Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the launch of the country's largest continuous outdoor free public WiFi network in Harlem Tuesday afternoon. The outdoor network, which will cover 95 city blocks and be accessible to around 80,000 Harlem residents, including 13,000 in New York City Housing Authority buildings, is made possible through a $2 million donation from Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman, co-founder of MSD Capital, through the Fuhrman Family Foundation. Read More

The NYPD on Sunday released a map showing the locations of major felony incidents such as murders, rape, grand larceny and robbery within the past two years, but transparency advocates say that the new map is just a ... Read More

The disappointment and outrage at Bill de Blasio's appointment of Bill Bratton as NYPD Police Commissioner isn't just about stop-and-frisk. It isn't just about Bratton's profiteering in the private security industry. It's also about data--how governments think about data, how they use (and misuse) data, and what happens when that data means more to governments than the human beings and lives it's supposed to represent.

New York City is partnering with Code for America and Stack Exchange to invite civic technologists and other hackers to "reinvent 311" with a focus on new and existing mobile tools. "From parking and recycling rules to birth certificates, all of 311's content is available through an API (application programming interface) - but it's not yet widely available in the mobile space," according to the page of the Reinvent 311: Mobile Content Challenge. Read More

New York City Council members, transparency advocates and other advocacy groups on Wednesday had both praise and criticism for the implementation of the city's open data law, as they called for better agency compliance with the law's requirements, more user-friendly platforms and better responsiveness to public demands, as the city moves forward with its mayoral transition. The city emphasizes that it has released more data than any other U.S. city and that it has gone beyond what is required by the law. But while activists like Code for America's Noel Hidalgo praised the law for helping to make New York City a center for "civic hacking," civic hackers and other advocates said they are frustrated with the available data. Read More

New York City officials envision a future where a social media analytics platform, and crowdsourcing, could help provide early warnings of emergencies; where free WiFi could emanate from buildings and street furniture; where public housing residents would have free Internet access; where the "sharing economy" is able to flourish; where New Yorkers could complain to 311 about their Internet service, have a personalized online account to access city services and where developers would have access to more APIS. These are some of the ideas outlined in a report released by the Bloomberg administration and compiled based on feedback from New Yorkers through listening sessions held in the five boroughs and on social media. Read More

In his first Reddit AMA, leading New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Bill De Blasio responded to policy questions on Airbnb, the Occupy movement, the tech community and to personal questions about his religious views, favorite books and his son's famous hair. Read More

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced two major wireless access and broadband initiatives throughout the city today, a day after the City of New York unveiled a redesign of its homepage over the weekend. Read More

Property record, building permit and building footprint data for New York City are now publicly accessible to developers and the wider public as part of New York City's efforts to implement the 2012 Open Data law, ... Read More