Our premise is not that public-interest data work should become more corporate. It is, rather, that firms have been contending for some time with the mechanics of AI-ready data (at scale, under audit, and with material consequences for failure) and that the open data movement stands to learn from at least some of these experiences.

What happens when governments rely on systems that sound right instead of being right? Drawing on OpenFisca’s spread from France to governments across Europe, Africa, and Oceania, Beth Simone Noveck’s interview with Matti Schneider makes the case for public infrastructure that computes the law, as well as the risks of sidelining it as generative AI scales globally.

On March 27, as part of NYC Open Data Week, The GovLab, Brooklyn Public Library, and the Alliance for Public Interest Technology at New York University convened a “Questions Lab” to explore how open data can better reflect and respond to the needs of New Yorkers. The session was supported by a group of volunteers and collaborators, including students and faculty from NYU, some of whose reflections on the event are featured below.

Stefaan Verhulst and Adam Zable argue that the biggest challenge in open data is no longer access, but usability, as official statistics remain difficult to find, interpret, and apply. Drawing on the International Monetary Fund’s StatGPT new research, it shows how artificial intelligence could transform access through natural language interfaces, while warning that accuracy and trust depend on retrieving authoritative data rather than generating answers. The article situates this shift within a broader “Fourth Wave of Open Data,” calling for new data systems and governance approaches that make information truly usable and reliable.

Stefaan Verhulst and Adam Zable argue that the biggest challenge in open data is no longer access, but usability, as official statistics remain difficult to find, interpret, and apply. Drawing on the International Monetary Fund’s StatGPT new research, it shows how artificial intelligence could transform access through natural language interfaces, while warning that accuracy and trust depend on retrieving authoritative data rather than generating answers. The article situates this shift within a broader “Fourth Wave of Open Data,” calling for new data systems and governance approaches that make information truly usable and reliable.

To monitor open data policies across the world, we developed the Open Data Policy Lab Policy Repository. This quarter, we added 11 new policy developments within and across Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America.

Boston is preparing for a future where AI agents increasingly interact with government systems. In this interview, Boston's Chief Information Officer Santiago Garces explains how the city is experimenting with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) as a governance layer between AI and public digital infrastructure. Starting with the open data portal, Boston is testing how MCP can make AI interactions more reliable, secure, and grounded in real government data. The effort provides a concrete example of how to safely support the emerging “agentic web” while improving access to public services.

As part of an ongoing effort to contribute to current topics in data, technology, and governance, The GovLab’s Selected Readings series provides an annotated and curated collection of recommended readings on themes such as open data, data collaboration, and civic technology.

In this InnovateUS workshop, Audrey Tang and Danielle Allen discuss how AI-enabled civic technologies, paired with radical transparency and thoughtful institutional design, can help democracies respond to problems faster, govern more fairly, and rebuild public trust. Lessons from Taiwan, California, and other contexts show how combining digital tools with in-person engagement can surface common ground and reduce polarization. Together, the speakers argue that democracy can meet today’s challenges when it is designed to be fast, fair, and genuinely engaging for the people it serves.

Italy has become the first European country to move beyond implementing the EU AI Act and enact its own sovereignty-driven AI law; one that anchors innovation in public oversight, workers’ rights, human accountability, and sector-specific democratic safeguards. The statute challenges the accelerating, corporate-centric governance model emerging in the U.S., yet it also suffers from limited vision, modest investment, and operational ambiguity. Italy may not win a global race for AI supremacy, but it is trying to redefine the terms of that race by insisting that democratic institutions and not commercial imperatives set the boundaries for how AI enters civic life.

The Trump Administration’s Genesis Mission aims to unify federal supercomputers, datasets, and AI systems into a single national platform for scientific discovery. But as Beth Simone Noveck argues, the plan centralizes unprecedented research power while offering almost no role for universities, communities, or the public, raising urgent questions about access, transparency, and democratic accountability.

After two years of research, the RethinkAI collaborative released Making AI Work for the Public—a comprehensive field review of how U.S. governments adopt AI. Since 2019, over 1,600 AI-related bills have been introduced, but most focus on guardrails, not proactive strategy. Meanwhile, cities are piloting translation tools, engagement platforms, and predictive systems, often led by Chief Information Officers, taking on new strategic roles. The report challenges civic tech’s efficiency-first legacy and proposes a new governance model—ALT: Adapt to anticipate needs, Listen to understand communities, and build Trust through two-way accountability.

New York City has thousands of parks, plazas, and public courtyards, but no easy way to find them. Using “vibe coding,” open data, and generative AI, one civic technologist built a map of every public space in the five boroughs. This is the story of NYC Public Space, an app that stitches together fragmented government datasets, AI-generated descriptions, and community-sourced updates to make the city’s public realm more visible and usable. It’s also a case study in how AI can help public interest technologists move faster, build smarter, and turn open data into real public value.

AI’s biggest breakthroughs were built on public datasets; the next wave should be, too. If governments make data AI-ready and keep access open, we can power tools that explain laws, improve services, and widen participation. In return, companies that train on taxpayer data should give back, through open licenses, benchmarks, and capacity that strengthen public institutions.

In today’s geopolitical environment with 61 active conflicts around the world, the need for PeaceTech has never been more critical.

In this post, we highlight five recent additions to the repository that exemplify the diversity and innovation of AI Localism. These examples—spanning Reykjavík to Manchester—show how local governments are using distinct mechanisms such as risk-tiered staff guidelines, bright-line safeguards in high-risk domains, procurement nudges, AI-assisted public deliberation, and community literacy roadshows to build more responsive, inclusive, and future-proof approaches to AI.

The State of Open Data Policy Summit is an annual conference hosted by the Open Data Policy Lab (a collaboration between The GovLab and Microsoft) to explore how policy and technology shape access to data for public interest re-use. 

In past years, the summit has looked at ways institutions have pursued purpose-driven data re-use and operationalized collaborative governance models. It has also examined the possible challenges represented by a “data winter”—a period marked by reduced data access.

On 4 September 2025, the Open Data Policy Lab hosted its Fourth Annual State of Open Data Policy Summit to focus on how generative AI and open data intersect.

Non-Traditional Data (NTD) — data digitally captured, mediated, or observed through instruments such as satellites, social media, mobility apps, and wastewater testing — holds immense potential when re-used responsibly for purposes beyond those for which it was originally collected. If combined with traditional sources and guided by strong governance, NTD can generate entirely new forms of public value — what we call the Third Wave of Open Data.

In this update, we have curated recent advances where researchers and practitioners are using NTD to close monitoring gaps in climate resilience, track migration flows more effectively, support health surveillance, and strengthen urban planning. Their work demonstrates how satellite imagery can provide missing data, how crowdsourced information can enhance equity and resilience, and how AI can extract insights from underused streams.

Data commons (collaboratively governed data ecosystems) are providing critical infrastructure in the age of AI. When designed responsibly, they can help provide access to high quality, AI-ready datasets for use in the public interest. Yet: What data commons currently exist? Where are they being developed? What data commons are needed most?

Over the last six months, The GovLab’s Open Data Policy Lab (ODPL) has sought to answer these questions by curating and documenting examples of data commons for AI from across the globe. Our Data Commons for Generative AI Repository now contains 60 real-world examples from over 20 countries across 5 continents. 

How are governments and researchers using generative AI to make better use of open data? In what ways can AI help make public information more accessible, interpretable, or actionable? And what new types of public services or research tools are emerging at this intersection?

These are some of the questions explored in our Observatory of Open Data and Generative AI —a growing collection of real-world use cases showing how open data from official sources is being used with generative AI technologies.

Launched last year, the Observatory builds on the findings of our report, "A Fourth Wave of Open Data? Exploring the Spectrum of Scenarios for Open Data and Generative AI.” 

How can we build and sustain data commons that balance openness, and trust, while fueling innovation for the public good? Can they ensure that communities and other networks have a say in how their data is used? Can they ensure that public interest organizations can get access to the data they need to meet societal challenges?

In “Data Commons for the Public Good,” the Open Data Policy Lab’s fourth panel on the Fourth Wave of Open Data, Vivienne Ming (Chief Scientist, The Human Trust), Angie Raymond (Director of Data Management and Information Governance, Ostrom Workshop), Heather Coates (Data Steward & Data Librarian,  Indiana University), and Alek Tarkowski (Director of Strategy, Open Future) joined The GovLab’s Stefaan Verhulst to answer these questions. 

