citymeetings.nyc is by Vikram Oberoi.

I make NYC's (incredibly lengthy) public proceedings easy to navigate for engaged citizens and professionals.

I also send out a newsletter highlighting meeting moments and curious claims every 1-2 weeks.

It's a fun and easy way to learn about our city and what the folks who govern it are saying. Sign up here to receive it:

My aim is for citymeetings.nyc to be the most comprehensive and authoritative source on public proceedings in New York City.

I use software I've built to transcribe meetings and break them down into short moments and useful summaries that faithfully represent things people say on the record.

This work turns a 7-hour meeting with presentations, Q&A, and extensive public comments into an artifact anyone can navigate in 15 minutes.

My software relies heavily on AI. But it's designed to enable human oversight every step of the way, making it possible for one person (me! 👋) to publish accurate work, quickly.

As with any publication, errors sometimes appear on citymeetings.nyc. When that happens, I encourage you to reach out to me so I can fix them.

Underneath citymeetings.nyc's pigeon mascot exterior is a serious software endeavor with a commitment to delivering accurate, citable content on thousands of hours of public proceedings.

You can learn more about how my tools work from a talk I gave at NYC School of Data 2024, for which I published annotated slides on my blog.

I also share challenges and limitations I run into in the citymeetings.nyc newsletter along with the occasional breakthrough.

More reasons to sign up for it, eh?

Tools for professionals

I'm working on paid tools tailor-made for professionals whose job it is to tune in and understand what's going on:

• Journalists
• Advocacy groups
• Government staff
• Attorneys
• Lobbyists
• You?

If you have a feature request, email me.

Expanding coverage

My current focus is the city council, but I'd like to expand coverage to other municipal and state bodies eventually.

You can vote for which governing bodies you'd like me to cover by filling out this form.

Want citymeetings.nyc in your area?

If you live elsewhere and would like to bring citymeetings.nyc-like coverage to your area, email me.

You are not the first to ask and when I'm ready I'd like to work with you.

Talks

I've talked about the work I've done to make citymeetings.nyc possible with:

• NYC's Office of Technology and Innovation
• NYC's Independent Budget Office
• NYC's City Council Legislative Division
• Bloomberg's Data Journalism Team

If you'd like me to talk to your team, please reach out.

Consulting

I'm available for consulting. I've built software for ~20 years and have worked with early-stage startup clients for the last 6 years.

It is possible to do a lot, quickly, with one 👋 or two highly-experienced software engineers.

Email me to discuss your needs.

citymeetings.nyc was launched in February 2024.

It started its life as a prototype, made the rounds after this talk, and as of August 2024 I'm able to publish council meeting segments to a high standard of accuracy and coverage within 24 hours.