2014年2月23日日曜日

Code Across SF 2014

Today, 2/22 is International Open Data Day! There are 167 hackathons happening all over the world.

http://opendataday.org/


This weekend is also CodeAcross 2014 - a weekend of events taking place in cities around the world, with the goal to activate the Code for America network and inspire residents everywhere to get actively involved in their community.

The theme for CodeAcross 2014 is "Beyond Transparency". We are going to take the open government movement one step further, by focusing on not only making data open, but actionable.

There are 47 event happening all over the world.

http://www.codeforamerica.org/events/codeacross-2014/


I joined Code Across in San Francisco, hosted at Code for America HQ. Code Across 2014 is focused on housing issues, which is a very hot topic in the city.

Code Across 2014

This is the schedule:

Code Across 2014

This is the projects we worked on.

Code Across 2014

SF Data Scorecard (US City Open Data Census)

This is the team I joined. Open Knowledge Foundation created US City Open Data Census website, in preparation for Code Across. We checked the SF Data Portal and updated information on San Francisco.


I worked on Crime incident report data in San Francisco.


It exists in many formats.


Licensed CC0.



I select venue, which dataset we will be registering, year, and the details.




Making progress!


And we're done! San Francisco is #1 among all of the Code Across cities :D


You can see the source code here, so replicate them to other countries.

https://github.com/okfn/opendatacensus

Code Across 2014

Housing Inventory

This team is working on creating a Housing Inventory list, which can be seen here.

Housing Inventory Community

Similar to the team above, but focusing on communities.

Code Across 2014

Anti-Eviction Mapping Project

They already have historical eviction data, so they are planning to make it searchable and visible.

Code Across 2014

SF Tenants Union Website

SF Tenants Union has a website with lots of data, but their website is not easy to use. This team is planning to revamp the website and make their data easier to use.

http://www.sftu.org/


Also there's this "Unlawful Detainer Procedures & Time Chart" that should be more user friendly...


SF Budget- Look at Cook

This team is digging out budget data from SF Budget, similar to Look At Cook



Bayview Footprints

http://www.bayviewfootprints.org/


Resources:

City Data Sources Related to Housing
Open Data Portal Hunt
Existing Curated Lists of Housing Data

Events:
Date
Event
3/28-30
Reallocate is doing a hacktivation on homelessness
2/25
Tech workers against displacement. Sup. David Campos speaking. Virgil’s.
3/5
Project homeless connect - in Bill Graham - get any services you need on one day. Accepting volunteer help (medical checks, public services, etc.). Go to Project Homeless Connect - accepting volunteers ahead of time. Fantastic volunteer opportunity. Duplicated 200+ times throughout the world and started here in SF!!! Connects homeless population with acute needs.
3/20
Geeks for Good - mostly design agencies doing a design jam for non-profits etc. Ignite talks!
3/3
Homeless coordinating board - Full board meeting
Every Thurs
Planning commission meets at Noon. Agendas are online the week before.
Ongoing
Set up a keyword alert regarding upcoming legislative hearings (Legistar)
2/26
SPUR - forum to talk about good urbanism
Date?
Feedback meeting for budget. There were notices on bus stops. Could be very relevant to housing.
Date?
Events surrounding the Ellis Act
Resource. Dates?
Tenants together coordinates protests and action on a state level.  Eviction free SF is another good  one.
2/24
Land use and development board meeting at 1.30pm. All hearings are online - Granicus. All meetings are taped by SFGov.tv - videos available on demand through their website - sfbos.org
Resource.
Facebook group - TechForGoodSF




 Board of Supervisors past meeting videos and agendas: http://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=10
Board of Supervisors upcoming meetings:

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki
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HackSF

Today I joined HackSF in the afternoon.

http://www.letshacksf.com/

HackSF was an event that nonprofits based in San Francisco (La Casa de las Madres, the Eviction Defense Collaborative, and Goodwill of San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin) talks about their missions. Each organization shares one key challenge it faces that, if addressed, would have a significant positive impact on its ability to fulfill its mission. Hackathon teams will then have 24 hours to come up with their best ideas.

Day2 is presentation- the prizes ($5,000 each) will be given to the nonprofits so that each of them can implement the winning idea devised to benefit their organization. Judging criteria is as follows:
  1. Presentation
  2. Impact - how likely that it will create positive impact
  3. Sustainability
  4. Innovation - original, creative
HackSF

Shannon Spanhake from San Francisco Mayor's Office of Civic Innovation giving welcome talk.

