menu
OUR SITES

Beth Simone Noveck

Professor and Director

Beth Simone Noveck directs the Governance Lab (GovLab) and its MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance. She is a Professor in Technology, Culture, and Societyand affiliated faculty at the Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering and a Fellow at NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge. New Jersey governor Phil Murphy appointed her as the state’s first Chief Innovation Officer and Chancellor Angela Merkel named her to her Digital Council in 2018. She is also Visiting Senior Faculty Fellow at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. Previously, Beth served in the White House as the first United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer and director of the White House Open Government Initiative under President Obama. UK Prime Minister David Cameron appointed her senior advisor for Open Government.

At the GovLab, she directs better governance programs, including work with public institutions on public engagement in lawmaking (CrowdLaw), expert-sourcing innovative solutions to hard problems (Smarter Crowdsourcing), co-creation between cities and citizens (City Challenges). She also coaches "public entrepreneurs." working with passionate individuals to take their public interest projects from idea to implementation.

A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, she is a member of the Scholars Council of the Library of Congress and the EPSRC Centre for the Mathematics of Precision Healthcare. Beth also serves on the International Advisory Board of the NHS Digital Academy and the Yankelovich Democracy Monitor as well as a member of the Inter-American Development BankPresident’s Commission on Transparency and Corruption and the Global Future Council on Technology, Values and Policy for the World Economic Forum. She is a member of the Steering Committee for the Collective Intelligence Conferences and GIGAPP (Grupo de Investigación en Gobierno, Administracion y Politicas Publicas). She is co-editor of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Digital Government Research and Practice journal.

In 2018, Beth was awarded a Robert Schumann Fellowship at the European University Institute and a Richard von Weizsaecker Fellowship by the Robert Bosch Foundation. Beth was named one of the “World’s 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government 2018” by Apolitical. Previously, she was selected as one of the “Foreign Policy 100” by Foreign Policy as well as one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company and “Top Women in Technology” by Huffington Post.

Beth is the author of Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise and the Future of Governing (Harvard Univ Press 2015) and Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger and Citizens More Powerful (Brookings 2009) and co-editor of The State of Play: Law, Games and Virtual Worlds (NYU Press, 2005). Her next book, Public Entrepreneurship: Training the Next Generation of Public Leader and Problem Solver, will appear with Yale Press. Her TED talk is here. She tweets @bethnoveck.

