Welcome to my website, where you can find articles and presentations about civic tech, digital transformation, grassroots humanitarian aid and other topics.
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Anatomy of an Open Source Political Campaign at Open Camps Conference, 2018, New York City
I presented the following slides at the Open Camps Conference in New York City. PDF Download
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Expanding Consul presented at MediaLab Prado, Madrid, Spain on November 15th, 2018
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE FOR DEMOCRACY 2018 was a program of the MediaLab Prado in Madrid, Spain, funded by the Madrid City Government. I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in the two week program where I worked with a team to improve the Consul Participatory Democracy software platform. It was an extremely significant experience […]
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Mixing Tool Sets from Madrid and Taiwan to Improve Participatory Budgeting in New York presented at the g0v Summit 2018 in Taipei, Taiwan
“Mixing Tool Sets from Madrid and Taiwan to Improve Participatory Budgeting in New York: Leveraging Participatory Budgeting to Create a More Open and Participatory Government” was presented at the g0v (pronounced “gov zero”) Summit 2018 on October 6th, 2018 in Taipei, Taiwan. It was an ambitious presentation attempting to align the participatory democracy movements in […]
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“The Open Aid Movement” Presented at NVOAD Conference May 9th, 2018
I had the honor of presenting “The Open Aid Movement” at the 2018 NVOAD conference in Providence, Rhode Island. This presentation offers an overview of the Open Aid Movement and its four components. Each component had a case study that was prepared by an expert in that specific area. The four components and slide contributors […]
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Debrief: My 2017 Campaign for NYC Public Advocate
Every vote has been counted, and 74% of NYC voters want Democrat Letitia James to continue as Public Advocate. I congratulated her on her success and will happily work with her to make NYC’s government more open, transparent and participatory. I hope she’ll take me up on my offer. Those experienced in third-party NYC politics […]
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A More Transparent City, with a Page for Every Capital Project
This piece was originally published on Gotham Gazette on November 2, 2017 Few things impact the lives of New Yorkers more than the city’s “capital projects.” These projects create, maintain, and improve the infrastructure New Yorkers use every day, including: streets, bridges, tunnels, sewers, parks, and so much more. In 2018, the capital budget will be $16.2 […]
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“Big City” Libertarianism
The Libertarian Party (LP) is the third largest political party in the United States, with a membership that’s twice as large as the Green Party and twenty times as large as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Unlike the Greens and DSA, which draw a significant support from urban areas, the LP is significantly more […]
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Imagining SimNYCity
I was eight years old when I first encountered a computer game called “SimCity.” The general premise of the game was that you were the mayor of a virtual city, and you would use game money to create a place for communities of “Sims” to live. First you set up basic infrastructure like roads, pipes, […]
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OpEd: Disaster Preparedness Requires a 211 System; New York City Still Doesn’t Have One
This piece was originally published on Gotham Gazette on October 3, 2017 Over the last few weeks, New Yorkers have watched with great anxiety as Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, among many other places, were pummeled by massive hurricanes. Whenever we see storm destruction, memories of Sandy re-enter our consciousness; as does the question: Is New […]
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It’s Time for a “Participatory” Democracy Instead of our “Consumer” One
Democracy in the United States was established nearly 250 years ago when news traveled at the speed of a horse and real-time collaboration required sharing a physical location. Today, ubiquitous internet access, smartphones, social media, and online collaboration tools have transformed how we work, play and consume, but the basic structure of our politics remains the same.
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