DETAILED AGENDA Thursday, April 18 - If Only We knew NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress 1 MetroTech Center, 19th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201 9.00-10.00 AM Why Are We Here? Introductions and framing, Beth Simone Noveck & Julia Stasch, VP of U.S. Programs, MacArthur Foundation Objectives and ambitions 10.00-3.00 PM If Only We Knew: Re-imagining Engaged Governance (Parallel Tracks) Task at Hand: To design approaches to overcoming a series of hard unknowns that stand between us and a future of engaged governance. To understand what we don't yet know and need to research further if we are to advance more e ective and legitimate governance. Approach: Small group design charrettes, each under the auspices of a public leader interested in using open government technologies to address a hard problem. 3.00-4.00 PM Idea Exchange and Break 4.00-5.30 PM From Design Concepts to Action At the end of the day, participants report back on what they learned, what they designed, and what is left to do. We discuss how our on these questions with: Alberto Ibarg, President of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation 7.00-11.00 PM Dinner and Debate The Invisible Dog Art Center, 51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201 Hypothesis: Because open and participatory governance is more e ective, it can lead to improved health and wellness. On Thursday evening, we will consider whether open and participatory practices may help us to tackle large-scale systemic problems, like David Goldhill, Author of How American Health Care Killed My Father Tim Kelsey, National Director for Patients and Information, National Health Service (England) David Kirkpatrick, Techonomy, Moderato Greg Simon, CEO of Poliwogg, Former Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Al Gore Nick Sinai, U.S. Deputy CTO, White House O ce of Science and Technology Policy, Welcome 3
Thursday, April 18 - If Only We Knew: Re-imagining Engaged Governance - Parallel Tracks (10.00 AM - 3.00 PM) who know the most about a topic. Change Agent: Hon. Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Minister of Youth and ICT, Rwanda Goal: To design a platform for identifying and sourcing experts to aid government institutions in solving public problems. The private sector has many ways to tap the experts they need: A bank can convene the best minds to advise on an investment, a headhunter can locate talent from around the persuasive expert witnesses. We need to develop ways for government agencies to problem-solving process. In this conversation we engage with individuals from network science who know how to mine for patterns in large datasets; talent scouts and those who know how to pinpoint skilled individuals; technology companies who design platforms to enable people to promote what they know; legal scholars who understand current institutional impediments to identifying and communicating with experts; organizational theorists who understand the mechanics of collaboration; and public leaders who can talk about why this problem is so important to solve. We want to know how to: Discover people's skills and interests across myriad networks and platforms; Create incentives and mechanisms for people to volunteer the kind of expertise they are willing and able to contribute; Overcome the fear of government intrusion when agencies reach out for assistance In order to create smarter institutions, we want to understand the current obstacles and then design cutting-edge strategies for identifying, sourcing, and targeting expertise. If only we knew...how to produce data visualizations that motivate citizens to solve problems. Change Agent: Tim Kelsey, National Director for Patients and Information in the National Health Service, UK National Health Service Goal: To brainstorm tools and strategies for visually presenting data to increase the levels, and improve the quality, of public participation in problem-solving. With big data, informatics and predictive analytics, we have an unprecedented opportunity to revolutionize policy-making. But we need tools to transform information into knowledge in a manner that engages the public more e ectively and enables citizen participation in policy-making and empowers citizens to improve their health and wellness. This conversation brings together individuals design, the arts, and citizen engagement: disciplines well-versed in the importance of harnessing the power of data, media and public outreach in order to make citizen participation better informed and more productive. self-movements, home health care professionals, and private urban clinics can teach us about informing and engaging the public in improving national health systems. More broadly, this session explores how we can use data visualization to make 21 st century, data-driven citizen engagement truly meaningful. and ask questions to engage meaningfully with citizens. Change Agent: David Hume, Executive Director of Citizen Engagement, Province of British Columbia, Canada Goal: that will encourage citizens to share their knowledge and expertise in an e ort to address public problems. e examples, experts, ideas and a welter of information that citizens (including those with a high degree of expertise) could provide. Today, we need to better understand how to ask them in a meaningful way. In this conversation, we address how to: Articulate a problem in language that captures untapped interest and expertise; solution; Develop su cient problem statements for productive ideation; Promote and embrace diverse and novel responses that expand the existing solution space; Entice relevant experts to respond. Drawing from multi-disciplinary insights, this problems that enable citizen engagement in a targeted and meaningful way.
