On March 28, 2026, BetaNYC hosted NYC School of Data 2026 (NYCSoData) at CUNY School of Law NYC. NYCSoData is a community conference that demystifies the practices and policies around open data, technology, and service design. This year’s conference concludes NYC’s Open Data Week 2026 and was the TENTH edition of both NYCSoData and Open Data Week! The mainstage sessions were livestreamed with ASL translation provided. Other sessions were recorded and will be posted here as they are edited.
01 Opening Session Kristen Gonzalez – State Senator, District 59 / Chair, Internet and Technology Committee and Elections Committee, New York State Senate Carmen De La Rosa – Council Member, District 10 / Chair, Technology Committee, New York City Council Tayyab Walker – Associate Commissioner,Office of Data Analytics, New York City Government Noel Hidalgo – Executive Director, BetaNYC Martha Norrick – Principal, Backbone Strategies / Senior Fellow, Reinvent Albany Naeema Haque – Development and Strategy Manager, BetaNYC VIDEO | AUDIO | RECAP EN / ES / FR
02 From Connectivity to Connection, Transforming Digital Equity Into Action Jennifer Gutiérrez, Council Member, New York City Council Joshua Breitbart – Senior Vice President, New York State’s ConnectALL, New York State Government Paolo Balboa – Chief Digital Equity Officer, New York City Office Of Technology and Innovation
Moderator: Noel Hidalgo – Executive Director, BetaNYC VIDEO | AUDIO | RECAP EN / ES / FR
03 Building the Public Interest Tech Workforce Julie Won – Council Member – District 26, New York City Council Lauri Goldkind – Professor of Social Work. Fordham University / founder, PAIRED Lab, Fordham University Aankit Patel – University Dean, City University of New York Jazzy Smith – Chief of Staff, BetaNYC
Moderator: Meisha Porter – Senior Visiting Fellow, Center for Educational Innovation VIDEO | AUDIO | RECAP EN / ES / FR
04 AI in Government: Opportunities for the Mamdani Administration Alex Foard – Assistant Commissioner, Research & Collaboration, NYC Office of Technology & Innovation Tayyab Walker -Associate Commissioner, Office of Data Analytics, New York City Government Ariel Kennan – Senior Director, Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation, Georgetown University
Moderator: Genevieve Gaudet – Director, Nava Labs, Nava PBC VIDEO | AUDIO | RECAP EN / ES / FR
05 How has 10 years of civic engagement through open data changed New York? Zachary Feder – Open Data Program Manager, NYC Office of Data Analytics Adrienne Schmoeker – Senior Program Officer, Bezos Earth Fund Lisa Mae Fiedler – Open Data Manager, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Gale Brewer– Council Member – NYC Council
Moderator: Noel Hidalgo – Executive Director, BetaNYC VIDEO | AUDIO | RECAP EN / ES / FR
On Saturday March 29, 2025, BetaNYC hosted NYC School of Data 2025 at CUNY School of Law in Queens. This year’s event celebrated the 13th anniversary of the City’s transformative open data law and concluded NYC Open Data Week 2025. NYC School of Data is a community driven conference with a focus on open data, civic technology, and service design.
The main stage was webcast via ISOC.LIVE. ASL interpretation will be provided. Other tracks were recorded and made available via the BetaNYC YouTube channel. Much appreciation to Reinvent Albany for the funding support.
