"The White House wants our ideas on how to improve public participation and community engagement with the federal government. And we’re answering that call as a community."
Join BetaNYC and the MTA Open Data team on June 5th at 9:30am to explore recently published MTA operating budget datasets. We’ll learn about the MTA’s open data program and conduct insightful analyses with their data.
💬 NYC’s government chatbot is lying about city laws and regulations | Ars Technica
「 To cite just one example, the bot said that NYC buildings "are not required to accept Section 8 vouchers," when an NYC government info page says clearly that Section 8 housing subsidies are one of many lawful sources of income that landlords are required to accept without discrimination 」
The site lays out my position a little more clearly. For now, I have a reading list of the papers that really helped me shape my early thinking. Will be adding more resources as we go
For the three reporters who have written articles about this, and the one who provided invaluable guidance, my gratitude is endless. This post doesn't apply to you, nor "the feds", the cybersecurity experts, or #lawyers (including and especially @eff), who were extremely helpful. The rest, however, should take note.
I've willingly laid my neck on a chopping block, unprotected, for over six months.
My outreach has been exhaustive:
• Attempted to engage with over 150 journalists and #news organizations,
• Coordinated frequently with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (#CISA or "the feds"),
• Consulted with numerous cybersecurity experts,
• Sought advice from multiple lawyers,
• Spoke with ten state and state court CISOs,
• Attempted to talk to several dozen state and county court clerks and judges,
• Sent emails to every Florida State Senator, State Representative, and Supreme Court justice, and to multiple governors,
• Discussed with the staff of multiple U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives,
• Contacted twelve vendors and over 40 employees
I've offered to write articles -- for free.
I've had no fewer than eight background checks done on me.
I've been cyberstalked by the Arizona Supreme Court.
I've put my job and my family's livelihood at risk in more ways than one.
I've made a grand total of $0; in fact, I've invested several hundred.
When I'm able to sleep, it's with one eye open, always waiting for "that" knock on the door.
After my first #disclosure, I prepared for a week to deal with what I expected to be a #media circus. What I received was one preemptive email from a state court #CISO (who was not affected) and one kind person (who is not a #journalist) on the #fediverse.
I've spent over 900 hours discovering, documenting, reporting, and disclosing vulnerabilities, trying to get this fixed on a mass scale, and attempting to contact the above list. I see no signs of this slowing down any time soon. All of this for what is merely a #hobby.
I've done my part. It's time for reporters to step up. The real-world harm these vulnerabilities have caused — and continue to cause — cannot be overstated. The need for widespread awareness and action is urgent.
For Public Interest Tech people not on the East Coast because they should be done for the day:
After many, many, many years, I've put together a one-hour talk on influencing peers and leadership to stop a likely procurement disaster, and steer it towards a user-centered, iterative, agile approach.
It's called Pulling the Cord, and I'm testing it on March 20th, for 15 people, at a 90% discount.
"We believe there is an opportunity to help verify the online identities of American officials. Hosting a Mastodon server on .gov domains is one possibility. 10x will explore this changing internet landscape, validate the extent of the problem, and identify if government technologists can play a positive role in solving it."
"The Data Liberation Project is an initiative to identify, obtain, reformat, clean, document, publish, and disseminate government datasets of public interest."
Tak sobie myślę, że byłoby na prawdę fajnie gdyby np WatchaDog Polska miał oficjalne konto na Mastodon. Biorąc pod uwagę to czym się zajmują, byłoby to o wiele lepsze miejsce niż X/Meta.
Nie oczekuję, że porzucą tamte platformy, nie mogą i nie powinni, tam jest większość, a oni powinni starać się docierać do jak największej liczby ludzi, a nie walczyć z BigTech, jednak myślę że byłoby wskazane by takie organizacje:
Pozwalały na (wygodną) dwukierunkową komunikację ze sobą bez akceptowania zasad narzucanych przez firmy.
Nie były zależne od widzi-mi-się tych firm.
@panoptykon czy Wy może macie jakiś guideline o komunikacji dla instytucji publicznych albo NGO? A może znacie kogoś e Watchadogu, komu można byłoby wspomnieć o ActivityPub/Fedi/Mastodon?
"We urgently need a solution that gives our government officials the power to reach everyone, and more control over the way they connect with the citizens."
“The Auditor General has just sounded the alarm on federal government inaction in the delivery of effective & cost efficient digital services to Canadians”
“6 out of 10 applications remain in poor condition because they are running on highly risky, aging infrastructure.“
Does anyone maintain a comprehensive list of state, federal, and other government agencies that run their own fediverse servers, or at least have an account here?
Bundesforschungsministerin @starkwatzinger diskutierte mit dem Präsidenten des World Economic Forum Børge Brende auf dem GovTech Campus in Berlin, wie der Staat durch #GovTech die #Digitalisierung der #Verwaltung vorantreiben kann. Hier in Berlin soll das neue Government Technology Center des WEF entstehen!