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Building Awareness of Travis County Evictions
The pandemic and the economic recession have worsened tenants’ challenges in paying their rent and their bills. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have imposed an eviction moratorium until the end of the year, that moratorium ...
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An Open Source License for the Climate Crisis
When the Open Austin core team met in 2017 to write a statement of the values that would define Open Austin as an organization, including “Open Data,” “Open Research,” and “Open Source Technology,” nothing in that mission statement referenced envi...
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Supporting a Complete Census Count
Open Austin has a new project to support the Austin/Travis County Census 2020 Complete Count Committee. Open Austin volunteers are invited to help build a microsite to support the Complete Count efforts leading up to Census Day, April 1, 2020. The...
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City Releases Some Requested Data about Lobbyists and City Council
Last week, Austin City Clerk Jannette Goodall and other city officials met with Open Austin and the Austin Tech Alliance about two datasets requested in the joint OA/ATA 2018 advocacy agenda: lobbyist activity reports and city council meeting reco...
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Office of Sustainability Offers Guidance for Civic Climate Data
Last week, representatives of the City of Austin’s Office of Sustainability took time out of their schedules to meet with me, and with David Edmonson of Austin Tech Alliance, about the climate data priority in Open Austin’s and Austin Tech Allianc...
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Open Austin Releases Joint Advocacy Agenda with Austin Tech Alliance
Today, Austin Tech Alliance and Open Austin released a joint policy agenda with four requests for data transparency from the City of Austin. The requests are “Make City Council meeting agendas and vote data more accessible,” “Publish lobbyist acti...
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Changes in Access to Austin's Local Legislative Data
When newcomers to Open Austin decide they’re interested in taking on a civic hacking project, one of the most common suggestions they offer is to make our city council’s agendas more accessible. It has the potential to be a very visible and impact...
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Projects and management
We need to overhaul our project management. To get there, and to work in the open, let’s start by clearly defining the problem, the fundamental challenges, and our circumstances. At Open Austin, our projects are for public good and made in the op...
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Kirk Watson Advances Open Government Bills
The Texas Tribune has reported that Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, has attached several open government initiatives to a single bill designated HB 2328, which has passed the Texas Senate. The amended bill now goes back to the House for its approval. ...
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Mozilla’s Open Leadership Training can work for Open Austin projects
When I joined the Open Austin leadership team, one of my first goals was to identify specific problems in our project management that might impact members’ ability or motivation to contribute. Early on we defined that problem to be that most proje...
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