The NY State Senate in the Network Age
Rarely do we (downstate) New Yorkers look towards our Capitol in Albany for technology innovation. However, with the changes in government this past year, we’ve started to hear about a shift in systems for the better. The Sunlight Foundation’s Ellen Miller noted this back in June in “Grace and Brilliance Under Fire in Albany,” writing about NY State Senate chief information officer Andrew Hoppin and his team. Hoppin and his team also came to the 7o0 person NY Tech Meetup in June to discuss their plans with the NYC tech community as a whole.
At the recent Yahoo! Open Hack Day in New York, I got to sit down with Noel “NoNeck” Hildago who works with Hoppin as Director of Innovation and check on their progress. Noel told me about some of the projects the NY State Senate is working on, including open source efforts and ways to increase transparency in how bills are made. Most notably, this effort is happening in a bi-partisan way – both Democrats and Republicans are getting new technology innovations and fixes in their offices.
I believe that for New York, this effort does represent what Kevin Werbach talks about when he mentions “Networks For Change” and describes the way technology can impact public policy and social impact. Please weigh in and contribute to the conversation below in the comments.
