NYC Tech Growth Booming, Education Not Keeping Pace, Signs of Hope

Posted by jfrant

This article was originally posted on the HuffingtonPost.

NYC startup growth between 2001 and 2011 outpaced all US competitor cities, including Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Boston.

NYC also outpaces other US cities in terms of venture capital growth. In fact, NYC saw the largest increase of venture capital growth of any U.S. city over the past decade. Startups and venture capital has clearly become a driver for growth, but NYC’s education system has failed to keep pace.

The number of degrees awarded in NYC schools in STEM within the same period grew at a much slower rate. Degrees in STEM education grew at only 1.1 percent, a low figure relative to other fields of study such as healthcare (5.9 percent) and social sciences (3.1 percent).

One solution outlined in a recent NYC Jobs Blueprint report by Partnership for New York City included appointing within the city a “Chief Talent Officer” responsible for workforce and career development functions. This CTO would be in charge of bridging the coordination gap between the private sector and the City’s workforce development agencies and educational institutions so that programs are tailored in response to demand.

Coordination towards collective action should definitely be part of the solution. However, within a context of tremendous innovation and decentralized technological development happening in NYC, it’s paradoxical that the proposed solution focuses on centralization and vertical organization.

Government-lead solutions are not working! New data released by the Census Bureau shows that even though the recession has ended, the city’s poverty rate continues to increase, and the gap between the rich and poor is on the rise?

Information and communication technology (ICT), however, offers signs of hope. ICT and community-led development projects could be used in a much more systemic way to bridge private and public interests and reduce socio-economic inequality.

Nothing brings inequality into focus quite like a natural disaster, as it was the case with Hurricane Sandy. The poor are overwhelmingly impacted by natural disasters and little has been done to improve their resiliency. Simply put, poorer communities lack the resources to evacuate and prepare for storms, and are more likely to be located in areas that are vulnerable to disaster.

With Hurricane Sandy, community organizations, churches and even next-door neighbors rallied to fill gaps in the government response.

One of the most successful ICT enabled projects launched in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy was a project supported by Occupy Sandy Recovery — an offshoot of the inequality advocacy group Occupy Wall Street. The group developed a platform called “OccupySMS” to facilitate “mutual aid,” by connecting people with a need to volunteers offering assistance in a specific area. The application utilized an existing platform called Mobile Commons, allowing users to request donations or assistance and matching those requests to nearby volunteers via SMS. The service was specifically intended to fill individual household needs that were not being met by government-operated aid distribution centers.

Occupy Sandy’s efforts did not end with the recovery efforts. The organization followed through by creating an incubator of sorts to promote projects that address the long-term relief, recovery and resiliency of the communities affected by Hurricane Sandy.

The directory of projects includes both social and technological projects to improve coordination in the event of another natural disaster. FLO Solutions, for example, aims to help organizations implement free and open-source technology that will make it easier for them to share knowledge and data in a disaster situation. By networking non-profit, community and relief organizations together, the project facilitates the sharing of actionable information, such as requests for supplies and volunteers.

Occupy Sandy isn’t the only organization in New York that is fostering creative and technology-based solutions to issues of development and inequality.

The NYC-based Nutri Ventures and the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) announced recently a commitment to bring “Nutri Ventures: The Quest for the 7 Kingdoms”, one of the most popular digital-only kids’ series, to over 60,000 elementary schools across America. Nutri Ventures is a multi media educative platform to change children’s eating habits worldwide through entertainment. This will be PHA’s first-ever partnership with an animated series emphasizing nutrition education and healthy eating choices for kids.

“Nutrition and obesity are among the most urgent concerns for parents, educators and for children themselves,” said Rui Lima Miranda, co-founder and managing partner of Nutri Ventures Corp.

‪Inequality remains a huge problem in New York City, but with the help of civic organizations and ICT enabled solutions we can design networked governance systems to connect market driven solutions with public development issues and ensure that the most vulnerable members of our community are not forgotten.‬‬‬‬‬‬

Jesper Frant is a Master of Public Administration student at Columbia University’s School of International Public Affairs and an expert in online communications.

Tech Solutions Address Vulnerability of Poor in Natural Disasters

Posted by jfrant

Nothing quite brings inequality into focus quite like a natural disaster. The poor are overwhelmingly impacted by natural disasters and little has been done to improve their resiliency. There is hope, however. Information and communication technology (ICT) enabled and community-led development projects have begun to address issues of relief, recovery, and resiliency for the most vulnerable in New York City.

