The Dashboard enables Edmonton-ains (and others) to use  simple visualisations or dig deeper to look at performance measurement data as well as the legislation underpinning them.

I think this has really set a precedent for making performance measures really understandable.

About Ashley Casovan

Ashley is the Strategic Coordinator for the Chief Information Officer at the City of Edmonton. Passionate about creating open government and enhancing community engagement, she is currently working on several innovative projects within the Information Technology Branch, the City of Edmonton and beyond. Prior to working with the City of Edmonton, Ashley was a political organizer in Canada and the United States. Outside work, Ashley is an active board member with Next Gen, Equal Voice Alberta North, and the Institute of Public Administration, Canada’s New Public Servant Committee.

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• City of Edmonton Citizen Dashboard
• Transforming Edmonton strategic plan

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On gaining organisational support for open data activities:

On lessons learned from the citizen dashboard so far:

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Photo by Paul Clarke

The whole concept of unconferences and participant-led events is just so mind-bogglingly amazing that it’s hard to put into words – just to see people coming together and start talking to each other who possibly wouldn’t have before… that’s why I do it, and that’s what touched me most about the day.

About Ann Kempster

Ann Kempster is Digital Communications Manager for the Government Communication Network based in the Cabinet Office. She has worked in the UK Civil Service for the past 7 years. She is also co-organiser of CommsCamp13, an unconference for professional communicators in government, with Dan Slee and Darren Caveney of Walsall Council and Comms2point0.

Ann blogs (not enough as she’d like) at www.annkempster.com.  You can also find her on Twitter at @annkempster

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• Comms2point0
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On the role of digital in the comms mix:

On the power of unconferences:

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In Europe, the culture is not so much a start-up culture, but more like a co-creation culture with different parts of society – cities, developers, organisations and civil society in general.  And things may look… and maybe are!… a little bit slower as a result of this approach, but it’s a different way.”

About Esteve Almirall

Esteve Almirall serves as Associate Professor in Esade Business Schoool and UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) focusing his research on Innovation and Innovation Management where he has more than 30 publications on the field. His work has been referenced in HBR and he is a frequent speaker in conferences around Innovation, Smart Cities, Living Labs and Open Data/Gov.

His background is a mix of Management Science (PhD) and Computer Science (MSc, MRes). Esteve is also highly involved in European Projects and EU organizations being Council Member of the ENoLL (European Network of Living Labs) and coordinating/participating in some EU projects on Innovation and Smart Cities, such as Open Cities and Commons for Europe.

About Carles Ferreiro

Carles is the CEO of dotopen, a digital enterprise focused on open innovation particularly within cities.

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• ESADE
• dotopen

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On a co-creation approach:

On the entrepreneur as a change agent for civic innovation:

Commons4EU – explaining Code for Europe and BuB for Europe initiatives through their fellows

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As the deadline for submissions approaches for the News Challenge on Open Government, John Bracken, the Knight Foundation’s Director of Media Innovation shares his observations on the journey so far and provides some insights for making project submissions, as well as how everyone can contribute to this timely Challenge to accelerate better ways that government and citizens can interact.

By putting a focus on and valuing the conversation and engagement around the ideas, our hope and expectation is that… even if you aren’t among the winners… even if you’re coming in and sketching out on a cocktail napkin a tool you would hope to see – the spotlight that we can help to put on the community that we’ve brought together around this contest… will leave your idea better off even if it’s not funded.

About John Bracken

John Bracken is director of media innovation for the Knight Foundation. He oversees the Knight News Challenge, Knight’s prototype fund, its journalism and technology investments. Bracken has over 10 years experience as a philanthropic investor in digital media, media policy, innovation and global internet freedom, having previously worked at the Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.

Bracken is a frequent presenter at media and technology conferences and serves as an adviser to 1871, a co-working resource for digital startups in Chicago.  A 2009 fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago, Bracken has a masters degree from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Pitzer College in Claremont, California. He writes @jsb, johnbracken.net and at the Knight Foundation blog.

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• Knight Foundation News Challenge site and FAQs
• Knight Foundation website
• Challenge Blog posts
  • What you need to know as #newschallenge deadline nears
  • Answers to the 7 most common News Challenge questions

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On sparking conversations about Open Government:

On how Open Government fits the Knight Foundation’s communication focus:

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Tune in to hear from Dr Jennifer Robinson from the Utah University’s Center for Public Policy and Administration and Rich Olsen from Utah Interactive talk about the findings from the report, and the importance of  measuring the impact of online service delivery.

When we go to agencies, it’s really a great story to be able to say “We know times are tough, we know budgets are down, we know things are getting slashed – and it might sound a little counter-intuitive but maybe you should invest in an online service.”  The fact of the matter is, it saves money and in the long run it saves a lot of money.

