Rally For The Future? New York Tech Meetup

NY Tech Meet UP – February 2^nd

Haft Auditorium, Fashion Institute of Technology

A Bizaare and Slightly Awkward End To An Otherwise Fairly Interesting Evening

Last week the New York Tech Meetup hosted a “Rally for the Future.” The main purpose was to unite technological savvy with do-goodery in hopes of changing the world.

There were mixed results.

With almost 700 attendees paying $20 each to attend, they raised $14,000 dollars for the Haiti relief effort. Some of the presentations were thought provoking and inspiring, while others were disorganized and confusing.

The strangest twist to the evening was a surprise appearance from the Reverend Billy and the Church of “Life After Shopping.” They serenaded the audience of gadget geeks with anti-consumerist gospel belting.

“Democracy is not for sale!

(No, no it’s not)

The neighborhood is not for sale!

(No, no it’s not)

Imagination is not for sale!

(No, no it’s not)

I’ve got justice in my feet!

I’m burning with justice!
Justice!”

It wasn’t entirely clear if there was real spirituality emanating from Reverend Billy and his choir, or if they were making fun of religion – or even the audience itself.

See for yourself - Check out the video:

Other Presenters:

Majora Carter talked about why planting trees can change the world. Seeing a connection between parks and prosperity, she started with a green project in the South Bronx and spread her green gospel around the country. From the technology community she hoped to find people to help develop software systems to help urban planners incorporate the social impact of greenways (or lack of) into their models. She wants to use technology to green the ghettos and save America!

Paul White wants to change the world through alternative transportation. Putting people on bikes and getting them to ride buses will help them feel like they are more a part of the community. He even cited the latest happiness research (whatever that means) as reason to spend more time talking to your neighbors.

He observed that a lot of the techies – people who have skills in high demand and could live anywhere they wanted - moved to New York seeking the sense of community that comes from an urban environment. He’s hoping to get them involved in his alternative transportation movement.

Ben Berkowitz of SeeClickFix gave one of the more coherent and focused talks of the evening.

The idea is very simple – to create an easy way to report public works problems to the proper officials with your cell phone. So if you walk past a wall with graffiti on it, you can stop, take a picture with your phone, and text it to the proper officials. This is one of the more genius ideas I’ve heard recently, and they’re making it happen. They launched a mobile application this month.

He does have a beef with New York City, though. NYC 311 has yet to get an email address.

Tony Bacigalupo of New Work City (nwcny.com) told the audience we’d all be working in a Laundromat in ten years. He proceeded to present a series of doctored photographs with ever more ridiculous places we might work in the future – day care centers, in Central Park, or anywhere with a WiFi connection. Also, you will be working with “cool people” within walking distance from your home.

In short, the office is going to be everywhere. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Connor and Aaron from UMass - Amherst gave us a civics lesson, invoking the spirit of a rally by getting the audience to yell “Freedom!”

Their purpose wasn’t entirely clear. Like many speakers of the night, they spewed inspirational yet extremely vague utterances like “We have to build a future where we have priorities that matter to us.” After reminding us of some of our constitutional rights, they unveiled their concept of a “Localocracy,” which seems to be a website devoted to the freedom to petition. The website doesn’t appear to be live.

Clay Shirky, who is a social media guru, talked about how we’re all at the center of the universe and there is some sort of power in that to harness. It’s because of the social networks associated with your universe, I guess. He seemed frustrated about the problem of managing the massive amounts of data created by online social networks. Has he even heard of the Semantic Web?

In my view, any discussion of data management over the Internet MUST involve an awareness of the Semantic Web.

“Expose data first,” he insisted, and ask questions later. This is exactly what Tim Berners-Lee said in a TED talk last year.

Ernest Tollinger of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority made a brief appearance, and declared their commitment to sharing data with the tech community – giving “new visibility to challenges and opportunities facing the MTA.” I thought that was cool. From the tech community they hope to engage people who can help others navigate New York.

Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of the Acumen Fund transitioned the audience to a global perspective by talking about entrepreneurialism in developing countries.

“My dream is to see basic goods and services accessible to every human on the planet.“ She wants to do that by seeing citizens of developing countries as customers rather than charity cases.

She got to talk for a long time, which made me wonder if her company was a major sponsor for the evening.

David Nassar & Jason Leibman of The Alliance of Youth Movements gave various examples of how they’ve changed the world – going to Iraq to sell Internet as entrepreneurs, helping create a manual on how to fight back against violence. The AYM is using technology to bring people together to change the world.

Jose Antonio Vargas, Technology and Innovations editor of the Huffington Post shared his personal story of a rise from poverty by embracing technology – and thinks it’s crucial to bring technology to kids who couldn’t otherwise afford it.

Rachael Stern of Ground Report touted the power of citizen journalism.

“For the past 1,000 years, we’ve trusted self-appointed authorities to tell us the news,” read her first slide.

Which makes me wonder – has anything really changed?

Oddly, her talk gave me more confidence in the future of professional journalism, rather than less. While citizen journalism plays an important role in getting news out quickly - intelligent, fresh, and well-edited perspective will always be in high demand.

The role of journalists today hasn’t really changed that much. We still have to sort through an enormous amount of information and determine what is worth passing along. The only change from the past 1,000 years is the amount of data we have to sort through.

“Then the people formerly known as the audience began documenting the news themselves, and telling each other,” she said, quoting Jay Rosen/Cody Brown.

But authorities still emerge from this audience – like Jay Rosen and Cody Brown themselves! So how is this revolutionary? People still want their information distilled through authorities, self-appointed or not. I think anyone who wants to become a journalist qualifies as a self-appointed authority. In the age of self-publishing, you don’t have to go to school to do that. But the best conveyors and distillers will still rise to the top.

Jay Parkinson talked about how to make healthcare more pleasant.

Was this the most ambitious goal of the entire evening?

He pointed out an interesting fact:

“Heavy users” make up 10% of the population and use 80% of our healthcare, i.e. 2.5 trillion dollars a year.

The future? Privatized health care with fancy buildings and robot doctors. Sounds nice for those who can afford it!

The Final Talk completely lost me.

Didn’t catch the guy’s name. The head of Drapio?

Everything he said was very abstract – like “huge multivariate problems need to leverage monocultures.”

Oh, there was also vague: “New realities need a new approach.”

Be it abstract or vague – he claimed the solutions would come from the New York Tech Meet Up Group!

Hooray for technology!