Curated findings and actionable knowledge at the intersection of technology, innovation, and governance
Report by DemocracyNext: “To live in thriving and healthy cities, we propose six possible ways to instigate systemic changes that can democratise the governance of urban planning decisions through Citizens’ Assemblies. Depending on a city’s current starting point, at least one, if not multiple, of these options can be seen as an initial ‘way in’ to begin making systemic changes to urban planning decision making. The six ways are outlined as different entry points on the following page…(More)”.
Report by Filippo Candela, Sevda Kilicalp, and Daniel Spiers: “This research explores the data-related initiatives currently undertaken by a pool of foundations from across Europe. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that has investigated the level of data work within philanthropic foundations, even though the rise of data and its importance has increasingly been recognised in the non-profit sector. Given that this is an inaugural piece of research, the study takes an exploratory approach, prioritising a comprehensive survey of data practices foundations are currently implementing or exploring. The goal was to obtain a snapshot of the current level of maturity and commitment of foundations regarding data-related matters…(More)”
Report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: “Protecting privacy and ensuring confidentiality in data is a critical component of modernizing our national data infrastructure. The use of blended data – combining previously collected data sources – presents new considerations for responsible data stewardship. Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Managing Privacy and Confidentiality Risks with Blended Data provides a framework for managing disclosure risks that accounts for the unique attributes of blended data and poses a series of questions to guide considered decision-making.
Technical approaches to manage disclosure risk have advanced. Recent federal legislation, regulation and guidance has described broadly the roles and responsibilities for stewardship of blended data. The report, drawing from the panel review of both technical and policy approaches, addresses these emerging opportunities and the new challenges and responsibilities they present. The report underscores that trade-offs in disclosure risks, disclosure harms, and data usefulness are unavoidable and are central considerations when planning data-release strategies, particularly for blended data…(More)”.
OECD “review of good practices across OECD governments”: “Digital technologies are having a profound impact on economies, labour markets and societies. They also have the potential to transform government, by enabling the implementation of more accessible and effective services. To support a shift towards digital government, investment is needed in developing the skills of civil servants. This paper reviews good practices across OECD countries to foster skills for digital government. It presents different approaches in public administration to organising training activities as well as opportunities for informal learning. It also provides insights into how relevant skills can be identified through competence frameworks, how they can be assessed, and how learning opportunities can be evaluated….(More)”
Report by the World Bank: “Over the past few decades, the Republic of Korea has consciously undertaken initiatives to transform its economy into a competitive, data-driven system. The primary objectives of this transition were to stimulate economic growth and job creation, enhance the nation’s capacity to withstand adversities such as the aftermath of COVID-19, and position it favorably to capitalize on emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI). The Korean government has endeavored to accomplish these objectives through establishing a dependable digital data infrastructure and a comprehensive set of national data policies. This policy note aims to present a comprehensive synopsis of Korea’s extensive efforts to establish a robust digital data infrastructure and utilize data as a key driver for innovation and economic growth. The note additionally addresses the fundamental elements required to realize these benefits of data, including data policies, data governance, and data infrastructure. Furthermore, the note highlights some key results of Korea’s data policies, including the expansion of public data opening, the development of big data platforms, and the growth of the AI Hub. It also mentions the characteristics and success factors of Korea’s data policy, such as government support and the reorganization of institutional infrastructures. However, it acknowledges that there are still challenges to overcome, such as in data collection and utilization as well as transitioning from a government-led to a market-friendly data policy. The note concludes by providing developing countries and emerging economies with specific insights derived from Korea’s forward-thinking policy making that can assist them in harnessing the potential and benefits of data…(More)”.
OECD Report: “Protecting consumers when they are most vulnerable has long been a core focus of consumer policy. This report first discusses the nature and scale of consumer vulnerability in the digital age, including its evolving conceptualisation, the role of emerging digital trends, and implications for consumer policy. It finds that in the digital age, vulnerability may be experienced not only by some consumers, but increasingly by most, if not all, consumers. Accordingly, it sets out several measures to address the vulnerability of specific consumer groups and all consumers, and concludes with avenues for more research on the topic…(More)”.
Article by Stefan Baack: “Common Crawl (henceforth also referred to as CC) is an organization that has been essential to the technological advancements of generative AI, but is largely unknown to the broader public. This California nonprofit with only a handful of employees has crawled billions of web pages since 2008 and it makes this data available without charge via Amazon Web Services (AWS). Because of the enormous size and diversity (in terms of sources and formats) of the data, it has been pivotal as a source for training data for many AI builders. Generative AI in its current form would probably not be possible without Common Crawl, given that the vast majority of data used to train the original model behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the generative AI product that set off the current hype, came from it (Brown et al. 2020). The same is true for many models published since then.
Although pivotal, Common Crawl has so far received relatively little attention for its contribution to generative AI…(More)”.
New Resource and Peer-to-Peer Learning Network: “Today’s global challenges have become increasingly complex and interconnected–from a global pandemic to the climate crisis. Solving these complex problems not only require new solutions, they also demand new methods for developing solutions and making decisions. By responsibly analyzing and using data, we can transform our understanding and approach to addressing societal issues and drive impact through our work.
However, many of these data-driven methods have not yet been adopted by the social sector or integrated across the grant-making cycle.
So we asked, how can innovations in data-driven methods and tools from multiple sectors transform decision making within philanthropy & improve the act of grant giving?
DATA4Philanthropy is a peer-to-peer learning network that aims to identify and advance the responsible use and value of data innovations across philanthropic functions.
Philanthropies can learn more about the potential of data for their sector, who to connect with to learn more about data, and how innovations in data-driven methods and tools are increasingly relevant across the stages of strategy to grant making to impact cycles.
The rapid change in both data supply, and now methods can be integrated across the philanthropy, civil society and government decision-making cycles–from developing joint priorities to improving implementation efficacy to evaluating the impact of investments…(More)”
Paper by Geoff Mulgan: “The paper describes the history of training from ancient China onwards and the main forms it now takes. It suggests 10 areas where change may be needed and goes onto discuss how skills are learned, suggesting the need for more continuous learning and new approaches to capacity.
I hope anyone interested in this field will at least find it stimulating. I couldn’t find an overview of this kind available and so tried to fill the gap, if only with a personal view. This topic is particularly important for the UK which allowed its training system to collapse over the last decade. But the issues are relevant everywhere since the capacity of governments arguably has more impact on human wellbeing than anything else…(More)”.
Primer by Amnesty International: “This is an introduction to the pervasive and rapid deployment of digital technologies in asylum and migration management systems across the globe including the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union. Defending the rights of refugees and migrants in the digital age, highlights some of the key digital technology developments in asylum and migration management systems, in particular systems that process large quantities of data, and the human rights issues arising from their use. This introductory briefing aims to build our collective understanding of these emerging technologies and hopes to add to wider advocacy efforts to stem their harmful effects…(More)”.