That's crazy.

So we offer...

W- And we then we provide them with a trailer, right? And we'll, we'll actually, the trailer's included, the cargo and the liability's included.

You know, we have fuel cards.

We actually do, like, two different fuel cards for these guys, pushing 100% of the savings for them.

So why, why do we do that? 'Cause we s- we understand competition, right? So it was kinda funny because right around COVID, we actually had a fuel card, and, uh, I, I guess they got hacked or something like that and, you know, the fuel card s- you know, froze for, like, a day or two.

So I was like, "I can never be in this position again for my owner-operators." So I actually had another fuel card get introduced to the program.

Yeah.

And then, yeah, I mean, New York is like letting your students drink right from the fire hose.

Yeah.

And that's a perfect segue, actually, because we can talk about how we got into Open Data.

But this was all a master scheme, right? I wasn't just throwing New York City Open Data out like we had planned it.

So...

Open data is data made for the public where, especially in New York City, anyone at any time has the opportunity to use it.

However, which way, if you just want to go on a website and see it, if you want to pull it through an API, if you want to download it from an Excel, however you want to use it, it's open to the public.

And open data, is that something the everyday New Yorker could engage with?

And then, yeah, I mean, New York is like letting your students drink right from the fire hose.

[laughs] Yeah, and that's a perfect seg- segue, actually, 'cause we can talk about how we got into open data.

But this was all a, a master scheme, right? I wasn't just throwing New York City Open Data out.

Like, we had planned it.

So open data is data made for the public where, especially in New York City, anyone at any time has the opportunity to use it however which way.

If you just want to go on a website and see it, if you wanna pull it through an API, if you wanna download it from an Excel, however you wanna use it, it's open to the public.

Now, New York City has a- ... storied history about how data about New York City became open.

Christian, I'm gonna ask you, we talked about your program and your students, but somebody listening to this might say, "Well, I'm not in a position," and I assume your program's a year or two, you know, "t- to switch careers and take this program, but I, I really like this, and I wanna understand and maybe even get engaged myself." Is this, A, is the, the R programming language somebody could pick up on their own or at least under- you know, learn a little bit more about without taking a full course, and maybe your own book would be helpful there? And open data, is that something the, uh, the everyday New Yorker could engage with?

And then, yeah, I mean, New York is like letting your students drink right from the fire hose.

Yeah.

And that's a perfect segue, actually, because we can talk about how we got into open data.

But this was all a master scheme, right? I wasn't just throwing New York City open data out like we had planned it.

So... open data is data made for the public where, especially in New York city, anyone at any time has the opportunity to use it.

However, which way, if you just want to go on a website and see it, if you want to pull it through an API, if you want to download it from an Excel, however you want to use it, it's open to the public.

Now, New York City has a storied history about how data about New York City became open.

And open data, is that something the everyday New Yorker could engage with?

So maybe, Christian, you sort of gave us a little bit of a glimpse, but maybe you can talk about the evolution of how you thought about teaching data and data viz and open data in class and then how you came to this sort of open data platform where students would publicly put all their projects.

Yeah, this is a great question.

So I'm going to be as upfront as possible and say last semester was the first time I've ever taught at the graduate level.

So I've been teaching at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, one of the other CUNY schools since maybe spring of 2023.

And I only taught undergraduates additionally in the psych program, but a totally different beast from this.

So when I started teaching and when I was creating my syllabus, I wanted to make sure that my students had something that they could be proud of.

And more so that I'm brand new to the program.

Shop now at HelloWello.com. That's HelloWello.com.