On 5 May, the discussion looked at something more foundational: How do we make data ready for AI? How do we future-proof open data?

The Trump administration’s January 20 executive order rechristening the US Digital Service as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has effectively hijacked the civic tech movement. While the US Digital Service focused on life-saving and government improvement functions, DOGE has used AI and other advanced technologies to burrow deep into administrative datasets and monopolize control. It’s time to flip the script (again) and break the government’s stranglehold on information. Rather than centralize power, let’s use AI to distribute it.

The Fourth Wave of Open Data, based around the combination of open data and generative AI, offers significant potential. When put together, open datasets can be made more open and conversational. Systems themselves can be better trained to answer questions.

The Open Data Policy Lab’s Observatory of Examples of How Open Data and Generative AI Intersect provides real-world use cases of how open data from official sources intersects with generative artificial intelligence (AI), building on insights from our report, A Fourth Wave of Open Data? Exploring the Spectrum of Scenarios for Open Data and Generative AI.

$200,000 in funding available for innovative data commons that enhance local decision-making and disaster response

How do we tackle misinformation when traditional strategies no longer work? That was the central question in our latest Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI conversation with Ed Bice, 2024 Skoll Award Winner for Social Innovation and CEO of Meedan, a nonprofit organization focused on building tools for fact-checking, verification, and media literacy.

Generative AI tools have attracted enormous attention. Yet, questions remain about how it intersects with open data.

The GovLab talks with experts on the past, present, and future of open data

Trump's pick to lead OSTP professed American AI leadership at his confirmation hearing while ignoring the dismantling of the very scientific institutions that sustain it. With no vision beyond deregulation and no defense of research funding, he failed to address—and Senators failed to ask—about the role of AI in modernizing government or the growing influence of Elon Musk in shaping federal AI policy.

Over the last year, the Open Data Policy Lab (a collaboration between The GovLab and Microsoft) has been exploring how to harness artificial intelligence responsibly and effectively as part of its work on Fourth Wave of Open Data, an approach to data openness that explores intersections between open data from official sources and generative AI.

The way to unlock data responsibly for this fourth wave, we believe, lies with data commons—collaboratively governed data ecosystems designed to pool and provide responsible access to diverse, high-quality datasets across sectors. 

View the full conversation from the December 5, 2024 lecture by Mayor San-Cheng Chang, moderated by Beth Simone Noveck.

Join us on Thursday, December 5 at 6 p.m. ET for an inspiring conversation with Dr. San-Cheng (Simon) Chang, Mayor of Taoyuan and former Taiwanese Premier as he showcases how the city harnesses artificial intelligence to enhance governance.

In a Q&A with New America, Audrey Tang and Beth Simone Noveck discuss the international landscape of civic participation, and the digital infrastructure we need to support collaborative, inclusive, and democratic communities.

Forecasting the openness of data in 2024, assessing the impact of generative AI on open data, and identifying trends in data stewardship

GovLab Fellow Dino Cantu recounts her experience creating The Encuentro Nacional para una Agenda de Seguridad y Justicia which aims to address Mexico's judicial system's deep-rooted issues by facilitating collaborative forums.

In the Open Data Policy Lab's new report, the team provides a framework and recommendations to support open data providers and other interested parties in making open data “ready” for generative AI.

In the Open Data Policy Lab's new report, the team provides a framework and recommendations to support open data providers and other interested parties in making open data “ready” for generative AI.

Welcome to our end of year 5 x 5 curation of books published in 2023: five books across five domains! 

Every week, the Living Library, and its newsletter The Digest, curate the most up-to-date knowledge on governance and data innovation.  As we bid farewell to 2023, we took a moment to select five books across five domains (5X5).

To help accelerate responsible data use across the African data ecosystem, AfroLeadership with the support of The GovLab hosted two Open Data Action Labs in March and April 2023 focused on advancing open data policy across Africa. 

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Bard, and Claude have attracted enormous attention. Yet, questions remain about whether these tools can support existing open data and Data for Good programs. 

The Data Steward’s Academy Data Re-Use in Cities Course hosted a Final Showcase event in mid-July to mark the culmination of its 8-week Executive Education intensive course.

It’s July once again, and, many people in the Northern Hemisphere are seeking a break from the daily grind and seeking for readings to stay up to date and refresh their knowledge.

The summary of a discussion into the opportunities and challenges presented by generative AI tools for the open data community

Understanding how we can use generative AI for open data and how open data can inform generative AI

On 12 June 2023, The GovLab and Microsoft will host their annual conference on ways governments, companies, and civil society are opening datasets.

Over the course of eight weeks, participants will learn about the ways they can re-use data in a city context to pursue goals in the public’s interest.

Generating access to data for public good remains a significant challenge across the world, including in Africa. As African countries continue to transform digitally, they too must develop new policies to ensure data is managed responsibly.

Generating access to data for public good remains a significant challenge across the world, including in Africa. As African countries continue to transform digitally, they too must develop new policies to ensure data is managed responsibly.

Civic trust is vital for people to engage with the institutions and community around them. Yet, there is no consensus on how to establish it or how to measure it. How can open data better enable and facilitate civic trust? To what extent can an organization measure civic trust through open data?

A virtual event to take stock of recent developments in open data policy.

A new collection of policies around open data and data collaboration around the world.

As the year comes to a close, The GovLab’s Data Program is taking a look back at some of the year’s most intriguing books on data, artificial intelligence, and collective intelligence curated throughout the year by The Living Library.

As 2022 draws to a close, we take this opportunity to reflect on all that we’ve accomplished this year and how we might build on our work in 2023 and beyond. In what follows below, we summarize key activities according to the four pillars of the Third Wave of Open Data.

In 2021, in support of the US House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, The GovLab organized two online advisory sessions to inform the Committee’s process of developing recommendations on evidence-based lawmaking. The goal of these “Smarter Crowdsourcing” roundtables was to discuss strategies to enable more effective use of evidence by Members and Committees in hearings and other legislative processes in the US Congress.

Providing a summary of the major issues that open data practitioners can think about as they develop strategies for release and use of open data

In this blog, the Data Program provides a curation of tools that we’ve developed over the years to enable systematic, sustainable and responsible re-use of data - i.e. data stewardship.

Today, we’re providing that resource in the form of the Open Data Policy Lab’s City Incubator. A first-of-its-kind program to support data innovations in cities and enable them to succeed and scale, the City Incubator will give 10 city officials access to the hands-on training and access to mentors to take their ideas to the next level...

Today, as part of Open Data Week 2021, the Open Data Policy Lab is launching the The Third Wave of Open Data Toolkit, which provides organizations with specific operational guidance on how to foster responsible, effective, and purpose-driven re-use. 

Today, the Open Data Policy Lab is excited to announce a first ever online executive course on Data Stewardship: Developing a Data Reuse Strategy for Solving Public Problems to give leaders in the public sector, private sector, and civil institutions the skills they need to address today’s challenges with data.

The new paper,  “The Emergence of a Third Wave of Open Data,” identifies the achievements and deficits in current and past approaches to open data and charts a new way forward for the movement that builds on lessons learned. In doing so, the piece sets out an agenda for a new approach: the Third Wave of Open Data.

As part of an ongoing effort to build a knowledge base for the field of improving governance through data and technology, The GovLab publishes a series of Selected Readings, which provide an annotated and curated collection of recommended works on themes such as open data, data collaboration, and civic technology.

The piece is supplemented by a crowdsourced listing of Data-Driven Efforts to Address Racial Inequality. NOTES The GovLab developed this living reflection document with diverse input from our network to help identify the opportunities, risks, challenges, and lessons about the use of data to make racial inequalities more visible and the ways it may be […]

The belief that we are living in a data age—one characterized by unprecedented amounts of data, with unprecedented potential—has  become mainstream. We regularly read phrases such as “data is the most valuable commodity in the global economy” or that data provides decision-makers with an “ever-swelling flood of information.” Without doubt, there is truth in such […]

New Yorkers face many problems in their daily lives. Whether it’s public health or public transit, residents have many concerns about the place they call home. The question many policymakers face, then, is how to identify the most urgent issues for the public in an open, participatory manner and mobilize the resources needed to solve […]

This article was originally published  on November 25, 2019 in Data & Policy, the peer-reviewed, open access venue dedicated to the potential of data science to address important policy challenges, by Andrew J. Zahuranec and Stefaan Verhulst Over his accomplished career, Jean-Claude Burgelman has served as a pioneer in identifying societal and technological trends that have the potential to transform […]

When Brooklyn’s future leaders want to figure out how to grow the local economy, they won’t need to rely on intuition. Instead, they can turn to insights generated from “circular data.” Data about how pedestrians move through public spaces. Data about when and where Brooklyn’s streets become choked with traffic. Data about how others use the spaces around them.

