The goal of the Open Government NYC Meetup, according to head organizer Matt Cooperrider, was to bring together everyone working on Government 2.0 initiatives in the city and suss out who is working on what—and maybe pool their efforts. After sipping Brooklyn Brewery beers and munching on cheese and cookies, about 40 of the attendees tried to figure out how they could help—from creating Twitter feeds for each New York City subway line and setting up platforms for crowd-sourced reports to explaining to politicians exactly why open data is so important.

…

Louis Klepner, who works on CivicID.org and the NYC Community Fiber Project, which aims to bring stronger broadband connectivity to the city, said the tech savvy folks in the room should break out of their inner circles and become more visible to local government. He said he attended a city council meeting about open government and broadband access, and he was one of only five people there. "One thing that we have en masse is our mass," he said. "We need to use it."

Read the entire New York Observer article.