THE DIGEST REPORT


“The GovLab Digest compiles news and publications from many sectors and countries. Thus, it’s a efficient way for everyone interested in technology in government to stay up-to-date to what’s happening in the field.”

Basanta Thapa,  University of Potsdam

The Digest is a curated selection of major developments, findings, and views related to how society improves people’s lives by changing how we govern, delivered weekly. Since 2013 a curation of nearly 5100 articles was published and over 260 digest newsletters have been sent out. Starting from zero, the amount of subscribers to the newsletter grew from a total of 4,266 subscribers.

Keyword Frequency

An analysis of the more than 5000 entries for The Govlab Digest resulted in a list of Keywords that were used to tag the content for further processing possibilities. The analysis was done with the help of the Online NGram Analyzerdeveloped by Dr. Ron Mitsugo Zacharski to show how the content of The Govlab Digest has developed and which reoccurring one and two word phrases.

Unigrams

The content analysis under the premise to find out which unigrams or “one word” keyphrase occurred the most, showed that data, open, research, public, social and government are among the most occurring terms in the last five years. Words such as blockchain started to appear more frequent at the beginning of 2017.

Bigrams

Keyphrase consisting out of two words reflect a more clearer picture of the development of The Govlab Digest since its start. Open Data, Big Data and Social Media occurred mostly on a constant base, while terms such as open government has decreased drastically since fall 2016. In contrast civil society became increasingly more popular since this time.

Top 40 Unigrams and Bigrams

The Top 40 most occurring Bigrams and Unigrams in all of The Govlab Digest content show that between the first three terms and the following ones a big disparity is visible. The choice of words influenced the choice of Tagging Taxonomy for the next iteration of The Govlab Digest.

Unigrams Bigrams
OccurrenceTermOccurrenceTerm
data
open
government
public
people
information
social
research
world
work
citizens
technology
policy
city
time
digital
innovation
services
media
online
political
access
cities
health
process
change
science
users
development
tools
project
community
local
system
potential
challenges
problems
provide
report
countries
19,425
5,194
7,645
4,472
6,540
4,227
3,570
2,721
2,303
2,196
2,117
2,035
1,934
1,919
1,918
1,908
1,773
1,678
1,609
1,571
1,520
1,474
1,451
1,436
1,396
1,382
1,334
1,317
1,313
1,306
1,233
1,231
1,217
1,217
1,214
1,210
1,197
1,172
1,151
1,141
open data
big data
social media
open government
new york
public sector
united states
smart city
government data
public service
data set
civil society
private sector
open source
artificial intelligence
case study
local government
white house
digital technology
social network
health care
government agencies
citizen science
new technology
data collection
data science
machine learning
public health
federal government
public policy
decision making
sustainable development
data sharing
world bank
citizen engagement
climate change
personal data
mobile phone
participatory budgeting
san francisco
2,808
1,514
1,072
739
542
471
393
382
355
353
323
301
261
243
241
231
231
231
210
194
192
189
188
180
178
174
167
164
152
150
147
146
144
141
140
134
134
127
127
118

Blog Stats

According to WordPress analytics and Google Analytics the Digest chart shows how many people have accessed the digest in comparison to the average blog visits per day and all the views per month on the blog.

Twitter Analytics

The Twitter account of TheGovlab has an outreach to 17K Followers. In 2014 TheGovlab started to regularly tweet about the Digest and constantly increased its reach in terms of Tweet Impressions and Engagements.

The Tweet with the most engagements either retweet, likes or on a Digest send out stems from January 2017

and the most impressions were visible to the Govlabs Digest feature on healthcare and collective intelligence.

The full overview to all Twitter activities on The Govlab Digest newsletter can be accessed below. For details on each tweet hover over the bars in the chart or click on the bar to access the content on Twitter directly.

Mailchimp

A total of the digest email openings decreased from late 2016 until today with a steady fluctuation towards more openings in 2018.

Out of all campaigns send since 2013 a couple of links have been accessed that received a broad attention. The chart below shows the most successful links of all time. You can click on either the circle or the link list below.

1178   Data and Analytics Innovation
601   Duke University School of Law
596   Open data can unravel the complex dealings of multinationals – The Governance Lab @ NYU
562   Subscribe to Digest
543   Adobe’s New Digital Price Index Tracks Online Prices – The Atlantic
534   Working with Change – Systems approaches to public sector challenges
489   Big Data and the Well-Being of Women and Girls Applications on the Social Scientific Frontier
439   Conducting Mobile Surveys Responsibly
411   The Governance Lab
392   CHANGING WHAT COUNTS
371   Toward a VeteranCentered VA: Piloting Tools of Human-Centered Design for America’s Vets
363   Crowdsourced Health | The MIT Press
273   Global Democracy Ranking 2013
257   Enabling Distributed Security in Cyberspace
254   SMART DISCLOSURE AND CONSUMER DECISION MAKING: REPORT OF THE TASK FORCE ON SMART DISCLOSURE
250   Implementing randomized evaluations in government
228   CITIZEN‑GENERATED DATA AND GOVERNMENTS
198   Nesta Landscape of innovation approaches
185   Public Scrutiny of Automated Decisions:Early Lessons and Emerging Methods
180   Portal de Transparência Municipal
178   Data for development: What’s next?
155   How a New York fire hydrant allows $33,000 per year in parking fines | Daily Mail Online
148   The Social Intranet Insights on Managing and Sharing Knowledge Internally
134   Communications & Society Reports – Home
131   Using Innovation and Technology to Improve City Services
130   The GovLab | People-Led Innovation
126   Misleading fire hydrant costing city drivers $33K in tickets
126   Innovating for pro-poor services – Why politics matter
108   SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class journal research
106   The Social Intranet: Insights on Managing and Sharing Knowledge Internally | IBM Center for The Business of Government
102   Data Collaboratives
102   Participatory Budgeting — Not A One-Size-FitsAll Approach
99   The signal and the noise – Technology and politics
91   The Global Impact of Open Data [Book]
85   Open Data’s Impact – The GovLab
84   New Book on 25 Years of Participatory Budgeting | DemocracySpot
84   Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) | Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
81   The garden of forking paths: Why multiple comparisons can be a problem, even when there is no “fishing expedition” or “p-hacking” and the research hypothesis was posited ahead of time
80   Innovation Prizes in Practice and Theory by Michael J. Burstein, Fiona Murray :: SSRN
78   Big Data, new epistemologies and paradigm shifts – The Governance Lab @ NYU
76   Open Contracting Data Standard: Documentation — OCDS 1.1.3 documentation
76   We’ll see you, anon – Data privacy
75   OGRX
75   Home | Omidyar Network
73   Open Data’s Impact – Global Impact
72   ANTHOLOGY ON DEMOCRATIC INNOVATION
71   Transforming digital service development with harmonized APIs
70   I Quant NY – Meet the Fire Hydrant that Unfairly Nets NYC $25,000 a Year
70   Twitter Share: States’ using iwaspoisoned.com for outbreak alerts – The Governance Lab @ NYU
69   Twitter Share: Streetfight by Janette Sadik-Khan – The Governance Lab @ NYU
68   Twitter Share: Next Generation Crowdsourcing for Collective Intelligence – The Governance Lab @ NYU
68   Twitter Share: Open Data Impact: When Demand and Supply Meet – The Governance Lab @ NYU
68   Twitter Share: Pigeon patrol takes flight to tackle London’s air pollution crisis – The Governance Lab @ NYU
68   Access to Government Information in the United States: A Primer
67   Next Generation Crowdsourcing for Collective Intelligence by John Prpić PhD :: SSRN
67   Twitter Share: Crowdsourced Health – The Governance Lab @ NYU
67   Twitter Share: On-demand service could be Uber for blood collection – The Governance Lab @ NYU
67   RELEASE: Open Data Impact: When Demand and Supply Meet – The Governance Lab @ NYU
67   Twitter Share: Technology and politics: The signal and the noise – The Governance Lab @ NYU
67   Twitter Share: To Make Cities More Efficient, Fix Procurement To Welcome Startups – The Governance Lab @ NYU
67   “Big data” and “open data”: What kind of access should researchers enjoy? – ScienceDirect
67   The Art of Insightin Science and Engineering
66   Forsyth Street is Home to the Two Most Ticketed Fire Hydrants in NY | Observer
66   Emerging Technology from the arXiv – MIT Technology Review
65   How to Crowdsource the Syrian Cease-Fire – Foreign Policy
65   Twitter Share: Access to Government Information in the United States: A Primer – The Governance Lab @ NYU
65   Twitter Share: “Big data” and “open data”: What kind of access should researchers enjoy? – The Governance Lab @ NYU
65   Twitter Share: Innovation Prizes in Practice and Theory – The Governance Lab @ NYU
65   City of Seattle Open Data Risk Assessment
64   To Make Cities More Efficient, Fix Procurement To Welcome Startups | The Aspen Journal of Ideas
64   Twitter Share: A new data viz tool shows what stories are being undercovered in countries around the world – The Governance Lab @ NYU
64   A new data viz tool shows what stories are being undercovered in countries around the world » Nieman Journalism Lab
64   The Governance Lab
63   The Wisdom of Networks – and the Lessons of Wikipedia – The Analogies Project
62   Twitter Share: How to Crowdsource the Syrian Cease-Fire – The Governance Lab @ NYU
62   Twitter Share: Innovating for pro-poor services: Why politics matter – The Governance Lab @ NYU
61   Twitter Share: It’s not big data that discriminates – it’s the people that use it – The Governance Lab @ NYU
61   States’ using iwaspoisoned.com for outbreak alerts | Food Safety News
61   Streetfight: The Book – ​ ​​Janette Sadik-Khan
61   Mapping and Comparing Responsible Data Approaches
60   Open Policy Making toolkit – Guidance – GOV.UK
60   Twitter Share: Can Big Data Help Measure Inflation? – The Governance Lab @ NYU
60   Twitter Share: Wikidata – The Governance Lab @ NYU
60   The Smart City Concept in the 21st Century – ScienceDirect
60   BIG DATA: SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES, PRESERVING VALUES
59   Grindr
59   Six creative ways to engage the public in innovation policy – The Governance Lab @ NYU
59   The Sociology of Discrimination: Racial Discrimination in Employment, Housing, Credit, and Consumer Markets
59   It’s not big data that discriminates – it’s the people that use it
58   Twitter Share: The Social Intranet: Insights on Managing and Sharing Knowledge Internally – The Governance Lab @ NYU
57   Transforming digital service development with harmonized APIs
57   Princeton Study Finds Foreclosure
57   Civic Tech Cities (2017) – mySociety Research
56   San Francisco Mayor Office: Helping government become more collaborative, inventive, and responsive to San Franciscans.
56   CIVIC NEEDS: San Francisco – Startup in Residence (STIR)
56   How Big Data Analytics is Changing Legal Ethics – The Governance Lab @ NYU
55   Twitter Share: The Wisdom of Networks – and the Lessons of Wikipedia – The Governance Lab @ NYU
55   On-demand service could be Uber for blood collection | Springwise
55   Who benefits from civic technology?
54   ENGINES OF CHANGE WHAT CIVIC TECH CANLEARN FROM SOCIALMOVEMENTS
53   Pigeon patrol takes flight to tackle London’s air pollution crisis | Environment | The Guardian
52   The Smart City Concept in the 21st Century
51   Beyond prediction: Using big data for policy problems – The Governance Lab @ NYU
50   Data-Driven Policy Making: The Policy Lab Approach – The Governance Lab @ NYU
50   Open Data Policy-Managing Information as an Asset – Whitehouse MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES