Volunteers – 520 Clinton Ave, Brooklyn #NYTechHelps

Today’s focus for the NY Tech community is direct help of impacted communities and families. A number of people will be gathering at 520 Clinton Avenue in Brooklyn today at the The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew which will be used as central depot and organizational location for relief efforts. If you can, please stop by there, or other volunteer spots in the city, and HELP OUT.

Also remember we’ll be starting to post less to this blog as we move to the WordPress site we’re using — it’s at http://nytechresponds.wordpress.com. Please go there FIRST for updates on #NYTechResponds and NYTM response to Sandy.

#NYTechResponds Day 3 Wrap-Up: Hackthon, New Sites/Apps

Another productive day. Here are some updates.

Hackathon
We have received a number of e-mails, tweets, etc. expressing enthusiasm for a hackathon. 48 hours ago we targeted a Saturday event; yesterday we discussed a date in the middle of next week. As we’ve been thinking today about the hackathon timing and location, a number of concerns have come up about doing a hackathon even a week out from today. These concerns can be summarized as:

  • Planning efforts for a hackathon may take away from time and cycles that should be spent on direct action and immediate aid
  • Primary aid (food, shelter, basic supplies, first aid, essential connectivity) is still the more pressing need right now over technology; significant portions of the population will still be struggling for the basics come next week
  • Transportation may still be a problem next week
  • Current bootstrapped processes such as those being employed by groups like Hurricane Hackers are producing concerte results — code is shipping (e.g., http://sandy.hydr0.com/)
  • We’re still not clear on what the exact nature and priority of the needs are that should be the focus for the technical community to address – we should look to build platforms and tools that both help in Sandy recover as well as become durable platforms for future responses
  • The city agencies we’d like to work with are buried and are not in a position to focus on a hackathon; not having their participation would be a big gap as their involvement allows us access to a whole host of tools, data, and expertise that would make what is developed at the hackathon much more useful
This is mind, the current thinking amongst those of us who have been considering a hackathon, in particular the leadership of NYTM as well as some of the lead volunteers, is as follows:
  • Continue to maximize the use of the various co-working spaces that have opened their doors to members of the technology community. These co-working spaces can be found using the http://sandycoworking.nytechresponds.org/ tool
  • Consider working with several planned upcoming hackathons; encourage them to focus on Sandy related relief projects
  • Plan for a #NYTechResponds hackathon for later in the month when needs are better understood and transit is better recovered; this will also give us time to better plan for the fundraising angles we’d like to tie into this event
  • Hold a hackathon that emphasizes getting bright, talented people from different organizations and background in a room to crowdsolve problems in working groups based on expertise and experience.
What do you think? Check out the Google Doc about the hackathon we’ve created and share your thoughts there around the where, when, how, why, and what of the hackathon. The will help us to maximize the hackathon’s utility to Sandy and applicability to future responses.
Hurricane Hackers
Our friends at Hurricane Hackers have made a lot of progress today. Two particularly notable developments:
Tools and Key Links
Here are some helpful links and URLs right now as the response continues:

“Sponsor a volunteer” fundraising platform
As we were thinking about the hackathon, we also discussed doing a “sponsor a volunteer” pledge drive whereby donors could give money to charities by pledging money per hour of volunteer work — essentially a way of “double dipping” whereby each hour of volunteer work produces both concerte action and new dollars to support relief. Take a look at the basic spec we put together for the idea here –
http://bit.ly/SponsorAVolunteerAppSpec. Let us know what you think and if you might like to help build this idea out.

Hurricane Hackers – @hurricanehackrs

Hurricane Hackers published an announcement a bit ago about the great work they are doing. Check it out at http://sukeyio.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/hackers-unite-help-sandy-victims-join.html, and pasted below:

Hackers Unite! Help #Sandy Victims. Join #HurricaneHackers on irc.freenode.net and follow @hurricanehackrs on twitter

Hey all,
Sandy is a major storm, previously a hurricane, that has caused  extensive flooding, power and transportation outages, and physical  damage to the US East Coast and Caribbean. More than 100 deaths have  been linked to the storm. You can see an overview of what is going on in NYC here: http://google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy-nyc

So essentially, over  100,000 people in Lower Manhattan are without power, and will likely  not have it back up for a few days. In order to stay informed as the  situation changes, and to keep in touch with loved ones, they will need  a way to communicate with their laptops  and phones.

We are innovating rapidly to create tools built and deployed using Heroku, Twillio, Human.io, google docs, google maps, crowdmaps — pretty much anything we can get our hands on. This effort is being  spearheaded by the http://civic.mit.edu/  to help make services and connect tech people with people in need on the ground. A lot of interesting things are happening in the wake of  this natural disaster:http://www.fastcompany.com/3002598/sandy-prompts-louder-calls-free-wi-fi

This  is a unique opportunity to innovate to help people (people before  borders, tech beyond borders) and maybe change the debate on issues like  universal free open wifi). Please volunteer some coding / hacking  time and help some real people in a different part of the world that are  not having a great time right now. This a chance to demonstrate the power of the open, unrestricted internet, and the community that such an internet makes possible.

