Policy Science 3.0: Notes from the field

After taking some time to marvel at the websites and mockups coded and designed by our rock star team of volunteers, we continued Day 2 of the #GovLab Experiment: Making Engagement Work with a discussion surrounding policy science and big data.We begin this discussion with the following prompt:

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 entrepreneurs and understand why collaborative governance presents a new set of opportunities for the field.

On the panel, we will hear from the following:

• Geoff Mulgan, NESTA (U.K.)
• Clay Shirky, New York University
• Rod Glover, Institute for Large Scale Innovation
• Susan Crawford, Cardozo Law School
• Jon Taplin, University of Southern California

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LIVE BLOG:
(updates provided by N.Y.U. students Lindsea Kemp-Wilbur and Antony Declercq)
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11:39 AM: A complex problem like climate change mitigation shows the urgent need for a systemic change in government. When faced with multi-level, global issues, how can we begin to quickly implement small and large scale experimentation? Paralysis from analysis is a direct result of our inability to innovate on a city, state or federal level.

Everything we do as a society is built on the actions we do as individuals. In the metaphor of energy, waste, and climate change mitigation, how can we as a society begin to change our habits? Does this happen with “expert” advice and legislation? What is policy without the citizens who actually live it in their day-to-day experience? There is a pressing societal need, on a global level, for collaborative, quick experimentation—a sweet spot where bottom-up meet the top-down

11:27 AM: Another meta question: Is it a reasonable presumption that the role of government is to identify and solve problems? Government cannot be the only provider of public service, public goods, and general public administration.
Universities should be platforms for detailed capacity building. We can get people involved in neighborhood governance, long-term city-planning & culture of collaborative governance through “University as a Platform”. How do we empower our twenty-year old students to take over governance and understand data science? How do we broaden opportunities for students to become designers, and for students, researchers, and communities to co-create public services and solutions? Maybe we need diplomas where you need to impact something to graduate. Maybe improving the solving of public problems is not limited to public policy schools, but should be inculcated into all professional schools.
Evidence can also be given a greater weight in the general public debate. It may be that all the GovLab, the MIT Media Lab, and the Innovation Lab are doing is trying to solve problems. The experiments should happen on the local level. The ability to test hypotheses is crucial. Does preschool education have some connection to incarceration rates at the age of eighteen? Let’s look at the data. And, a lot of this innovation is outside the government –it is an “outside-in” process. Yet, there is a culture clash between young, civically minded people and the brick wall of government. We need a more collegial environment between educators, the public, and the government.
We have to tap into the idea of a culture of experimental governance. We also need a culture where government initiatives are allowed to fail without causing a massive crisis of legitimacy. Those parts in the world where we don’t have learning cultures in our leadership are bound to fall behind other parts of the world. There are enormous advantages in the way China is governed for innovation. The Chinese government has a much higher proportion of public policy and regulations that are experimental. The leadership takes 3 to 5 weeks per year learning new governance skills and methods.
10:35 AM: Policy science is a fundamentally interdisciplinary study of decisions–a study of collective action that draws on social sciences. Accordingly, this panel represents a wide range of knowledge–because solving policy problems using technology is an interdisciplinary effort.
But how do you make use of this knowledge and evidence? Is the answer setting up research centers that merge academic and practical experimentation? How can this knowledge get shared in governments, which are still stuck in 19th century silo structures? How can we create government networks that are internally horizontal? How can government network externally? Essentially, this is still experimentation. There is no formal knowledge about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to this system redesign.  We watch analogous examples and track different case stories, like the Open Ministry in Finland or Iceland’s move towards open source government. What works and doesn’t work with crowdsourcing and participation? Let’s break down the silos within open government efforts themselves to share knowledge and cultivate a meaningful, collaborative research network.
10:22 AM: The Governance Lab @NYUWagner kicks off with “Policy Science 3.0”, where a panel of “policy-superstars” will discuss how technology can influence policy making in an open-government context. We can draw on any disciplinary research work we think is relevant. We’re going to assume that policy science exists, and that there is a conversation to be had among the practitioners from variegated fields and sectors. Introductory questions: what would we like to know about making these policies and coming up with these innovations? If the idea behind policy science is to say, “how do we solve public problems and create public goods?” –what discussions should take place?
Shifting to questions not on quite as meta, how…

• …can we solve problems using technology?
• …can we use and create collective action channels?
• …can government be experimental?
• …do you make use of evidence?
• …do make government networked and horizontal internally?