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  • Houston Looks for a Smarter, More Equitable Path to Hurricane Recovery

    The city of Houston is changing its approach to measuring the full scope of damage from Hurricane Harvey so it can get help where it is most needed and improve future flood mitigation. Using data from numerous sources, Civis Analytics found unmet housing needs were far greater than initially recorded and low-income areas were hit disproportionately harder, even though recovery funding often goes to areas with higher housing values. Now city officials are working to implement solutions based on the data in order to allocate limited funds where they will be most effective.

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  • Reprogramming power: Audrey Tang is bringing hacker culture to the state

    A community of technologists called g0v has produced open-source tools and redesigns of Taiwan’s public services. In collaboration with Digital Minister Audrey Tang, the group is helping citizens and civil society groups work with the government to improve services.

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  • Farms Race

    True to hacker form, an MIT team wants "open-source agriculture," a technology that takes food production back from big corporations and makes it widely accessible. To this end, the OpenAg community, comprised of coders, horticulturalists, engineers, plant scientists, and teachers, is developing food computers. But the technology is still being developed, and the economics don't yet pencil out for profitability.

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  • Seattle is the leader in worker protection laws. What can Philly learn as it considers a ‘fair workweek'?

    In an effort to achieve a true "fair work week," Philadelphia looks to Seattle's worker protection laws - which are among the best in the country. Seattle enforces a strict secure-scheduling policy, which ensures workers are compensated if an employer changes their schedule without fair warning.

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  • The Crime Machine, Part II

    CompStat seemed like a miracle of technology and data when it was rolled out in New York City in the 1990s. Crime dropped as police leadership demanded precincts report every crime and what they were doing about it at weekly meetings where they were pressured to conform to this new system. But this also resulted in police distorting actual crime data to avoid reporting crimes in their districts and the push for increased police activity resulted in cops targeting minorities for minor offenses.

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  • PA Banking On New Program Providing Inmates With Financial Savvy To Succeed

    Two state agencies in Pennsylvania collaborated to launch a program that trains inmates on financial literacy skills in an effort to curb recidivism. The Department of Corrections and the Department of Banking and Securities have reached more than 4,300 inmates through the classes, many of whom have been inside for years and may have never had bank accounts. Research found having a bank account is strongly correlated with not returning to prison and higher employment rates.

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  • Kenya's Government Is Evicting Indigenous People. Tech Helps Them Fight Back.

    Kenya's indigenous communities are fighting the government's attempts to seize the land they live on using an app called This is My Backyard, or TIMBY. The app helps users to securely encrypt videos and pictures that can then be used for legal and publicity purposes, allowing community members to gather evidence and hold leaders accountable.

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  • Thousands of South Africans join GovChat

    GovChat is the world's first platform that connects citizens with politicians via WhatsApp. It allows citizens to rate public services and report issues, submit service requests, and donate to community organizations. Thousands of people registered and began using the platform within the first 72 hours.

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  • Women Get a Voice in Conventional Agriculture

    Because women make up a smaller percentage of farmers in America as compared to men in the field, their work and contributions to the industry are often overlooked. HarvestHER, a social media-based platform established by a small-town Montana farmer, aims to alleviate the stress of working in a men-dominant field by giving women a voice in the community.

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  • Armed with award-winning app, Kenyan tribe fights forced evictions

    A new app known as TIMBY aims to reduce the amount of illegal forest activities such as logging and forced evictions of tribal communities. By allowing those using the app to document real-time evidence of illegal activity, the Sengwer community will be able to present the gathered data to courts and forest authorities.

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