HackSF

3 non-profits gave their pitches.

La Casa de las Madres is working on social justice and anti domestic violence. They have a mission to respond to calls for help from domestic violence victims of all ages, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They have 24 hour hotlines, partner with SF police department, and runs confidentially located emergency shelter (364 women and children accessed for up to an 8 week stay). They have Community-based programs etc. 2.4 million dollar operation budget. 10,000 community members.

http://lacasa.org/

"Domestic violence is not just physical violence. It is about power and control. It is an escalating pattern of abuse in which one person is an intimate relationship controls the other through force, intimidation, or the threat of violence."

HackSF

"Strike Out Violence Day" - 42,000 reached, $35,000 raised.

"1000 Voices Strong" campaign.




SF Good Will is an organization aiming to break the cycle of poverty by helping people get jobs and become self-sufficient. They are helping people in recovery from eviction, came out from jail, etc and providing on-the-job training, job placements, education, job partnerships, etc.

http://sfgoodwill.org/

HackSF

Donation and eCommerce is their revenue source.

HackSF

HackSF

Diane Joiner story

"Go BIN" - will be placed in big apartments in SF, easy for residents to provide recycle clothes. Frog Design designed the bin!

HackSF

Challenge: Get San Franciscans under 40 to invest in their community by investing in Goodwill.

Eviction Defense Collaborative is an organization that defends citizens from eviction lawsuits.

http://www.evictiondefense.org/



Usually lawsuits are very long fight, but eviction lawsuits happen really quickly and the tenants only have 5 days to respond. They really need protection. EDC assists anyone and do not turn anyone down, since usually really poor people are thrown into those lawsuits. EDC prepared necessary paperwork for 2,003 cases a year.

Services that EDC provide includes:
Legal assistance- The Eviction Defense Collaborative provides counseling and legal help to tenants during the eviction process. Programs include preparing a response to the lawsuit, limited representation at the settlement conference, and preparation of requests for delays of the sheriff's eviction.

Rental Assistance- The Rental Assistance Program provides one-time, no-interest loans to tenants at risk of losing their residence and becoming homeless. Follow the link for more information on who we help, how we help, and if we can help you.

Challenge: To empower tenants around the City with the resources to preserve their housing in the face of illegal eviction threats.

 HackSF

"Tech is part of the solution to displacement"

Unlawful detainer procedures and time chart


Presentation file of EDC

Hacks

 After the pitches by the non-profits, we spread into teams and started to hack.

HackSF

I decided to join the EDC team.

Resources:

 2012 Eviction Report



Hack SF Nonprofit Brief of EDC

Partners that can help:

Relevant Data

Housing

Monthly Rent Board Statistics (Petitions, Appeals, Evictions)

These monthly statistics are published in a report format (PDF) showing things like number of appeals, evictions, etc.


Rent Board annual eviction reports

The Annual Eviction Report is submitted to the Board of Supervisors every year and reflects eviction notices filed with the department from March thru February. This includes the pdf versions of past years as well as the current year.
http://www.sfrb.org/index.aspx?page=46

Rent Board annual statistical reports

These reports are produced roll up statistics on the work of the Rent Board. They include stats on evictions, petitions, and appeals as they relate to the work of the Rent Board.

Rent Board Referral Listing

This is a list of external agencies and organizations that may be relevant to tenants.

Housing Code Violations (aka, Housefacts)

Housefacts is a data standard for reporting building inspections including violations, locations and owners of the properties. You can learn more here: http://housefacts.me, spec available here: https://sites.google.com/site/housefactsdatastandard/hfds/specification, data here:

San Francisco Housing Authority Parcels

These are spatial files that can be opened in open source software like QGIS or proprietary software like ArcGIS. This shows the location of SF Housing Authority owned parcels.

Housing Affordability Gap by Neighborhood

The data illustrate median two bedroom home sale prices per neighborhood with an estimated income needed to afford the median priced home versus what the median neighborhood household income is as of the 2010 American Community Survey. These data are represented spatially and require some form of GIS software to open.
https://data.sfgov.org/Public-Health/Housing-Affordability-Gap-by-Neighborhood-San-Fran/nyy3-sijf

Hack SF Github Repository

1) a Sinatra webapp that sends and receives JSON and places them in a Redis server. It's a very simple way to store data and pass it around. This has instructions on how to deploy to heroku.
2) an HTML boiler template that has a reset css file as well as jquery and some simple addons in a plugin.js file. this should get you running on a static html site. if you want to use something like twitter bootstrap that can be included.
3) an HTML boiler template that also has a PHP mobile detect for making mobile webapps and includes all the stuff that is in the HTML boiler app.