01 Opening Session Jazzy Smith – Chief of Staff, BetaNYC Martha Norrick – Chief Analytics Officer, Office of Technology and Innovation Hon. Kristen Gonzalez – Chair, Internet and Technology Committee, New York State Senate Noel Hidalgo – Executive Director, BetaNYC YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
02 Congestion Pricing: Data Lessons From the First Three Months Matt Yarri – Data Science Manager, MTA YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
03 Mapping Urban Ecologies: The Need for Data for Achieving Biodiverse Places Andrew Buck – Senior Urban Planner & Technologist, VHB Novem Auyeung – Director of Research & Monitoring, NYC Parks Michael Treglia – Lead Scientist, NY Cities Program, The Nature Conservancy Kirk Gordon – Associate, SCAPE Naeema Haque – Development and Strategy Manager, BetaNYC YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
04 A year of using AI @ citymeetings.nyc: what it took, how it works, and the impact it has had Vikram Oberoi – citymeetings.nyc YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
05 Congestion Pricing, As Seen Through DOT Cameras Isaac Donis – Organizer, Transit Techies Tim Harris – Founder, timotheus YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
06 Machine Readable Laws: How LLMs can help democratize NYC Administrative Code Jordan Shapiro – Founder, JD Digitalization YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
07 Pulling Out All the Stops for a Stop Sign: Lessons From a Long and Winding Road Roisin Ford Josh Sucher – Creative Technologist & UX Researcher YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
08 Ranked Choice Voting in the Big Apple Kathryn Agnas – Data Scientist, NYC Campaign Finance Board YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
09 Turnout for What: An Exploration of Voter Engagement Using Open Data Malika Mohan Jen Yeaton YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
10 Intro to NYCDB: Exploring NYC Open Data with the Housing Data Coalition Maxwell Austensen Steve Giordano Ry Zhu Itzamna Huerta YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
11 Creating a Multimodal Urban Planning Simulation for Diverse Publics using NYC Open Data Katie McMillan Culp – Chief Learning Officer, New York Hall of Science Jenna Lang – Content Producer, Trivium Interactive Andrew Kittredge – Civic Innovation Lab Director, BetaNYC Amelia Merker – Exhibits Manager, NYSCI YOUTUBE | AUDIO
12 Navigating the NYC Open Data Infrastructure for Community-Based Organizations: A conversation Yuki Mitsuda – Manager, Analytics and Data Strategy, NYC Housing Preservation and Development Kevin Lee – Director of Data Analytics, Breaking Ground Angelica Bravo – Director of Data, Evaluation, and Learning, University Settlement Glenda Perez – Senior Research Scientist, NYC CIDI Lauri Goldkind – Professor, Fordham YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
13 Analyzing Flood Insurance Claim Trends in New York City: Insights from FEMA’s NFIP Data Mark Bauer – Data Scientist Tiffany Cousins – Spatial Data Scientist & Researcher, Cousins Analytics LLC YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
14 Best of the MTA Open Data Challenge Lisa Mae Fiedler – Open Data Manager, MTA Are NYC Subway Stops Ready for Every Student? – Huda Ayaz, Olivia Fratangelo, Taseen Islam The Museum of Transversal Art – Bianca Ng Lately on the MTA – Noah Gunther If you Give a Rat a MetroCard – Will Meyers Subway Stories – Jediah Katz, Marc Zitelli YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
15 Good Cause Eviction Screener: A data-driven approach to bolster tenant rights in NYC Corey Brown – Design Lead, JustFix Ki Wan Sim – Senior Software Engineer, JustFix YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
16 Learning about the NYC Urban Forest through the Latest High-Resolution Tree Canopy Data Uma Bhandaram – Deputy Chief, NYC Parks & Recreation Michael Treglia – Lead Scientist, NY Cities Program, The Nature Conservancy YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
17 OSCUR: A Platform for Understanding Urban Data – Demonstration and Introduction Graham Dove – Assistant Professor, NYU Fabio Miranda – Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Chicago YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