Open justice is a growing movement to leverage new technologies – including big data, digital platforms, blockchain and more – to improve legal systems by making the workings of courts easier to understand, scrutinize and improve. Through the use of new technology, open justice innovators are enabling greater efficiency, fairness, accountability and a reduction in […]

By Stefaan Verhulst, Andrew Young, and Andrew J. Zahuranec When Brooklyn’s future leaders want to figure out how to grow the local economy, they won’t need to rely on intuition. Instead, they can turn to insights generated from “circular data.” Data about how pedestrians move through public spaces. Data about when and where Brooklyn’s streets 

by Andrew J. Zahuranec and Alexandra Shaw As of 2019, over 2,000 datasets have been published on New York City’s open data platform, making the City a global leader in data sharing. This work has the potential of improving governance, empowering citizens, creating new economic opportunity, and helping to solve public problems. These achievements are […]

Yesterday on February 12, 2019, The GovLab’s Co-founder and Chief Research & Development Officer, Stefaan Verhulst, appeared before the New York City Council Committee on Technology to testify on the value of properly leveraging and sharing data to tackle the multitude of 21st century problems. The full content of Verhulst’s testimony follows below, and can […]

Now that it is a federation, is this the opportune moment to institutionalize open data practices for local governments? By SAROJ BISTA, KATHMANDU, NEPAL Since 1991, Nepal has had special laws relating to the opening of government information and the right to information. Since devolution, however, it is critical to think about how 753 local governments […]

Reposted from Forbes, December 9, 2018 Today is International Anti-Corruption Day, an annual commemoration of passage of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption fifteen years ago. In honor of the occasion, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) has published an important, practical and prescriptive report with recommendations for every sector of society from government to individuals on innovative and effective approaches to […]

Report by Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Young: “Across the world, significant time and resources are being invested in making government data accessible to all with the broad goal of improving people’s lives.Evidence of open data’s impact—on improving governance, empowering citizens, creating economic opportunity, and solving public problems—is emerging and is largely encouraging. Yet much of the […]

Exciting events are happening in the world of open data. This week, the GovLab is in Buenos Aires for several surrounding the International Open Data Conference (IODC). These events will serve as a showcase for all the advances and innovations that the field has made. Third Open Data Research Symposium Activities kicked off on September 25th with the 3rd […]

By Alexandra Shaw, Michelle Winowatan, Andrew Young, and Stefaan Verhulst Please find below the latest installment in The GovLab Index series, inspired by Harper’s Index. “The GovLab Index: Open Data 2018” provides an update to our previous Open Data installments: The GovLab Index: Open Data, (Updated and Expanded of 2013, The GovLab Index: Open Data […]

Written by Vishala Pariag and Kajol Char In the latest edition of the GovLab’s Ideas Lunch series, Jeni Tennison, the CEO of the Open Data Institute, spoke about data and data portability as a source of innovation for public services. Tech-giants like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter have been in the news recently over several […]

Anniversaries allow us to pause, reflect and consider plans for what can come next. The second annual NYC Open Data Week, taking place from March 3-10, 2018, provides a similar occasion for members of the burgeoning open data movement to take stock of the distance traveled and consider strategies for advancing to the next stage. […]

  Open Data Day Today marks the return of Open Data Day, a worldwide moment to showcase, share and celebrate the many advances we’ve made in open data — and to look ahead to inroads and innovations on the horizon. In celebration of this annual occasion, The GovLab has compiled its open data resources in […]

The Open Governance Research eXchange (OGRX) began with a few ideas and a few key partners seeking to develop answers and solutions to an important question: How to make  governance innovation more evidence based by making key findings on what works and why more accessible? An ever-changing landscape not only requires innovation in how we […]

New (Open Access) Book by Francois van Schalkwyk, Stefaan Verhulst, Gustavo Magalhaes, Juan Pane & Johanna Walker (eds): “The Social Dynamics of Open Data is a collection of peer reviewed papers presented at the 2nd Open Data Research Symposium (ODRS) held in Madrid, Spain, on 5 October 2016. Research is critical to developing a more rigorous and fine-combed […]

Yesterday, we launched in Washington DC our latest (open access) book on “Open Data in Developing Economies: Toward Building an Evidence Base on What Works and How“. Publisher African Minds “Recent years have witnessed considerable speculation about the potential of open data to bring about wide-scale transformation. The bulk of existing evidence about the impact […]

Introduction Recently, Pablo Soto Bravo, Madrid City Council Member, computer programmer and the city’s lead for public engagement, spoke at an event in New York on “Restoring Trust in Government” on the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly. “Why should we trust government,” he asked, adding “the people don’t trust governments…they’re right not to […]

The GovLab and FBK Launch OD200 Italy, the First and Only Comprehensive Mapping of Open Data Use in Italy Are companies embracing the use of open government data? How, why and what data is being leveraged? To answer these questions, the GovLab started a project three years ago, Open Data 500, to map and assess — […]

Over the past eight weeks, The GovLab, in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Mexico’s Secretariat of the Civil Service (Secretaría de la Función Pública, or SFP), held a series of online conferences to generate new, actionable ideas in the fight against corruption in Mexico. Using The GovLab’s Smarter Crowdsourcing method, a collaborative […]

At a time of open and big data, data-led and evidence-based policy making has great potential to improve problem solving but will have limited, if not harmful, effects if the underlying components are riddled with bad data. Why should we care about bad data? What do we mean by bad data? And what are the […]

New Report Provides Framework to Understand Evidence and Improve Future Open Data Initiatives; Expands Insights and Practices Gathered from 12 Case Studies of Developing Economies; Identifies 27 Success Factors in a Unique Periodic Table of Open Data; and Offers Recommendations BROOKLYN, New York –Today, The Governance Lab at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering has […]

Saturday March 4, 2017 marks the 7th annual International Open Data Day — an event in which participants across the globe will “create local events that will use open data in their communities” with the idea of demonstrating its positive value. Over 322 events are currently planned across all 6 continents. This year’s event highlights four areas […]

Different countries have different models to govern and administer their open data activities.Ana Brandusescu, Danny Lämmerhirt and Stefaan Verhulst call for a systematic and comparative investigation of the different governance models for open data policy and publication. (cross posted from Open Knowledge International Blog) The Challenge An important value proposition behind open data involves increased […]

In order to demonstrate the value of open data as an asset for economic growth and job creation, the GovLab launched a platform and global network of countries tracking the impact of opening their data on entrepreneurship: opendata500.com. The project gets beyond the usual discussion of the supply side, namely “how many data sets have been […]

The Open Governance Research Exchange (OGRX) is a platform that seeks to identify, collect and share curated insights on new ways of solving public problems. It was created last year by the GovLab, World Bank Digital Engagement Evaluation Team and mySociety. Today, while more than 3000 representatives from more than 70 countries are gathering in Paris […]

Continuing the GovLab’s practice of seeking broad input on our work prior to formal publication, we are today opening the first batch of case studies from the Open Data for Developing Economies project for peer review. These case studies were developed in collaboration with USAID, FHI 360’s Mobile Solutions Technical Assistance and Research (mSTAR) and […]

Much of our work at the GovLab is premised on the idea that expertise is diffused throughout society, and when demands are matched by often-untapped expertise outcomes can be improved. It’s with that hypothesis in mind that we look to open the peer review process of our research, rather than relying on a ‘usual suspect’ […]

Reposted from IODC2016 (Spanish version) – by Stefaan G. Verhulst and Danny Lämmerhirt Key take-aways from the Measurement Action Track at IODC 2016 During the IODC 2016, the “Action Track: Measurement and Increasing Impact” sought to review the need and role of research for (scaling) open data practice and policy. The track was informed by the […]

By Robert Montano and Prianka Srinivasan Please find below the latest installment in The GovLab Index series, inspired by Harper’s Index. “The GovLab Index: Open Data” provides an update on our previous Open Data installment, and highlights global trends in Open Data and the release of public sector information. Previous installments of the Index include […]

Key Findings from Detailed Case Studies Around the World By Stefaan Verhulst, and Andrew Young Publisher: O’Reilly Released: September 2016 Open data has spurred economic innovation, social transformation, and fresh forms of political and government accountability in recent years, but few people understand how open data works. This comprehensive 459-page report, developed with support from Omidyar […]