View from the venue:

HackSF

HackSF

HackSF

Day2 presentation results can be seen here:

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki
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2014年2月12日水曜日

The Day We Fight Back

Today, February 11th is "The Day We Fight Back" against Mass Surveillance.



The reason why the protest against SOPA / PIPA was successful was not just because giant websites like Google and Wikipedia did a blackout. Of course those acts were really impactful, but the reason why it was successful was because everyone took part in this movement. We should not make people think if Google and Wikipedia mobilizes, we can depend on them and do nothing- as what some of the press articles indicate. It is the efforts of "everybody" that make things happen.

Many people were physically gathering to protest to SOPA / PIPA, many people made phone calls to the congressional representatives, many websites went black to protest, many developers created applications for the protest, many people worked to influence politicians and media to understand what this is, what it means, and with those massive amount of activities, SOPA / PIPA was stopped.

Getting "everybody to stand up to change policies" is very important, and today we stand up and fight back against Mass Surveillance.




There are 2 objectives for "The Day We Fight Back":

Congress is considering two major bills.

The USA Freedom Act curtails NSA surveillance abuses.

The FISA Improvements Act attempts to legalize bulk data collection of phone records.

We need to tell Congress to pass the USA Freedom Act and amend it to make it even stronger, and we need to stop FISA Improvements Act.

We shouldn't wait till awful bills comes out and fight against them. We need a cycle to get great people to aim for politicians, we need everybody to support these people, we need them to propose legitimate bills, and we need everyone to support them to pass it.

We should get back our democracy!

Appendix:
Google, together with AOL, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo has been proposing "Reform Government Surveillance" since December 2013, and the website added "The Day We Fight Back" as well.



Open Letter to President and member of congress read as follows:

We understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. But this summer’s revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide. The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual — rights that are enshrined in our Constitution. This undermines the freedoms we all cherish. It’s time for a change.  
For our part, we are focused on keeping users’ data secure — deploying the latest encryption technology to prevent unauthorized surveillance on our networks and by pushing back on government requests to ensure that they are legal and reasonable in scope.  
We urge the US to take the lead and make reforms that ensure that government surveillance efforts are clearly restricted by law, proportionate to the risks, transparent and subject to independent oversight. To see the full set of principles we support, visit ReformGovernmentSurveillance.com

The 5 proposed principles are as follows:

1. Limiting Governments’ Authority to Collect Users’ Information
2. Oversight and Accountability
3. Transparency About Government Demands
4. Respecting the Free Flow of Information
5. Avoiding Conflicts Among Governments

One more thing to note:

The USA FREEDOM Act is Real Spying Reform

USA FREEDOM Act was proposed by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

Rep. Sensenbrenner was the lead author of the Patriot Act and now is the chair of the House's Subcommittee on Terrorism and Crime. A conservative member of Congress, he has repeatedly supported surveillance laws in the past, but now he's leading the charge for reform. According to Rep. Sensenbrenner, two consecutive White Houses have wrongly used his Patriot Act to collect the phone records of innocent Americans, and he wants it to stop. "This misinterpretation of the law threatens our First, Second and Fourth Amendment rights," Rep. Sensenbrenner recently said. "Congress never intended this. I will rein in the abuse of both the Patriot Act and the U.S. Constitution with the support of the American public." 
Sen. Leahy is the chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, which also has jurisdiction over the Patriot Act and FISA. He also believes the government's indiscriminate collection of Americans' records must end, because the "government has not made its case that this is an effective counterterrorism tool, especially in light of the intrusion on Americans' privacy rights." 
The partnership between these two very senior members of the House and Senate, on both the left and the right, gives this bill legitimacy and a real chance at passing. But the bill has more than just names attached to it – it has substance. 
It would amend Section 215 of the Patriot Act – which is used to collect the phone records of almost every American every day – so that it can no longer be used in such a sweeping fashion. The secret FISA court would still be able to issue subpoenas, but they would be limited to collecting things that directly pertain to a terrorist, his associates, or his activities. 
The bill would also require this standard for national security letters and pen registers, two other Patriot Act tools used to access Americans' records. The point here is to ensure that bulk collection doesn't just jump to another secret authority. The bill would also make changes to the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), the sweeping 2008 law that codified the warrantless wiretapping program. It would insert a very important restriction that would prevent the government from searching through FAA-collected data for U.S. person data in the absence of an emergency or a court order. Finally, the bill includes the creation of a special advocate before the FISA court and new transparency requirements. 
Although the USA FREEDOM Act does not fix every problem with the government's surveillance authorities and programs, it is an important first step and it deserves broad support. It incorporates the language and principles of past reform leaders like Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.), and it is far superior to the proposal recently described by Senate Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), which we expect to see shortly. 
All members of the House and Senate should co-sponsor the USA FREEDOM Act and fight hard for its passage.
The Day We Fight Back Results:

