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PROJECTS

COURSE OFFERED | GOV 3.0: SOLVING PUBLIC PROBLEMS WITH TECHNOLOGY

SEMESTERS OFFERED | SPRING 2013, FALL 2013 AND SPRING 2014

A mentoring and training program that helps you to develop the mindset and skillset for leveraging the power of institutions and networks to design and implement effective solutions to public interest challenges. You will develop a project and a plan for its implementation, including a long and short description, a presentation deck, a persuasive video and project blog. 

Gov 3.0 is aimed at those who want to develop a specific social good project for which they want to build the skills to move it closer to implementation. The course targets the "purpose driven learner" -- the person with a topic about which they are passionate -- who wants to expand her toolkit for social change. Group projects are strongly encouraged.

The syllabus is designed to expose you to a new skill and have you teach yourself how to apply it to the topic you are passionate about. We have the daunting task of teaching ourselves something about technology and something about law & policy and how to combine them effectively to translate good ideas into implementable action. 

Project: Entrepreneur 360

Issue/Tag: Development, Africa

Student: Aissata Mounir Belgrade Camara

Semester Offered: Spring 2014

The Problem: Women entrepreneurs in Guinea are talented individuals who are passionate about turning their skills into profitable businesses that will provide them with a consistent source of income. However, they face a multitude of challenges that limit their capacity to create transformative change in their lives

Project Description: Entrepreneur 360 helps entrepreneurs organize their businesses, connect with each other and leverage their social capital to influence issues in their communities and country.

Project: Harnessing Neighborhood Level Resilience

Issue/Tag: Sandy, Resilience

Student: Christopher Michael Penalosa

Semester Offered: Spring 2014

The Problem: The scale of these designs approach flooding at a macro level, envisioning how we can transform our waterfronts to be protective barriers. While these problems address disasters at the macro level, how are individuals and their communities preparing for the next storm? What untapped wisdom can be shared from individuals and communities on a granular scale? And finally, how can government listen and implement these local strategies to prepare for the next storm?

Project Description: Develop a hurricane preparedness wiki that people can edit with site-specific information. 2. Hold a neighborhood level design competition in vulnerable communities. 3. Establish a modular community hub that can be adapted for use in disasters

Project: Core tech solutions for social change organizations

Issue/Tag: Technology, support

Student: Emmett W. Mehan

Semester Offered: Spring 2014

The Problem: Nonprofit organizations are increasingly pressured to meet broader and more complex needs in society – and are expected to do so with fewer and fewer resources. Most nonprofits don’t have access to professional resources like marketing, HR, and strategic management. Technology, another gap, represents the fastest growing need in the sector.

Project: Addressing the Infrastructure Spending Gap

Issue/Tag: Equality, Transport

Student: Kirk Ryan Hovenkotter

Semester Offered: Spring 2014

The Problem: American transportation infrastructure is the backbone of the nations economy. Our roads, rails, and rivers transport goods, people and services that drive the nation’s economy. Yet this system is in extremely poor condition. Raising more revenues is only one part of the solution. We need to address the high cost of building infrastructure in the US through open procurement and more transparent price

Project: Croudsourcing New Funding Models for the Art world

Issue/Tag: Art

Student: Tianyang Shui

Semester Offered: Spring 2014

Problem Statement: As contemporary art develops, the lines between art organizations and between tri-sectors (pubic, private, government) are becoming blurrier. Galleries began to have their own libraries and public programs. Museums also depend on their stores to generate revenue for sustainability.

Project Description: The project explores new models generated between public sectors and private sectors in the art world at present through this project.

Project: Fighting falshoods in political campaigns "Politifact for Mexico"

Issue/Tag: Politics, Technology

Student: Daniel Soto

Semester Offered: Spring 2014

Problem Statement: Political campaigns in the United States have turned into a battle to prove who is the best political spinner, obscuring and exaggerating information.

Project Description: The project aims to address the high number of falsehoods in political campaigns and their negative effects on a democracy.

Project: Reimagining the Safety Net

Issue/Tag: Homelessness

Student: Adiran Untermyer

Semester Offered: Spring 2014

Problem Statement: In New York City, where the Human Resources Administration (HRA) communicates with Public Assistance recipients almost exclusively by mail, one undelivered letter can disrupt vital benefits and bring a family to the brink of homelessness.

