Digital New York: Foster the High-Tech Sector
The decline of the financial sector due to its own inadequacies and greed has led Mayor Bloomberg and other city leaders to the conclusion that the city needs to remake its economy in the image of the West Coast by promoting the development of a high-tech industrial sector. In order to accomplish this, the city has already undertaken some major initiatives including NYCBigApps which is "a competition that allows developers to access the NYC DataMine and then build public apps based on that data. One example was DontEat.at, a popular app that integrates with Foursquare and sends you a text message when you check in to a place that scored poorly on its health inspection."
But the city also wants to tailor its own procurement policies to encourage smaller start ups. To this end, DOITT’s Speedy Procurement and Rapid Contracts (SPARK) program is geared toward offering different rules for smaller development projects in order to get independent developers or firms involved. “We’re giving an opportunity to support our growing startups. What this allows for is an opportunity to make it easier for those companies to engage and work with the city and get contracts from the city,” says Rachael Sterne, New York City's first digital officer.
Finally, the city has understood that the high cost of renting any kind of space in New York makes the initial phase of a start-up very difficult and it has responded with providing two inexpensive work spaces for entrepreneurs in Manhattan with more to be established in other boroughs. the Road Map for the Digital City report also indicates that the " Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment will create a digital media incubator complete with a media events and conference center." http://www.nyc.gov/html/mome/digital/html/roadmap/roadmap.shtml