For the third consecutive year The GovLab is getting ready to participate in the Open Government Partnership Global Summit. This year’s OGP Summit will be held in Paris, France on December 7th-9th. The annual event’s international collection of representatives from across sectors will once again “gather to share their experiences and best practices and push […]

REGISTER NOW On October 5th, researchers from around the world will gather in Madrid, Spain for the 2nd annual Open Data Research Symposium (ODRS). Registration for this year’s ODRS is now open. A pre-event for this year’s International Open Data Conference (IODC), ODRS will provide an opportunity to reflect critically on the findings of their completed research and […]

(Reposted from NYU Tandon School of Engineering’ Blog) Tandon’s Governance Lab partners with the United States Department of Agriculture to teach kids data science skills by doing projects to benefit Agriculture, Food Safety, and More For the second summer in a row, the Governance Lab, in partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), mounted […]

By Andrew Young, Stefaan Verhulst, and Juliet McMurren This edition of the GovLab Selected Readings was developed as part of the Open Data for Developing Economies research project (in collaboration with WebFoundation, USAID and fhi360). Special thanks to Maurice McNaughton, Francois van Schalkwyk, Fernando Perini, Michael Canares and David Opoku for their input on an early draft. Please contact 

Recent years have witnessed considerable speculation about the potential of open data to bring about wide-scale transformation. The bulk of existing evidence about the impact of open data, however, focuses on high-income countries. Much less is known about open data’s role and value in low- and middle-income countries, and more generally about its possible contributions […]

The 2016 Open Data Research Symposium (#ODRS16) is crowd-sourcing questions that if answered could radically increase our understanding of open data On October 5th, researchers from around the world will come together at the 2nd Open Data Research Symposium (ODRS) a pre-event to the International Open Data Conference in Madrid, Spain. Similar to last year’s […]

By Neil Britto, David Sangokoya, Iryna Susha, Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Young As part of an ongoing effort to build a knowledge base for the field of opening governance by organizing and disseminating its learnings, the GovLab Selected Readings series provides an annotated and curated collection of recommended works on key opening governance topics. In […]

Launched in April, the Open Governance Research Exchange (OGRX) seeks to improve the evidence base on how to change the way we solve problems and make decisions by curating and making accessible a diversity of findings on innovations in governance. We are delighted to share some recent updates: CONTENT: The site has since expanded substantially […]

Guest Post by Julian Carver Julian Carver was the acting Chief Information Officer at the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) until June 2012. From March 2013 – April 2015 he led the Canterbury Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) Programme at Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), a $5m investment in a set of tech projects to support the […]

Which companies are using Open Data, and how are they related? The GovLab Embarks to Expand Open Data 500 Study in Collaboration with Graduate Business School of Columbia University Two years ago the GovLab developed the first-ever census of open data companies in the US: the Open Data 500. Today, in collaboration with the Graduate […]

Cross posted from Canada’s Open Data Exchange (ODX): Data is the New Gold. Open data isn’t what you think. It’s more than a transparency exercise for government. It stretches beyond social good. In reality, it’s a growing resource companies can leverage to affect their bottom line. Data is the new gold. Whether used to enhance, […]

Today,  The GovLab, in collaboration with founding partners mySociety and the World Bank’s Digital Engagement Evaluation Team are launching the Open Governance Research Exchange (OGRX), a new platform for sharing research and findings on innovations in governance. From crowdsourcing to nudges to open data to participatory budgeting, more open and innovative ways to tackle society’s […]

We are pleased to announce that the second Open Data Research Symposium (#ODRS16) will be held on October 5, 2016 prior to the International Open Data Conference 2016 in Madrid, Spain. Call for Abstracts Deadline: May 30, 2016 As open data becomes entrenched in the policy mainstream, there is an ongoing need to delve deeper into the […]

GovLab is thrilled to announce the newest member to the Open Data Global Network: Canada. Canada joins an international network of researchers, open data organizations and government agencies from the U.S., Mexico, Italy, Korea and Australia that seek to understand how open data is used by businesses to create new lines of activities or jobs […]

Key Findings of the Open Data Impact Case Studies By Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Young Today, in “Open Data Impact: When Demand and Supply Meet,” the GovLab and Omidyar Network release key findings about the social, economic, cultural and political impact of open data. The findings are based on 19 detailed case studies of open […]

By Andrew Young and Stefaan Verhulst Two years ago, the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Opening Governance was launched to build an empirical foundation and fundamental understanding of how the redesign of democratic institutions influences effectiveness and legitimacy in governance, to the end of improving people’s lives. Much has changed since. Interest in open government has increased […]

Proponents of open data have long argued that the release of government information to the public could result in meaningful impact for citizens. To date, though, little evidence has demonstrated the real-world impacts of open data. Indeed, the field has lacked a taxonomy or framework to help measure and assess the effects of the broad […]

New repository of case studies documents the impact of open data globally odimpact.org Despite global commitments to and increasing enthusiasm for open data, little is actually known about its use and impact. What kinds of social and economic transformation has open data brought about, and what is its future potential? How—and under what circumstances—has it […]

In September 2015, The Honorable Malcolm Turnbull was elected Prime Minister of Australia.  In the following months, several important open data initiatives have been initiated from the Public Data Branch of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. As well, new programs are being designed based as evidence from the results of Australia’s Open Data 500 […]

Crossposted from New Brunswick Social Policy Research Network: In New Brunswick the economy is shrinking, the population is dwindling, rural communities are disappearing, literacy rates are dismal, obesity rates are above the national average, and our social housing stock needs to be revitalized. We know that we need to do things differently, to think differently about […]

Today, The GovLab is pleased to join our partner, the National Information Society Agency (NIA), in announcing the official launch of Open Data 500 Korea, a study of the open data ecosystem in South Korea. Korea is the newest member of the Open Data 500 Global Network, an international network of organizations and government agencies that study the […]

A team from The GovLab was among the 1,500 participants in the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit in Mexico City from October 27th-29th. During the world gathering we launched the Network of Innovators (NoI), a skill sharing network enabling government and civic innovators to assess their problem-solving skills and get matched to those with […]

A team from The GovLab will be at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit in Mexico, led by Director and Co-Founder Beth Noveck and the Chief Research and Development Officer and Co-Founder Stefaan Verhulst. We are excited to have the opportunity to learn from the nearly 2,000 anticipated attendees from 98 countries. We look […]

Help assess open data’s impacts across the world. Collaborate and share your knowledge by reviewing one or more case studies By Andrew Young and Stefaan Verhulst   Context:  Recent years have witnessed considerable enthusiasm over open data. Several studies have documented its potential to spur economic innovation and social transformation, and to usher in fresh […]

The GovLab is excited to participate this week in ConDatos, the largest open data event in South America, and one of the largest in the world. Given our interest in the reinvention of governance for the 21st century, open data is quite naturally at the core of our research. At ConDatos, GovLab’s co-founder and chief […]

The economic and social potential of open data is widely acknowledged. In particular, the business opportunities have received much attention. But for all the excitement, we still know very little about how and under what conditions open data really works. To broaden our understanding of the use and impact of open data, the GovLab has […]

Latest Column of Beth Simone Noveck (The GovLab) in Governing: “In 2005, California instituted a pilot program called ReadyReturn in which 50,000 taxpayers received an already-completed state tax return. The state compiled the returns based on data it already had from employers and banks. A survey of ReadyReturn participants found that 90 percent said they […]

This Summer USDA and GovLab Academy collaborated to provide an Open Data Summer Camp for middle and high school students. Please find Below a blog on the Camp by Joyce Hunter, Deputy CIO, Policy and Planning, U.S. Department of Agriculture that was first posted at USDA’s site: Picture of the second session of the Open Data STEAM Summer Camp […]

Today the Department of Communications of the Australian Government issued early findings of the first stage of their Open Data 500 study. The Government has released 65 use cases that document the new and innovate ways Australian organisations are using open government data. In partnership with GovLab and along with other members of  OD500 Global Network, which include the U.S., Mexico, Italy […]

At the end of July, the GovLab Academy finished delivering in Washington, DC, two sessions of the US Department of Agriculture’s first Open Data Summer Camp for middle and high school students. The experience was, by all accounts, highly successful. After each 2-week program, both students and parents reported that we were able to build […]