Hurricane Katrina showed us the racial nature of poverty in New Orleans and how inequality affects our ability to cope with natural disaster. According to a Congressional Research Services report, the hurricane “disproportionately impacted communities where the poor and minorities, mostly African-Americans, resided.” Simply put, poorer communities lack the resources to evacuate and prepare for storms, and are more likely to be located in areas that are vulnerable to disaster.

Hurricane Sandy was no different – again the poor were the hardest hit by the disaster, but the response by government was decidedly better – though not perfect. Community organizations, churches and even next-door neighbors rallied to fill gaps in the government response.

The OccupySMS map was intended to facilitate “mutual aid” connecting volunteers who happen to be in the neighborhood with individuals with specific needs.

One of the most successful ICT enabled projects launched in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy was a project supported by Occupy Sandy Recovery – an offshoot of the inequality advocacy group Occupy Wall Street. The group developed a platform called “OccupySMS” to facilitate “mutual aid,” by connecting people with a need to volunteers offering assistance in a specific area. The application utilized an existing platform called Mobile Commons, allowing users to request donations or assistance and matching those requests to nearby volunteers via SMS. The service was specifically intended to fill individual household needs that were not being met by government-operated aid distribution centers.

Occupy Sandy isn’t the only organization in New York that is fostering creative and technology-based solutions to issues of inequality. Code for America’s betaNYC Meetup calls itself “America’s largest civic technology and open government community.” By supporting civic technology startups and open government initiatives the organization hopes to “solve 21^st Century civic problems … improving the lives of all in New York City.”

Inequality remains a huge problem in New York City, but with the help of civic organizations like Occupy Sandy and betaNYC we can make our city more resilient to natural disasters and ensure that the most vulnerable members of our community are not forgotten.

SIPA Team Competes in Policy Challenge

Posted by jfrant

Blog reposted from the Columbia – SIPA website.

SIPA was one of four newcomers in a field of nine schools that took part in the 2013 National Public Policy Challenge, held in Philadelphia on March 16 and 17.

The invitational competition, hosted by the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, asks teams of students representing some of the nation’s leading public policy schools to develop and present a policy proposal and civic campaign plan to achieve significant change in their home communities.

Earlier this spring, the Office of Academic Affairs solicited proposals from students interested in competing. Selected to represent SIPA was a proposal for more efficient disaster-relief management, developed by a team comprising Lakshmi Balachandran MPA-DP ’13, Jesper Frant MPA-DP ’14, Eric Smyth MIA ’13, and Seisei Tatebe-Goddu MIA ’13.

The proposed initiative, known as ReliefMap, had been conceived by Frant in Professor Anne Nelson’s class on New Media for Development Communication. It would respond to large inefficiencies in matching donations by volunteers and organizations to the actual needs of citizens in the aftermath of disasters such as Hurricane Sandy.

Advised by faculty members Ester Fuchs and Sarah Holloway, the team prepared an in-depth implementation, marketing, and finance plan for presentation to the competition judges. While the team did not win the competition, members said they received positive feedback and valuable comments on how to take the idea forward.

“The process of developing an idea that was not only technically feasible, but would also ensure interest and large scale adoption by government agencies, disaster relief organizations and common citizens was extremely valuable,” said Tatebe-Goddu.

Meeting team members to solicit feedback, Associate Dean Dan McIntyre of Academic Affairs praised them for their efforts in a tight timeframe and noted that SIPA had received word of the competition relatively late. McIntyre said his office would make sure participating students have more time to prepare for the competition in 2014.

“We’re already looking forward to next year,” he said.

— Lakshmi Balachandran MPA-DP ’13

Pictured above (L-R): Professor Ester Fuchs, Seisei Tatebe-Goddu, Eric Smyth, Lakshmi Balachandran, Jesper Frant. Not pictured: Professor Sarah Holloway.

ReliefMap: A 21st Century Approach to Disaster Response

Posted by jfrant

This weekend I participated in the National Invitational Public Policy Challenge, hosted by the Fels Institute of Government in Philadelphia. Nine teams from across the country were selected to participate. I, along with my teammates Lakshmi Balachandran, Seisei Tatebe-Goddu, and Eric Smyth, had the honor of being the first team from Columbia’s School of International Public Affairs to participate in the annual competition.

Our idea is a disaster relief platform called ReliefMap meant to help facilitate the matching of citizens’ needs to disaster relief organizations after a natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy. You can read our full proposal here.

While our team didn’t make it through to the second round, it was a valuable experience that raised the profile of the idea, which if implemented would greatly benefit the City and its inhabitants WHEN the next disaster strikes. The other teams had very interesting and well-thought-out ideas, some of which were already at the pilot phase. I can’t help but wonder what might have happened had we had a little more time to develop the idea and reach out to key stakeholders in New York City government.

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