Transparency in policy making: A complexity view

The literature on transparency in participatory policy making is flourishing. With the increased digitization of our world, recent work suggests that the digitally-enabled relationships of how policy makers and citizens observe each other may transform policy making in a fundamental way. In this paper, we use complexity theory to examine how digitally-enabled transparency affects the effectiveness of policy making in aligning citizens with the policy goal to improve collective human welfare. We map Kauffman's NKC fitness landscape model, a generalizable theory of co-evolutionary complexity, to the phenomenon of transparent policy making in order to explain how transparency as an enabling generative mechanism encourages citizens to align with the policy goal without exercising central control. In our framework, citizens are agents who co-evolve by adapting to information available in their citizen landscapes. These landscapes represent the citizens' decision context, which policy makers observe and modify throughout an iterative policy cycle. In our study we identify three types of transparencies that relate to three properties of the citizens' decision context: (1) individual decision interdependence; (2) decision bias; and (3) collective decision interdependence. Using conceptual modeling, a form of inquiry combining formal representation with empirical sense making in three policy domains (e-health, smart transportation, and smart energy), we articulate and empirically validate two generative mechanisms that explain transparency effects for each of the three transparencies: (1) orchestration via iterative landscape “tuning” to reduce ambiguity and simplify citizens' alignment with the policy goal; and (2) social learning via information sharing, a co-evolutionary social “nudge” that encourages citizens to be more open to behavioral changes. Our findings have implications for the literature on transparency in participatory policy making as well as the literature on complexity in public policy and public administration.     

发展以决策支持为导向的信息分析

文章通过比较科研与决策对信息的需求 ,分析了信息分析更适合于为决策服务的六点理由。以往对社科信息界对信息分析的误解是造成我国社科信息工作危机的直接原因之一。在当前的信息环境下 ,应该将开展为决策服务的信息分析作为我国社科情报机构转型发展的主要方向。文章还介绍了以决策支持为导向的几种社科信息分析工作的类型     

The usefulness of monographic proceedings

Librarians have often questioned the usefulness of the proceedings of biomedical meetings. Because articles in proceedings are similar to journal articles, the usefulness of the two were compared. Thirty-two monographic cardiovascular proceedings were compared to thirty-five cardiovascular journals, all published in 1978. Citations to the articles in these samples were counted for the years 1978, 1979, and 1980, and an impact factor was calculated for each proceedings and journal. The mean impact factor of the journals (3.86) was significantly higher than the mean impact factor of the proceedings (0.98, p less than .001). A short delay in publication of a proceedings was not associated with a higher impact factor. There were no differences in impact factors between U.S. and non-U.S. meeting sites. Proceedings of "hot" topics were not associated with higher impact factors, and multiple-index coverage of proceedings was only weakly associated (tau = 0.27) with higher impact factors. While camera-ready proceedings had a significantly higher mean impact factor (2.37) than typeset proceedings (0.66, p less than .02), selection based on printing method is not recommended. It is concluded that most libraries can safely forego the purchase of monographic proceedings. If a library needs monographic proceedings, it should purchase only those recommended by subject specialists.     

Digital Europe 2030: Designing scenarios for ICT in future governance and policy making

The article outlines a set of visionary scenarios on how the European society could develop by 2030 by using advanced ICT tools and modelling techniques and integrating them into governance processes and policy making mechanisms. These scenarios have been designed through a foresight exercise conducted by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) as part of the CROSSROAD Project, a support action of the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme. After presenting the conceptual framework and methodological approach followed, the scenario design framework developed and the resulting views of what the European Information Society might be by 2030 are presented. The article follows with a discussion of the implications of the scenarios design in terms of key areas of expected change and grand challenges to be addressed. It concludes by identifying policy challenges and proposing possible future research directions in the domain of ICT for governance and policy modelling needed to build a truly open Digital Europe twenty years from now.     

On making public policy with publicly available data: The case of U.S. communications policymaking

A fundamental principle of public policymaking should be that public policy must be made with publicly available data. This article develops this position and applies it to an assessment of the current state of communications policymaking, a policy area in which controversies surrounding the transparency of policy research and the accessibility of policy-relevant data have been both common and extremely contentious in recent years. This article provides a detailed assessment of the challenges confronting greater transparency and accessibility of communications policy-relevant data, as well as a detailed set of proposals for improving the current situation, in an effort to build towards an environment in which public policy is made with publicly available data.     

