EPSC Newsletter

Issue 2 | May 2016

Global Trends to 2030: Society and Governance
2016 ESPAS Annual Conference
16-17 November, Brussels

The 2016 ESPAS Annual Conference will bring together leading global experts to explore innovations in the world of work, welfare and governance.

The opportunities that social innovation and entrepreneurship offer in tackling inequalities and democratic challenges are at the core of this year’s conference. We will also shed light on pressing contemporary challenges such as radicalisation, inequalities and integration.

Moreover, in what ways will the digital revolution transform societies and the relationship between citizens and governments? And, how will automation, robotics and artificial intelligence impact employment and society? These are some of the questions that innovation leaders from around Europe and the world will be invited to discuss.

An Expert's View: Transforming How We Govern


photo of Beth Noveck

by
Beth Noveck
Co-Founder and Director of The GovLab at New York University
and author of "Smart Citizens, Smarter State"

Governments routinely turn to the public for help off and online. Federal agencies in the United States have run more than 450 challenges via Challenge.gov, a website which showcases requests to the public to tackle hard problems in exchange for cash prizes and other incentives. Yet as appealing as an open call might be for tapping into the ideas of smart and willing citizens, it is too “hit or miss” to transform how we govern. The typical crowdsourcing method fails to match the supply of expertise to the demand for it in public institutions.

To make all forms of engagement more effective — and to solve hard problems faster — we need to increase the likelihood that the opportunity to participate will be known to those with relevant know how. If a city really wants to craft a plan for bike lanes, it should be able to reach out to urban planners, transportation engineers, cyclists, and cab drivers and offer them ways to participate meaningfully. If a nation needs help battling a pandemic, it should be able to find those with credentialed expertise in public health or big data as well as those with experiential expertise in the region or with managing a crisis and to bring them together.

New platforms such as expert networks (think LinkedIn) and digital badges are helping to make what we know, what we can do and what we care about more searchable and could enable institutions to target expertise in addition to putting out an open call. Take the example of PulsePoint, a smartphone app created by the fire department of San Ramon, California. Now used by 1400 communities across the United States, PulsePoint matches those with a specific skill, namely CPR training, with dramatic results. By tapping into a feed of the emergency calls, PulsePoint sends a text message “CPR Needed!” to those registered members of the public near the victim. Effective bystander CPR immediately administered can potentially double or triple the victim’s chance of survival. By augmenting traditional government first response, PulsePoint’s matching has already helped over 8,000 victims.

What makes this kind of targeted engagement truly democratic – and citizenship in this vision more active, robust, and meaningful – is that such targeting allows us to multiply the number and frequency of ways to engage productively in a manner consistent with each person’s talents. Giving people outside as well as inside institutions opportunities to share their knowledge could save time, financial resources and even lives.


'Giving people opportunities to share knowledge could save time, resources, even lives.'

Beth Noveck,
Co-Founder and Director of The GovLab
at New York University