Last week, the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Opening Governance, GovLab and Nesta hosted a public forum on data-driven and collaborative solutions to public problems. In addition to giving members of the Research Network – including GovLab’s Beth Simone Noveck and Stefaan Verhulst, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Geoff Mulgan – an opportunity to share some of […]

By Beth Simone Noveck and Andrew Young Reposted from the UK Cabinet Office Open Policymaking Blog. Increasingly “experimentalism is no longer confined to formal scientific labs,” writes Charles Leadbetter. “It has become an organising method for social policy, startup businesses, venture capitalists, tech companies and the creative arts.” In order to improve how we govern, […]

Mapping the users of open data in Italy Today we are launching Open Data 200 Italy, the first ever attempt to map the emerging open data ecosystem in Italy.  In the spirit of being open and collaborative, we call upon everyone to help create this map. If you are an Italian Open Data user, please […]

A core part of the GovLab’s mission is to help build both awareness and mastery of the skills needed to drive governance innovation on issues that touch people’s lives. We are, therefore, most pleased to announce the launch on 6 July in Washington, DC, of the US Department of Agriculture’s first Open Data Summer Camp […]

By: Joel Natividad Having been in the Open Data space since 2011, the civictech company I co-founded – Ontodia, have been through a lot of ups and downs. And we’ve learned a lot of things the hard way – first and foremost, that ironically, technology is the last thing being considered when it comes to […]

A mobile app designed to revolutionize public recycling by providing users with step-by-step navigation NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK – June 18, 2015 – Intellibins LLC, a New York City based start-up, announces the private beta release of Intellibins™, available on the iOS and Android market. The Intellibins app is an easy-to-use, location-based mobile app giving […]

Finding out how open data is making a difference around the world The GovLab is pleased to announce the launch of a new project –  Open Data Impact Studies – a series of international case studies sponsored by Omidyar Network and to be developed this summer. These impact studies are designed to help us better understand […]

By Lee Rainie, Director Internet, Science, and Technology Research, Pew Research Center Cross-posted from the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Opening Governance Blog Government reformers and advocates believe that two contemporary phenomena hold the potential to change how people engage with governments at all levels and how they are served by public agencies. The first is data. […]

The Governance Lab is an action-oriented research center based in Brooklyn, New York that works to improve people’s lives and communities by deploying data and technology to change how we govern. We work on high-impact, multi-disciplinary projects with partners in city, state, and national governments, as well as with other public interest organizations and research […]

By Beth Noveck Over 2000 delegates from around the world, including government officials, civil society organizations, and business leaders, arrived in Ottawa, Canada for the Third International Open Data Conference (IODC) on May 28th and 29. Although there is no single, universally accepted definition of open data, generally speaking, open data is publicly available data structured for […]

By Arnaud Sahuguet, Andrew Young,  Beth Simone Noveck Open data is a growing but still nascent field where innovators need all the help they can get to find technical, policy, and practical expertise for opening data and translating that data into impact. At the IODC, we are testing the Network of Innovators, an expert network […]

  Today at the 3rd International Open Data Conference in Ottawa, Canada, the GovLab and the National Information Society Agency of Korea (NIA) announced  the Open Data 500 Korea. The study is the first of its kind in Korea, mapping the use of open data throughout the country. Korea is now the fourth member of […]

By Beth Noveck and Andrew Young Over 2000 participants from around the world are expected to arrive in Ottawa today for the Third International Open Data Conference (IODC). The event follows last month’s first-of-its-kind Pew survey on open government data. Over forty countries have created open data portals and released over a million datasets for […]

(compiled by David Sangokoya, Shruti Sannon, Alexandra Clare and Stefaan Verhulst) As part of its core mission, the GovLab has been engaged in a series of ongoing efforts to build awareness and gather evidence about the value, use, and impact of open data around the world – including the GovLab’s Open Data 500. The GovLab […]

Please find below the latest installment in The GovLab Index series, inspired by Harper’s Index. “The GovLab Index: Open Data” provides an update on our previous Open Data installment, and highlights global trends in Open Data and the release of public sector information. Previous installments of the Index include Prizes and Challenges, Measuring Impact with […]

This week members of the GovLab team will participate in the Third International Open Data Conference (IODC) in Ottawa, Canada on May 28th and 29th. As a “think and do tank” focused on how to govern better using new technology, GovLab looks at how data, and especially the policy of opening data for free reuse, […]

Majorities hope that more transparency and data sharing by government will help journalists cover government and make officials more accountable, but very few think that government agencies are doing a great job of providing useful data, according to a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

On December 8, 2014, representatives from companies, nonprofits, and academic institutions convened with USPTO staff and leadership for a dialogue facilitated by the GovLab on data issues and potential solutions. A summary of that meeting, prepared by a GovLab Team headed by Joel Gurin in a “Report of Findings from an Open Data Roundtable with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office” has now been released.

At the end of the first session of the Academy’s Coaching Program on Citizen Science, Francois Grey recommended that all participants read Tim Berners-Lee’s Information Management: A Proposal, the foundational document of the World Wide Web. When asked why, he noted there was real value in seeing the future through the eyes of someone who is about to make […]

Small data are the digital traces that individuals generate as a byproduct of daily activities, such as sending e-mail or exercising with fitness trackers. [source: Workshop on Small Data Experimentation, call for papers] In this post, we advocate for the need to standardize metadata about small data and build tools to create, manage, process and […]

The GovLab is pleased to announce that OD500 Australia became the newest member of the OD500 Global Network. Open Data 500 Australia is the first comprehensive study of Australian companies and NGOs that use open government data to generate new business, develop new products and services, improve business operations, and create social value. The collaboration […]

Arnaud Sahuguet (The GovLab) and David Sangokoya ( The GovLab) at Medium: “The value, impact and promise of making data publicly accessible have driven citizens, government agencies and businesses to embrace open data as a way to increase efficiency, promote transparency and maximize utility…..While the rise of the open data movement has led to numerous […]

On August 1, The GovLab and the USDA co-hosted an Open Data Roundtable, which brought together USDA data providers and two dozen representatives from the private sector and nonprofit organizations for an action-oriented dialogue on data issues and potential solutions. This was the second federal Roundtable convened by The GovLab in its mission to help […]

There is a joke within the startup community about multi-purpose products that can do pretty much anything: “when is the last time you saw someone using a swiss-army knife at the dinner table?” So, when you see such a product reaching wide acceptance amongst legislators, academics and government workers, you pay attention. What are Git […]

The  NETmundial Initiative was launched on 6 November 2014, as a multistakeholder initiative to energize bottom-up, collaborative solutions in a distributed Internet governance ecosystem. Within the context of the Initiative, the GovLab, in close collaboration with ICANN, is facilitating and coordinating the creation of a new tool called the “NETmundial Solutions Map” – an effort […]

The Berkman Center’s Internet Monitor project has just released its 2014 annual report highlighting the most compelling events, trends and debates to data, internet and society over the past year. The Internet Monitor features an interactive year in review of major internet-related events as well as a collection of short contributions from researchers and thinkers […]

Cross-posted from the Sunlight Foundation. In 2009, Larry Lessig published a headline-grabbing piecein the New Republic entitled “Against Transparency,” arguing that the “naked transparency movement” might inspire disgust in, rather than reform of, our political system. In their recent Brookings Institution paper, “Why Critics of Transparency Are Wrong,” Gary Bass, Danielle Brian and Norm Eisen […]

As part of an ongoing effort to build a knowledge base for the field of opening governance by organizing and disseminating its learnings, the GovLab Selected Readings series provides an annotated and curated collection of recommended works on key opening governance topics. In this edition, we explore the literature on Civic Innovation: Cities and Civic […]

This week’s Open Up? 2014 conference, hosted by the Omidyar Network, convened a diverse group of “open data activists, government officials, private sector leaders, technologists, journalists, and other civil society leaders” to “explore the intersections and tensions around openness and privacy.” In addition to the live element of the conference – you can find the agenda here – Open Up?’s blog is providing ongoing […]

In anticipation of the OpenUp Conference, to be held in London next Wednesday, we wrote a blog on sharing corporate date while protecting privacy: “…Corporate data sharing holds tremendous promise. But its potential—and limitations—are also poorly understood. In what follows, we share early findings of our efforts to map this emerging open data frontier, along […]

Guest post by Namrata Mehta, Director, Innovation, Center for Knowledge Societies Based in New Delhi, the Civic Innovation Lab envisions an approach to civic innovation that brings together user-centered systems design, open and crowd sourced data technology, citizen participation and start-up entrepreneurship. In March this year, at the Design Public conclave, we brought together various experts from […]

On June 18, The GovLab and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) co-hosted a new kind of data event, together with the U.S. Department of Commerce. We planned and convened an Open Data Roundtable: a day designed to bring together the staff and officials that provide Commerce data with the companies […]

Open government data is free, public data available to all. It’s a resource with great potential economic and social value. At the GovLab, we’ve been studying the ways that businesses and organizations are using data as a driver for innovation. Our Open Data 500 study now profiles more than 500 US based companies that build […]

(This post originally appeared on the blog of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.) Two growing concerns—climate change and U.S. energy self-sufficiency—have accelerated the search for affordable, sustainable approaches to energy production and use. In this area, as in many others, data-driven innovation is a key to progress. Data scientists are working to help improve […]

(This post was originally published on the blog of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. ) If the states are “laboratories of democracy,” as Justice Louis Brandeis famously said, then cities can be the petri dishes for technological innovation. With fewer bureaucratic hurdles than both the federal or state governments, and the opportunity for charismatic […]

In early September we started teaching the semester-long course “Solving Public Problems with Technology.”  You can view the course syllabus here – http://govlab.github.io/academy-courses/Solving-Public-Problems-Fall-2014/ and its curated readings and videos, including original materials created for the program by: Alph Bingham, Founder of Innocentive talking about how to frame a problem Giff Constable, CEO of NEO Software […]

Highlights from this week’s Internet governance SCAN: 16 European member states have issued a joint declaration calling on European officials to adopt a legislative package reforming personal data protection by 2015; The bipartisan Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored Abroad Act (LEADS Act) introduced last week proposes that if the U.S. government wanted to access non-U.S. citizens’ data stored overseas, it “would have to follow the legal process of the nation where the servers reside”.

(cross-posted at the UN Global Pulse Blog) When it comes to data, we are living in the Cambrian Age. About ninety percent of the data that exists today has been generated within the last two years. We create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data on a daily basis—equivalent to a “new Google every four days.” All […]

We are living in an information age. Though data has always been produced, the current era has become characterized by technologies enabling the production, storage, and analysis of more data than ever before. Despite its central role in driving innovation in a number of industries, governing institutions have not yet made the most of the opportunity afforded […]

This Fall, members of the GovLab team are teaching courses at the intersection of governance, technology and society, while experimenting with new technologies and teaching methodologies. Here are some of the courses being taught this semester, with links to more details. Courses Internet Governance: Mapping Internet Governance Principles, Policies, and Practices – taught by Stefaan […]

Are you passionate about civic tech? Are you… Working in government with an innovative project you want to bring to life? An independent social innovator who wants to expand your toolkit for real-world change? Someone with an important idea for tackling a social problem but who needs to develop the key skills to take your […]

Crowdsourcing, predictive analytics and other new tools could go far toward finding innovative solutions for America’s food insecurity. National Geographic recently sent three photographers to explore hunger in the United States. It was an effort to give a face to a very troubling statistic: Even today, one-sixth of Americans do not have enough food to eat. […]

In March the White House launched the Climate Data Initiative, which it described as “an ambitious new effort bringing together extensive open government data” with other resources “to develop data-driven planning and resilience tools for local communities.” With increasing climate risk from drought, floods, and extreme weather events, the initiative is designed to harness one […]

Highlights from this week’s Internet governance SCAN: A U.S. federal judge has ruled that Microsoft must give U.S. law enforcement access to data it holds overseas in Ireland; A new proposal by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) articulates principles for an enhanced ICANN accountability framework.

As part of an ongoing effort to build a knowledge base for the field of opening governance by organizing and disseminating its learnings, the GovLab Selected Readings series provides an annotated and curated collection of recommended works on key opening governance topics. In this edition, we explore the literature on The Economic Impact of Open Data. To […]

A few weeks ago, the White House and the GovLab co-hosted an Open Data Roundtable with the Department of Commerce, the first in a series of planned Roundtables that build on our Open Data 500 study. The Department of Commerce, which provides data to more companies in the Open Data 500 than any other federal […]

The GovLab Editorial Board Meetings (“EdBoard”) showcase news and events that encourage thought and discussion about The GovLab’s work. EdBoard is a twice-weekly opportunity for The GovLab team to reflect on how approaches and technologies could help solve problems differently with an eye toward ensuring our work creates real-world impacts. More than anything, EdBoard is […]

As part of an ongoing effort to build a knowledge base for the field of opening governance by organizing and disseminating its learnings, the GovLab Selected Readings series provides an annotated and curated collection of recommended works on key opening governance topics. In this edition, we explore the literature on Urban Analytics. To suggest additional readings on […]

Last week, The GovLab Academy hosted its second #Crowdlaw session, bringing together thinkers and doers designing and running initiatives to empower and engage citizens in the process of legislation- and constitution-making from around the world. If you missed it, you can watch the full session here or review all of the Tweets from the event […]

The GovLab Editorial Board Meetings (“EdBoard”) showcase news and events that encourage thought and discussion about The GovLab’s work. EdBoard is a twice-weekly opportunity for The GovLab team to reflect on a) how approaches and technologies could help solve problems differently, and b) how news items relate to our projects with an eye toward ensuring […]

Last Wednesday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and The GovLab co-hosted a unique event: An Open Data Roundtable that brought together more than 20 officials and staff from the U.S. Department of Commerce with two dozen companies and organizations that use Commerce data. The Department of Commerce is responsible for several […]

Today in Washington, DC, The Governance Lab’s Open Data 500 team and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, with the US Department of Commerce, convene business, nonprofit and federal government leaders for an all-day Open Data 500 Roundtable discussion. The event builds on the Open Data 500 study (www.OpenData500.com), designed to help  government […]

Members of The GovLab team attended the Sunlight Foundation’s TransparencyCamp “unconference” in Washington, D.C. on May 31 and June 1 (see our blog post from before the event, The GovLab @ TransparencyCamp 2014). TransparencyCamp brings together open government advocates and practitioners from around the U.S. and the world for two days of interactive sessions, collaboration, and networking. It’s goal is […]

(By Tim Davies, Web Foundation, and jointly posted) Governments across the world are adopting open data policies and practices. From national portals, to municipal open data initiatives, and sector-specific efforts in transport, health and international aid to name just a few, open data has been adopted as an important governance innovation. In line with the […]

Tuition has increased twelve-fold in the past 30 years! This rate of inflation has even out-paced health care by two. Congratulations class of 2014, you rank #1 in student debt. There are probably many different causes to the constant increase in cost, and there are also many actions the government could take to alleviate the burden on […]

On June 2, The GovLab Academy hosted its first online unconference bringing together leaders and practitioners of crowdlaw (i.e., crowdsourced development and drafting of legislation and/or constitutions). The goal of the session was to begin a dialogue between practitioners around establishing best practices for crowdlaw and to share what’s worked across the globe in an effort […]

Today at the Health Datapalooza in Washington DC, NHS England and The GovLab announced the release of a blueprint – The Open Data Era in Health and Social Care – to accelerate the use of open data in healthcare settings.  Emma Doyle, the Head of Open Data and Transparency for NHS England, presented the plan […]

There is growing awareness that open data can contribute economic and social value. In practice, this happens not only at the national and state level but also, and perhaps more importantly, at the level of local communities. With these localized open data impacts in mind, community colleges and public universities have the opportunity to play […]

As part of an ongoing effort to build a knowledge base for the field of opening governance by organizing and disseminating its learnings, the GovLab Selected Readings series provides an annotated and curated collection of recommended works on key opening governance topics. In this edition, we explore the literature on The Internet as a Global […]

Highlights from this week’s Internet governance scan: The NETMundial Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance will take place next week in São Paulo, Brazil (April 23 – 24). The meeting’s Executive Multistakeholder Committee (EMC) has released a draft outcomes document for the meeting, which is open for public comment; ICANN has released a draft proposal for the process of creating a transition plan for the oversight of the IANA functions. U.S. Republicans have brought the issue to the fore with several proposed bills that seek to delay or deny the transition.

