Havey Lewis at Open Government Partnership Blog: “When someone used to talk about “data for good”, chances are they were wondering whether the open data stream they relied on was still going to be available in the future. Similarly, “good with data” meant that experienced data scientists were being sought for a deeply technical project. Both interpretations reflect a state of being rather than of doing: data being around for good; people being good with data. Important though these considerations are, they miss what should be an obvious and more profound alternative. Right now, organisations like DataKind™ and Periscopic,... (More >)
Why SayIt is (partly) a statement about the future of Open Data
Tom Steinberg from MySociety: “This is where SayIt comes in, as an example of a relatively low-cost approach to making sure that the next generation of government IT systems do produce Open Data. SayIt is a newly launched open source tool for publishing transcripts of trials, debates, interviews and so on. It publishes them online in a way that matches modern expectations about how stuff should work on the web – responsive, searchable and so on. It’s being built as a Poplus Component, which means it’s part of an international network of groups collaborating on shared technologies. Here’s JK... (More >)
Enhancing Social Innovation by Rethinking Collaboration, Leadership and Public Governance
New paper by Professors Eva Sørensen & Jacob Torfing: “It is widely recognized that public innovation is the intelligent alternative to blind across-the-board-cuts in times of shrinking budgets, and that innovation may help to break policy deadlocks and adjust welfare services to new and changing demands. At the same time, there is growing evidence that multi-actor collaboration in networks, partnerships and interorganizational teams can spur public innovation (Sørensen and Torfing, 2011). The involvement of different public and private actors in public innovation processes improves the understanding of the problem or challenge at hand and brings forth new ideas and... (More >)
E-government and organisational transformation of government: Black box revisited?
New paper in Government Information Quarterly: “During the e-government era the role of technology in the transformation of public sector organisations has significantly increased, whereby the relationship between ICT and organisational change in the public sector has become the subject of increasingly intensive research over the last decade. However, an overview of the literature to date indicates that the impacts of e-government on the organisational transformation of administrative structures and processes are still relatively poorly understood and vaguely defined. The main purpose of the paper is therefore the following: (1) to examine the interdependence of e-government development and organisational... (More >)
Protecting personal data in E-government: A cross-country study
Paper by Yuehua Wu in Government Information Quarterly: “This paper presents the findings of a comparative study of laws and policies employed to protect personal data processed in the context of e-government in three countries (the United States, Germany, and China) with rather different approaches. Drawing on governance theory, the paper seeks to document the mechanisms utilized and to understand the factors that shape the governance modes adopted. The cases reveal that national government regulations have not kept pace with technological change and with the current information practices of the public sector. Nonetheless, traditional government regulation remains the major... (More >)
The GovLab Index: Open Data
Please find below the latest installment in The GovLab Index series, inspired by Harper’s Index. “The GovLab Index: Open Data — December 2013” provides an update on our previous Open Data installment, and highlights global trends in Open Data and the release of public sector information. Previous installments include Measuring Impact with Evidence, The Data Universe, Participation and Civic Engagement and Trust in Institutions. Value and Impact Potential global value of open data estimated by McKinsey: $3 trillion annually Potential yearly value for the United States: $1.1 trillion Europe: $900 billion Rest of the world: $1.7 trillion How much... (More >)
Powering European public sector innovation – Towards a new architecture
Report of the expert group on public sector innovation: “The European Union faces an unprecedented crisis in economic growth, which has put public services under tremendous financial pressure. Many governments are also faced with long-term issues such as ageing societies, mounting social security and healthcare costs, high youth unemployment and a public service infrastructure that sometimes lags behind the needs of modern citizens and businesses. Under these conditions, innovation in public services is critical for the continued provision of such public services, in both quantity and quality. Public sector innovation can be defined as the process of generating new... (More >)
Building tech-powered public services
New publication by Sarah Bickerstaffe from IPPR (UK): “Given the rapid pace of technological change and take-up by the public, it is a question of when not if public services become ‘tech-powered’. This new paper asks how we can ensure that innovations are successfully introduced and deployed. Can technology improve the experience of people using public services, or does it simply mean job losses and a depersonalised offer to users? Could tech-powered public services be an affordable, sustainable solution to some of the challenges of these times of austerity? This report looks at 20 case studies of digital innovation... (More >)
Map of Government Innovation Labs
New publication by Parsons DESIS Lab: “There is a growing perception that the state’s ability to provide various forms of public service can be enhanced through public-private partnerships, the use of new technologies, as well as various strategies for increased public participation. Such new approaches to provide better services for individuals and communities require breaking the established routines and traditional structures of government, and rethinking the opposition between government bureaucracies and community actors. The good news is that new kinds of collaboration are emerging. Such partnerships are characterized by horizontal practices such as co-governance, co-design, or co-production where citizens,... (More >)
Government's Crowdsourcing Revolution
John M. Kamensky in Governing: “In a recent report for the IBM Center for the Business of Government, Brabham says that an important distinction between crowdsourcing and other forms of online participation is that crowdsourcing “entails a mix of top-down, traditional, hierarchical process and a bottom-up, open process involving an online community.” Crowdsourcing in the public sector can be done within government, among employees as a way to surface ideas — such as the New York City government’s “Simplicity” initiative — or it can be done by nonprofit groups in ways that influence government operations. For example, a transportation... (More >)
