FastFWD Puts the Civic Accelerator Inside City Hall
BY Sam Roudman | Wednesday, October 30 2013
Philly's FastFwd puts civic entrepreneurs in direct contact with city hall
City governments and tech entrepreneurs both want to make government more efficient and effective (who doesn't?), but that doesn’t make the task easy for either side. City requests for procurement define problems with such precision that they can block out creative solutions, and established bureaucratic folkways can make process shake-ups a challenge to implement. On the tech side, there isn’t always an understanding of where government might actually be helped, or that some problems will require more than an weekend of app making. “We’re trying to solve both ends,” says Garrett Melby, founder of GoodCompany Ventures, which supports early stage companies with a positive social impact. Melby is looking to bridge the gap between tech entrepreneurs and city government. Along with the City of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business he's promoting a new civic start up accelerator called FastFWD. The program will bring the leaders of ten early stage civic tech projects to Philadelphia in January. The fellows will receive a $10,000 fellowship from Bloomberg Philanthropies, and three months of intensive business mentorship, and access to people working directly in government. When the accelerator or “urban innovation refinery” as it styles itself concludes, the best ideas will get a try out within the city of Philadelphia. Read More
Argentina's Expanding Surveillance State
BY Jessica McKenzie | Wednesday, October 30 2013
Screenshot from the SIBIOS promotional video
“If we know more about who we are, we can better take care of ourselves.”
That's the reason the Argentinian government gives for their new Federal System of Biometric Identification (SIBIOS) program in a promotional video they play at border control stations. Privacy rights activists have been up in arms about SIBIOS since Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner created it with an executive decree in 2011. It has been active practice since 2012, with little to no public debate about it. Nothing has slowed down the expanding database of information, which includes fingerprints and photos. Earlier this month, Mendoza became the 13th province to sign the Federal Program Partnership and Security Assistance, a program meant to "harmonize" national and provincial policies, and gives provinces access to databases like SIBIOS.
Read MoreThe World Bank's Lo-Tech Open Data Experiment
BY Jessica McKenzie | Wednesday, October 30 2013
Although the open data movement is associated with the Internet and tech-savvy types, an estimated 65 percent of the world's population remains entirely offline. As part of their ongoing push to open up development data, the World Bank has tested initiatives in remote communities to see how open data could be used offline. They wanted to put the assumption that open data is too difficult to understand (especially without the advantage of computer literacy) to the test.
Read MoreFirst POST: Contained Fury
BY Micah L. Sifry | Wednesday, October 30 2013
Members of the House Intelligence Committee disagree about whether the NSA has kept them fully informed; Sen. Rand Paul a serial plagiarizer?; An antidote to technolibertarianism; and much, much more. Read More
An Interview with Crypt0nymous On Operation Maryville
BY Carola Frediani | Wednesday, October 30 2013
Last week a crowd of a few hundred peoplegathered at the courthouse square in Maryville, Missouri, along with dozens of reporters and a few people adorned in Guy Fawkes "Anonymous" masks. The international spotlight on this tiny college town would have been unthinkable even ten days earlier. Demonstrators, both in the streets and online, were supporting a teenage girl whose alleged rapist walked out of court without a single charge. Those protesting believed prosecutors dropped the charges because the suspect, a 17-year-old football player, was the grandson of Rex Barnett, a former state legislator. Italian journalist Carola Frediani, the author of an in-depth book on Anonymous, conducted an interview with one of the Anons involved in the Maryville protest, Crypt0nymous, and we present an edited version of their conversation below. Read More
Knight Funding Brings Open Data Institute Model to U.S.
BY Miranda Neubauer | Tuesday, October 29 2013
The U.K.-based Open Data Institute is coming to the U.S. with a $250,000 grant from the Knight Foundation. With the funding, open government technologist Waldo Jaquith will work to replicate the model of the ODI, which Sir Tim Berners-Lee co-founded last year to provide guidance on how to maximize the value of government open data by providing training and educational resources, conducting research, helping to certify open data releases, launching a challenge series and providing consultation responses to government policy proposals. Read More
Who Does it Best When it Comes to Open Data?
BY Jessica McKenzie | Tuesday, October 29 2013
Screenshot of 2013 Open Data Index
To coincide with the Open Government Partnership Summit in London—which Susannah Vila and Christopher Wilson of engine room are live-blogging for techPresident this week—the Open Knowledge Foundation has released the 2013 Open Data Index, the first major assessment of open government data worldwide. The Index is based on community surveys in 70 countries, and ranks countries based on availability and accessibility of data in ten categories, including government spending, election results and pollution levels. The United Kingdom came out on top, followed by the United States; Cyprus is way behind, scoring a mere 30 points compared to the United Kingdom's 940.
Read MoreFirst POST: Snoop Dog
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, October 29 2013
Dianne Feinstein finally decides that the NSA hasn't been straight with the Senate Intelligence Committee; Kentucky's successful health care exchange; the latest Silicon Valley techno-libertarian rant; and much, much more. Read More
Pushback Against Corruption In Philippines Continues With Gov't Hackathon
BY Jessica McKenzie | Monday, October 28 2013
The Philippines government is sponsoring a two-day hackathon early next month as part of an attempt to reform government and reduce corruption. Less than two months ago the country was rocked by a corruption scandal implicating three senators, two former lawmakers, and a businesswoman for misuse of state funds totaling more than US$200 million. The central government will provide data for the #KabantayNgBayan (Guardians of the Nation) hackathon, which will encourage the development of apps that encourage citizens to monitor and participate in government.
Read MoreFirst POST: Greenwald's Day
BY Micah L. Sifry | Monday, October 28 2013
Edward Snowden explains why he chose to reach out to independent journalist Glenn Greenwald; Clay Shirky explains why HealthCare.gov is a management failure; David Karpf shares his doubts about Change.org's new direction; and much, much more. Read More
