We invite you to join the NYC Peoples\’ Tech Assemblies!

Hi everyone! I work for BetaNYC, a nonprofit that\’s currently gathering New Yorkers\’ input on all things tech in a project called the Peoples\’ Tech Assemblies.

TL;DR – please visit our website < https://peoplestech.nyc/en/ > if you have any questions about our project, thanks! The full announcement is below.

Hello everyone,

As someone with a stake in the future of New York City, we want to work with you to ensure NYC remains a powerhouse in the years to come. In short, we need your help to modify our 2013 Peoples’ Roadmap through our new initiative, the NYC Peoples’ Tech Assemblies. 

By way of introduction, the NYC Peoples’ Tech Assemblies are a series of engagements: a community survey, online forums, roundtable events and facilitated conversations for New Yorkers to share their voice on tech issues across the city from August 23 to November 14, 2021. The goal of this initiative is to  inspire New Yorkers and the multitude of new NYC government decision makers entering our government this January to think big and tread boldly.  

As a cherished friend of BetaNYC, we have some favors to ask, and would be grateful for your help. 

Register and participate on our online discussion platform

We invite you to join CitizenLab, our online discussion platform as a part of the NYC Peoples’ Tech Assemblies. Given your expertise with civic tech, we believe you could initiate an interesting conversation on the future of tech in New York City.

How to get started on CitizenLab?

1) Register on the NYC Peoples’ Tech Assembly website.

2) Under “Projects” you’ll see a list of topics related to your field of expertise.  

3) Click on “Add a contribution” to start a conversation.

4) Click on “See a contribution” to respond to an ongoing conversation.

We’re hoping to start and continue conversations started on our platform’s forums this week. If you could log on and post a few ideas, questions or issues before November 14, we would greatly appreciate it.

Facilitate a conversation

We invite you to host a facilitated conversation with your community; given your unique insights, we believe you could host an interesting conversation on the future of tech in New York City. Your conversation can range from a dinnertime chat to a meeting in the park to an online discussion – it’s all up to you! If you’re interested in hosting an online conversation, you’re more than welcome to use CitizenLab or any online platform you wish.

We’ll ask you to summarize the result of your conversation for us so that we can incorporate the ideas, questions and concerns into a resource we’ll make public for everyone in the coming months. 

If you are interested in becoming a facilitator, please sign up here by October 30th. Keep in mind that if you want your community’s insights to be sent to the incoming administration, the engagement period ends November 14th.

Office hours sessions

We’re hosting a weekly hour-long community session every Friday from 12pm to 1pm ET via Zoom. Come with any questions you have about participating in assemblies, hosting events, and using our online platform, CitizenLab. Be sure to register beforehand via the following link: 

< https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEsduugrzwtGNG_iQmAX-lNOkTI0aiR4e5Y >. We hope to see you there and look forward to catching up with you!

Final words

We would love for you to join this movement – if you know of anyone who would also be interested, please feel free to forward this message to them as well.

Lastly, if you have questions or want to learn more about our project please visit our website < https://peoplestech.nyc/en/ > and know we’re happy to answer any questions as well at [email protected]. 

Cheers,

The NYC Peoples’ Tech Assemblies Coalition 

(Sent by Gabrielle Langston on behalf of Noel Hidalgo).