This is the public invitation for the participatory policy making process that the City of Portland’s Smart City PDX program and the Office of Equity and Human Rights are organizing. The goal of these events is the development of a draft of the City’s surveillance technologies policy.
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Smart City PDX submits comments to the US Office of Science and Technology Policy RFI on use of biometric information in government.
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The Smart City PDX team and the Office of Equity and Human Rights coordinated a Portland City Council work session on surveillance technologies. The work session included how the cities of Seattle and Oakland manage surveillance technologies. Community members shared some impacts and recommendations on how the City can protect residents’ and visitors’ digital rights.
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A co-design event organized last December 13, 2021 tried to be a space for open discussion and collaboration to understand how surveillance technologies impact Portlanders. This post is a general summary of the findings and comments. Detailed analysis and raw comments are also accessible to download.
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Meet the Community Leads cohort selected to join the Smart City PDX team from an inspiring group of candidates.
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This blog post releases a series of videos from the participation of community advocates on digital justice discussing surveillance technologies impacts. Direct links to the videos are provided.
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This report is in compliance with the ordinance ban on use of face recognition technologies by City bureaus. None of the City bureaus reporting back to Smart City PDX use face recognition technologies as of April 16, 2021.
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The City of Portland is centering impacted community voices in the development of the City’s comprehensive surveillance policy using participatory policy making. Twenty three community members from a diverse set of local organizations provided City staff with input and feedback towards a more equitable public engagement in a community discussion held in June of 2021. This blog post summarizes some key takeaways from this event.
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The Smart City PDX team is searching for community leaders to bring their community and voices into the Digital Justice movement. This cohort model is preceded by two innovative models: the Equity Consulting Advisor model piloted in 2019 and the Digital Divide Work Group model developed in 2020.
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The open data program at the City of Portland celebrated the open data day on March 5 inviting speakers to present topics to improve bureaus open data efforts. This celebration included four presentations around city performance, demographic data, trust, and open data tools.
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Although the CARES Act Digital Divide project only spanned a few months, it has had a significant impact on Portland BIPOC communities and those living with disabilities. Several of our community partners were willing to share stories, highlighting a variety of experiences in Portland.
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The City of Portland's leadership opposes the use of face recognition to collect biometric information from international travelers.
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The City of Portland leads the way on the topic of digital justice as a strategy to enhance human and civil rights of all Portlanders in the digital age. This is a draft definition and we are asking the public for feedback and suggestions for improvement.
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A message of gratitude for our committed champions of the COVID-19 digital divide response project: work group volunteers, community partners, technology providers, and City staff. Includes a brief summary of the continued need and next steps.
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Sharing out about our 24 technology kit partners who will distribute digital equity resources as part of Portland’s COVID-19 CARES Act response.