In the News keyboard_arrow_down

In the News keyboard_arrow_up

  • A Form that functions (The Aspen Institute, December 2019)
  • Never listen to advice but do get lots of information (The Commons, January 2020)
  • Digital Economy: Digital democracy (The Economist Podcast)
  • Internet está creando desigualdad, pero hay formas de arreglarlo (RETINA, April 1 2019)
  • Das tägliche Entscheider-Briefing zu Digitalisierung & KI, 28.03.2019 (Der Tagesspiegel, 2019)
  • Salon 31: Workspheres (MoMa R&D, May 2019)
    • Professor Beth Simone Noveck’s talk at the MoMA R&D Salon which discussed the changing landscape of workspheres in the current political and social landscape.
  • Beth Noveck, Asesora de Obama, Nos Explica Cómo la Tecnología Puede Hacer Más Transparentes Nuestras Democracias (El País, December 16, 2015)
    • An article in El País describing Professor Beth Simone Noveck’s tenure in the White House as Deputy Chief Technology Officer.
  • Beth Noveck: On the C-SPAN Networks (C-SPAN, 2009)
    • Professor Beth Simone Noveck discusses topics like transparency, open government, and civic engagement across three appearances in the C-SPAN video library.
  • How Germany is preparing to digitize government and labor (Deutsche Welle, May 2019)
  • Igualdad: Internet Está Creando Desigualdad, Pero Hay Formas de Arreglarlo (Montse Hidalgo Perez & Guillermo Vega, Retina, April 1, 2019)
  • The Future of City Innovation (Beth Noveck, Bloomberg Cities, March 19, 2019)
  • New Ways of Working for Government (Bloomberg, 2018)
  • El Ejemplo de Madrid y por qué la Participación Ciudadana Aún no Funciona (Jordi Pérez Colomé, El País, December 10, 2018)
  • Top 10 Books About Building Cities (Jonathan Carr, The Guardian, March 13, 2019)
  • New Jersey Chief Innovation Officer Beth Noveck: Using Technology to Shape Policy (Casey Leins, US News, September 21, 2019)
  • Who knows best? Cities consult citizens for fresh ideas (Sophie Davies, Thomson Reuters Foundation News, February 12, 2019)
  • Beth Noveck on How Open Data and Direct Democracy Could Restore Our Faith in Politics (Australian Broadcasting Corp, September 12, 2018)
  • Elections Won’t Save Our Democracy. But ‘CrowdLaw’ Could. (Beth Noveck, The Washington Post, October 2, 2018)
  • NJ’s First CIO Explains How Technology Can Improve Government Services (Briana Vannozzi, NJTV News, October 1, 2018)
  • Innovation Lead Will Help New Jersey Modernize Process, Support the Tech Economy (Theo Douglas, GovTech, August 27, 2018)
  • Artificial Intelligence and the End of Government (Daniel Araya, Forbes, January 4, 2019)
  • Digital Crusaders: Technology Offers Weapons for the Battle Against Corruption (Chris Wellisz, IPS News, December 18, 2018)
  • Renovating Democracy from the Bottom Up (Nathan Gardels, The Washington Post, October 5, 2018)
  • The Simple but Ingenious System Taiwan Uses to Crowdsource Its Laws (Chris Horton, MIT Technology Review, August 21, 2018)
  • Australia’s Top 4 on the Global Stage of Digital Government Influencers (Harley Dennett, The Mandarin, August 9, 2018)
  • The Impact of Technology on Democracy (The Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2018)
  • [German] Die Digitalrätin aus New York (Die Zeit, August 29 2018)
  • Citizen participation in law-making and public policy: An Interview with Beth Simone Noveck (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, August 28 2018)
  • The ex-White House digital champion bringing innovation to New Jersey(Apolitical, August 23 2018)
  • New Jersey hires GovLab founder as its first Chief Innovation Officer(Govtech, August 13 2018)
  • Best and worst of times: how disruption will reshape work (Sydney Morning Herald, August 11 2018)
  • If a robot's eating your job, it's probably eating your life expectancy too (Sydney Morning Herald, July 2018)
  • Interview with Beth Noveck in ERR Novataar (Eesti Rahvusringhääling, May 2018)
  • La Madre Del Gobierno Abierto (La Vanguardia, 2017)
  • Experta expondrá este jueves sobre uso de nuevas tecnologías en el gobierno (La Tercera, 2017)
  • The Policy Labs We Urgently Need (Governing, December 13 2017).
  • Can Smarter Crowdsourcing Stop Zika? (CityLab Miami 2016, Video): Beth Simone Noveck in conversation with Rudi Borrman.
  • The International Congress on Government Administration and Public Policy (#GIGAPP2016, Video): An Interview with Beth Simone Noveck.
  • The Tech Presidency - Governing in the Age of Big Data and Machine Learning (LinkedIn Speaker Series, 2016, Video): Beth Noveck’s talk at the LinkedIn Speaker Series
  • The Obama administration wanted to open up government to citizen input. Why hasn’t it worked? (The Washington Post, 2016): An interview with Beth Simone Noveck
  • Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise (#BCTECHSummit, 2016, Video): Beth Noveck’s talk at the #BCTECHSummit
  • The big data opportunity (#BCTECHSummit, 2016, Video): Panel discussion moderated by Beth Noveck at the #BCTECHSummit
  • The Tinder Approach to Fixing Our Government (The Brian Lehrer Show, 2016, Audio): Beth Noveck on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC 93.9 FM
  • How Technology can make our democracy more transparent (El Pais, 2015, Video): An interview with El Pais
  • Demand a more open source government (TED, 2012, Video): Beth Noveck at TED2012
  • Can the Open Data Revolution Change Our Democracy (TED Radio hour, 2012, Audio): NPR TED Radio Hour
  • What government can learn from tech (TechRepublic, 2015): A conversation with Beth Noveck
  • Bringing Democracy into the 21st century (Scenario Magazine, 2016): J.P O’Malley in the Scenario Magazine
  • The International Congress on Government Administration and Public Policy (#GIGAPP2016, Video): An Interview with Beth Simone Noveck

Selected Publications keyboard_arrow_down

Selected Publications keyboard_arrow_up

Beth's Projects keyboard_arrow_down
Beth's Projectskeyboard_arrow_up