Government 3.0

Introduction

We live in an era of unprecedented technological innovation with ingenious new advances for achieving clean energy, eradicating disease and providing greater wellness, more equitably and effectively delivering education, and improving the quality of human existence and expression. At the same time, we are experiencing clear deficits within centralized institutions of government and civil society: deficits of agility, innovation and capacity.

These traditional institutions are failing to tap into the diversity of expertise and experience of individuals and communities, rendering us less able to quickly discover, recognize, implement and scale innovative approaches to pressing problems and making it impossible to translate technological innovation into social progress.

Our current system of centralized government institutions is designed for an earlier age of limited, one-way communication. Consider:

• Our 18th century model of voting for representatives doesn’t maximize the flow of personal or community preferences from people to government.
• Our19th century addition of professional bureaucracy doesn't maximize the flow of expertise, widely distributed in society.

Put another way, we can’t make the best decisions in government on how to improve people’s lives if we limit public participation and feedback to voting every few years. And we can’t adequately take advantage of people’s talents, abilities and desire to play a role in governing if we relegate their service to civic engagement disconnected from the real power, money and decision-making.

Governments appropriate plenty for innovation in society. They fund research grants; invest in broadband infrastructure; support science education. But they spend next to nothing on reinventing government institutions by informing and empowering citizen to participate. There is no other industry, and not one as big as the public sector, that doesn’t regularly improve on its core business model.

New technology has the potential to transform governance and produce a more open and participatory political culture with effective institutions that engender trust.

New technology makes collaborative problem solving possible. In this course, we explore how we might use technology -- from big data to social media -- to redesign our systems of governance to devolve power from centralized, hierarchical institutions and evolve more robust collaboration among individuals, groups and institutions including government and the media.

Through blogging assignments, discussions and a final design project, participants will apply what we learn about innovation to the issues about which they are the most passionate.

Requirements

1. At the Start of Term – Each student will define a focus area and set up an individual or group blog on the topic(s) of greatest interest. For example, one or more students might create a blog on innovation and veterans’ affairs or tech and poverty alleviation or participatory governance and New York City. The goal of the blogs is to demonstrate mastery and engagement while exploring ways to use tech-enabled participatory strategies for addressing challenges. We will provide assistance with getting every student set up with a blog and associated Twitter feed.
2. Before Each Class – Students will watch the assigned video and prepare the readings prior to each class. All videos will be freely available on the web and all materials will be distributed in a course reader or available freely online. For additional reading on the topics of the course, there are four books I recommend purchasing: Beth Noveck, Wiki Government (2009); Steven Johnson, Future Perfect (2012); Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (2010); Laurel Ruma, ed., Open Government (2010)(link). You should either buy a tech dictionary or be prepared to look up terms online.
3. In Class – Students will attend and participate actively. Please arrive in class prepared to discuss readings and videos. Because lectures will be online and watched prior to class, class time will be used for conversations, demonstrations, and design problems. Attendance at all classes, given our limited time together, is essential: if you must be absent, let me know in advance.
4. After Class – Students will write a blog posting on their blog (or a guest post on another class blog) reflecting on how the innovations discussed that week (with specific references to the assigned videos and readings) could lead to improvements or challenges for their field of interest. Students will complete five short and five longer postings.
5. Final Assignment– Students will design a policy innovation in their area of interest and prepare a written and 5-minute multimedia presentation of their design (Presentation Sign-Up)
   1. Design a project involving Neighbors Helping Neighbors--decentralized peer production--in an area that you are passionate about. In other word, this should be a problem centrally focused on getting decentralized groups of people to collaborate to the end of improving lives.
   2. Create a project page on Truonex.com
   3. Upload your project by May 15th. Your project should include the following:
      
      • Write the headline that will appear the day after the launch of your project in the New York Times
      • Write the tweet to pitch your project
      • Write the detailed project description in five pages, answering the following questions (supplement your text with video, photos, mockups or doodles to explain your project)
        1. What problem does it solve?
        2. Why does the problem matter and need solving?
        3. How do people collaborate to solve the problem?
        4. What tools will they use?
        5. What incentives will you put in place to encourage them to work together?
        6. How much is it likely to cost?
        7. What will it take to implement? Who has agreed to do what? What kind of partnerships need to be formed?
        8. What can government do to make this project work better?
        9. How do you measure success?

Prerequisites: Intro to Policy or by permission of the Professor. No formal technology training assumed or required. But an interest in technology is a must.

Grading: Your grade will comprise: Blog postings (40%); Final Project (40%); and Informed, class participation (20%).

Book Access: Wiki government : how technology can make government better, democracy stronger, and citizens more powerful / Noveck, Beth Simone

Wiki Government Electronic Version

Holdings:NYU Bobst Main Collection (JK1764 .N68 2009 & JK1764 .N68 2009)

Weekly Topics

Please note: The Syllabus will be updated we record new videos and explore new themes in class. Please check back here frequently for updates.

