Tag: open government

  • Better Late Than Never: Time for the Public Advocate to Convene COPIC

    Better Late Than Never: Time for the Public Advocate to Convene COPIC

    This article was originally published on Gotham Gazette on July 18, 2022 Now that New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’ long-shot campaign for New York Governor is over, he presumably has more time to focus on performing the functions that the New York City Charter assigns to his elected office. One function he has yet to…

  • 5 Solutions the Public Advocate Should Deliver for New York City

    5 Solutions the Public Advocate Should Deliver for New York City

    This article was originally published on Gotham Gazette on May 8, 2019 The New York City Public Advocate is a poorly defined position that, over its 30 years of existence, has often been used to advance the political interests and status of career politicians. I’m running for Public Advocate because I want to do something very different…

  • SimCity Showed Us Brilliant Civic Tech Interfaces 30 Years Ago. We Should Build Them for Real Now

    SimCity Showed Us Brilliant Civic Tech Interfaces 30 Years Ago. We Should Build Them for Real Now

    This article was originally published on Gotham Gazette on May 8, 2019 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.…

  • Political Structure in 3D

    Political Structure in 3D

    Dahl’s definition of polyarchy is good, but it’s not complete. His theory doesn’t account for the most powerful force in politics: information distribution. Those who control access to information have tremendous political power because they can amplify certain elements within society and silence others. By adding openness to Dalh’s polyarchy graph as the third dimension,…