Thursday, April 18 - If Only We Knew - Parallel Working Groups (10.00 AM - 3.00 PM) If only we knew... how to elicit what people in communities care about the most. Change Agent: Mark Headd, Chief Data O cer, Philadelphia Goal: To design tools and methods by which citizens can quickly identify problems that they care about and elicit meaningful responses from policy-makers to address these issues. their e orts will lead to action. The vast meaningfully. To restore faith in government, we need to provide citizens with the clear channels to communicate their issues with those who have the power to address them. This disconnect between what citizens care about and the issues their political representatives address creates this crisis of faith. In recent years, organizations like.com have engaged citizens in identifying municipal issues like potholes and broken streetlights that need to be addressed quickly. Platforms like Causes.com and Change.org have leveraged social media networks to raise awareness and advocate around more substantive policy issues. This session focuses on identifying successful models of engagement in the public and private sectors with an eye on how to design a robust platform that creates sustainable, two-way communication between citizens and policy-makers. If only we knew... how to create smarter cities from the bottom up. Change Agent: Michael P. Flowers, Analytics Director, O ce of Policy and Strategic Planning, New York City Goal: To create a platform and action plan to engage citizens as active participants in In his State of the Union Address, President government we need, but a smarter what some have called the greatest new resource of the 21st century, has the potential to change the way we govern and make government more e cient. With the computing power to transmit and store the data from modern sensors, and the tools to translate raw data into meaningful visualizations, we can identify problems as they happen, develop more robust predictive models, use those models to make policy smarter and target the application of scarce enforcement resources. Perhaps most important, placing better information in the hands of citizens as well as o cials will empower people to make more informed choices in their own lives. This session focuses on ways to make citizens active stakeholders in creating smarter cities. In this conversation, we explore how to: Encourage citizens to capture data where the government gathers none; Contribute data in manageable ways to complement regulatory and sensor information; Identify research questions in need of study; Generate innovations to solve problems programs; Develop pilots projects If only we knew... how to make government data more accessible and valuable for businesses and the public. Change Agent: Kris Kobach, Secretary of State, Kansas Goal: government data more useful and accessible. Government agencies collect huge amounts of data on areas of public interest, such as and data on other major service sectors. But much of this information remains di cult to access. Agencies may keep data in paper formats; they may structure data in ways that make it hard to compare with data from other agencies; or they may have data that are inaccurate, outdated, or incomplete. To capture the value government data, these materials should be released in standardized, machine-readable formats and published in real-time online. The reality, however, is that we have to begin with data sets that have the most potential impact for economic development and public good. This session will address: How we can determine what data is valuable (and to whom), and how government can make that data readily available? How we can cost-e ectively build the technology to collect data more e ciently What limits should be placed on releasing government data, for privacy or legal reasons. What use cases make the best economic argument for making government data more accessible and useful?
Friday, April 19 - Designing an Infrastructure of Change NYU Wagner School of Public Service Puck Building, 295 Lafayette Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10011 Building Disciplines and Infrastructures for Change Our task at Hand: To develop a research agenda and deepen our exploration to create a research network that can further our understanding and provide an To identify the skills for the next generation of problem-solvers. To brainstorm applying the open and collaborative approaches we advocate for changing governance. 9.00-10.00 AM 10.00-11.30 AM Policy Science 3.0: Notes From the Field What can we learn from policy science in light of innovations in governance, and how is policy science transforming itself at a time of collaboration and big data? What are the contours of Policy Science 3.0? The aim of this session is to identify lessons learned from inter-disciplinary policy Geo Mulgan, NESTA Clay Shirky, NYU Rod Glover, ILSI Susan Crawford, Cardozo Law School Jon Taplin, USC Questions to address: What can we learn from policy entrepreneurs in thinking about how to transform governance and train the next generation of leaders? How might policy entrepreneurs scale the impact of their work through interdisciplinary collaboration? 11.30 AM - 1.00 PM Lunch 6
Friday, April 19 - Research and Training Labs 1.00-4.00 PM Rotating Labs on Research and Training (Parallel Tracks) A lack of understanding of what works and a dearth of people to apply new participatory techniques, limits the promise and potential of collaborative governance; Participation and engagement are inherently multi-disciplinary subjects that must be analyzed and taught in an interdisciplinary manner; and Governance is being transformed by advances in technology and science, and these innovations can improve how we conduct research and train future leaders. Goal: Lab participants are collectively tasked with exploring the question at hand and producing: A 140-character summary of the lab outcomes that can be tweeted out to the larger community; and Parallel Tracks Objective Developing an Infrastructure of Change To build an interdisciplinary network of researchers and practitioners who seek to address questions that will increase our understanding of Lab A (30 minutes) Lab B (30 minutes) Lab C (30 minutes) Lab D (30 minutes) Lab E (30 minutes) The Map Is Not the Territory intrinsic categories and why is it necessary to have a map? What are the various types of peer networks and how do they differ? Are We There Yet? And How Will We Know? What is success? What is the state of our evidence and how should we think about metrics? Wanted: A New Generation of Problem Solvers What are the ideal skills and intellectual capacities needed for a new generation of problem-solvers? If Only We Knew... What are the most important research questions that, if answered, would radically transform our understanding of open government? Walk the Talk How can we build a collaborative environment for research and training using new tools? 4.00-5.00 PM Coming Together & Reporting Back 5.00 PM -??? Enjoy New York!!! 7