Announcements 6.11.18

2018 CHARTER REVISION COMMISSION
1. Public Meeting & Hearings - June 12th ​
The City’s Charter Revision Commission will hold an issue forum at 1pm on Tuesday, June 12th, 2018. The issue forum will feature experts to discuss election administration, voter participation, and voting access. The meeting will be held at 125 Worth St, 2nd floor auditorium, New York, NY 10013. This meeting is open to the public. Because this is a public meeting and not a public hearing, the public will have the opportunity to observe the Commission’s discussion, but not testify before it.

A livestream of this meeting will be available at nyc.gov/charter

2. Public Meeting & Hearings​ - June 14th 
The City’s Charter Revision Commission will hold an issue forum at 1pm on Tuesday, June 14th, 2018. The issue forum will feature experts to discuss campaign finance. The meeting will be held at NYU’s D’Agostino Hall, 108 West 2rd St, New York, NY 10012. This meeting is open to the public. Because this is a public meeting and not a public hearing, the public will have the opportunity to observe the Commission’s discussion, but not testify before it.

A livestream of this meeting will be available at nyc.gov/charter

TAIWAN OPEN GOVERNMENT RECEPTION - JUNE 12
On the evening of June 12th, the NYC node of the global g0v-network is hosting a reception in honor of Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang, and members of the Public Digital Innovation and Service (PDIS) team and Participation Officers (PO) program. You will also have the opportunity to enter the Virtual Reality commons Holopolis and glimpse a future in which we can all connect to and immerse in public policy deliberation anytime we choose. This opportunity has been made possible by the largesse of ThoughtWorks, Inc and Personal Democracy Media.

Refreshments will be provided, by the generosity of the Taipei Economic and Culture Office in NYC.

MOZILLA ANNOUNCES $225,000 IN GRANTS FOR INTERNET ACTIVISTS, ARTISTS
Mozilla just announced $225,000 in creative media awards – grants for coders, artists, and activists creating content for and about the digital world.

Specifically, they’re seeking projects that explore artificial intelligence and machine learning. In a world where biased algorithms, skewed data sets, and broken recommendation engines can radicalize YouTube users, promote racism, and spread fake news, it’s more important than ever to support artwork and advocacy work that educates and engages internet users. Projects could be videos, games, browser extensions or data visualizations. Mozilla’s creative media awards are part of the NetGain Partnership, a collaboration between Mozilla, Ford Foundation, Knight Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and the Open Society Foundation.

You can read details, and find application guidance, in this blog post: Mozilla Announces $225,000 for Art and Advocacy Exploring Artificial Intelligence.

CIVIC HALL ENTREPRENEUR-IN-RESIDENCE RACEYA LAUNCHES KICKSTARTER
Join us in supporting hands-on (not just screens-on) play with RaceYa. On Kickstarter: thndr.me/eibXNg

NYC CAMPAIGN FINANCE BOARD SEEKS DATA MANAGER
The New York City Campaign Finance Board seeks a Data Manager to help us collect data related to voter participation, election administration, and campaign finance in NYC. The data manager will serve as the agency’s Open Data Coordinator, maintain our internal voting data, and create visualizations and dashboards to show patterns in the city’s democratic participation. Please find the job description and details for how to apply here; applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

JOB OPPORTUNITY WITH NYCEM!
NYCEM has an opportunity for a motivated scientific software development professional to join the Technology and Strategic Data team at New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM). 

Under the supervision of the Director of Application Development, the selected applicant will be an Application Developer (EOC Application Developer) working on a portfolio of data management, business intelligence and situational awareness applications and will work with a team of Information Technology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) application developers to maintain and enhance existing EOC systems. 

Please read more and apply here. [Apply by 31 July 2018]

NYC OPPORTUNITY’S POVERTY RESEARCH UNIT HIRING TECHNICAL FELLOWS
The Poverty Research Unit of the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity) is hiring Technical Fellows to work on developing and implementing measures of poverty, mobility, and medical care economic risks.
 
NYC Opportunity produces research and analysis of poverty and social conditions, including its influential annual (NYCgov poverty measure, which provides a more accurate and comprehensive picture of poverty in New York City than the federal measure. The NYCgov poverty measure has become an important tool for evaluating policies, assessing the progress the city has made over time in reducing poverty and designing new policies to reduce current levels of economic deprivation.
 
Full details on this paid, one-year opportunity can be found here: http://buildwithnyc.github.io/prugraduatefellow.html

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE + THE CIVIC AGENDA
Despite all the talk about the power of AI, there is a startling lack of conversation around how it might be used to further the civic agenda and directly improve people’s lives in real ways. Civic Hall member Christopher Bishop(christopherbishop123@gmail.com) is seeking propositions on getting this discussion started within the Civic Hall community. Please reach out if you have expertise you want to share at a workshop, can recommend someone to invite, or are interested in attending and bringing members of your team!

MOBILIZEAMERICA IS HIRING FULL-STACK ENGINEERS
In light of significant product, business and fundraising traction, MobilizeAmerica is looking to add two full-stack engineers to our existing technical team of five.

MobilizeAmerica is a NYC-based volunteer management platform and network that enables activists, progressive organizations and Democratic campaigns to connect and win. This year, hundreds of campaigns will use our platform to manage their supporters, tapping into progressive partner audiences in the tens of millions. We’ve closed our pre-seed round and are quickly filling our seed round. Investors include: Higher Ground Labs, a leading progressive technology accelerator, Reid Hoffman and angel investors in Silicon Valley, DC, NY and LA. 

GAMES FOR CHANGE FESTIVAL: JUNE 28-30
Join Games for Change for their 15th annual Games for Change Festival, June 28-30, at the Parsons School of Design in #NYC. Featured speakers such as Anastasia Goodstein (SVP of Digital Innovation at The Ad Council), Alan Gershenfeld (President, Co-Founder of E-Line Media), and Elizabeth LaPensée (Assistant Professor at Michigan State University) will be highlighting games and programs engage issues of social justice, human development, environment and responsible citizenship. Register for the festival here.

15% discount for Civic Hall community: CivHall15

Amazon Web Services provides infrastructure that allows startups to grow and thrive, and AWS Activate is a program that allows you to access those resources quickly. From Technical and Business Essentials Online Trainings to Promotional Credits that can be used on a variety of AWS products, this offer provides an unparalleled opportunity for folks who are getting started and looking to scale up. Interested? Applying is easy for members of the Civic Hall community!

First, visit the AWS Activate webpage https://aws.amazon.com/activate/portfolio-signup to apply.

1. Use this Organization ID (case-sensitive): 0eqef
2. Provide your AWS Account ID on the application. Promotional Credits will be added directly to this account, so please double check it - we cannot transfer credits in the future.
3. Please provide your company domain email address regardless of the email associated with your AWS Account ID. Personal email addresses are likely to be unrecognized and rejected, complicating application processing and billing inquiries.

We’ll kick off with dedicated Civic Hall office hours. Any questions? Email community@civichall.org