Happy Pedaling Python Geeks Seek Hardcore Cycling Scrapers

Our roomates betaNYC (a Code for America brigade for New York) have reserved 20 spaces for DataKind's data scientists to attend the first CitiBike CivicHackNight.

This hacknight is about learning CitiBike's API, reviewing tools others have built on top of CitiBike data, and brainstorming projects. With the launch of CitiBike, we now have access to a wealth of granular neighborhood data on bicycle usage. The conversation on the environmental, social, health and economic benefits of a bicycling city just coasted into the 21st century.

Skills to Bring

Machine learning - How can we categorize riders? Stations? Bike-share cities? Statistics - Is bicycling getting New Yorker's more fit? How much more? Saving energy? Sampling - How much can bike share data tell us about broader trends? How is Citi rider behavior representative of cyclists in general? Data Wrangling - Weather+BikeShare = ? How cloudy does it need to be for the solar powered stations to fail? Imagination - What should we do all this awesome bike share data that's being scraped, processed and produced?

Here's the details from betaNYC, a CfA meetup for NYC:

This is a night dedicated to #citibike data, sponsored by New Work City (http://nwc.co/).

NYC’s new bike share systems has chalked up some impressive stats (http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fa841-tfpweb.nyc.gov%2Fdotpress%2F2013%2F06%2Fnyc-dot-commissioner-sadik-khan-nyc-bike-share-announce-that-citi-bike-exceeds-100000-rides-in-just-10-days%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNF_ilZDfsBnNdDyDG9SRU0Ph8dsBg): people have ridden CitiBikes 270,000 miles, over 30,000 people joined as annual members, and 6,000 daily riders are taking the eye-catching blue bikes for a spin. All of this in ten days!!!

Bike share is the perfect opportunity for new tools to help people make smart travel choices. Data about usage can tell us how New Yorkers get around: speeds travelled, routes taken, etc.

On Wednesday June 26, join betaNYC for a special evening on available CitiBike data, hacking & building tools, and blue sky thinking. We will hear from NYCDOT representative, on current and upcoming data feeds, and Anthony Townsend, NYU Rudin, on CitiBike and Foursquare data.

If you are working with bike share data, sign up to present a 3 min demo. Apply to present here (https://docs.google.com/a/codeforamerica.org/forms/d/1E-MceJlAUsXbQbxFZQh5tzPzrzB-gv4yKJIOUqtV_0Q/viewform).

Agenda:

6:30 - Doors Open
6:45 - Event Starts
6:50 - Presentations (available data feeds, et. al.)
7:10 - 7:30 - Project Showcase (demo YOUR mashups)
7:30 - 9:30 - Hacking
9:30 - 10:00 - Insights and Cleanup

To get you excited, check out some of the data links below, plus demos discussed in the comments.

Data

Daily usage stats from CitiBike (https://www.citibikenyc.com/blog/2013/06/05/citi-bike-day-ten-recap) System map (https://www.citibikenyc.com/stations) CitiBike JSON Endpoints via citybik.es
Organized by betaNYC (https://www.meetup.com/betanyc/), OpenPlans (http://openplans.org/), NYU Rudin Center (http://wagner.nyu.edu/rudincenter/).

This event is graciously sponsored by New Work City (http://nwc.co/), Code for America's Brigade (http://brigade.codeforamerica.org/), OpenPlans (http://openplans.org/)