18 Using Data for Budget Transparency with IBO: Stormwater Fees, Police Overtime Trends, and the State of NYC’s Public Education Valerie Gudino – Budget & Policy Analyst, Public Safety, NYC IBO Emma Gossett – Budget & Policy Analyst, NYC IBO Jordan Paige – Lead Environmental Budget & Policy Analyst, NYC IBO YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
19 Learn NYC Zoning with Open Data, Paper Models, and Augmented Reality! Nick Kaufmann – Community Manager, InCitu Pablo Sepúlveda – Zoning Lead, zlvas Ziv Schneider – Head of Design, InCitu YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
20 Beyond the Data: The Tech Driving City Council Programs Johnathan Chei – Assistant Deputy Director, Web Development Unit Alaa Moussawi – Chief Data Scientist Frank Perez – Community Engagement Division Brad J. Reid – Deputy Director, Legislative Division Yogi Rosario-Doran – Community Engagement Division Ahmad Zaki – Full-stack Developer, Legislative Division YOUTUBE
21 A Conversation with MTA Data & Analytics Andrew Kuziemko – Deputy Chief, Data & Analytics Preksha Agarwal – Product Manager Ben Tannenwald – Senior Data Scientist Gayan Seneviratna – Senior Data Scientist Lisa Mae Fiedler – Open Data Manager Hannah Spierer – Senior Manager, Policy & Coordination, MTA YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
22 Defending Affordable and Stable Housing: Progress and Problems Ian G. Williams – Doctoral Student, PhD Program in Social Welfare, CUNY Sam O’Hana Holden Taylor YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
23 FloodNet – Event based flood data for climate resilience Charlie Mydlarz – Research Associate Professor, NYU CUSP Bea Steers – Embedded Developer, FloodNet NYC Ricardo Toledo-Crow – Director, Next Generation Environmental Sensor Lab, CUNY ASRC YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
24 How Crosswalk Labs Maps Nationwide Neighborhood-Level CO2 Emissions Data and Benchmarks to NYC Building Energy and Water Data Danny Sheehan – Director of Solutions Architecture, Crosswalk Labs YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
25 Open Data in Action: Tracking New York City’s Progress Toward Closing Rikers Island Ashley Santiago – Freedom Agenda Elizabeth Johnson – Data Scientist Richie Lin – Data Manager, Data Collaborative for Justice Michael Rempel – Executive Director, Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
26 Where does NYC Garbage Go? It is now possible to know! Matthew Eshed – Master of Environmental Management, Systems Engineer, Sustainability Specialist Andrew Goh – Data Analyst, ex-Wayfair Samantha MacBride – Assistant Professor, Baruch College, CUNY Jane Wu Shen Xin – Communications Chair, Urban Planner YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
27 Keeping your data safe in 2025 (and beyond!) Davis Erin Anderson – Senior Digital Security Trainer, Freedom of the Press Foundation YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
28 In Code We Trust: Volunteering and Careers in Government & Public Interest Technology Abbey Kos – Board Member, Technologists for the Public Good Noel Hidalgo – Executive Director, BetaNYC Martha Norrick – Chief Analytics Officer, Office of Technology and Innovation Gabe Paley – Assistant Secretary for Technology, Office of Governor Kathy Hochul Jai Rodgers – Talent Community Manager, U.S. Digital Response YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
29 NYC Public Space: Building a mobile map of 3,000 public spaces in New York City Chris Whong – Civic Hacker O.G. YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
30 Urban Risk Index: a NYC Index for Urban Hazards Te Du – Risk Analysis Specialist, NYC Emergency Management YOUTUBE | AUDIO | SUMMARY | TRANSCRIPT
On Saturday March 23 2024 BetaNYC hosts NYC School of Data 2024 at CUNY School of Law in Queens. This year’s event celebrates the 12th anniversary of the City’s transformative open data law and concludes NYC Open Data Week 2024. NYC School of Data is a community driven conference with a focus on open data, civic technology, and service design.
The main stage will be webcast live via a partnership with the Internet Society New York Chapter. Other tracks will be recorded and made available via the BetaNYC YouTube channel.
