A chance for residents of the City of Buffalo to learn about the City's ongoing efforts to foster an open government through the sharing of data.

Local, regional, and national experts will be on hand to discuss real-life examples of how data can be used to improve the community and enhance the quality of life in the City of Buffalo.

Community issues that may benefit from open government data will also be discussed.

Reserve your free seat now! Seating is limited!

Agenda

9:30-10:00 Check-in

10:00-10:15 Welcome & Remarks from Mayor Byron W. Brown

10:15-11:15 Speaker Series/Q&A

11:15-11:30 Quick break

11:30-12:15 Breakout sessions

12:15-12:30 Groups share top issues

Speakers:

Andrew Nicklin, Director of Data Practices, Center for Government Excellence, Johns Hopkins University

At the intersection of technology, government, data, and civic engagement, Andrew has been called an “innovative thinker and skilled technologist”. He currently works with cities across the United States through the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, helping to spread a culture of evidence-based decision making. He led former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s NYC OpenData and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Open NY programs – both widely recognized for their ground-breaking policy frameworks, excellent data management practices, and powerful public engagement strategies. Andrew has worked in government for 20 years, leading small teams, medium-sized departments, and executive governance groups. His broad technology experience covers areas such as data management, standards collaboration, information security, infrastructure operations, application lifecycle management, project management, resource planning, procurement, and more.

His talk will briefly cover the history of the modern open data movement and show how open data has scaled across the United States with examples along the way of how it has made a difference in people’s lives. He will also discuss where the movement is heading in the next few years.

Mark Headd, Founder, Upstate Data Project

Mark Headd is the former Chief Data Officer for the City of Philadelphia, serving as one of the first municipal Chief Data Officers in the United States. He also served as Director of Government Relations at Code for America and as Director of the Delaware Government Information Center. He currently works as an Innovation Specialist with the General Service Administration's Technology Transformation Service (18F).

A software developer and civic technology veteran, he has worked as both a hands-on technologist and as a high-level policy advisor. Self-taught in software development, he holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and is a former adjunct instructor at the University of Delaware’s Institute for Public Administration teaching a course in electronic government.

His talk will describe efforts in the City of Philadelphia to release property tax revenue data as open data, and will detail both the benefits realized by citizens and external consumers of this data, as well as benefits to city agencies.

Cletis Earle, CIO, Kaleida Health

Cletis Earle was recruited to Kaleida Health from St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh/Cornwall, NY, and serves as vice president and chief information officer. He provides leadership for Kaleida Health’s information technology (IT) team, overseeing strategic and tactical planning, plus development and coordination of the IT platform. Earle previously served as vice president and chief information officer at St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital since 2011. He began his IT career as a support manager at Brooklyn Queens Health Care Inc. in Brooklyn, NY, eventually taking on roles as director of technology and vice president, chief information officer and privacy officer within the organization. Earle holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the College of New Rochelle in New Rochelle, NY, and a master’s degree in information systems from Strayer University in Washington, DC.

His talk will show how we are able to use open data and modify Protected Health Information (PHI) to identify opportunities in promoting positive outcomes in population health/management.

Allison Sagraves, Chief Data Officer, M&T Bank

As the Chief Data Officer of M&T, Allison works to use data to solve problems and help M&T's customers every day. In her spare time, she is very interested in the power of data to solve problems in our communities and in the world. Last fall, she gave a Tedx Talk in Buffalo called Become a Citizen Data Scientist. The talk focused on how we can all be citizen scientists by using our phones to track sightings of species, contribute to brain research, measure noise pollution, even help cure cancer – all through apps available on our phone. Now we have the opportunity to become Data Citizens and work with the Buffalo government’s new open data portal to help improve our community by being more engaged, knowledgeable, and involved in making Buffalo great. 

She will give examples of how citizens can become engaged through the Buffalo Open Data portal and see information about city services, learn how to access services, make suggestions about how to improve them, and help build better communities using data. She will talk about other Data Citizens in cities like Buffalo and what they have done to improve the quality of life in their city.

Questions?

Please direct any questions about this event to kmclean@city-buffalo.com