Come and help us over at #HurricaneHackers! Start here: http://hurricanehackers.com/|
Then read the HH-Projects list here: 
http://bit.ly/hh-projects-read |
lulz:
http://brownbag.me:9001/p/sandylulz|
tunes:
http://turntable.fm/hurricane_jammin | follow us @hurricanehackrs.
Also: Join or organize a Sandy CrisisCamp this weekend:
http://crisiscommons.org/2012/10/30/sandycrisiscamp/

If you are in NYC are looking for space to work with power, heat, and wifi, check outhttps://sandycoworking.crowdmap.com/ and the#sandycoworking hashtag on Twitter. Many of NYC’s co-working spaces were damaged, so the need for work space is urgent. Updates on the broader NY Tech community response can be found at www.nytechresponds.org.

Please share this post far and wide!

#HurricaneHackers
@hurricanehackrs

Sandy Response from a Distance – Crisis Commons

If you are not in NYC and would like to donate your technical and coding skills, please check out http://crisiscommons.org/2012/10/30/sandycrisiscamp/. Here are some of the camps in different cities:

#NYTechResponds Day 2 Update: Hackathon, #SandyCoWorking Spaces

Lots of great progress today on mobilization of the NY Tech community in response to Sandy. Updates:

Hackathon

NOVEMBER 2 – HACKATHON UPDATE: Based on a number of concerns that have been raised, we’re thinking we will delay a hackathon until at least the week after next. See http://nytechresponds.wordpress.com/about/ and a longer explanation at http://nytechresponds.blogspot.com/2012/11/nytechresponds-day-3-wrap-up-hackthon.html

The plans are starting to come together for a two day hackathon next week. Headlines:

  • November 7th and 8th (Wednesday and Thursday)
  • Likely location midtown Manhattan – location should be locked tomorrow
    • We expect many people will want/need to participate remotely and we’ll set up mechanisms to support that.
    • We would be very appreciative to see other cities, in particular other “tech capitals” such as San Francisco, Boston, Boulder, Austin, etc. hold hackathons of their own in support of NYC’s recovery and to raise money for recovery efforts. (UPDATE: This is starting to happen. See

  • The purpose of the hackathon will be for developers and non-developers alike to get together to swarm and crowdsolve critical technical and infrastructure related problems the city is facing
  • We’ll also look to allocate space for non-technical related support efforts, such as the ones being done by groups such as the Red Cross and recovers.org
  • We’ll also be raising money to support relief efforts of the Red Cross
  • We’re working on a program by which pledges can be made per developer hour, much the same way one might pledge a runner per mile. But if that appears too complex, we’ll do straight donations.
  • We’re working to have a blood mobile at the hackathon site to encourage people to give blood. (There is no reason to wait – give blood today).
  • We are looking for sponsors, of either the event overall, or of developers. If you are interested in sponsoring, please send an e-mail to Gary Whitehill, Tony Bacigalupo,  Jessica Lawrence, or me (Rob Underwood).
  • Check out Kira Newman’s article about out hackathon plans: http://tech.co/hackathon-nyc-hurricane-sandy-2012-10
#SandyCoWorking Spaces
 
As you may have seen from the of NY tech sector leaders such as Charlie O’Donnell using the hashtag #SandyCoworking, there is a lot of coordination going on around finding places for people to get together to get back to work. 
 
Tomorrow we have two locations identified in Brooklyn at which people can work. In addition to being a place for people to just get stuff done, these will also be locations for us all to further coordinate and plan in person the NY tech sector response to Sandy. The locations are
If you need a space and can’t get to Brooklyn, check out http://bit.ly/sandycowork
 
Resources
 
Here are some key resources for you to use:
PLEASE ADD ANY OTHER RESOURCES IN COMMENTS BELOW AND/OR TWEET OUT FAR AND WIDE AND/OR ADD TO COORDINATION G DOC.

Thoughts On How NY Tech Can Best Respond – #SandyVolunteer #SandyCoWorking #NYTechResponds

A couple thoughts on how NY Tech can respond to Sandy. Four points

  1. Make the response about all 5 boros, not just downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. Some of the hardest hit areas are parts of NYC such as Breezy Point, Queens. It’ll be important we develop responses that consider all of New York City. We should also consider how we can help greater NYC, especially hard hit areas in NJ.
  2. Focus on what we do best (tech), but also focus on immediate, concrete, hands-on needs. We should marshall all of our tech power expertise to creatively solve difficult problems. We should also, though, be visible and active in doing direct actions such as donating blood.
  3. Coordinate across a wide swatch of organizations, large and small, and regardless of political bent. This is the time for everyone to work together. This is also a great opportunity to demonstrate the power of the open internet.
  4. Build solutions to long term problems and durable platforms. Right now is triage — immediate human services as well as short-term technical problems such as connectivity and basic power. Soon though, focus should shift to creating durable platforms and applications to solve long-term problems. Some of these that jump to mind include
    • Damage / flood Surveys
    • Insurance and federal assistance Claims
    • Small business support (helping businesses get back on-line – restoring connectivity, getting DBs back-up, etc.)
    • School and municipality support (similar to small business)