NEW YORK--The state senate in Albany was in a bit of a shambles Monday. So instead of speaking in-person at the Personal Democracy Forum as planned, NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg used Skype to make his keynote address.
"Through the miracles of modern communication, we're essentially together," Bloomberg commented to the audience at the Frederick P. Rose auditorium here in midtown Manhattan. He then spoke about how New York is using the assets of the digital age to make more information available to the city's residents--something that Bloomberg can pitch well, considering he made a fortune as the founder of the business news and information company that bears his name.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
(Credit: NYC.gov)Bloomberg's new initiatives include Skype and Twitter accounts for NYC 311, the city's information hotline that Bloomberg launched several years ago; a partnership with Google to get more detailed information about exactly what people are searching for on municipal government sites (and what they can and can't find); and "Big Apps," a new contest for developers to crunch and remix city data into Web or mobile applications for the masses.
The economy, however, may get in the way. Any ambitious new city projects are taken with a grain of salt these days, and with good reason.
I, for one, was scrambling to get to Bloomberg's talk on time because cutbacks and delays on the B-D-F-V subway line had added literally an extra half-hour to my commute from downtown to the conference venue at Columbus Circle. Griping about the city budget is pretty commonplace around here these days, and Bloomberg himself is no exception.
"If any of you from around the world wants to move here," Bloomberg quipped over the Skype connection when conference organizer Andrew Rasiej commented that a thousand people were on hand, "we would love to have you. We need taxpayers."
The official information available on the Web to New York residents includes public school progress data and citywide performance reporting. Beyond that, Bloomberg's administration has chosen to support new and more efficient ways of doing business: it has given the thumbs-up to collaborative workspaces and launched a venture fund for tech and finance start-ups, among other things. These are all part of a way to combat the fact that the Wall Street meltdown has left scores of the city's professionals out of work.
With "Big Apps," Bloomberg is encouraging developers to participate in a contest that "will challenge all of you, and the whole tech world, really, to come up with new applications using city data."
"We'll be releasing a huge volume of data from a number of agencies," Bloomberg said before the Skype connection briefly cut off. Rasiej re-dialed in, and Bloomberg continued that he hopes the fruits of Big Apps contests will "create the connectedness that will benefit the city economically, civically, and socially."
If developers aren't willing to act solely out of a desire to help the city, Bloomberg said that Big Apps will indeed have cash prizes, as well as an even bigger incentive.
"I'll up the ante by taking the grand-prize winners out to dinner," he said.
Good to hear that's still in the budget.
The city of New York is about to step up its efforts to help nascent businesses and laid-off professionals, CNET News has learned.
On Wednesday, the city's Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC) plans to announce a new initiative to partner with a number of local start-up workspace companies. These office space providers rent desks, cubicles, conference rooms, and other resources to new and small businesses that aren't yet ready to take the full plunge into office space in a notoriously expensive market.
According to a source in the city's venture capital community, the agreement means that participating workspaces will provide discounted services and event space access to the city in exchange for promotion and publicity. Basically, this means that instead of actively developing rival shared work spaces--which could undercut existing private ones--NYC EDC will primarily collaborate with the ones that are already there.
A media relations representative from NYC EDC confirmed to CNET News that there would be an announcement on Wednesday but declined to provide any details.
The source said that initial partners in the agreement include Sunshine Suites, Nutopia, and New Work City, among others. But the partnership's first hub will be at 160 Varick St., in the SoHo neighborhood, which had already been selected by NYC EDC as a collaborative workspace.
It goes without saying that New York's business sector has been thoroughly shaken by the Wall Street crisis and ensuing recession.
In his State of the City address on January 15, Mayor Michael Bloomberg--himself a billionaire entrepreneur--announced that NYC EDC would work with the city's Small Businesses Services agency to help laid off workers find new employment at start-ups and entrepreneurial efforts, as well as devote more resources toward attracting new private investors.
In June, as part of the city's inaugural Internet Week New York festivities, Bloomberg announced a separate initiative called NYC Seed: a venture fund to provide up to $200,000 to local technology start-ups.
New York's tech elite mingle at Gracie Mansion after a press conference by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)NEW YORK--New York Mayor Michael P. Bloomberg wasn't kidding when he said he wanted Gotham to be a true global technology hub, and not just because municipal broadcast station NYC TV won its very first Webby Award this year.
At a press conference Monday evening, Bloomberg--himself a veteran of tech entrepreneurship--announced the debut of NYC Seed, a venture firm for early stage technology companies in the city. The event at Gracie Mansion, the mayor's official residence, kicked off Internet Week New York, a citywide festival of conferences, parties, and other events promoting the city's digital industries.
Calling the city "an exciting place, a challenging place, and perhaps most importantly, the city most welcoming to immigrants," Bloomberg hailed the diversity of New York and its possibilities as a hub for technology in addition to fashion, entertainment, finance, and media. "We accept each other in ways that I don't think happens anyplace else."
Referring to his experience at the helm of the finance information giant that still bears his name, he said, "My company never would have been remotely as successful if we had tried to put it in any other city."
NYC Seed, which will provide up to $200,000 of investment into New York-based technology start-ups, is a public-private partnership between the New York City Economic Development Corp. the New York City Investment Fund, the Partnership for New York City's economic development arm, Polytechnic University, the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology, and Innovation, and the Industrial and Technology Assistance Corp. It will be headquartered at the Brooklyn-based Polytechnic University's start-up incubator.
There is currently $2 million in the NYC Seed coffer.
Internet Week has been organized by the mayor's Office for Film, Theater, and Broadcasting, helmed by Katherine Oliver, whose experience in pulling more TV and film companies into the city led Bloomberg to select her for Internet Week and beyond. "I challenged her to do the same thing in technology," Bloomberg said.
It might not be Austin's South by Southwest Interactive, but New York City will be getting its own digital-culture festival.
Called Internet Week New York (OK, they could have picked a better name), it will span June 3 to 10 and encompass several existing events like Federated Media Publishing's Conversational Marketing Summit, Advertising Age's Advertising 2.0 conference, and the 12th annual Webby Awards.
In addition, a number of tech and media companies--PaidContent, Flavorpill, The Onion, Thrillist, and Nokia, to name a few--have announced preliminary plans to host events in conjunction.
The office of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, himself a local tech baron, has officially sanctioned the festival. "It will capture the energy, diversity, and creative spirit that are a hallmark of both New York City and the Internet," a statement from Bloomberg read.
Hosting a week of technology events isn't entirely new for the city, as it has traditionally held a "Digital Technology Week" in conjunction with Ziff Davis Media's annual DigitalLife gadget expo. But with last year's DigitalLife a disappointment, and Ziff Davis' future uncertain, it's an apt time for the city to shake up its showcasing of the local tech industry. And with a focus on new media and entertainment, Internet Week will be a more accurate portrayal of what actually goes on in Gotham, rather than centering on a hardware trade show in which most of the products are brought in from out of town.
In addition to Bloomberg's office, Internet Week is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Webby Awards. The festival's "executive council," meanwhile, is a who's-who of Gotham digital media: among its ranks are About.com CEO Scott Meyer, TreeHugger founder Graham Hill, Greycroft Partners czar Alan Patricof, former AOL exec and current Pilot Group investor Bob Pittman, NBC Universal digital chief George Kliavkoff, and CondeNet President Sarah Chubb.
Despite its A-list leadership, the organizers of Internet Week have said that as an homage to the "open structure" of the Web, anyone can create an event in conjunction with the festival for free.
"The event can take whatever form you imagine," the Internet Week site promises, "within the boundaries of good taste, of course."
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