Humanizing Tech in New York City

Right — your recent report focuses on the relationship between smart cities and equity. How did that come about?

Minerva: A big part of what we do is ensure that the city’s technology strategy aligns with the administration’s overall plans and strategies. The smart and equitable city is really the translation of OneNYC, which is an urban planning document that explicitly takes equity as a guiding principle.

I’ll give you some examples. It’s technology policy that enables more New Yorkers to participate in the tech ecosystem, right? So it’s developing and implementing policy that offers computer science education to every NYC public school kid, which will break down the barriers for families that don’t have computers at home. And also for girls, who will get exposed to tech early on so that they don’t opt out of it later.

And then we have policies dealing with broadband access, which is really the water and electricity of our digital age. Today we have digital deserts, we have tech haves and have-nots. How do you look for a job, how do you a find a place to live, how do you do your homework if you don’t have internet access?

Jeff: In some ways, by rebranding smart cities as smart and equitable cities, we’re taking back ownership. That brand came out of the private sector and some large multinational tech firms that were pushing products. As a result, it really became about the technology. We’re trying to put the focus back on the people. How can technology improve people’s lives? Broadband, the infrastructure, the development of the tech ecosystem — these are all enablers to help us get there. But really it’s not about the tech. It’s about creating a better place for all New Yorkers.