OECD Report: “This review analyses the shift from e-government to digital government in Colombia. It looks at the governance framework for digital government, the use of digital platforms and open data to engage and collaborate with citizens, conditions for a data-driven public sector, and policy coherence in a context of significant regional disparities. It provides concrete policy recommendations on how digital technologies and data can be harnessed for citizen-driven policy making and public service delivery... (More >)
What kind of Evidence Influences local officials? A great example from Guatemala
Paper by Walter Flores: “Between 2007 and up to now, we have implemented five different methods for gathering evidence: 1) Surveys of health clinics with random sampling, 2) Surveys using tracers and convenience-based sampling, 3) Life histories of the users of health services, 4) User complaints submitted via text messages, 5) Video and photography documenting service delivery problems. Each of these methods was deployed for a period of 2-3 years and accompanied by detailed monitoring to track its effects on two outcome variables: 1) the level of community participation in planning, data collection and analysis; and 2) the responsiveness... (More >)
Plunging response rates to household surveys worry policymakers
The Economist: “Response rates to surveys are plummeting all across the rich world. Last year only around 43% of households contacted by the British government responded to the LFS, down from 70% in 2001 (see chart). In America the share of households responding to the Current Population Survey (CPS) has fallen from 94% to 85% over the same period. The rest of Europe and Canada have seen similar trends. Poor response rates drain budgets, as it takes surveyors more effort to hunt down interviewees. And a growing reluctance to give interviewers information threatens the quality of the data. Politicians... (More >)
Data Activism
Special Issue of Krisis: Journal of Contemporary Philosophy: “Digital data increasingly plays a central role in contemporary politics and public life. Citizen voices are increasingly mediated by proprietary social media platforms and are shaped by algorithmic ranking and re-ordering, but data informs how states act, too. This special issue wants to shift the focus of the conversation. Non-governmental organizations, hackers, and activists of all kinds provide a myriad of ‘alternative’ interventions, interpretations, and imaginaries of what data stands for and what can be done with it. Jonathan Gray starts off this special issue by suggesting how data can be... (More >)
Public Policy in an AI Economy
NBER Working Paper by Austan Goolsbee: “This paper considers the role of policy in an AI-intensive economy (interpreting AI broadly). It emphasizes the speed of adoption of the technology for the impact on the job market and the implications for inequality across people and across places. It also discusses the challenges of enacting a Universal Basic Income as a response to widespread AI adoption, discuss pricing, privacy and competition policy the question of whether AI could improve policy making itself….(More). ... (More >)
Policy experimentation: core concepts, political dynamics, governance and impacts
Article by Dave Huitema, Andrew Jordan, Stefania Munaretto and Mikael Hildén in Policy Sciences: “In the last two decades, many areas of the social sciences have embraced an ‘experimentalist turn’. It is well known for instance that experiments are a key ingredient in the emergence of behavioral economics, but they are also increasingly popular in sociology, political science, planning, and in architecture (see McDermott 2002). It seems that the potential advantages of experiments are better appreciated today than they were in the past. But the turn towards experimentalism is not without its critics. In her passionate plea for more... (More >)
Governance on the Drug Supply Chain via Gcoin Blockchain
Paper by Jen-Hung Tseng et al in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health: “…blockchain was recently introduced to the public to provide an immutable, consensus based and transparent system in the Fintech field. However, there are ongoing efforts to apply blockchain to other fields where trust and value are essential. In this paper, we suggest Gcoin blockchain as the base of the data flow of drugs to create transparent drug transaction data. Additionally, the regulation model of the drug supply chain could be altered from the inspection and examination only model to the surveillance net model,... (More >)
How Policymakers Can Foster Algorithmic Accountability
Report by Joshua New and Daniel Castro: “Increased automation with algorithms, particularly through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), offers opportunities for the public and private sectors to complete increasingly complex tasks with a level of productivity and effectiveness far beyond that of humans, generating substantial social and economic benefits in the process. However, many believe an increased use of algorithms will lead to a host of harms, including exacerbating existing biases and inequalities, and have therefore called for new public policies, such as establishing an independent commission to regulate algorithms or requiring companies to explain publicly how their... (More >)
Using Collaborative Crowdsourcing to Give Voice to Diverse Communities
Dennis Di Lorenzo at Campus Technology: “Universities face many critical challenges — student retention, campus safety, curriculum development priorities, alumni engagement and fundraising, and inclusion of diverse populations. In my role as dean of the New York University School of Professional Studies (NYUSPS) for the past four years, and in my prior 20 years of employment in senior-level positions within the school and at NYU, I have become intimately familiar with the complexities and the nuances of such multifaceted challenges. For the past two years, one of our top priorities at NYUSPS has been striving to address sensitive issues... (More >)
EU ministers endorse Commission’s plans for research cloud
European Commission: “The European Open Science Cloud, which will support EU science in its global leading by creating a trusted environment for hosting and processing research data, is one important step closer to becoming a reality. Meeting in Brussels today, EU research ministers endorsed the roadmap for its creation. The Conclusions of the Competitiveness Council, proposed by the current Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, are the result of two years of intense negotiations…. According to Commissioner Moedas, much remains to be done to make the EOSC a reality by 2020, but several important aspects stand out:... (More >)