10:00 Opening Session Noel Hidalgo, Executive Director, BetaNYC Martha Norrick, Chief Analytics Officer, NYC Kate Nicholson, Director of Partnerships and Programs, BetaNYC Jazzy Smith, Director of Fellowship, BetaNYC Ashley Louie, Chief Technology Officer, BetaNYC
11:00 Public Interest AI: the Future of Generative AI in Civic Technology Mark Levine, Borough President of Manhattan, Office of the Manhattan Borough President Elan Silver, Counsel and Committee Director, Internet and Technology Committee, New York State Senator Kristen Gonzalez Reshma Saujani, Founder, Girls Who Code, Moms First Jeannette M. Wing, Executive Vice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University
Moderator: Ashley Louie, Chief Technology Officer, BetaNYC
12:15 Opening NY’s Criminal Courts – Expanding Access to Court Decisions and Criminal Data Rachael Fauss, Senior Policy Advisor, Reinvent Albany Oded Oren, Founder and Executive Director, Scrutinize Raelynn Walker, Assistant Director of Research and Data Processing, Measures for Justice Terry Ding, Staff Attorney, New York Civil Liberties Union
14:30 Presenting the 2023 NYC Hayes Innovation Prize Winners Ruby Choi, Deputy Commissioner for Strategic Initiatives, NYC Office of Technology and Innovation Dean Labowitz, NYC Office of Technology and Innovation Will Hsiao, Mayor’s Office of Operations: Capital Dashboard Project Sridhar Doraikannu, Office of Tech and Innovation: Automated Lifecycle Management Anne Schuster, Deptarment of Health and Mental Hygiene: NYC Health Panel
15:45 The inside story from New York City’s top data journalists Derek Kravitz, Editor, MuckRock Bianca Pallaro, Senior data reporter, THE CITY Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky, Data reporter, WNYC/Gothamist Jesse Coburn, Investigative reporter, Streetsblog Max Siegelbaum, Co-executive director, Documented NY
New York City School of Data – a full day of presentations, panels, and workshops – took place on March 3 2018. This event, organized by BetaNYC, was held onInternational Open Data Day 2018, and kicked off the second annual NYC Open Data Week. The focus this year was on four key areas: digital literacy & privacy, smart & wise cities, effective & open government, and civic & government technology. The main stage were webcast live on the Internet Society Livestream Channel. That video, plus recordings of the primary workshop track, are now available in segmented form on the BetaNYC YouTube Channel
New York City School of Data is organized byBetaNYC – NYC’s Civic technology, data, and design community. The conversations and workshops will empower you to improve our neighborhoods and our lives. The day is framed to celebrate NYC’s transformative open data law and International Open Data Day, while kicking off NYC’s second annual open data week. This year’s conversations will focus on four key areas: digital literacy & privacy, smart & wise cities, effective & open government, and civic & government technology.
In addition to exciting panels and workshops, all participants are welcomed to a #hackhall — a daylong open space for open source civic & government technology projects.
Sessions include:
*Discriminnovation & the future of NYC’s Open Algorithm Law
*The future of open source & digital services with NYC Planning
*Civic Engagement in NYC: The landscape & where we’re headed with Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics
*Reducing the anxiety of NYC middle school applications through open data & peer networks
*Libraries: your partner in safeguarding privacy with METRO & the City’s library systems
*Oversight + mapping = advocating for a healthy internet at the local level hosted by Mozilla Foundation
*Workshop – Truth in Broadband User Testing with The Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (NYC CTO)
*Workshop – BetaNYC’s Intro to BoardStat & Civic Data Journeys
*Workshop – NYC DOITT GIS / mapping NYC 311 with open source tools developed by the city
*Workshop – NYC Planning & future of PLUTO
Featured HackHall Projects & Organizations:
*NYC Department of City Planning
*NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications’ GIS department
*Sunlight Foundation & their Open Data Census
*StreetMix
*Hacking a Smart City Together, a smart city workshop using arduinos
*The Grid – the tool to measure pedestrian activity
*New York Public Library’s “Connections” guide & data liberation into Street Lives
*The Refugee Libraries Project
Rise New York – a global community of startups and corporates creating the future of commerce and fintech by helping startups and entrepreneurs connect, co-create, and scale innovation.
New York City School of Data is a community conference showcasing NYC’s civic design, civic/government technology, and open data ecosystem.
Through TEN thought provoking sessions and THIRTEEN small group workshops, this year’s conference asks for your help in improving community resources, and challenges you to build a collective future.
Join us and others around the world on Saturday, 4 March, for International Open Data Day to demystify technology, policy, data, and celebrate New York City’s inaugural Open Data Week!
Registration: $30, this includes breakfast, lunch, snacks, and covers facilities charges. Ticket sales cover the event’s production costs. If you can volunteer two hours or desire a hardship ticket, please apply via screendoor. Thanks to generous support from Socrata, we are able to provide free, on-site childcare from Sitters Studio.