About Dr. Jennifer Robinson

Jennifer Robinson serves as the Director for the Center for Public Policy & Administration at The University of Utah.  With a solid commitment to both scholarship and practice, Dr. Robinson works to ensure that research contributes to sound policy making, implementation, and administration.

Dr. Robinson is held in high regard in both the business and government communities for her work as well.  She is a member of the Salt Lake Chamber’s Capitol Club, the Utah League of Cities and Towns’ Policy Advisory Board, and the University of Utah’s Veterans Day Committee.  In the past several years, Dr. Robinson has done extensive research on elections, political participation, and governance. Dr. Robinson’s current projects include a number of research projects for local and state governments, co-editing a book with Dr. Patton on policies in the western United States, and developing a book on American Indian political behavior based upon the research completed for her dissertation.

About Rich Olsen

Rich Olsen is the General Manager of Utah Interactive, a subsidiary of NIC., the leading provider of e-government services in the USA.  He has more than 13 years of experience leading a wide-range of online service deployments on behalf of public sector entities. In his current role, Mr. Olsen leads NIC’s management of Utah.gov, including the ongoing development of Web 2.0, e-commerce and other digital solutions delivered by the State through Utah.gov.

Based in Salt Lake City, Mr. Olsen leads NIC’s team of software engineers, designers, project managers and marketing executives working solely on Internet initiatives that bring government closer to citizens. During his tenure in Utah, Utah.gov has placed first in the Center for Digital Government’s “Best of the Web” rankings, which honor outstanding government portals and Web sites based on their innovations, functionality and efficiencies, in both 2007 and 2009.

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• Utah.gov
• University of Utah’s Center for Public Policy and Administration
• Report on Financial Benefits of Online e-Government Services in Utah (pdf)
• Blog post from Utah CIO Dave Fletcher on the report: The efficiency of E-Government
• Utah Interactive

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On why measuring online service delivery is important:

On lessons learned building Utah.gov:

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Ahead of taking formal applications, an “inspiration phase” has been launched for the 2013 Knight News Challenge. Some $5 million of Knight Foundation funding will be announced in June for innovative projects around Open Government. Amid much talk (and much tech) focused on more open, transparent, connected governments – as well as the emergence of the 58-nation Open Government Partnership – this Challenge program aims to enable projects that in the broadest sense foster better communication in support of the Open Gov movement.

We hear from Chris Sopher, Project Manager for the 2013 Knight News Challenge, about the Challenge goals and how the inspiration phase will help potential participants to shape their submission ideas through a new online space developed with OpenIDEO.

What are the ideas in Open Government that can help build the field, can help explore new ideas, new approaches to trying to engage people in Government or inform them about what’s happening in their community in a new way?

The Knight News Challenge is international and open to submissions from governments and public sector agencies as well as civic innovators, private sector and non-profit organisations. If you’re considering a pitch, don’t miss this episode!

About Chris Sopher

Chris Sopher is project manager on Knight Foundation’s Journalism and Media Innovation team. He has written and spoken around the world about young people’s engagement with news and civic life through his project Younger Thinking.

Prior to Knight, Chris researched digital media and public policy at the Emerging Media Research Council and helped found the national college mentoring nonprofit Strive for College. He earned a bachelor’s in public policy analysis from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a Morehead-Cain and Truman Scholar.

Feature image courtesy Joichi Ito

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• Knight Foundation News Challenge site and FAQs
• Knight Foundation website
• Blog post about why Knight is doing the Open Government challenge
• Blog post: An opportunity for massive reinvention
• News Challenge winners from each of the three rounds in 2012: Networks, Data, Mobile

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On framing Open Government:

On what the Knight Foundation is hoping to achieve from the Challenge:

On making public information useful as a key focus area:

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Torbjörn Fredriksson, UNCTAD’s Chief of ICT Analysis, explains the how good macro- and micro-level data and insight leads to adopting good policies, and highlights how a healthy e-business sector can make a significant contribution to more sustainable communities and economies.

In the area of ICT, what we really need a lot of is impact assessments – to understand what is working, what is not working and why… if government officials don’t have good data it’s very difficult to adopt good policies.

Torbjörn also discusses the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 10-year review, and highlights how collaborations between agencies and disciplines is critical to achieving the objectives of development agendas.

About Torbjörn Fredriksson

Torbjörn Fredriksson is Chief of the ICT Analysis Section of the Division on Technology and Logistics at the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He is among other things the lead author of the annual Information Economy Report, responsible for UNCTAD’s work on measuring the information economy and lead facilitator of the WSIS Action Line on e-Business.

