov and access customized informa-tion, alerts and public events for the neighborhoods in which they work and live. In addition, the dashboard can present history and status updates for user interac-tions across City agencies, such as 311 service requests, parking ticket payments or permit applications.

In addition, with security measures in place to pro-tect sensitive information, users can store personal information and payment details, enabling them to seamlessly create new 311 service requests or complete payments. If users feel comfortable sharing more personal information about family and employ-ment status, the City can also proactively suggest

far right: NYCgov Digital Roadmap Listening Session in Brooklyn at NYU-Poly DUMBO Incubator.

60 The City of New York New York City's Digital Leadership 61

that indexes only .nyc web addresses. For individuals committed to investing in goods and services located in the five boroughs, .nyc offers an unprecedented level of local authenticity in the digital realm.

The City can also integrate the .nyc top-level domain initiative into its Digital Toolkit for Small Busi-nesses, informing entrepreneurs on how and why to apply for the address when it is released publicly.

FIber oPtIc coMMercIal broadband exPansIonAs outlined in the Next Steps: Access section, the City can continue to support the infrastructure needs of the technology sector by supporting land-lord and ISP complaints on commercial broadband installation and service from businesses. In addi-tion the City can continue to leverage negotiating power to ensure establish funding for connecting underserved commercial districts. Finally, continu-ing to support ConnectNYC, WiredNYC and the Broadband Connect Map will provide new tools to businesses and incentivize real estate leaders to make more infrastructure investments.

FlexIble sPace oPtIons For growIng busInessesAnother major infrastructure need of the technology sector is the expansion of flexible real estate options for growing companies. Today the City’s incubators and coworking spaces serve early-stage startups well, and more advanced companies with around 50 em-ployees or more often have the resources to execute a commercial real estate lease. It is the organiza-tions between those extremes — the companies of around 15-50 employees — that have challenges as they quickly evolve. Technology companies in the midst of rapid growth often must add engineering and business function staff to sustain momentum. As companies grow, they may find that commercial real estate offerings do not meet their needs: coworking space is too small, and commercial space available on the market is inflexible to their needs and beyond their budget.

The City of New York can support this transition in a number of ways. First, it can bring together real estate owners and entrepreneurs through roundtable

discussions to cultivate greater mutual understand-ing of the needs of the market, potentially encourag-ing the development of additional real estate product options for growing startups.

In addition, the City can facilitate connections among technology companies to help allocate unused space to needy growing startups through landlord-approved sublets and other mechanisms, helping companies to get the best value for their investments. Through the New York City Economic Development Corporation the City can also explore its own real estate inventory for options that it can provide to growing companies looking for flexible space as they grow.

exPlorIng the sharIng econoMyAs the sharing economy grows, companies that encourage collaborative consumption of resources such as cars, homes, retail products or services often encounter regulatory constraints as they pioneer new business categories. Similarly, City government and other bodies have an obligation to uphold laws and protect the safety and health of New Yorkers. To help make New York City a welcoming environ-ment for innovative startups but ensure the legality of the economy and well-being of New Yorkers, the City of New York can convene an advisory council of sharing economy representatives and City officials to help explore and shape a constructive path for industry growth.

Industrywe are Made In ny exPansIon to college caMPusesThe We Are Made in NY economic development initiative described in the Industry section strives to help anyone learn, launch or find a job in the technology sector. With this function in mind, expanding awareness of the sector’s growth and op-portunities to college students will help to establish New York City as a magnet for professional talent and emerging entrepreneurs.

A campus expansion program can feature the dis-tribution of We Are Made in NY digital and printed materials to college groups dedicated to topics such as entrepreneurship, technology, maker culture and engineering, encouraging members to learn about the sector and ask questions about life in New York City. The development of a New York City “starter kit” for those unfamiliar with the City can help to convey the vibrancy of the technology sector and the culture of the City’s diverse neighborhoods, and help to make a transition easier and more accessible.