1. January 30 - Designing Government – In this first class, we will focus on the opportunities technology offers to re-imagine how we govern in the 21st century.
1. Video: Clay Shirky, How the Internet will (One Day) Transform Government? (VIDEO); Beth Noveck, Demand a More Open Source Government (VIDEO);  David Cameron (VIDEO); Tim O’Reilly, Government as a Platform (2010) (VIDEO); Jen Pahlka, Coding a Better Government (VIDEO)
2. Readings: Scott Adams, What If Government Were More Like an iPod? WSJ, Nov. 5, 2011 (link); Joi Ito, An Open-Source Society, Innovating By the Seat of Our Pants, New York Times (link); Michael Greenstone, Toward a Culture of Persistent Regulatory Experimentation and Evaluation.
3. Demo: PeertoPatent.org and San Ramon Fire Department App
4. Project: Set up your blog and find your blogging communities

2. February 6 – The History of the Open Government Movement – In this class, we explore the tenets and technologies of open government and what has been accomplished to date to design more open and participatory institutions.
1. Video: Jeremy Weinstein, Professor, Stanford University; National Security Council (2009 - 2011). (VIDEO) (pw: enjoy)
2. Readings: Selected readings on Open Government including President Obama, Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government (link); OMB Open Government Directive (link); Open Government Declaration of the Open Government Partnership (link); European Parliament Open Government Declaration; Rakesh Rajani, Open Government is Human Government (link); Prime Minister David Cameron, Letter to Government Departments on Opening Up Data, May 31, 2010 (link).
3. In Class: Chris Vein, Chief Innovation Officer for Global Technology Development at the World Bank and Former United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer
4. Project: Comparative Open Government Blogging- Adopt an agency or country's Open Government Plan (Due Feb 13) (Open Government Partnership Website); (US Open Government Dashboard-Domestic Plan) (Open State Governance - Russia Website); (Volunteers in Russia); (VIDEO: Open State Governance Conference-Russia)

2. February 13 – Gov 1.0 to Gov 3.0 – To contrast the innovative potential of new technology, we talk in this class about the history of the use of technology inside and outside of government.
1. Video: Andrew Rasiej, Founder of Personal Democracy Media, Chairman of NY Tech Meetup (AUDIO); Carl Malamud, Founder of Public Resource.org (VIDEO)
2. Readings: Noveck, Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger and Citizens More Powerful, Chapters 1,2, 4 and 8. (E-BOOK)
3. Project: Comparative Open Government Blogging Due

4. February 20 - Inspiration Intermission – How I Changed the World in 90 Days or Less? – This week, we seek inspiration from innovators, whose creative yet simple projects are transforming governance for the 21st century. You will interview:
1. Videos:
   1. Leif Perciveld, Don’t Flush Me; (AUDIO)
   2. Seena Jon Ghaznavi, Producer (VIDEO)
      
   3. Bob Burbach, Dave Augustine and Andrew Carpenter FederalRegister.gov (WEB); 
   4. Nigel Jacob and Chris Osgood -- New Urban Mechanics (VIDEO to be posted after class), Boston;
   5. Peter Levin - Veterans Affairs, Blue Button (AUDIO)
2. Readings and Project: Record Your Own
3. Demo: Visualight

5. February 27 - The Tools: Big Data and Open Data– In this class, we explore how data can help to produce social change by learning about the tools and techniques of big data and predictive analytics. We will examine examples of how big data is changing governance at the local and national level.
1. Video: Sandy Pentland, Edge.org (VIDEO); Steven Koonin, CUSP, NYU (AUDIO)
2. Readings: James Manyika et al., “Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity,” The McKinsey Global Institute, May-2011 (link); David Robinson, Harlan Yu, William Zeller, and Edward W. Felten, “Government Data and the Invisible Hand,” Yale Journal of Law & Technology, vol. 11, p. 160, 2009 (link); Richard H. Thaler, “Show Us the Data: It’s Ours After All,” New York Times, April 23, 2011 (link); Esther Dyson, The Quantified Community (link); Reinventing Society in the Wake of Big Data (link);Beth Noveck and Daniel Goroff, Liberating Non-Profit Data (link)
3. Demo: Michael Holland, CUSP Chief of Staff (Class Presentation); Juliana Freire, NYU Poly (Class Presentation)
4. Project:Open data case study. 'Record Your Own Interview'

6. March 6 – The Tools Applied: Behavioral Insights and Smart Disclosure – In this class, we look at the ways in which data are being used as an alternative regulatory strategy to improve consumer decision making and consumer protection. We explore what’s working and where this approach falls short.
1. Video: Joel Gurin, Former Chair, White House Task Force on Smart Disclosure (WEB: Consumer.data.gov Launch), (AUDIO), (Class Presentation)
2. Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, from the Office of Management and Budget, September 8, 2011 (link); Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Introduction and Chapters 5, 8, 9, 10, 17); The Charter of the Task Force on Smart Disclosure: Information and Efficiency in Consumer Markets (2012); “Informing Consumers Through Smart Disclosure,”; U.S. Department of Education, “College Affordability and Transparency Center,” (link)
3. Demo: Healthcare.gov
4. Project:Smart Disclosure case study; 'Record Your Own Interview' DUE