Torbjörn joined UNCTAD in 2000 and was for eight years one of the principal authors of the World Investment Report. Before joining UNCTAD, he held positions at the Invest in Sweden Agency, the Swedish Ministry of Industry and Commerce the Industrial Institute for Economic and Social Research in Stockholm. He is the author of several books and has published articles related to international trade and investment in such publications as the Journal of International Business Studies, International Journal of Industrial Organization and the Journal of World Investment.

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On the importance of measuring the information economy for governments:

On managing expectations about ICT as a tool for development:

On why e-business is important to community development and sustainability:

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Jake Dunagan, IFTF’s Research Director talks about the Connected Citizens program, and why this is an important theme to explore.

This idea of civic technologies and Government 2.0 and new models of citizen engagement using networked technologies filters through a lot of the work we’ve done at the Institute, because it’s such an important thing that’s happening – this moment of change when a new level of citizen and government relations is happening.

Given the range of ways that citizens can now participate to shape the public sphere – hackathons, city camps, policy camps, etc – Jake sees gamification as being part of this “ecology of invention” and that the idea of using a game-based approach is becoming less of an inhibitor for governments.

I think that minds are changing on that – I think the word ‘game’ doesn’t scare as many people as it once did… game is really just a proxy word for engagement.

About Jake Dunagan

Jake Dunagan is the Research Director for the Institute For the Future, with a particular focus on the accelerating transformations of individuals, culture, and governance. In his research, Jake explores how societies are adapting to the Neurocentric age, a time of unprecedented ability to view and modify the mind. Recently, he has written and lectured on comprehensive cognitive design, judicial foresight, kids’ technologies, neuroscience and the ocean, alternative energy futures, social media, and the future of work.

Jake also designs artifacts, games, immersive experiences of future worlds, and produces guerilla public engagement projects that inject the future into the mental ecology of the present.

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• Connected Citizens game

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Damian Thorman, National Program Director, shares some insights from the KF Tech for Engagement initiative so far, and highlights some of the key focus areas for collaboration in the future.

In the beginning…there was a sense of experimenting – throw anything out there and see what sticks.  I think today we’re facing a different question.  We’ve got a lot of tools…the question today is how do you take these tools and get them adopted, and how do we articulate the value?

About Damian Thorman

Damian Thorman joined Knight Foundation in 2007 as National Program Director. The National Program supports innovative ideas and leadership with the potential to drive transformative change nationally and in Knight’s resident communities. He helps develop new grant opportunities at a national level that target systemic change within the framework of informed, engaged communities.

Thorman most recently served as assistant prosecuting attorney of the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office in Kansas City, Mo. He founded and ran the Thorman Strategy Group, a consulting practice that assisted foundations, nonprofits and for-profit organizations from 2002 to 2005. He served as adjunct political science professor at Avila College in Kansas City, Mo. Thorman was the director of public affairs and policy at the Ewing Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City from 1994 to 2002. In Washington, D.C., he served as assistant director at the American Academy of Pediatrics, professional staff member of the House Education and Labor Committee, and congressional aide to then-U.S. Rep. Bill Richardson. He also served a brief stint as a reporter for the National Catholic Reporter in Los Angeles.

He has a law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a MBA from Rockhurst University.

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• Knight Foundation
• Tech for Engagement initiative
• Tech for Engagement summit
• Report: Digital Citizenship: Exploring the Field of Tech for Engagement
• Technology for Engagement Manifesto
• Code for America
• Change by us

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Accelerating Democracy: Tech for Engagement from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.

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The pilot project will be trialing how ICT – and particularly the use of mobile – can play a role to support the traditional, human-centric tribal processes and enable greater local participation in democratic processes.

The originality of this project is that we do not aim at implementing an ICT tool without looking at the traditional role of chiefs in the local politics.  Rather, we want to incorporate these [ICT] tools within the traditions and not look at only online tools but the offline world as well.

About Kheira Belkacem

Kheira Belkacem is Assistant Programme Director at eGovlab, and is currently completing her PhD in Political Communication at the University of Leeds UK. Her experience in the European Parliament, when working closely with the Director General of the Directorate-General for Innovation and Technological Support in 2008-2009, left her with a strong expertise of parliamentary systems and adoption of new technologies in democratic institutions. She also spent a summer internship at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) on the e-Governance Programme in 2008.

In 2010, Kheira worked as a research assistant for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford and in 2010-2012, she taught modules on communication theories and new media group project as a teaching assistant at the Institute of Communications Studies. She is currently the Assistant Programme Director of Botswana Speaks and is involved in other projects run by the eGovlab.

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• Botswana Speaks website, on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
• The Parliament of Botswana
• eGovlab of Stockholm University / Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV)
• Gov2u
• Swedish Trade Council
• Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)

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