NYC LOCAL: Saturday through Monday 27-29 June 2009: Participation Camp and the proposed NYC Law on Open Data Standards

[secretary]

Starting at 9:30 am on Saturday 27 June 2009 high government
officials, free software partisans, and citizens who think that
their legislators should hear more from the people, and that the
people should be able to find out more of what their government
is doing, will gather in rooms provided by ITP/Tisch/NYU [see PS
below] at

  721 Broadway
  New York, NY 10003

which is south of Mercer Street and north of West 4th Street.

This meeting is called Participation Camp 2009 and runs until
6:00 pm Sunday 28 June 2009.

Councillor Gale Brewer of the New York City Council and
Andrew Hoppin, Chief Information Officer of the New York State
Senate, will speak.  And because Participation Camp is also a
barcamp, you will be able to speak too.

Registration is required to attend.  There is no fee.  There is
some chance the space may get filled, after which no
registrations will be accepted.

The main website for Participation Camp is

  http://mudball.net/pcamp09

Participation Camp 2009 is one in a series of meetings.  An
earlier meeting in the series was Capitol Camp 2009, which took
place on Friday 5 June 2009 in the Capitol in Albany, New York:

  http://barcamp.org/CapitolCamp


New York State has already officially moved to free licensing for
software produced and published by the New York State Senate.
Here is a quote from http://open.nysenate.gov :

   Welcome to the Open NYSenate

   To pursue its commitment to transparency and openness the New
   York State Senate is undertaking a cutting-edge program to not
   only release data, but help empower citizens and give back to the
   community. Under this program the New York Senate will, for the
   first time ever, give developers and other users direct access to
   its data through APIs and release its original software to the
   public. By placing the data and technological developments
   generated by the Senate in the public domain, the New York Senate
   hopes to invigorate, empower and engage citizens in policy
   creation and dialogue.


After Participation Camp, this coming Monday, there will be the
first of several hearings on a proposed New York City law to
assure that government data is openly published in unencumbered
formats.  Kunal Malhotra writes:

   On Monday, June 29th at 1:00pm in the 14th Floor Hearing Room of
   250 Broadway, the Technology in Government Committee will hold a
   hearing regarding proposed Int. 991, "Open Data Standards."  This
   important legislation stands to make New York City the leader in
   open and transparent government practices in the country.  Please find
   attached to this email a `Dear Colleague' letter with more
   information.  Furthermore, below is a link to a recent NY Observer
   article covering the issue. Please feel free to contact me with any
   questions or concerns.

Here is the bill:

  
http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/textfiles/Int%200991-2009.htm?CFID=251408&CFTOKEN=24838429

And here is a copy of the Dear Colleague letter:

  http://www.panix.com/~jays/Int._991_Open_Data_Dear_Colleague_Letter.pdf

Appended, below the postscripts, is the full notice sent out by
Kunal Malhotra.

I thank Evan Korth, Noel Hidalgo, and Kunal Malhotra for their
timely notifications!

Jay Sulzberger <secretary@lxny.org>
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org


PS. ITP/Tisch/NYU is the Interactive Telecommunications Program of
the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University

PPS. From Evan Korth, here is a partial list of sponsors:

- TOPP: The Open Planning Project - <http://theopenplanningproject.org>
- CollabForge - <http://collabforge.com>
- Sunlight Foundation - <http://sunlightfoundation.com>
- Mudball - <http://mudball/net>
- New Work City - <http://nwcny.com>
- Nation Builder - <http://nationbuilder.com>
- Apps for Democracy: Community Edition - <http://appsfordemocracy.org>
- Not an Alternative - <http://notanalternative.net>
- Connecting.nyc - <http://connectingnyc.org>

P^3S. Councillor Gale Brewer's page:

  http://council.nyc.gov/d6/html/members/home.shtml

CIO NY Senate Andrew Hoppin's page, ah, I could not find the
Official Page, but here is a page, with a video, and some
pointers to information about Capitol Camp:

  
http://www.nysenate.gov/video/2009/jun/15/nys-senate-cio-andrew-hoppin-capitol-camp


<blockquote
  what="official announcement from Kunal Malhotra"
  edits="some reformatting"

 Subject: OPEN DATA STANDARDS LEGISLATION / TECH in GOV'T COMMITTEE HEARING
 Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:59:46 -0400
 From: "Malhotra, Kunal" <KMalhotra@council.nyc.gov>
 To: "Malhotra, Kunal" <KMalhotra@council.nyc.gov>

    Evening,

    On Monday, June 29th at 1:00pm in the 14th Floor Hearing Room of
    250 Broadway, the Technology in Government Committee will hold a
    hearing regarding proposed Int. 991, "Open Data Standards."  This
    important legislation stands to make New York City the leader in
    open and transparent government practices in the country.  Please find
    attached to this email a `Dear Colleague' letter with more
    information.  Furthermore, below is a link to a recent NY Observer
    article covering the issue. Please feel free to contact me with any
    questions or concerns.

    Thank you,

    Kunal

    NY Observer Article:
    http://nyfi.observer.com/politics/182/new-open-data-standards-legislation

    Kunal Malhotra
    Director of Legislation & Budget
    Office of Council Member Gale A. Brewer
    250 Broadway, Room 1744
    New York, NY 10007

    [1]Kunal.Malhotra@council.nyc.gov

    Office: (212) 788-6975
    Cell: (347) 461-4329

 References

    1. "mailto:Kunal.Malhotra@council.nyc.gov";
  
</blockquote>