Silberman School of Social Work
When the city enters into fiber agreements with carriers, they often include a few strands of extra fiber for city use. How is that extra fiber utilized? FOIA usage and locations? Samir later said that the agreements/locations for the carrier usage was not FOIA’ble due to IP/competitive reasons. But if the city is using fiber... FOIA only for that maybe.
Check out Susan Crawford, a Harvard professor who sued the city/DoITT (and lost) over transparency for the fiber agreements.
Rutkus radio, don’t remember what this was about, but need to check it out.
NYPL is connected with Light Path. Light Tower connects IIM contract.
“Door of No Return” at Cape Coast Castle
10/17 SH annual confernce.
“Connectivity as infrastructure”
The IoT is akin to making the inanimate, animate. From civic structures to houseolds: IoT brings new use to otherwise static objects.
SH is dedicated to increasing digital literacy. Any connection with Crypto Harlem and Matt Mitchell?
50% of Harlem (NYC?) is without broadband internet. Those with it, pay ~150/mth.
SH worked with Spectrum to offer video and high speed internet for $40/mth.
SH goal is 100% connectivity.
SH founded in 2013: 5 year anniversary coming up with the 10/17 conference.
The internet is an artifact of people and place. From 116th to Pleasant, between 109th and 101st: Small business connected. Kids from Youth Action and Empower are being trained to deploy and maintain networking infrastructure. Creating a virtuous cycle of community engagement, and empowerment.
Some projects:
- East Harlem 360
- Sky Packets
- EAGER - funded by the NSF. 3 node fiber ring, egress w/ Columbia and City College
- SEEK - Smart cities 5g, small cell densification
- POWER - 4 year project, platforms for advanced wireless research, advanced fiber network back to East Harlem
- Multiple small business connected
- Testbed, and first city deployment of 5g. After being underserved, this community will be the first served.
New America, NYC EDC are both sources of funding.
BuildIT, PlanIT, RunIT: DoITT
DoITT introduced a Chief Customer Officer, focusing on city agencies and their relationship with DoITT.
DoITT restructured to functionally aligned groups: no more centralized database/networking/deployment teams. Each product has the experience needed to execute on a project from conception to deployment.
They’re big on DevSecOps
And they have a Chief Data Officer. How does DoITT relate to the Mayor’s office of Data Analytics? DoITT unveiled plans for data analytics and more streamlined datasharing between agencies (DMI, CDO). These are two initiatives that Mike Flowers (NYC’s first chief analytics officer, and helped found MODA) has already worked on.
Mayor’s ofice of the CTO is aiming for universal broadband by 2025. Is DoITT responsible for executing on this vision? What is the relationship between this city agency, and mayor’s initiatives/offices?
Link is run by CityBridge. Samir gave an offhand comment implying that he condones residential usage of Link.
He can’t talk about it yet, but they’re working on some project for affordable, citywide, equitable internet.
With Amazon, city police departments, all in the news for degrading privacy (facial recognition, data sharing agreements with service providers, etc...), what is the city doing to ensure privacy for its citizens?
The mayor has created a Chief Privacy Officer. Facial recognition is not allowed in the city [citation needed].
Is there a timeline for all of this?
311 revamp and APIs are going to be published soon: This year 311 app late 2018/early 2020 Next major project after 311 stuff: nyc.gov revamp
What are the plans to educate NYC residents about all these new things?
DoITT has created marketing for digital products.
Why has expansion of LinkNYC stopped in East Harlem?
Working closely with CityBridge. Most of the delays are around power, and the city is working with ConEd to resolve.
When will the city publish maps of broadband infrastrucure or disclose pricing?
These lease agreements were not made in the public’s best interest and did not have terms for public disclosure. These are trade secrets and confidential info. For city owned fiber: this can absolutely be disclosed.
Can the city feasibly use eminent domain to take ownership of this data?
Does the city have infrastructure for uninterrupted voice communication between different first responders?
Yes. System is also slated for an upgrade by Motorola
SH has moved into a new space.
“Gigabit centers” a collaboration between SH and the city.
Minidata center in North Manhattan?