Project: Bringing Community into Community Planning

Issue/Tag: Civil engagement, economy

Student: Michael David Czaczkes

Semester Offered: Spring 2014

Problem Statement: To New Yorkers, the numbers are not startling. In 2013, the median sale price for homes in Flushing, Queens rose 34%; 20% in Tottenville, Staten Island; and 43% in Carrol Gardens, Brooklyn. Despite the recession, midtown Manhattan is still the most expensive real estate market in the United States. The strong market has fueled development and led to the gentrification of neighborhoods in all the five boroughs. As prices rose and development continued, displacement occurred.

Project Description: Bringing Community into Community Planning will determine how the NYC can change ULURP to increase the opportunities for public participation through the use of technology. Making this change is imperative because every NYC resident is affected by the decisions ULURP makes.

Project: Data for Democracy

Issue: Media, design

Student: Kareem Collie

Semester Offered: Fall 2013

The Problem: During the past two decades, changes in the way the public engages news media have presented major challenges to the industry, particularly in the area of investigative research and explanatory reporting.

Project Description: LAB D is a research and design lab whose mission is to support the free flow of news and information to the public through journalism. It is the fusion of four components that work together to increase, support and sustain the flow of information through the practice of journalism, to educate and inform the public, thereby strengthening their engagement in the democratic process.

Project: CongressionalForecast.org

Issue/Tag: Corruption, Open government , congress

Student: Brian G. Clifton

Semester Offered: Fall 2013

The Problem: The problem we are addressing is that the American public is not properly informed about the corrupting power that money has over politics in this country. Instead of representing the concerns of the people, politicians have become channels through which corporations and lobbyists distort the law for the sake of increasing profits. But this is not necessarily the fault of individual politicians. This is an incredibly complex issue and we believe that it can be solved by interpreting open government data and building a clear and engaging narrative.

Project Description: CongressionalForecast.org is a website that will use the corrupt practices of Congress against it, by using data on funding and donations to predict future votes, allowing voters to make more informed decisions and hold politicians accountable.

Project: Art in your space

Issue: STEM, Atrs, Education

Student: Benjamin Cramer

Semester Offered: Fall 2013

The Problem: Arts and science education in the United States is at a crossroads.

Project Description: Art in Your Space prepares students at risk of dropping out of high school for 21st Century careers by collaborating with technology and design professionals to create custom interactive art installations for workspaces.

Project: Data for Democracy

Issue: Media, design

Student: Kareem Collie

Semester Offered: Fall 2013

The Problem: During the past two decades, changes in the way the public engages news media have presented major challenges to the industry, particularly in the area of investigative research and explanatory reporting.

Project Description: LAB D is a research and design lab whose mission is to support the free flow of news and information to the public through journalism. It is the fusion of four components that work together to increase, support and sustain the flow of information through the practice of journalism, to educate and inform the public, thereby strengthening their engagement in the democratic process.

Project: Illegal Gold Mining in the Amazon

Issue: Amazon forest, Sustainability

Student: Rodrigo Derteano

Semester Offered: Fall 2013

The Problem: A gold rush of illegal mining is devastating large areas of precious ecosystems in the Amazon, contaminating them with mercury

Project Description: A gold rush of illegal mining is devastating large areas of precious ecosystems in the Amazon, contaminating them with mercury. This problem needs comprehensive action by several government branches and NGOs combined. We propose 2 intertwined strategies: first, assess the possibility for an open data strategy to ease access to and organize various data sources. Second, create a one stop site to present the data in powerful and consistent visualizations and infographics.

Project: Citizen’s Open Agenda

Issue: Citizen Engagement; Government Accountability

Student: Dinorah Trinidad Guadalupe Cantu-Pedraza

Semester Offered: Fall 2013

The Problem: Mexico’s war on drugs has led Monterrey, my hometown, to the City’s worst social crisis. Additionally, it has the lowest citizen participation rate of the country, largely due to a lack of space where people could have meaningful partipation and engagement. Efforts regarding the awareness and imagination of a bigger spectrum of users are now necessary to continuously grow communities of data users, and encourage data 'ownership'.

Project Description: The general objective of this proposal is to develop tools that, taking advantage of the crowdsourced and government data already available, will catalyze, inspire and create more opportunities of citizen engagement with the specific goal of improving government accountability.

Project: Open data and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Metrics

Issue: CSR, open data

Student: Marisse Crenier Del Olmo

Semester Offered: Fall 2013

The Problem: The sustainability disclosure varies widely even though increasingly public companies are legally obligated to tell regulatory agencies and investors about the social, political and environmental risks they face

Project Description: This project presents the importance of corporate responsibility metrics and sustainability reporting, explains how open data is already having an impact in these and introduces alternative uses of data to further improve companies’ performance on society and nature.

