reimagining governance

1.A PARTICIPATORY PHILOSOPHY TO IMAGINE AND BUILD NEW WAYS TOCOLLABORATE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE DIGITAL AGEGovernment 2.0 Initiatives addresses the need for renewed relationships among citizens andgovernment. It will seek to create connections, knowledge, tools and policies to drivetransparency, civic engagement, harness crowd value and democratic empowerment. It willhelp the Government to tackle emerging challenges pro-actively. It is an effort to respond thanreact.Under the aegis of Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat Learn: Get grounded in skills needed to make change, get practical advice and benefit from the experience of those in the community who are trying to innovate. Share: Let everyone else in on your social change successes! Share your stories, your projects and your change. Connect: Forum for a unique constellation of change agents, business people, non- profits, activists, government folks and most importantly, people with lived experience in the issues we all care about.New Challenges of Governance:The Rules of the Governance Game is changing.Collaboration within the organization and outside the organization is no longer a choice but animperative. Proactive Good Governance has been redefined as part of Governance.Information asymmetry between citizens and government is leading to citizens being moreaware and up-to date. Government doesnt have the data. Increased expectations by Citizensand the consequent disappointment leads to widespread dissatisfaction against theGovernment leaders dont have the tools to tackle such situations and to manage them. There Page | 1A concept note by Nagarajan M, IAS Email : [email protected]

2. are more avenues to voice protests. Regulation is not a viable option even in a controlled statelike China.Its a new paradigmThere is a need for a new paradigm in Governance which we have not even started thinking.Social media has given a platform to create and maintain a new level of engagement by formingdirect relationship with the stakeholders (citizens).The Government 2.0 requires a new thinking. It requires a culture of shared values, sharedvision, shared tools and shared future. Which is clearly anti-thetical to the present approach toGovernance. It requires a change from the departmental mindset.Clearly the present approaches to Governance management have failed. Top down approach ofplanning and implementation needs to be replaced by a collaborative process of goal settingand implementations. For example despite the amount of investment in hardware and softwarefor egovernance projects only a very few have delivered. In todays world all levels ofemployees require email access. Since its not provided by the system usage of private serviceslike gmail/yahoo is highly prevalent.Data driven decisions and analysisTackling Governance challenges is being transformed by data based decision making. Data fromvarious sources when combined into one framework of analysis yields newer insights to tacklechallenges like disaster, epidemics, poverty alleviation etc. The availability of data and theprocessing power has led to data mining and big data becoming the next frontier to explore inbusiness and governance.The movement towards opening up government data is gaining hold with the launch of theportal www.Data.Gov.in . Open Data initiatives are now a defining feature of transparentgovernment. Proactive thought and action can help in opening up government data and hencebring about a positive image in the minds of citizens. Page | 2A concept note by Nagarajan M, IAS Email : [email protected] 3. Foster Organizational Knowledge Creation and ManagementInstitutional memory needs to be built. Organization wide systems need to be created to collatethe intellectual capital of the organization and make it accessible to anyone in the system.There is very little sharing of knowledge and content discovery is difficult. Heavy use of emailsleads to redundancy and mismanagement of information.Building for the future requires us to think beyond programmatic lines. To keep up with thepace of change in technology, we need to securely architect our systems for interoperabilityand openness from conception. We need to have common standards and more rapidly sharethe lessons learned by early adopters. We need to produce better content and data, andpresent it through multiple channels in a program and device-agnostic way. We need to adopt acoordinated approach to ensure privacy and security in a digital age.What is Government 2.0Gartner definition of Government 2.0 as the use of IT to socialize and commoditizegovernment services, processes and data.1The socialization of information has multiple facets (government to citizens, citizens togovernment and government to government) and the boundaries between these facets areincreasingly blurred. The next step will be the socialization of services and processes byengaging individuals and communities to perform part of existing government processes ortransform them by leveraging external data and applications.Commoditization which has already started with consolidation and shared services to reducethe diversity of infrastructure and horizontal application will gradually move toward servicesand business processes.Government 2.0 has seven main characteristics: It is citizen-driven. It is employee-centric. It keeps evolving. It is transformational. It requires a blend of planning and nurturing.1http://blogs.gartner.com/andrea_dimaio/2009/11/13/government-2-0-a-gartner-definition/ Page | 3A concept note by Nagarajan M, IAS Email : [email protected] 4. It needs Pattern-Based Strategy capabilities. It calls for a new management style.Government as a platformCitizens are connected like never before and have the skill sets and passion to solve problemsaffecting them locally as well as nationally. Government information and services can beprovided to citizens where and when they need it. Citizens are empowered to spark theinnovation that will result in an improved approach to governance.In this model, government