A Talk By Seth Lloyd at The Edge: “We haven’t talked about the socialization of intelligence very much. We talked a lot about intelligence as being individual human things, yet the thing that distinguishes humans from other animals is our possession of human language, which allows us both to think and communicate in ways that other animals don’t appear to be able to. This gives us a cooperative power as a global organism, which is causing lots of trouble. If I were another species, I’d be pretty damn pissed off right now. What makes human beings effective is not their individual intelligences, though there are many very intelligent people in this room, but their communal intelligence….(More)”.
Handbook of Research on Politics in the Computer Age
Book edited by Ashu M. G. Solo: “Technology and particularly the Internet have caused many changes in the realm of politics. Aspects of engineering, computer science, mathematics, or natural science can be applied to politics. Politicians and candidates use their own websites and social network profiles to get their message out. Revolutions in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa have started in large part due to social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Social networking has also played a role in protests and riots in numerous countries. The mainstream media no longer has a monopoly on political commentary as anybody can set up a blog or post a video online. Now, political activists can network together online.
The Handbook of Research on Politics in the Computer Age is a pivotal reference source that serves to increase the understanding of methods for politics in the computer age, the effectiveness of these methods, and tools for analyzing these methods. The book includes research chapters on different aspects of politics with information technology, engineering, computer science, or math, from 27 researchers at 20 universities and research organizations in Belgium, Brazil, Cape Verde, Egypt, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, and the United States of America. Highlighting topics such as online campaigning and fake news, the prospective audience includes, but is not limited to, researchers, political and public policy analysts, political scientists, engineers, computer scientists, political campaign managers and staff, politicians and their staff, political operatives, professors, students, and individuals working in the fields of politics, e-politics, e-government, new media and communication studies, and Internet marketing….(More)”.
Artificial Discretion as a Tool of Governance: A Framework for Understanding the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Public Administration
Paper by Matthew M Young, Justin B Bullock, and Jesse D Lecy in Perspectives on Public Management and Governance: “Public administration research has documented a shift in the locus of discretion away from street-level bureaucrats to “systems-level bureaucracies” as a result of new information communication technologies that automate bureaucratic processes, and thus shape access to resources and decisions around enforcement and punishment. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are accelerating these trends, potentially altering discretion in public management in exciting and in challenging ways. We introduce the concept of “artificial discretion” as a theoretical framework to help public managers consider the impact of AI as they face decisions about whether and how to implement it. We operationalize discretion as the execution of tasks that require nontrivial decisions. Using Salamon’s tools of governance framework, we compare artificial discretion to human discretion as task specificity and environmental complexity vary. We evaluate artificial discretion with the criteria of effectiveness, efficiency, equity, manageability, and political feasibility. Our analysis suggests three principal ways that artificial discretion can improve administrative discretion at the task level: (1) increasing scalability, (2) decreasing cost, and (3) improving quality. At the same time, artificial discretion raises serious concerns with respect to equity, manageability, and political feasibility….(More)”.
Benefits of Open Data in Public Health
Paper by P. Huston, VL. Edge and E. Bernier: “Open Data is part of a broad global movement that is not only advancing science and scientific communication but also transforming modern society and how decisions are made. What began with a call for Open Science and the rise of online journals has extended to Open Data, based on the premise that if reports on data are open, then the generated or supporting data should be open as well. There have been a number of advances in Open Data over the last decade, spearheaded largely by governments. A real benefit of Open Data is not simply that single databases can be used more widely; it is that these data can also be leveraged, shared and combined with other data. Open Data facilitates scientific collaboration, enriches research and advances analytical capacity to inform decisions. In the human and environmental health realms, for example, the ability to access and combine diverse data can advance early signal detection, improve analysis and evaluation, inform program and policy development, increase capacity for public participation, enable transparency and improve accountability. However, challenges remain. Enormous resources are needed to make the technological shift to open and interoperable databases accessible with common protocols and terminology. Amongst data generators and users, this shift also involves a cultural change: from regarding databases as restricted intellectual property, to considering data as a common good. There is a need to address legal and ethical considerations in making this shift. Finally, along with efforts to modify infrastructure and address the cultural, legal and ethical issues, it is important to share the information equitably and effectively. While there is great potential of the open, timely, equitable and straightforward sharing of data, fully realizing the myriad of benefits of Open Data will depend on how effectively these challenges are addressed….(More)”.
The Precision Farming Revolution
Book by James E. Addicott: “This book examines the precision farming revolution in Somerset, England. It reveals the reasons why local farmers invested in autonomous systems and traces the outcomes of adoption. It describes the local and global drivers of the fourth industrial revolution, from world population growth, climatic and ecological crises, profit driven farming and government agri-tech grants, to the Space Race era. A new cultural method of intelligence, ideas and thinking, new organisational and control powers, was precisely what precision farming offered farmers and off-farm firms, who were able to remotely monitor and control natural environments and aspects of on-farm activities. As a result of local farmers opting into precision farming systems the power dynamics of industrial agriculture were reorganised and this book will offer readers an understanding of how and why….(More)”.
Dissecting racial bias in an algorithm used to manage the health of populations
Paper by Ziad Obermeyer, Brian Powers, Christine Vogeli, and Sendhil Mullainathan in Science: “Health systems rely on commercial prediction algorithms to identify and help patients with complex health needs. We show that a widely used algorithm, typical of this industry-wide approach and affecting millions of patients, exhibits significant racial bias: At a given risk score, Black patients are considerably sicker than White patients, as evidenced by signs of uncontrolled illnesses. Remedying this disparity would increase the percentage of Black patients receiving additional help from 17.7 to 46.5%. The bias arises because the algorithm predicts health care costs rather than illness, but unequal access to care means that we spend less money caring for Black patients than for White patients. Thus, despite health care cost appearing to be an effective proxy for health by some measures of predictive accuracy, large racial biases arise. We suggest that the choice of convenient, seemingly effective proxies for ground truth can be an important source of algorithmic bias in many contexts….(More)”.
GovTech: a new driver of citizen participation?
Digital Future Society: “At a time when public trust in institutions is low, governments worldwide are seeking new ways to involve citizens in policymaking. But does technology help or hinder when it comes to participation?
GovTech refers to an emerging public innovation ecosystem in which startups and SMEs provide tech-based products and services to public sector clients.
In this third Digital Future Society report, discover the challenges and opportunities of applying GovTech to transform government-citizen relationships.
The report features 4 in-depth case studies of tech-based participation tools that show how a thriving GovTech ecosystem can facilitate collective problem solving and drive citizen participation at all levels of government….(More)”.
Comparative Constitution Making
Book edited by Hanna Lerner and David Landau: “In a seminal article more than two decades ago, Jon Elster lamented that despite the large volume of scholarship in related fields, such as comparative constitutional law and constitutional design, there was a severe dearth of work on the process and context of constitution making. Happily, his point no longer holds. Recent years have witnessed a near-explosion of high-quality work on constitution-making processes, across a range of fields including law, political science, and history. This volume attempts to synthesize and expand upon this literature. It offers a number of different perspectives and methodologies aimed at understanding the contexts in which constitution making takes place, its motivations, the theories and processes that guide it, and its effects. The goal of the contributors is not simply to explain the existing state of the field, but also to provide new research on these key questions.
Our aims in this introduction are relatively modest. First, we seek to set up some of the major questions treated by recent research in order to explain how the chapters in this volume contribute to them. We do not aim to give a complete state of the field, but we do lay out what we see as several of the biggest challenges and questions posed by recent scholarship. …(More)”.
From Transactions Data to Economic Statistics: Constructing Real-Time, High-Frequency, Geographic Measures of Consumer Spending
Paper by Aditya Aladangady et al: “Access to timely information on consumer spending is important to economic policymakers. The Census Bureau’s monthly retail trade survey is a primary source for monitoring consumer spending nationally, but it is not well suited to study localized or short-lived economic shocks. Moreover, lags in the publication of the Census estimates and subsequent, sometimes large, revisions diminish its usefulness for real-time analysis. Expanding the Census survey to include higher frequencies and subnational detail would be costly and would add substantially to respondent burden. We take an alternative approach to fill these information gaps. Using anonymized transactions data from a large electronic payments technology company, we create daily estimates of retail spending at detailed geographies. Our daily estimates are available only a few days after the transactions occur, and the historical time series are available from 2010 to the present. When aggregated to the national leve l, the pattern of monthly growth rates is similar to the official Census statistics. We discuss two applications of these new data for economic analysis: First, we describe how our monthly spending estimates are useful for real-time monitoring of aggregate spending, especially during the government shutdown in 2019, when Census data were delayed and concerns about the economy spiked. Second, we show how the geographic detail allowed us quantify in real time the spending effects of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017….(More)”.
Addressing the Challenges of Drafting Contracts for Data Collaboration
Blog post by Andrew Young, Andrew J. Zahuranec, Stephen Burley Tubman, William Hoffman, and Stefaan Verhulst at Data & Society: “To deal with complex public challenges, organizations increasingly seek to leverage data across sectors in new and innovative ways — from establishing prize-backed challenges around the use of diverse datasets to creating cross-sector federated data systems. These and other forms of data collaboratives are part of a new paradigm in data-driven innovation in which participants from different sectors provide access to data for the creation of public value. It provides an essential new problem-solving approach for our increasingly datafied society. However, the operational challenges associated with creating such partnerships often prevent the transformative potential of data collaboration from being achieved.
One such operational challenge relates to developing data sharing agreements — through contracts and other legal documentation. The current practice suffers from large inefficiencies and transaction costs resulting from (i) the lack of a common understanding of what the core issues are with data exchange; (ii) lack of common language or models; (iii) large heterogeneity in agreements used; (iv) lack of familiarity among lawyers of the technologies involved and (v) a sense that every initiative needs to (re)invent the wheel. Removing these barriers may enable collaborators to partner more systematically and responsibly around the re-use of data assets. Contracts for Data Collaboration (C4DC) is a new initiative seeking to address these barriers to data collaboration…
In the longer term, participants focused on three major themes that, if addressed, could steer contracting for data collaboration toward greater effectiveness and legitimacy.
Data Stewardship and Responsibility: First, much of the discussion centered on the need to promote responsible data practices through data stewardship. Though part of this work involves creating teams and individuals empowered to share, it also means empowering them to operationalize ethical principles.
By developing international standards and moving beyond the bare minimum legal obligation, these actors can build trust between parties, a quality that has often been difficult to foster. Such relationships are key in engaging intermediaries or building complex contractual agreements between multiple organizations. It is also essential to come to an agreement about which practices are legitimate and illegitimate.
Incorporation of the Citizen Perspective: Trust is also needed between the actors in a data collaborative and the general public. In light of many recent stories about the misuse of data, many people are suspicious, if not outright hostile, to data partnerships. Many data subjects don’t understand why organizations want their data or how the information can be valuable in advancing public good.
In data-sharing arrangements, all actors need to explain intended uses and outcomes to data subjects. Attendees spoke about the need to explain the data’s utility in clear and accessible terms. They also noted data collaborative contracts are more legitimate if they incorporate citizen perspectives, especially those of marginalized groups. To take this work a step further, the public could be brought into the contract writing process by creating mechanisms capable of soliciting their views and concerns.
Improving Internal and External Collaboration: Lastly, participants discussed the need for actors across the data ecosystem to strengthen relationships inside and outside their organizations. Part of this work entails securing internal buy-in for data collaboration, ensuring that the different components of an organization understand what assets are being shared and why.
It also entails engaging with intermediaries to fill gaps. Each actor has limitations to their capacities and expertise and, by engaging with start-ups, funders, NGOs, and others, organizations can improve the odds of a successful collaboration. Together, organizations can create norms and shared languages that allow for more effective data flows.
One such operational challenge relates to developing data sharing agreements — through contracts and other legal documentation. The current practice suffers from large inefficiencies and transaction costs resulting from (i) the lack of a common understanding of what the core issues are with data exchange; (ii) lack of common language or models; (iii) large heterogeneity in agreements used; (iv) lack of familiarity among lawyers of the technologies involved and (v) a sense that every initiative needs to (re)invent the wheel. Removing these barriers may enable collaborators to partner more systematically and responsibly around the re-use of data assets. Contracts for Data Collaboration (C4DC) is a new initiative seeking to address these barriers to data collaboration…(More)”.