Project: Opening up the Legal Code

Issue: Democracy, law, legal code

Student: Meredith Douglas

Semester Offered: Fall 2013

The Problem: The United States represents itself as a democracy where “no [one] is above the law and no [one] is below it”. Yet how can that be true when the actual content and meaning of the law remains a closed book for most citizens? Legal writing is infamous for being dense, archaic, and inscrutable. It takes a lawyer to compose statutes and then it takes another to decipher it. Yet it doesn’t have to be that way.

Project Description: Codebreaking is about using technology to translate and break down the law into forms that can be understood by every citizen.

Project: Rock the Vote

Issue/Tag: Participatory government, voting

Student: Alexa J. Neibart

Semester Offered: Fall 2013

The Problem: According to the NYC Campaign Finance Board (NYCCFB), only 4% of eligible voters under the age of 30 voted in the 2009 general election for Mayor.1 CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) has suggested that over 50% of voters (under 30) self-reported that they did not vote in the 2010 midterm elections because they were “too busy/conflicting work” and/or “not interested/felt my vote would not count

Project Description: Participatory Voting – How to create a compelling incentive to improve young voter engagement in local elections

Project: Code for Fukushima

Issue/Tag: Communication, Fukushima, Disaster

Student: Keita Nishimura

Semester Offered: Fall 2013

The Problem: Marketing Difficulties: Many Japanese farmers have been experiencing difficulties in marketing their products after Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster in 2011.

Project Description: This project will propose a system to convey the food radiation data to consumers shopping at retail stores by using QR codes. The purpose of the project is to reduce the marketing difficulties caused by Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster.

Project: The Open Aid initiative

Issue/Tag: Aid, collaboration, effectiveness

Student: Samson Abbey Wemimo

Semester Offered: Fall 2013

The Problem: There’s too little information on non-profit organizations working in Africa. Africa’s dilapidated states attract foreign aid and a plethora of groups working on development projects.

Project Description: The Open Aid Initiative (OAI) aims to gather a comprehensive database of non-profit organization working in Africa to improve aid transparency, foster collaboration and information sharing. Our goal is to collect and open up non-profit data to engage other stakeholders in evidence-based conversations on development.

Project: Open Gov Kit: a toolbox for innovation in the public sector

Issue/Tag: Transparency ,Accountability, Participation, Collaboration

Student: Paloma Baytelman

Semester Offered: Fall 2013

Project Description: The Open Gov Kit is a toolbox that gathers in one place everything that stakeholders need to know about Open Government: the main axes, the most relevant actors in the field, the leading initiatives and the factors needed for enhancing innovation in public institutions.

Project: The Open Aid initiative

Issue/Tag: Aid, collaboration, effectiveness

Student: Samson Abbey Wemimo

Semester Offered: Fall 2013

The Problem: There’s too little information on non-profit organizations working in Africa. Africa’s dilapidated states attract foreign aid and a plethora of groups working on development projects.

Project Description: The Open Aid Initiative (OAI) aims to gather a comprehensive database of non-profit organization working in Africa to improve aid transparency, foster collaboration and information sharing. Our goal is to collect and open up non-profit data to engage other stakeholders in evidence-based conversations on development.

Project: Mynotebook.com

Issue/Tag: tech, e-learning

Student: Corey Alexandre Blay

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Today’s young people have grown up in a technology-saturated society, where there is increasingly little distinction between someone’s private and public life. Consequently, young people have a higher likelihood to engaging in unsafe online practices, such as sharing sensitive information like passwords, engaging in cyberbullying, or posting inappropriate images online.

Project Description: mynotebook.com is a safe social learning community that connects middle school students together for collaborative project work, equips them with much needed digital literacy skills, and helps them develop positive digital footprints

Project: Cybersecurity Development Coalition

Issue/Tag: Cybersecurity

Student: Sean Brooks

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: The risks to organizations associated with operating online have increased dramatically in recent years. The necessity for utilizing a variety of connected tools in the workplace has created an increasing number of opportunities for a continually growing field of attackers.

Project Description: In a Tweet: Coalition launches to improve cybersecurity in small organizations with mentorship, peer networking, and threat data sharing. #infosec

Project: iWitness

Issue/Tag: Law enforcement, New York, open data

Student: Deborah Susan Genevra Burke

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board takes complaints about the police and translates them into action, but its complaint process is outmoded and difficult to use

Project Description: Help stop police abuse with citizen reporting! We're building an app that will empower citizens to record, review, and inform about police misconduct.