is a convener and an enablerultimately, it is a vehicle forcoordinating the collective action of citizens.This is the right way to frame the question of Government 2.0. How does government itselfbecome an open platform that allows people inside and outside government to innovate? Howdo you design a system in which all of the outcomes arent specified beforehand, but insteadevolve through interactions between the technology provider and its user community?2Cross Country Experience: USAo Digital Government Strategy - http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/egov/digital-government/digital-government.htmlo Digital Services Innovation Center http://gsablogs.gsa.gov/dsic/o Code for America http://codeforamerica.orgo Apps4Va - This program challenges the public to review K-12 data and use it todesign innovative new tools to aid in better data-driven decisions andintervention strategies. http://www.apps4va.org/about.html UKo Government Digital Strategy -http://publications.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/digital/strategy/#executive-summary2http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/10/government-internet-software-technology-breakthroughs-oreilly.html Page | 4A concept note by Nagarajan M, IAS Email : [email protected] 5. o Open Data Visualization Competitions http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2013/feb/12/government-data-free-our data http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2013/feb/12/government-data free our http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2013/feb/12/government data-free-our- our-data Open Government Compendium of Experiences and best practicesOpen Government Ideas and experiences are found in this eBook now made available for free.experiences https://github.com/oreillymedia/open_government/archive/master.zip https://github.com/oreillymedia/open_government/archive/master.zipActivities that can be done: 1 Establish a Center for Technology in Government 1. Technology inThe mission can be to foster public sector innovation, enhance capability, generate foster public sectorpublic value, and support good governance.For example http://www.ctg.albany.edu/about/about?sub=missionhttp://www.ctg.albany.edu/about/about?sub=mission 2 Gov2.0 Meetups 2. a. Platform for ideas exchange and a Platform for ideas exchange and brainstorming. Implement and test new ideas. ideas. Create an ecosystem of innovation with collaborators. Create b. Bring together Companies, b Bring together Companies, NGOs, Colleges, Civil Agencies and Government w ork work w towards a common goals by harnessing each others strength. Page | 5A concept note by Nagarajan M, IAS Email : [email protected] [email protected] 6. c. Just coming together and talking is the beginning.d. Particularly to promote Civil Innovation a CivicMeet can be organized regularly.CivicMeet is an international monthly meetup that brings together public andprivate sector innovators working to create a more open, engaged civil society.More at www.CivicMeet.Govfresh.come. Organize Ignite Talks - Ignite is a geek event in over 100 cities worldwide. At theevents Ignite presenters share their personal and professional passions, using 20slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total of just five minutes. Moreat http://igniteshow.com/howto 3. Knowledge Meetupsa. A knowledge caf or World Caf is atypeof business meeting ororganizational workshop which aims to provide an open and creativeconversation on a topic of mutual interest to surface their collective knowledge,share ideas and insights, and gain a deeper understanding of the subject and theissues involved. 4. Organizing TEDxGova. What is TEDx?i. TEDx was created in the spirit of TEDs mission, "ideas worth spreading." The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.ii. At TEDx events, a screening of TEDTalks videos -- or a combination of live presenters and TEDTalks videos -- sparks deep conversation and connections. TEDx eventsare fully plannedand coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis. iii. More at http://www.ted.com/pages/about_tedxPage | 6A concept note by Nagarajan M, IAS Email : [email protected] 7. 5. Incubate Innovative projects a. Innovative ideas need handholding and testing to prove and validate the valuethey offer. Where is testing lab in Government? Lets create it. b. Create and recommend policies that promote a culture of innovationorganization wide. Small tweak in policies can create an explosion of innovativeideas and projects. Tremendous value will accrue to the Government. c. Create an incubation centre evaluate and fund innovative projects. Similar toUGC. 6. Create a Innovations fund or connect fundersCreating a wide scope flexible funding mechanism to encourage grassroots innovation will helpin formalizing a relationship with real innovation. Innovation happens with or without funding.Having a UGC project funding type avenue creates a multiplier effect in terms of projectoutcomes and further adoptability in the organization. It helps in harvesting the knowledgecapital within the organization.Alternatively a platform can be created where the innovators and the funders are ablecollaborate to create value for everyone. Corporates, NGOs can fund projects in their areas ofinterest. Ultimately it will all benefit the Government. 7. Conduct hackathons and app competitionsEncourage individuals and organizations to create solutions to governanceproblems by conducting hackathons and app competitions. Encouraging creation of appsleads to innovative ideas and solutions which can then be adopted by Government. The costbenefit ratio is highly positive in such an approach. Participation and transparency are greatlyenhanced. An example can be found at http://transformurbanindia.com/hackathon/Further Reading: http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/3772/Reimagining_governance.html http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57565009-285/how-to-participate-in-the-open- government-movement/Page | 7A concept note by Nagarajan M, IAS Email : [email protected]