About: Boston’s Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics (MONUM) pilots experiments that offer the potential to improve radically the quality of City services. MONUM focuses on three major issue areas: Participatory Urbanism, Clicks & Bricks, and Education. To design, conduct and evaluate pilot projects in these areas, MONUM builds partnerships between constituents, academics, entrepreneurs, non-profits and City staff.
Bio:
Chris Osgood
Chris Osgood co-founded and co-chairs the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, which is the City of Boston’s innovation incubator. The Office supports civic entrepreneurs – both inside and outside of City Hall – who have original ideas for how to improve Boston through collaborations between the public and the public sector. Before joining the City of Boston in 2006, Chris earned his MBA from Harvard. Prior to that, he served for 5 years in the New York City Parks & Recreation Department as its Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor. Throughout his decade of experience in local government, Chris has focused on designing and implementing operations and policies that help cities engage with and respond to constituents. An alum of both City Year and Haverford College, Chris was named a Public Official of the Year in 2011 by Governing Magazine.
Nigel Jacob
With an extensive background in collaborative, citizen-facing technology projects, Nigel Jacob co-founded the Office of New Urban Mechanics – a civic innovation incubator within Boston’s City Hall. Nigel also serves as Mayor Menino’s advisor on emerging technologies. In both of these roles, Nigel works to develop new models of innovation for cities in the 21st century. Prior to joining the City of Boston in 2006, Nigel worked for and launched a series of technology start-ups in the Boston area. Nigel is also a fellow at the Center for the Advancement Public Action at Bennington College.
In recognition for their ground-breaking work in Boston, Nigel and Chris Osgood were both named Public Officials of the year in 2011 by Governing Magazine.