The emergence of open data, that is data sets that public and private entities make publicly available, has created a groundswell of excitement within governance, academia, and multi-lateral sectors because of its potential to make public services more efficient, hold elected officials accountable, generate economic value, and shorten the distance between governments and citizens. The […]

Last Thursday marked an important milestone in open governance: the Senate passed the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA) – a piece of federal legislation designed to leverage open and standardized data to increase accountability and transparency in U.S. Federal government spending and reporting. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced the Senate version of DATA in […]

On April 8, the GovLab made two significant announcements. At an open data event in Washington, DC, I was pleased to announce the official launch of the Open Data 500, our study of 500 companies that use open government data as a key business resource. We also announced that the GovLab is now planning a […]

The GovLab at NYU Releases “The Open Data 500”: First comprehensive study of companies that use open government data  Website demonstrates 500 ways to build a business on free data from government Department of Commerce to join the GovLab’s first business/government roundtable A vast new reservoir of economic value, estimated to be worth trillions of […]

At the latest GovLab Ideas Lunch, Chris Taggart, Co-Founder and CEO of OpenCorporates, presented his company’s work as a case study of innovating by applying open data to better understand the corporate world. In order to build awareness of and support for open data, President Obama declared last year that open data “is going to […]

JOIN US THIS TUESDAY – Live webcast will be provided here: Center for Data Innovation: “Government agencies collect a vast amount of data that is valuable not only to the agency that collected it, but also to many other stakeholders in the public and private sector. By making their data freely available without restrictions, government […]

Written by Marilla Li, Outreach Manager for The GovLab’s Open Data 500 project. Open government data – that which is released in open formats for anyone to download, use and redistribute – has tremendous potential to increase government transparency and accountability. Open data gives technologists, researchers and the public an opportunity to generate new insights to […]

By Emily Thenhaus March 19, 2014 “The world is becoming more open because of all the changes we are witnessing,” says Romain Lacombe, Head of Innovation for the French Open Data Task Force, Etalab. “The question from a government standpoint is, ‘Do you want to fight it, or do you want to go along? Do […]

On March 4th,  The GovLab’s Chief of Research and Development Stefaan Verhulst presented on the promise of open data for health and care at the Health and Care Innovation Expo, a conference hosted by the National Health Service (NHS) in Manchester, England. Verhulst outlined how open data is currently being leveraged within the healthcare sector to improve overall care, […]

The Governance Lab, the NYU Wagner School of Public Service, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering, NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress, and the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management Co-Host Civic Innovation Roundtable  “The word of the day in transportation has to be innovation.“ — U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx The Honorable […]

At the latest GovLab Ideas Lunch, a joint event held by NYU Wagner and NYU Stern, Anita McGahan, the Associate Dean of Research, PhD Director, Professor and Rotman Chair in Management at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, gave a talk on Unlocking the Big Promise of Big Data. Rather than focusing […]

This is the thirteenth of a series of 16 draft proposals developed by the ICANN Strategy Panel on Multistakeholder Innovation in conjunction with the Governance Lab @ NYU  for how to design an effective, legitimate and evolving 21st century Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN).  Please share your comments/reactions/questions on this proposal in the comments section of […]

While some places are think tanks, the GovLab is a Do Tank. We endeavor to undertake real world projects to test innovations in governance and see what works. Some places deliberate about the wisdom of which policy is the right one (or the left one). At the GovLab we focus on how to make policy; […]

This is the eleventh of a series of 16 draft proposals developed by the ICANN Strategy Panel on Multistakeholder Innovation in conjunction with the Governance Lab @ NYU  for how to design an effective, legitimate and evolving 21st century Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN).  Please share your comments/reactions/questions on this proposal in the comments section of […]

As part of an ongoing effort to build a knowledge base for the field of opening governance by organizing and disseminating its learnings, the GovLab Selected Readings series provides an annotated and curated collection of recommended works on key opening governance topics. We start our series with a focus on Open Data. To suggest additional readings […]

This is the seventh of a series of 16 draft proposals developed by the ICANN Strategy Panel on Multistakeholder Innovation in conjunction with the Governance Lab @ NYU  for how to design an effective, legitimate and evolving 21st century Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN).  Please share your comments/reactions/questions on this proposal in the comments section of […]

As part of an ongoing effort to build a knowledge base for the field of opening governance, the GovLab Wiki provides a collaborative repository of information and research at the nexus of technology, governance and citizenship. Every two weeks, The GovLab Blog will publish a snapshot of recent additions posted to the wiki. The following is a […]

For ICANN to be a legitimate global organization operating in the public interest, it must be accountable. This means it needs to identify opportunities to engage a broader audience in overseeing the impact, the effect and the level of community compliance that results from ICANN decisions. To do so, ICANN should crowdsource oversight and develop standards to measure success.

This is the first of a series of 16 draft proposals developed by the ICANN Strategy Panel on Multistakeholder Innovation in conjunction with the Governance Lab @ NYU for how to design an effective, legitimate and evolving 21st century Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN).

A 21st century organization responsible for coordinating a global, public good such as the Domain Name System (DNS) that ensures the operability, stability and security of one global Internet has to abide by key principles embodied by the type of governance institutions to which we aspire, and which are possible in an era of ubiquitous information and communications technologies.

At the GovLab at NYU, we’re about to begin an exciting new venture in teaching and learning for people who are committed to finding solutions to public problems. Our Gov 3.0 program, which GovLab director Beth Noveck described in a recent post, will launch on January 29, 2014 at 5:00PM EST. We were thrilled to […]

Last week, we put out a call for applications to participate in the Gov 3.0 online mentoring and learning program.  With only a few days notice, we received over two hundred applications from officials in federal, state and local government, community activists and organizers, professors and students, consultants and CEOs. They all shared a passion […]

Applications for Gov 3.0, a bundled mentoring and training program to help people in their own communities become more effective problem solvers, are now open! Apply by Jan 22, 2014. Last year I co-founded The Governance Lab at New York University to endeavor to improve people’s lives by changing how we govern. I work with a […]

Christian Laurence also contributed to this blog. Over the last few years, in the U.S., the United Kingdom and a growing number of other countries, the drive to open up government data has become a national priority. Not only federal agencies, but state and local governments too are releasing more data in open formats to […]

Beth Noveck in Forbes: “Public funds have, after all, paid for their collection, and the law says that federal government data are not protected by copyright. By the end of 2009, the US and the UK had the only two open data one-stop websites where agencies could post and citizens could find open data. Now […]

The GovLab Index: Open Data, (Updated and Expanded) Please find below the latest installment in The GovLab Index series, inspired by Harper’s Index. “The GovLab Index: Open Data — December 2013” provides an update on our previous Open Data installment, and highlights global trends in Open Data and the release of public sector information. Previous […]

As part of an ongoing effort to build a knowledge base for the field of opening governance by organizing and disseminating its learnings, the GovLab Selected Readings series provides an annotated and curated collection of recommended works on key opening governance topics. In this edition, we explore the literature on Data Visualization. To suggest additional readings on […]

In September the GovLab announced the launch of the Open Data 500  project – the first extensive study of companies that use open government data as a business resource. The study, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, is designed to identify, describe, and analyze companies that use open government data in […]

DECEMBER 17, 2013 – The Governance Lab (The GovLab) today released an initial list of just over 500 “open data companies” –companies powered at least in part by open government data. This list, published on the new website www.OpenData500.com, demonstrates the wide range of valuable applications open government data is supporting in multiple economic sectors.  The list […]

The ICANN Strategy Panel on Multistakeholder Innovation (MSI Panel) is underway working to curate a set of concrete proposals for ways that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) could prototype new institutional arrangements for the 21st century. The Panel is working to identify how ICANN can open itself to more global participation in […]

As part of an ongoing effort to build a knowledge base for the field of opening governance by organizing and disseminating its learnings, the GovLab Selected Readings series provides an annotated and curated collection of recommended works on key opening governance topics. In this edition, we explore the literature on Smart Disclosure. To suggest additional readings on […]

As part of the GovLab’s regular Ideas Luncheon Series (see our notes on previous speakers Brian Behlendorf, Joel Gurin, Deborah Estrin, Geoff Mulgan and Erik Johnston), John Tolva visited the GovLab on November 15 to talk about his experience leading the City of Chicago’s technology transformation as its first Chief Technology Officer under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and to sketch his vision for […]

Highlights from this week’s Internet Governance SCAN: A free and open online forum about the future of Internet governance – 1Net – launched this week; ICANN has launched a new Whois database beta to test the one-stop shop approach to opening registered domain name data to the public in an effort to improve data accuracy and increase transparency and accountability.

