Collection

The story of the sixth myth of open data and open government

Curated on February 10, 2015July 19, 2019 by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Ann-Sofie Hellberg and Karin Hedström: “The aim of this paper is to describe a local government effort to realise an open government agenda. This is done using a storytelling approach….The empirical data is based on a case study. We participated in, as well as followed, the process of realising an open government agenda on a local level, where citizens were invited to use open public data as the basis for developing apps and external web solutions. Based on an interpretative tradition, we chose storytelling as a way to scrutinize the competition process. In this paper, we present a story about the competition process using the story elements put forward by Kendall and Kendall (2012).

….Our research builds on existing research by proposing the myth that the “public” wants to make use of open data. We provide empirical insights into the challenge of gaining benefits from open public data. In particular, we illustrate the difficulties in getting citizens interested in using open public data. Our case shows that people seem to like the idea of open public data, but do not necessarily participate actively in the data re-use process…..This study illustrates the difficulties of promoting the re-use of open public data. Public organisations that want to pursue an open government agenda can use our findings as empirical insights… (More)”

A lot of private-sector data is also used for public good

Curated on February 9, 2015October 9, 2018 by Stefaan Verhulst

Josh New in Computerworld: “As the private sector continues to invest in data-driven innovation, the capacity for society to benefit from this data collection grows as well. Much has been said about how the private sector is using the data it collects to improve corporate bottom lines, but positive stories about how that data contributes to the greater public good are largely unknown.
This is unfortunate, because data collected by the private sector is being used in a variety of important ways, including to advance medical research, to help students make better academic decisions and to provide government agencies and nonprofits with actionable insights. However, overzealous actions by government to restrict the collection and use of data by the private sector are likely to have a chilling effect on such data-driven innovation.
Companies are working to advance medical research with data sharing. Personal genetics company 23andMe, which offers its customers inexpensive DNA test kits, has obtained consent from three-fourths of its 800,000 customers to donate their genetic information for research purposes. 23andMe has partnered with pharmaceutical companies, such as Genentech and Pfizer, to advance genomics research by providing scientists with the data needed to develop new treatments for diseases like Crohn’s and Parkinson’s. The company has also worked with researchers to leverage its network of customers to recruit patients for clinical trials more effectively than through previous protocols.
Private-sector data is also helping students make more informed decisions about education. With the cost of attending college rising, data that helps make this investment worthwhile is incredibly valuable. The social networking company LinkedIn has built tools that provide prospective college students with valuable information about their potential career path, field of study and choice of school. By analyzing the education tracks and careers of its users, LinkedIn can offer students critical data-driven insights into how to make the best out of the enormous and costly decision to go to college. Through LinkedIn’s higher-education tools, students now have an unprecedented resource to develop data-supported education and career plans….(More)”

Untangling Complexity

Curated on February 9, 2015October 9, 2018 by Stefaan Verhulst

Essay by Jacqueline Wallace at civicquarterly.com : “The next phase of the digital revolution will be defined by products and services that facilitate shared understanding, allowing concerted participation around complex issues. In working to show the way, civic designers will need to call upon the powers of systems research, design research, social science, and open data….
Creating next-gen civic applications will require designers to embody a systems-based approach to civic participation, marrying systems-based research, user-centered design, social science, and data. This article chronicles my own experience leveraging these tools to facilitate shared understand amongst my community vis. a vis. the Kinder Morgan pipeline….
I believe the contention around the pipeline evinces a bigger problem in our civic sphere: While individual issues such as the Kinder Morgan pipeline continue to absorb a great deal of energy from citizens, user-centered designers must use their unique skillset to address these issues more broadly. Because we’re not only failing our fellow citizens; we’re failing our representatives as well. In the words of digital strategist and civic design advocate Mike Connery: “there has been almost zero investment in giving our representatives the tools they need to understand feedback from citizens.”
The opportunity is two-fold. As previously stated, there is a need to develop tools that support citizens and representatives to understand and engage with complex social issues. There is also a need to develop processes, processes that cultivate our abilities to understand policy development in order to more efficiently spend our tax dollars. Writing about a recent project that used social science methods to analyze the long-term success of a welfare project, NPR correspondent Shankar Vedantam said, “it really makes no sense that marketers selling toys have better data on what works and what doesn’t than policy makers who are spending billions and billions of dollars.”…(More)

Innovate or Stagnate

Curated on February 9, 2015May 29, 2019 by Stefaan Verhulst

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum at Project Syndicate: “Companies, like people, grow old. They start life small and eager to survive, fueled by youthful energy and fresh ideas. They compete, expand, mature, and eventually, with few exceptions, fade into obscurity. The same is true of governments: they, too, can lose the hunger and ambition of youth and allow themselves to become complacent….

The key to corporations’ rejuvenation, civilizations’ evolution, and human development in general is simple: innovation. I am always amazed when governments think they are an exception to this rule. Innovation in government is not an intellectual luxury, a topic confined to seminars and panel discussions, or a matter only of administrative reforms. It is the recipe for human survival and development, the fuel for constant progress, and the blueprint for a country’s rise.

The first key to business-like innovation in government is a focus on skills. Top-tier companies continuously invest in their employees to provide them with the right skills for the marketplace. Governments must do the same, by constantly upgrading skills and nurturing innovation – among their own employees, across key sectors of the economy, and at the foundations of the education system. Governments that fail to equip new generations with the skills needed to become leaders for their time are condemning them to be led by other, more innovative societies….

The second key to transforming governments into engines of innovation is to shift the balance of investment toward intangibles, as in the private sector. Whereas more than 80% of the value of the Standard & Poor’s 500 consisted of tangible assets 40 years ago, today that ratio is reversed: more than 80% of the largest companies’ value is intangible – the knowledge and skills of their employees and the intellectual property embedded in their products.

Governments, too, should think strategically about shifting their spending away from tangible infrastructure like roads and buildings, and toward intangibles like education and research and development…. (More)”.

Moovit Crowdsources Public Transit Data, So You'll Never Get Stuck Waiting For The Bus Again

Curated on February 7, 2015August 3, 2018 by Stefaan Verhulst

Ariel Schwartz at Co.Exist: “There are few things more frustrating than rushing to the bus, only to find out that it’s delayed indefinitely. Or arriving at the subway stop to find hundreds of others waiting for the same delayed train, making your chances of entry onto the next car nearly impossible.
In cities with open data, localized transit apps with real-time transit updates can alleviate the problem, but those apps aren’t available everywhere—and in most cases, they don’t offer up information about service alerts, like bus stops relocated due to construction.
Moovit, an Israeli startup that recently raised $50 million for its app, which takes a lot of the headache out of navigating public transportation. Available in over 500 cities globally, Moovit uses a combination of official transit information and crowdsourced live updates to provide accurate information on a city’s public transportation city at any given moment.
Getting started with the app is fairly intuitive; just put in your starting location and destination and Moovit spits out the best way to get there. It also notifies you when you’re getting close to your stop—a bonus in cities with transportation systems that don’t always make that clear (ahem, San Francisco)….
The vision for Moovit goes beyond public transportation (just look at the company’s investor list, which includes BMW i Ventures). “We want to make this an omni-search for non-car owners, including bike, taxi, and carsharing services,” says Erez. Later this year, Moovit plans to make a number of announcements around integrating multiple means of transportation into the app. (More)“

Big Data and Discriminatory Pricing

Curated on February 7, 2015August 15, 2018 by Stefaan Verhulst

White House: “In response to the big data and privacy report’s finding that these technologies and tools can enable new forms of discrimination, the White House Council of Economic Advisers conducted a study examining whether and how companies may use big data technologies to offer different prices to different consumers — a practice known as “discriminatory pricing.” The CEA found that many companies already use big data for targeted marketing, and others are experimenting in a limited way with personalized pricing, but this practice is not yet widespread. While the economic literature contends that discriminatory pricing will often, though not always, be welfare-enhancing for businesses and consumers, the CEA concludes that policymakers should be vigilant against the potential for discriminatory outcomes, particularly in cases where prices are not transparent and could give rise to fraud or scams….To read the Council of Economic Advisers report on discriminatory pricing, click here.“

Training the next generation of public leaders

Curated on February 5, 2015July 19, 2019 by Stefaan Verhulst

Thanks to the generous support of the Knight Foundation, this term the Governance Lab Academy – a training program designed to promote civic engagement and innovation – is launching a series of online coaching programs.
Geared to the teams and individuals inside and outside of government planning to undertake a new project or trying to figure out how to make an existing project even more effective and scalable, these programs are designed to help participants working in civic engagement and innovation develop effective projects from idea to implementation.
Convened by leading experts in their fields, coaching programs meet exclusively online once a week for four weeks or every other week for eight weeks. They include frequent and constructive feedback, customized and original learning materials, peer-to-peer support, mentoring by topic experts and individualized coaching from those with policy, technology, and domain expertise.
There is no charge to participants but each program is limited to 8-10 project teams or individuals.
You can see the current roster of programs below and check out the website for more information (including FAQs), to sign up and to suggest a new program.

Citizen Science on the Web, starting the week of March 2, 2015.
Civic Tech for Local Legislatures and Legislators, starting the week of March 2, 2015.
Freedom of Information and FOIA Project Coaching: Breaking Down the Walls and Opening Up Communications, starting the week of March 2, 2015.
Citizen Engagement Projects, starting the week of March 2, 2015.
Tech Procurement Projects: Making the Supply Chain Work, starting the week of March 16, 2015.
Leveraging Crowds in the Public Sector, starting the week of March 23, 2015.
Open Source Technology Practices For Civic Engagement Projects, starting the week of April 6, 2015.
Humanitarian Innovation Project Collaborative, starting the week of April 6, 2015.
Lab Design: Bringing Agility and Empiricism to Public Problems, starting the week of April 6, 2015.
Open Data Data-Driven Decisions for All, starting the week of April 6, 2015.
Data Analytics for Change, dates TBD.
Open Contracting Projects, dates TBD.

Faculty includes:

Brian Behlendorf, Managing Director at Mithril Capital Management and Co-Founder Apache
Alexandra Clare, Founder of Iraq Re:Coded
Brian Forde, Senior Former Advisor to the U.S. CTO, White House Office of Science Technology and Policy
Francois Grey, Coordinator of the Citizen Cyberscience Centre, Geneva
Gavin Hayman, Executive Director of the Open Contracting Partnership
Clay Johnson, CEO of The Department for Better Technology and Former Presidential Innovation Fellow
Benjamin Kallos, New York City Council Member and Chair of the Committee on Governmental Operations of the New York City Council
Karim Lakhani, Lumry Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School
Amen Ra Mashariki, Chief Analytics Officer of New York City
Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of NESTA
Miriam Nisbet, Former Director of the Office of Government Information Services
Beth Noveck, Founder and CEO of The GovLab
Tiago Peixoto, Open Government Specialist at The World Bank
Arnaud Sahuguet, Chief Technology Officer of The GovLab
Joeri van den Steenhoven, Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of MaRS Solutions Lab
Stefaan Verhulst, Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of The GovLab

2015 Edelman Trust Barometer

Curated on February 5, 2015December 13, 2018 by Stefaan Verhulst

“The 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer shows a global decline in trust over the last year, and the number of countries with trusted institutions has fallen to an all-time low among the informed public.

Among the general population, the trust deficit is even more pronounced, with nearly two-thirds of countries falling into the distruster category.
In the last year, trust has declined for three of the four institutions measured. NGOs continue to be the most trusted institution, but trust in NGOs declined from 66 to 63 percent. Sixty percent of countries now distrust media. Trust in government increased slightly, driven by big gains in India, Russia and Indonesia but government is still distrusted in 19 of the 27 markets surveyed. And trust in business is below 50 percent in half of those markets.

2015 Edelman Trust Barometer – Global Results from Edelman Insights”