In addition, on-campus and virtual talks from prominent local entrepreneurs can help inspire young students and graduates to explore a career in New York City’s technology sector and help startups attract talent to help their companies grow. Presen-tations can range from Twitter chats and Skype or Google+ video streams to in-person presentations to clubs and career fairs.

As described in the Industry section, in 2013 the City first began its expansion of the We Are Made in NY marketing campaign to college campuses. Fur-ther visibility, customized by school and program,

can connect students to resources such as the We Are Made in NY jobs map as they search for employ-ment and internships.

Schools in the We Are Made in NY campus expan-sion program can include local New York City campuses as well national and international higher learning institutions.

encouragIng dIVersIty through InternshIPs and custoM caMPaIgnsBuilding on the expansion of youth employment programs to include more technology internships and summer jobs, the City can work with local companies to increase the number of women and minorities in the sector. In the summer of 2013, the City provided 300 paid summer roles in the technol-ogy sector. Through wider outreach to technology firms and funders, the City of New York can signifi-cantly expand this pool of positions to encourage more young people to enter the field, gain valuable experience in the technology sector and build a network of professional contacts and mentors.

As introduced in Next Steps: Engagement, the City of New York can also work collaboratively with Digital Community Ambassadors to craft aware-ness campaigns to attract more diverse students and professionals to the technology sector. By featuring local entrepreneurs and technologies that benefit neighborhood businesses, the campaign can present New York City’s technology sector in a more person-alized, effective context. As part of a speaker series featured at neighborhood events, recreation centers, Workforce1 Career Centers, libraries and schools, local technology leaders can inspire and engage individuals from underrepresented neighborhoods to become more involved in the technology sector.

MarKetIng local busIness through .nyc toP-leVel doMaInAs the City’s application for the .nyc top-level do-main (TLD) moves forward, the initiative provides an opportunity to market local businesses that adopt the TLD as part of their web address. The .nyc do-main is reserved for residents, businesses and orga-nizations that are located in New York City, enabling resources such as a search engine for local businesses

NYCgov Digital Roadmap Listening Session at Queens Tech Meetup in Long Island City. Image courtesy of Queens Tech Meetup.

62 The City of New York

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Dear New Yorkers,Thank you. The phenomenal momentum of New York City’s technology community and the innovative achievements recorded in the Roadmap are the result of your hard work, passion and creativity.

Supported by the leadership of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Commissioner Katherine Oliver, together we have fulfilled the plan laid out in 2011 to realize our City’s digital potential.

We have connected 300,000 more low-income New Yorkers to the Internet and introduced public Wi-Fi in 50 public parks. We have provided technology educa-tion to more than one million residents and welcomed a pioneering engineering campus from Cornell and Technion to Roosevelt Island. We have hosted the first government hackathons in the country and opened over 2,000 data sets and APIs to the public. We have tripled our social media engagement with the public

and unveiled a nyc.gov website that sets a new bar for digital service. We have connected hundreds of diverse youth to technology sector internships and launched the We Are Made in NY initiative helping anyone to learn, launch a startup or find a job in technology.

And because we know that our digital future is deeply intertwined with that of our peers, we have collaborated with other leading international cities through the Digital Cities Council launched earlier this year.

There is much to celebrate, thanks to the incredible vision of our entrepreneurs, determination of our students and partnership of our City’s technologists. New York City is one of the most connected, engaged and informed metropolises in the world, and our rapidly growing technology sector ranks second in the nation.

But even as we appreciate these milestones, it has never been more critical to invest our digital future. We have made great strides, but there are still enormous opportunities, from expanded infrastructure and STEM educa-tion to emergency digital tools and greater diversity in the sector. As outlined in this roadmap, it is crucial that government continue to prioritize digital growth and pursue New York City’s innovative potential in partnership with our thriving local technology community.

So New York City, thank you for your incredible achievements. We invite you to build on these gains and help to further shape the bright digital future of this great city.

Rachel Haot Chief Digital Officer

chIeF dIgItal oFFIcer rachel haot

Chief Digital Officer Rachel Haot