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki
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2014年2月7日金曜日

Open Oakland Civic Hack Night

I joined Open Oakland (Code for America Oakland Brigade) Civic Hack Night this Tuesday.

They host their weekly hack nights in this beautiful City Hall.

Oakland

Getting inside the city hall to join the hack night. Very cool!

Oakland

Oakland

Oakland

Due to heavy traffic from Mountain View to Oakland, I arrived a bit late and the room was already packed! I loved the diversity of the people who joined here- some are developers some are not, good mixture of gender and age, etc. I was also fascinated by the fact that the lady who sat next to me was saying she came to this meetup because she saw it on Oakland City's website. It's different from the techies we always meet in every single tech event. Also since this event is held inside the City Hall, I think it is easier for the local government people to join. I didn't talk with everyone, but I saw a lady from the local government in the ethics division joining the campaign finance team, which is really awesome.

Oakland

Oakland

Pizza arrived, mingling time and break out to teams. I joined the Newbie orientation.

Oakland

This was the biggest team, they are planning for the CodeAcross event taking place on 2/22-23. They were discussing which companies are going to be involved, how to keep track and keep on progress of the projects, etc.

Oakland

In fact, CodeAcross is happening all over the country on 2/21-23 so please check out and join the nearest one!

http://www.codeforamerica.org/codeacross-2014/


This team was working on transparency of campaign finance. It is important because election is close. There are many things to think about- data cleaning, understanding of the data itself, the companies, people, etc. They were also discussing about visualizing lobbyist data.

This is work in progress website created by John C. Osborn, based on data from Public ethics commission.


Open Oakland

This team was working on crime data. This is also very important because Oakland is known for crime (map).

Oakland

This team was working on getting various social resource data such as shelter location data online and map them.

Oakland

Project list from Open Oakland:

Oakland Open-Data Portal: Community supported open data portal

Open Budget Oakland: Open Budget is a project to make Oakland’s budget more accessible.

Open-Government Pledge: During the 2012 election, 15 of 27 candidates signed the Open Government Pledge—including 4 of 6 elected—committing to uphold the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration in Oakland government.

CityCamp Oakland: CityCamp Oakland brings together citizens, city government, and businesses to openly innovate, enhance transparency and civic engagement, and utilize open-source technology to improve quality of life in our communities.

 Crime in Oakland: Providing access to Oakland Police Department data.  Things like redeploying the crime trends app built by Open City Apps become possible.

OaklandBeats.com: A simple app to help connect people to their local Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils.

Adopt-a-Drain: A platform that allows citizens to adopt and clear their local storm drains to prevent flooding.

EarlyOakland.com: A free website about to help parents find free and low cost child care and early education services.

Oakland Wiki: A free website about Oakland that anyone can edit. The community-built site all about Oakland, by Oaklanders.

Councilmatic Oakland: A public meeting indexing and search tool.

Vacant and Abandoned Property Tool: Adapting the vacant / abandoned locator built by Open City Apps or the BlightStatus app built by Code for America.

When I arrived at the city hall, there was a message in front of the building that read "Stop the Spy Center".

Oakland

There were a bunch of protesters walking outside during our event. I heard it is to protest against the Oakland surveillance center.

Oakland

By the time I left, it was past 9PM or so, but there was more protests on surveillance outside the city hall.

Oakland

Learning more about this Domain Awareness Center.

The Real Purpose of Oakland's Surveillance Center
Domain Awareness Center (Oakland Wiki)
Oakland looks into more surveillance, drones to fight local crime


Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki
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