7. March 13 - The Tools: Crowdsourcing and Collaboration Technologies– In this class, we look at social media and the emerging technologies for collaboration and participation.
1. Video: Alexander Howard, O’Reilly Media (VIDEO) (VIDEO 2) ; Brandon Kessler, Challenge Post (VIDEO); Joel Spolsky, Stack Exchange (VIDEO)
2. Readings: Benjamin Barber, Strong Democracy (excerpt); Jeff Howe, Crowdsourcing (excerpt); Herman Gref, How the public and the new Government itself can dramatically improve Russia’s approach; Alex Howard, How Governments Deal With Social Media (August 9, 2011) (link); Ines Mergel, Crowdsourced Ideas Make Participating in Government Cool Again, PA Times, American Society for Public Administration, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 4, 6, 2011 (link); Andrew Chadwick, Explaining the Failure of an Online Citizen Engagement Initiative: The Role of Internal Institutional Variables (link)
3. In Class: Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for Policy for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (Presentation) Francois Grey , NYU ITP on Citizen Science (Presentation)
4. Project: Collaboration technology/platform case study: prediction markets, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, micro-volunteering, wikis etc

***Spring Recess – Class will not meet on March 20***

8. March 27 - The Tools Applied: Peer Produced Governance, Peer Produced Progress – This week, we will continue our discussion of social and collaboration technologies by exploring how to apply online participation to the work of governance. We look at the opportunities and impediments to effective participation at a distance.
1. Video: Steven Johnson, Author of Future Perfect (VIDEO), (VIDEO2)
2. In Class Discussion: Aaron Cohen, Gov Lab Fellow; Founder INC@NYU and Professor of internet history and culture in the Department of Media, Culture, & Communication; Stefaan Verhulst, Gov Lab Fellow, Markle Foundation Chief of Research and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Global Communications Studies.
3. Readings: Steven Berlin Johnson, Future Perfect (book);
4. Demo: Power Beyond the Ballot: 57 Democratic Innovations from Around the World
5. Project: Citizen at the center case study/project

9. April 3rd - Prize-Backed and Grand Challenges – In both the private and public sectors, the use of prizes and contests to spur innovation is on the rise. These types of initiatives largely fall into one of two categories: prizes and grand challenges. As budgets tighten and information and communication technologies continue to advance, leveraging the expertise of the public through contests and challenges is becoming more attractive to government agencies. While there are differences between the two techniques, both shift the locus of innovation from inside a government agency to the public, while creating motivation beyond basic market incentives.
   
   1. Video: Tom Kalil (link) and Cristin Dorgelo (VIDEO: Collaborative Innovation)
   2. Readings:Tom Kalil and Cristin Dorgelo, “Identifying Steps Forward in Use of Prizes to Spur Innovation,” White House Blog: Office of Science and Technology Policy, April 10, 2012 (link) OSTP Memo on Prizes and Challenges, Department of Health and Human Services (link); “‘And the winner is…’ Capturing the promise of philanthropic prizes,” McKinsey & Company, July 2009 (link)
   3. Project: Challenge Project
      
   4. Demo: Challenge.gov
      

10. April 10 - New Paradigms For Delivering Social Services – Now we shift to looking at how a range of new technologies and policy innovations are changing how government works. This week, we look at innovations on the local level.
1. Video: Craig Newmark -- Craigslist and CraigConnects (AUDIO)
2. Readings: Locapolis blog – 101 ways to do local democracy; Alex Howard, Gov 2.0 Goes Local: How local governments are using technology to deliver smarter government (link) and Opening Government, the Chicago Way, O’Reilly Radar (link); Jay Nath, Reimagining Government in the Digital Age (link) - Emily Badger, The Dawn of the Municipal Chief Innovation Officer, Atlantic Cities (link).
3. Demo: See, Click, Fix and SpaceHive (UK)

11. April 17 - New Paradigms for Lawmaking – Here we take the example of lawmaking at the national level to ask and answer how technology is transforming one of the core practices of governance: legislative drafting.
    
    1. Readings: Harlan Yu, dissertation, Designing Software to Shape Open Government Policy, Ch1-2 (link); Stefaan Verhulst, Finland is About to Change What We Mean by Lawmaking (link).
    2. Demo: GitHub, Madison Project

12. April 24 - The Tools: Mobile Technologies: Mobile Money, E-Health and MGovernment Service Delivery– In addition to new computational and collaboration technologies, mobile is arguably the most important technological advance for participatory democracy. At the same time, making hard decisions using very small screens implies unexplored design challenges.
    1. Speaker: TBD
    2. Readings: The Journey Toward ‘Cash Lite’ (link); TBD
    3. Demo: alerts.gov; text for baby; Survey of mobile governance apps by Tiago Peixoto, World Bank

13. May 1st - The Skills Framework – This week, we focus on developing additional skills useful to developing your designs; persuading people to implement your proposals; and measuring their effectiveness. Members of the class can opt for an extended seminar, which will replace both pre- and in-class time this week.

Topics may include:

1. App design and development basics
2. Persuasive storytelling and presentations
3. Designing a killer infographic
4. Thinking outside the box
5. Costing and budgeting your proposal

14. May 8 - Imagining The Future: What Is Government In 20 Years? : Class presentations