Project: Kinvolved

Issue/Tag: Education, enrollment, schools

StudentAlexandra Meis

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Across America, 15% of all K-12 students are absent from school for an entire month each year, with that rate more than tripling to 50% among economically disadvantaged students.

Project Description: This project focuses on leveraging parent engagement in schools by integrating technology with human capital.

Project: UGov: Improving information for small local government

Issue/Tag: Information, open government

Student: Brenden William O'Brien Desmond

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Lack of information from the government

Project Description: Allow ordinary citizens to become their own lobbyist.

Project: Homeless Helper

Issue/Tag: Homelessness, New York,Community  

Student: Annabelle Eliashiv

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: The Coalition for the Homeless reports that every night, more than 55,000 people in New York City experience homelessness. Even more disturbing is the fact that 21,000 of those people are children. Creating mechanisms to address the needs of homeless people is more pressing than ever as the number of people experiencing homelessness has risen by more than fifty percent over the last decade.

Project Description: The purpose of this mobile application is to create a vehicle by which neighbors can help their less fortunate neighbors.

Project: Civic and Social Innovation Bootcamp

Issue/Tag: Innovation, Lean, civic engagement

Student: Cosmo Fujiyama 

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: The US is suffering from anemic civic health. According to former Justice Supreme Court member Sandra Day O'Connor, "Half of states no longer require civics education for high school graduation which is a remarkable withdrawal from the very purpose we originally had for public school.”

Project Description: The Civic and Social Innovation Bootcamp will develop the skills, knowledge, values and networks for emerging leaders to make a difference.

Project: Urban Expansion Forecaster

Issue/Tag: Urban planning, cities

Student: Juan Nicolas Galarza Sanchez

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Most cities in developing countries have expanded without plans. This lack of plans has produced cities whose expansion has undermined the quality of lives of city dwellers, particularly the one of those living in poverty.

Project Description: building a map generator of urban expansion maps to create awareness and to help city officials to prepare for urban expansion

Project: Gamechanger

Issue/Tag: Games, social cause

Student: Juan Pablo Giraldo Ospino

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Our potential users are socially conscious consumers who want to make a difference in the world but do not have time, money and information.

Project Description: Gamechanger is a platform that connects user’s online gaming activities with social causes

Project: The Participatory Law Project

Issue/Tag: Law, participation

Student: Asher M. Novek

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Public participation in the legislative and regulatory process has historically been a costly and time-intensive process, limiting most participation to a small group of elected and appointed officials and those industry lobbyists with a financial stake in the outcome

Project Description: The mission of the Participatory Law Project (PLP) is to create a platform through which citizens can contribute to the improvement of government regulation and lawmaking

Project: The Better End Network

Issue/Tag: Peer-to-peer, life care

Student: Noah Isaacs

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: We live in a country that glorifies youth and tends to usher its elderly into nursing homes, death, dying, and the suffering they can entail are often ignored until it is too late for families to have important conversations about end-of-life care.

Project Description: The Better End is a peer-to-peer network that fosters healthy inter-generational conversations about dignity and end-of-life care.

Project:  "Free Lunch for Children" in China

Issue/Tag: Food, peer-to-peer

Student: Dunyang Li

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: February 2011 - A report on student’s nutrition status in underdeveloped area April 2011 - 500+ journalists, 10+ mainstream media, and China Social Welfare Fund Oct 2011 - China National Congress initiated Nutrition Improvement Plan

Project Description: The Neighbors Helping Neighbors - PEER-LEARN.ORG project aims to build a peer network for "Free Lunch for Children" campaign that is devoted to building kitchens to cook lunch for students in mountainous areas in China

Project: Car Tweeting

Issue/Tag: Urban Transportation

Student: Or Lifshitz

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Today, when looking for the best route to our destination, there are many tools that inform us about what is happening on the road now. Radio and TV broadcasts, combined with Internet tools such as Google Maps or Waze, can provide a clear picture for traffic situation as of this moment.

Project Description: Car Tweeting is an easy, friendly tool into which we can all enter two inputs: where and when we are going.

Project: Block Rockers

Issue/Tag: real estate, community, housing

Student: Jeongki Lim

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Block Rockers tackles these problems: a) lack of two way communication channel among residents; b) lack of time saving ways to find information and services to manage buildings and blocks; c) lack of easy platform to organize events and actions by community members; and d) lack of quality information in the marketplace about buildings and homes relative to their neighborhood where in a free market, there should be more symmetrical information between buyers and seller.

Project Description: A centralized platform for managing your home, block, and community.

Project: Domestic Violence

Issue/Tag: Domestic violence

Student: Morgan E. Maclver

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner.

Project Description: Creating innovative solutions to address the issue area of domestic violence.

Project: Connecting Communities with Nonprofits

Issue/Tag: Non-proifts, community, social innovation

Student: Maha M. Mahmoud

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: There are million nonprofits in the United States that serves various communities and provide various services. A nonprofit usually starts up as a result of a need in a particular community or a group of people.

Project Description: mycommunityneeds,com is place where communities communicate with nonprofits serving them. Through this platform people will voice their community needs based on geographic location and it also aims to increase productivity and efficiency of nonprofits; and ensure resources are used in a way that best serves the communities.

Project: Rwanda Innovation Hub Nework

Issue/Tag: Africa, economic development, development innovations

Student: Laura Manley

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Currently, MYICT outsources many of its key projects to consulting agencies or international organizations such as USAID or the World Bank. According to Hon. Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Minister of Youth and ICT, “I am looking for the formula for who has the time and willingness to contribute expert solutions.

Project Description: The creation of a formal network of innovation hubs for the Rwanda Ministry of Youth and ICT (MYICT) to source experts and innovators to rethink solutions to public problems.

Project: PBNYC.NET

Issue/Tag: Participation, government

Student: Jose Ramon Marti

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Over the past two years, participatory budgeting has succeeded in engaging New York City residents in local democracy, and in making the budgeting process more transparent and effective. A dedicated online platform would serve to bring organizers and participants closer together, and to overcome shortages in funding and capacity.

Project Description: Presenting an integrated digital platform for improving and expanding Participatory Budgeting in New York City.

Project: Senior Information Portals (SIPs)

Issue/Tag: Information

Student: Ellen K. McKay

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Seniors in Bedford Stuyvesant face many challenges including the rising costs of food and housing, which often results in the displacement of seniors and the loss of secure housing. Lack of transportation and concerns over safety and crime in the community make seniors especially vulnerable.

Project Description: Create Senior Information Portals (SIPs) in Bedford Stuyvesant New York. Senior Information Portals are electronic, touch screen information kiosks intentionally placed throughout the neighborhood to provide live, timely data on the critical areas of need such as: housing, transportation, financial and food security, and health services.

Project: Project Fund and Fix (PFF)

Issue/Tag: Partnerships, innovation, crowdfunding

Student: Cyril R. Morel

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Project Fund and Fix (PFF) provides a comprehensive service for people to collaborate together to help fix the pressing issues in today’s world. We live in a dynamic world that continuously evolves, with new technologies replacing old ones, best practices improving and rendering past ones obsolete

Project Description: PFF is an online funding service that goes beyond simply matching donors with innovative fixers, by allowing the invested parties (and the online public as a whole) to come together and further develop existing ideas. It works like kickstarter but for innovations, bringing those who have the means and those who have the drive together to fix the world’s problems.

Project: For Parents, By Parents

Issue/Tag: Connection, Parenthood

Student: Jaleesa Sasha Murrell

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Currently, there are inequitable levels of education throughout NYC’s public school system since the education budget is primarily based on property taxes. If your school is located in a low-income community, more than likely the education budget will be tighter than in other communities and the education children received will be negatively affected.

Project Description: Mobilizing parents in the district through MeetUps, a free online Internet site that can help bring groups of people living in the same area who feel strongly about the same issues together.

Project: Town Square

Issue/Tag: Open government, big data, collaborate

Student: John Ryan Norton

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: The Government 2.0 shift is revolutionizing how we govern. Big Data is helping policymakers make more accurate decisions and craft better policies. The Internet continues to make government more transparent and accessible to citizens. E-Government has made government more efficient, from online payments and activities to managing constituent affairs. Outside of government, crowd-sourcing and collaborative platforms have unlocked human capital potential in ways never seen before

Project Description: Town Square is website tool package for municipal governments and small communities that combines the functions of city homepages, e-government tools, local news aggregators, and the social media experience.

Project: Youth Opportunities Underground (YOU)

Issue/Tag: Youth, Engagement

Student: Arlene Peralta

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: While NYC has made strides to support youth with afternoon, leadership and summer employment programs, its service provision model has failed to give teens in marginalized communities a leg up

Project Description: Youth Opportunities Underground is a centralized, citywide initiative enabling young people (13 – 24) to search and apply for opportunities via mobile.

Project: Peer Evaluation: Crowdsource Program Evaluation

Issue/Tag: Crowdsourcing

Student: Hortensia Perez Seldner

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Evaluating social policies and programs is a task that is both necessary and complex. In addition, the methodology and development of an evaluation will determine the quality of its results. Stakeholders should be able to understand and trust the results in order to promote its use. In Mexico, there have been several approaches to improve methodologies and results, but with some challenges.

Project Description: Peer Evaluation is an open analysis that is performed online by all the experts who meet at least one of the defined profiles.

Project: Solar Social

Issue/Tag: Soar, social

Student: Michael T. Reed

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: In order to be cost competitive with fossil fuels, the installed price of solar needs to be approximately one-third its current price by 2020, according to the Department of Energy. The installed price of solar can be thought of in two components: hard costs and soft costs.

Project Description: Solar Social is a person-to-person mentoring program that leverages experience to build relationships that help overcome the soft costs of new solar installations.

Project: Satisfy Neighborhoods

Issue/Tag: Neighborhoods, social innovation

StudentNicole Stratton

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: The nonprofit community needs to do more to understand how they make an impact on society, and share what’s working and what is not.

Project Description: A simple online tool where low-income Americans can access user-friendly satisfaction data about different types of nonprofit services.

Project: "The Bridge": helping Chinese students "know before they enroll"

Issue/Tag: Connection, information

Student: Juanjuan Wang

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Although Chinese students could obtain as much information as they could, from university websites, BBSs, social media platforms and word of mouth, there is still insufficient information for them to make a solid decision.

Project Description: "The Bridge" is for those Chinese student who are already studying at U.S. universities to share their personal experience with prospective students and applicants in China.

Project: OpenTaxi

Issue/Tag: Open source, transportation

StudentChristopher M. Wong

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: The e-hailing Pilot in New York City is legal – or at least it was for one day last week. In December 2012, the TLC approved an e-hailing pilot program for smartphone apps that would finally allow passengers to e-hail a NYC yellow taxi. The program was amended at a meeting in February 2013 and has since been hit with major challenges and opposition.

Project Description: OpenTaxi is an open source e-hailing platform for cities. Instead of using closed-system proprietary e-hailing apps, the city could provide a common interface and API for submitting electronic hails. With an open API, any device, app, or program could submit a hail, making "taxi buttons" a realistic concept. A hail could easily be made by a doorman, or buttons could be installed on public benches, payphones and street corners.

Project: PEER-LEARN.ORG

Issue/Tag: Education, crowd sourcing  

Student: Christopher Leong

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Potentially efficacious educational tools have not been applied to the mainstream public education.

Project Description: PEER an online social media platform to incentivize middle and high school students to help each other to improve education outcomes, targeting especially the disadvantaged and disabled, whose graduation rates and college readiness are dismal

Project: The Participatory Law Project

Issue/Tag: Law, Participation

Student: Asher Noveck

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Public participation in the legislative and regulatory process has historically been a costly and time-intensive process, limiting most participation to a small group of elected and appointed officials and those industry lobbyists with a financial stake in the outcome

Project Description: The mission of the Participatory Law Project (PLP) is to create a platform through which citizens can contribute to the improvement of government regulation and lawmaking

Project: GovtPitch

Issue/Tag: Government, collaboration

Student: Samantha Smith 

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: (1) Growing need for Relationships & Partnerships with Government Agencies (2) Level of Trust & Communication Between Economic & Innovation Stakeholders & Government (3) Limited Access to Rapidly Evolving Environments & Technologies

Project Description: A monthly forum where any public official, agency, bureau, can share an idea, need, or goal with entrepreneurs & innovators for assistance, insight, feedback, &/or collaboration.

Project: Art.go

Issue/Tag: Arts, events, New York

Student: Liane A. Tomasetti

Semester Offered: Spring 2013

The Problem: Probing questions: (1) How do we engage new audiences and deepen participation with already existing ones? (2) How can we further breakdown the distinction between amateurs and professional and open up the definition of art and of who is considered an artist? (3) How can we open up the art space to new experts and invite all voices to critique on equal playing ground?

Project Description: Art.go seeks to encourage, deepen, and democratize participation the arts through a personalized experience. It is an open-platform, inviting artists at any stage in their career to share events and receive feedback.

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