“The connection between the economic and political systems of a nation can be absolutely crucial. Of course there are market economies in closed political systems. But the best way to ensure an economy delivers long term success for all its people is to have it overseen by political institutions in which everyone can share. Where […]

 THE GOVERNANCE LAB LAUNCHES THE GOVLAB ACADEMY V. 1.0 – A COMMUNITY AND PLATFORM FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING GOVERNANCE INNOVATIONS OCTOBER 31, 2013, LONDON – Today the Governance Lab (The GovLab) launches The GovLab Academy at the Open Government Partnership Annual Meeting in London. Available at www.thegovlabacademy.org, the Academy is a free online community for […]

By Joel Gurin, TheGovLab Live-blogging from the first-ever Open Data Institute Summit put on by the Open Data Institute at the Museum of London. 3:00 GMT: Panel on “Open for Business” Chaired by Richard Stirling of ODI; with Kevin Merritt of Socrata, Chris Taggart of Open Corporates, Rhydian Lewis of Ratesetter, Volker Buscher of Arup, […]

Next week, many members of the GovLab team will be in London for the annual summits of both the Open Government Partnership and the Open Data Institute, TechCamp London, and a Thompson Reuters roundtable on “Zombie Data.”. It has been a year since our inaugural meeting in London, so it is particularly exciting to be heading […]

Highlights from this week’s Internet Governance SCAN: The majority of this week’s coverage focuses on defining and prioritizing challenges in Internet governance, and on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF 2013), which ends today in Bali, Indonesia; The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) also made strides in the implementation of its new generic top-level domain name (gTLD) program.

Open Data is one of the most powerful tools that governments have to engage their citizens. Data about government operations can increase transparency and accountability; regulatory data helps make markets more efficient; and Open Data of many kinds can be a resource for business development, a trend we’re studying through the Open Data 500. Next […]

Last week the seven, international members of the ICANN Strategy Panel on Multistakeholder Innovation convened online. The panel includes: Chair:  Beth Simone Noveck Panel Members: Alison Gillwald, Joi Ito, Karim Lakhani, Guo Liang, Geoff Mulgan, Bitange Ndemo GovLab Support Team: Stefaan Verhulst, Jillian Raines, Antony Declercq The Multistakeholder Innovation Panel is an external advisory group […]

In recent years, the online collaboration platform GitHub has become synonymous with open-source innovation. With citizens increasingly calling for governments to open-source their software products (Paul Ford’s recent article on the subject provides a concise summary of why doing so will lead to better software), many have suggested that GitHub could provide a meaningful first step […]

A Presentation on Smart Communities and the Opportunities of Big Data Given to the International City/County Managers Association, Boston, Massachusetts September 23, 2013 Last month, I had the great honor to keynote the International City and County Managers Association (ICMA) annual meeting. At ICMA I met officials from Dallas, Oregon and Dallas, Texas, Carlsbad, California […]

Around the world, national and local governments are making the data they collect available as Open Data, for a host of good reasons. Open Data can help make government more accountable, empower and engage citizens in the workings of government, and deliver public services more efficiently and effectively. In the private sector, Open Data can […]

Over the last few years, the Government of British Columbia (BC), Canada has initiated a variety of practices and policies aimed at providing more legitimate and effective governance. Leveraging advances in technology, the BC Government has focused on changing how it engages with its citizens with the goal of optimizing the way it seeks input and […]

Improving people’s lives by changing how we govern. Current societal problems demand radical innovation in how we govern. Policy makers around the world are facing increasingly complex and interconnected societal challenges: How can we provide health care for everyone at lower cost; reduce poverty and economic inequality; reduce and prevent obesity; redesign urban environments; fight […]

Back in March, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo launched “open.ny.gov” to provide one-stop access to data from New York State agencies, localities, and the federal government. At the same time, the Governor also issued an Executive Order “directing state agencies to …review and catalogue data that they collect and take steps to make public data available […]

Blog from Joel Gurin (first posted at http://www.opendatanow.com/)   Yesterday in Washington, DC, our friends at the Data Transparency Coalition put on a first-time conference on Data Transparency 2013: The Future of Open Data Policy. As you can see on Twitter at #opendata2013, the conference attracted a diverse and engaged audience – more than 400 […]

Governing produces a lot of data. Governments generate, collect and compile vast amounts of data continually through activities such as collecting vital statistics, administering the tax system, recording government operations activity, managing public infrastructure and natural resources, surveying and recording public and private lands, processing regulatory requirements and managing social service delivery. Add to this […]

Christina Rogawski and Andrew Young also contributed to this blog. “Open government” is a central concept to the work at the GovLab, and one where we try to follow developments closely. Even a quick scan of our GovLab Digest over the past several months shows a range of posts on what open government means – […]

Joel Gurin recently joined the GovLab as Senior Advisor, and on July 17th, he spoke to the organization about his work on open data and its impacts on individuals, organizations, and society. Joel previously served as Chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for two years and then […]

Before we, as a society, try to change how we solve problems and plan new initiatives we need to know what has worked already and what hasn’t.  Over the past few decades there have been renewed calls to measure the impact of societal initiatives in order to allocate resources wisely and understand what to continue, […]

A few years ago The Guardian created “Activate”  a global platform connecting experts “working across all sectors who are using the internet and its associated technologies to change the world” – with hubs around the world. Their annual Summit took place last week in London. A few panels and presentations touched on how technological advances […]

(We are delighted to be a Special Policy Partner of this event) #datapolicy2013: “The U.S. federal government is transforming its information from inaccessible databases and unstructured documents into open data – standardized, searchable, and available for anyone to access and use. Data.gov now hosts more than 75,000 data sets and supports seventeen communities of developers, from […]

“Big Data” is all over the news these days, and has gained both positive and negative connotations. The origins of the term “Big Data” are somewhat mysterious. In a paper examining the phenomenon, Francis Diebold, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, concludes that the term probably began to be used informally within the private […]

Marina Gorbis, executive director of the Institute for the Future (IFTF), recently released her new book entitled The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World. According to the IFTF website, the book “offers an inspiring portrayal of how new technologies are giving individuals so much power to connect and share resources that networks […]

On Friday May 31st, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania hosted Daniel Kreiss and Joseph Turow’s Data-Crunched Democracy Conference on the growing use of data analysis and voter modeling to inform campaigning. The conference brought together practitioners, journalists and academics interested in this burgeoning but still under-examined field. Rasmus Kleis Nielson, […]

Beth Simone Noveck and Stefaan Verhulst in Forbes: “The core task for Danny Werfel, the new acting commissioner of the IRS, is to repair the agency’s tarnished reputation and achieve greater efficacy and fairness in IRS investigations. Mr. Werfel can show true leadership by restructuring how the IRS handles its tax-exempt enforcement processes. One of […]

Live updates will be provided from today’s rotating sessions. Each new update will be from a completely different group of our guests discussing each room’s topics. ROOM TOPICS: What are the most important research questions that, if answered, would radically transform our understanding of open government? ___________________________________________________________ 3:57PM: Trust in today’s political environment is hard […]

In an attempt to analyze and categorize the different forms of innovation of governance, GovLab Research released a paper and infographic mapping the universe of challenges, deficits, and opportunities toward more effective and engaged governance. While the current literature on the subject often focuses on one particular transformation such as citizen engagement or open data, […]

SESSION #6 THEME: If Only We Knew…how to make government data more accessible and valuable for businesses and the public CHANGE AGENT: Kris Kobach, Secretary of State, State of Kansas FACILITATORS: Joel Gurin and Theresa Pardo The following is a liveblog of one of six sessions at The GovLab Experiment: Making Engagement Work. It will be updated […]

A new paper on “Local governance in the new information ecology” in the journal Public Money & Management calls for the creation of “interpretative communities” to make sense locally of open government data. In particular they argue that: “The availability of this open government data… solves nothing: as many writers have pointed out, such data […]

A new ebook by Dinand Tinholt of Capgemini Consulting called The Open Data Economy: Unlocking Economic Value by Opening Government and Public Data attempts to measure the return of investment behind open data initiatives. In Tinholt’s view, “political support, breadth and refresh rate of data released, the ease in sourcing data and participation from user […]

“Information for Impact: Liberating Nonprofit Sector Data,” a report by Beth Simone Noveck and Daniel L. Goroff for the Aspen Institute’s Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation (PSI) was officially released on January 31 at the “How ‘Big Data’ on the Nonprofit Sector can Spur Innovation, Knowledge, and Accountability” event in Washington DC. In the […]

A selection of the emerging coverage of various case studies on how open data is being used to create new business opportunities, increase government transparency or change the way drugs are developed: