Article by Sean Hill: “Imagine a future where scientific discovery is unbound by the limitations of data accessibility and interoperability. In this future, researchers across all disciplines — from biology and chemistry to astronomy and social sciences — can seamlessly access, integrate, and analyze vast datasets with the assistance of advanced artificial intelligence (AI). This world is one where AI-ready data empowers scientists to unravel complex problems at unprecedented speeds, leading to breakthroughs in medicine, environmental conservation, technology, and more. The vision of a truly FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and AI-ready data ecosystem, underpinned by Responsible AI (RAI)... (More >)
Real Chaos, Today! Are Randomized Controlled Trials a good way to do economics?
Article by Maia Mindel: “A few weeks back, there was much social media drama about this a paper titled: “Social Media and Job Market Success: A Field Experiment on Twitter” (2024) by Jingyi Qiu, Yan Chen, Alain Cohn, and Alvin Roth (recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics). The study posted job market papers by economics PhDs, and then assigned prominent economists (who had volunteered) to randomly promote half of them on their profiles(more detail on this paper in a bit). The “drama” in question was generally: “it is immoral to throw dice around on the most important... (More >)
Connecting the dots: AI is eating the web that enabled it
Article by Tom Wheeler: “The large language models (LLMs) of generative AI that scraped their training data from websites are now using that data to eliminate the need to go to many of those same websites. Respected digital commentator Casey Newton concluded, “the web is entering a state of managed decline.” The Washington Post headline was more dire: “Web publishers brace for carnage as Google adds AI answers.”… Created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, the World Wide Web redefined the nature of the internet into a user-friendly linkage of diverse information repositories. “The first decade of the web…was... (More >)
Why policy failure is a prerequisite for innovation in the public sector
Blog by Philipp Trein and Thenia Vagionaki: “In our article entitled, “Why policy failure is a prerequisite for innovation in the public sector,” we explore the relationship between policy failure and innovation within public governance. Drawing inspiration from the “Innovator’s Dilemma,”—a theory from the management literature—we argue that the very nature of policymaking, characterized by myopia of voters, blame avoidance by decisionmakers, and the complexity (ill-structuredness) of societal challenges, has an inherent tendency to react with innovation only after failure of existing policies. Our analysis implies that we need to be more critical of what the policy process can... (More >)
Now we are all measuring impact — but is anything changing?
Article by Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation: “…Increasingly the landscape of Impact Measurement is crowded, dynamic and contains a diversity of frameworks and approaches — which can mean we end up feeling like we’re looking at alphabet soup. As we’ve traversed this landscape we’ve tried to make sense of it in various ways, and have begun to explore a matrix to represent the constellation of frameworks, approaches and models we’ve encountered in the process. As shown below, the matrix has two axes: The horizontal axis provides us with a “time” delineation. Dividing the left and right sides between retrospective... (More >)
Misuse versus Missed use — the Urgent Need for Chief Data Stewards in the Age of AI
Article by Stefaan Verhulst and Richard Benjamins: “In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI), the need for and importance of Chief AI Officers (CAIO) are receiving increasing attention. One prominent example came in a recent memo on AI policy, issued by Shalanda Young, Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget. Among the most important — and prominently featured — recommendations were a call, “as required by Executive Order 14110,” for all government agencies to appoint a CAIO within 60 days of the release of the memo. In many ways, this call is an important... (More >)
Inclusive by default: strategies for more inclusive participation
Article by Luiza Jardim and Maria Lucien: “…The systemic challenges that marginalised groups face are pressing and require action. The global average age of parliamentarians is 53, highlighting a gap in youth representation. Young people already face challenges like poverty, lack of education, unemployment and multiple forms of discrimination. Additionally, some participatory formats are often unappealing to young people and pose a challenge for engaging them. Gender equity research highlights the underrepresentation of women at all levels of decision-making and governance. Despite recent improvements, gender parity in governance worldwide is still decades or even centuries away. Meanwhile, ongoing global... (More >)
Are We Ready for the Next Pandemic? Navigating the First and Last Mile Challenges in Data Utilization
Blog by Stefaan Verhulst, Daniela Paolotti, Ciro Cattuto and Alessandro Vespignani: “Public health officials from around the world are gathering this week in Geneva for a weeklong meeting of the 77th World Health Assembly. A key question they are examining is: Are we ready for the next pandemic? As we have written elsewhere, regarding access to and re-use of data, particularly non-traditional data, for pandemic preparedness and response: we are not. Below, we list ten recommendations to advance access to and reuse of non-traditional data for pandemics, drawing on input from a high-level workshop, held in Brussels, within the... (More >)
Unmasking and Quantifying Power Structures: How Network Analysis Enhances Peace and State-Building Efforts
Blog by Issa Luna Pla: “Critiques of peace and state-building efforts have pointed out the inadequate grasp of the origins of conflict, political unrest, and the intricate dynamics of criminal and illicit networks (Holt and Bouch, 2009; Cockayne and Lupel, 2011). This limited understanding has failed to sufficiently weaken their economic and political influence or effectively curb their activities and objectives. A recent study highlights that although punitive approaches may have temporarily diminished the power of these networks, the absence of robust analytical tools has made it difficult to assess the enduring impact of these strategies. 1. Application of... (More >)
The Future of Peacebuilding: Why Investing in PeaceTech is Essential in Today’s Geopolitics
Article by Artur Kluz and Stefaan Verhulst: “In today’s geopolitical landscape, marked by escalating tensions and technological advancements, there is a significant opportunity for technology to contribute to conflict prevention and peacebuilding: i.e. peacetech. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his recent speech on Technology and the Transformation of US Foreign Policy, emphasized the crucial role technology plays in geopolitical contests and its potential as an “engine of historic possibility — for our economies, for our democracies, for our people, for our planet.” His assertion that “security, stability, prosperity — they are no longer solely analog matters” underscores the... (More >)
