Open Assembly is a working session to draft a public-facing tech agenda for NYC ahead of the Mayor’s Executive Budget release on April 26.

We’re gathering technologists, designers, creative technologists, and digital practitioners to identify concrete actions that can be shared with City Council staff and NYC agencies during this budget cycle. If we move quickly, there is a real opportunity to influence how public resources are allocated toward digital infrastructure, data policy, and civic technology.

Together, we’ll define priorities, surface concerns, and outline actionable proposals around issues like open-source city data, participatory budgeting tools, digital public infrastructure, procurement reform, and other ways technology shapes everyday life in New York.

When you RSVP, please answer: What is one civic tech issue in NYC you think deserves attention this year?

Your response will inform the agenda and working groups for the evening.

Jordan Coley is a Brooklyn-based writer, comedian, and actor. He is the recipient of the Susan M. Haas TV Writing Fellowship, a writing grant co-sponsored by the WGA and Oscar-winning writer Cord Jefferson. In 2024, he starred in the film No Sleep ’Till which won a Special Mention at the Venice Films Festival Critics’ Week. Jordan’s arts criticism has appeared in publications like The New Yorker, GQ, and The New York Times Magazine. He is currently completing an MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch. He also hosts Jordan Show, a recurring, live, late night talk show.

We like to say that garden3d is a platform for doing things.

We are a worker-owned creative collective, innovating on everything from brands and IRL communities to IoT devices and cross platform apps. We write & podcast, share profit, open source everything, spin out new businesses, and invest in exciting ideas through financial and/or in-kind contributions.

By applying collectivist principles and egalitarian business structures, we build liberating, inclusive and empowering cultural institutions inside of late capitalism. A lot of us work out of Index Chinatown or Index Greenpoint + Ours in Richmond, Post Office in Amsterdam, Lagori in Bengaluru, Ishinoko Kitchen in Ishikawa), and you can join those spaces too.

Today, we’re interested in networked spirituality, environmentalism, local LLMs, circular solar, computational democracy, activism, carbon drawdown, regenerative agriculture, healthcare, mesh networking, formless computing and pretty much any other ideas that might incrementally improve the lives of all humans.