Florida public hurricane loss model: Research in multi-disciplinary system integration assisting government policy making

Homeowner insurance rate making is an important public policy issue in the State of Florida. The State of Florida has over 2 trillion dollars of residential properties exposed to hurricane risk. The State has declared that it shall adopt public policy to encourage the use of sophisticated actuarial methods to assure that consumers are charged lawful insurance rates (Section 627.0628(1)(a)). To that effect, the State's insurance regulatory agency, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), sponsored the development of a Florida Public Hurricane Loss Model (FPHLM) to assess the risk and project insured residential losses. The FPHLM is an open and public model that has been developed primarily by university experts without influence from either the insurance industry or the state regulators. It is open to public scrutiny and provides an understandable baseline to check the assumptions as well as the outputs of the proprietary models. The FPHLM thus makes the rate evaluation process more objective and less political. It enables the state to justify rejecting or accepting rate increases based on an independent and transparent model, rather than a process that can be influenced politically. As a multi-disciplinary large scale research project with an iterative and incremental development cycle, the FPHLM system development and integration faced numerous challenges varying from technical factors to project management aspects. This paper will discuss the research experiences accumulated during the development of the FPHLM and the impact it has had on the homeowner insurance rate filing process in the State of Florida.     

The perils and pitfalls of explainable AI: Strategies for explaining algorithmic decision-making

Governments look at explainable artificial intelligence's (XAI) potential to tackle the criticisms of the opaqueness of algorithmic decision-making with AI. Although XAI is appealing as a solution for automated decisions, the wicked nature of the challenges governments face complicates the use of XAI. Wickedness means that the facts that define a problem are ambiguous and that there is no consensus on the normative criteria for solving this problem. In such a situation, the use of algorithms can result in distrust. Whereas there is much research advancing XAI technology, the focus of this paper is on strategies for explainability. Three illustrative cases are used to show that explainable, data-driven decisions are often not perceived as objective by the public. The context might raise strong incentives to contest and distrust the explanation of AI, and as a consequence, fierce resistance from society is encountered. To overcome the inherent problems of XAI, decisions-specific strategies are proposed to lead to societal acceptance of AI-based decisions. We suggest strategies to embrace explainable decisions and processes, co-create decisions with societal actors, move away from an instrumental to an institutional approach, use competing and value-sensitive algorithms, and mobilize the tacit knowledge of professionals     

The role of the political cartoonist in image making

The editorial cartoon delineates the features of a popular image. The treatments by selected cartoonists of Abraham Lincoln, James G. Blaine and Robert F. Kennedy demonstrate that the cartoonist, using graphic counterparts of effective oral style, can bring obscure values and images into sharp focus.     

The psychology of group decision making in collection development

Significant collection development decisions are increasingly made in a group context. Despite this trend, surprisingly little research can be found in the library literature that addresses the psychological and psychosocial aspects of group interaction and their relation to the decision making process. In contrast, the field of psychology contains numerous studies of the role of group interaction in the decision making process. This article examines the psychological research on group decision making and explores how group psychology influences decision making and what the implications might be for collection development.     

The making of Mark Rothko's Harvard Murals

Mark Rothko's Harvard Murals are a series of paintings on canvas commissioned by Harvard University and created in the early 1960s. The present study investigates Rothko's creative process, materials, and technique with ultraviolet and infrared imaging, analytical chemistry, cross-sectional analysis, and comparisons with the literature. Infrared and Raman spectroscopy imaging of cross sections help with the chemical mapping of the paint stratifications. A comparison of paper studies, studies on canvas, and the final five works installed give a detailed insight into Rothko's editing process. The intimate relationship between works on paper and canvas is traced by uncovering a back and forth between the two media, and the mixing of dry pigment with binder is a common theme for works on both supports. Motif developments, changes, and distinct painting campaigns become apparent with ultraviolet induced visible fluorescence imaging and infrared reflected infrared digital photography. Color measurements and microfading experiments give insight into the stability and light sensitivity of the materials used by Rothko in the Harvard Murals.     

The editorial policy of a learned society

The effect on the editorial policy of a scholarly journal of its being published by a learned society rather than by an independent commercial owner can be examined through consideration of a number of questions that define possible influences on policy. The evidence from a look at the genesis of scholarly journals in learned societies and their evolution suggests that the answers can be many and that the qualities of scholarly journals depend more on the stage of a journal’s evolution, pressures for its profitability, and the editor’s decisions than on the question of a journal’s ownership. Some first–rate journals are non–society, commercially owned journals; some are society–owned and published.     

The role of IT literacy in defining digital divide policy needs

This article expands our current understanding of the digital divide by examining differences in individuals' IT skills acquisition. In the last two decades scholars have gradually refined the conceptualization of the digital divide, moving from a dichotomous model mainly based on access, to a multidimensional model accounting for differences in usage levels and actors' perspectives. Digital divide views tend to focus on groups of users and user characteristics and focus less on different processes of use. As models of the digital divide became more complex, research focused on deepening the understanding of demographic and socioeconomic differences between adopters and non-adopters. While IT literacy is an important factor in digital divide research, and studies examine user characteristics with respect to IT literacy, few studies make the process of basic IT literacy acquisition their main focal point (Selwyn, 2005). This perspective furthers our thinking by expanding the notion of user characteristics beyond demographic and socioeconomic differences to differences in the processes leading to internet use. Based on a dataset referring to an Italian region, this paper presents a metaphorical interpretation of the digital divide in general and explores the process of IT skills acquisition in particular. Our analysis shows the key role of self-learning and the presence of three distinct approaches in IT skills acquisition leading to different needs in terms of policy. We argue that these preliminary results are a useful starting point for the design of more effective and sophisticated digital inclusion policies.     

The role of policy entrepreneurs in open government data policy innovation diffusion: An analysis of Australian Federal and State Governments

Open government data (OGD) policy differs substantially from the existing Freedom of Information policies. Consequently OGD can be viewed as a policy innovation. Drawing on both innovation diffusion theory and its application to public policy innovation research, we examine Australia's OGD policy diffusion patterns at both the federal and state government levels based on the policy adoption timing and CKAN portal “Organization” and “Category” statistics. We found that state governments that had adopted OGD policies earlier had active policy entrepreneurs (or lead departments/agencies) responsible for the policy innovation diffusion across the different government departments. We also found that their efficacy ranking was relatively high in terms of OGD portal openness when openness is measured by the greater number of datasets proactively and systematically published through their OGD portals. These findings have important implications for the role played by OGD policy entrepreneurs in openly sharing the government-owned datasets with the public.     

网络环境下高校图书馆创建服务品牌的思考

文章介绍了图书馆服务品牌的内涵,指出高校图书馆创建服务品牌的必要性,并提出了高校图书馆创建服务品牌的若干措施.     

古建内陈列艺术设计现代化的思考

当今 ,利用古旧建筑改造的博物馆已经很多 ,如法国的卢浮宫 ,俄国的冬宫和我国的故宫……。随着时代的变迁 ,科学技术的发展和人们的科学知识、文化水平以及对艺术的欣赏能力的不断提高 ,许多古建筑博物馆中的陈列形式陈旧、落后 ,已远远不能适应现代人的观赏需求。为了改变这种状态 ,一些古建筑博物馆从多方面进行了大胆的探索与尝试。但是 ,由于有些博物馆不考虑自身的陈列环境 ,盲目地追求所谓“现代化” ,过重强调了装饰材料与科技手段的作用 ,没有充分地考虑到展览的各种条件、展品的特点以及展厅内外的环境等因素 ,造成了陈列与古建环…     

The necessity for a collection development policy statement

The heart of the library lies in its collections, and collections have to be built continuously. Budgetary constraints perforce stress the need for better defined collection development policy, although the ultimate goal should be an improvement of library service rather than any reduction of library cost. A written collection development policy facilitates a consistent and balanced growth of library resources, and a dynamic policy is one that evolves as the institution grows. Such a policy is based on the understanding of the needs of the community it serves and seeks to define and delimit the goals and objectives of the institution. A collection development statement is not a substitute for book selection; it charts the forest but does not plant the trees. It should be used as a guidepost, not a crutch. Book selection requires judgment and the courage to choose. A sound collection development policy, on the other hand, provides the necessary rational without which a collection may grow amoebalike, by means of pseudopodia.     

The FDNY on 9/11: Information and decision making in crisis

This article reviews and analyzes the essential lessons in the New York City Fire Department's use of information on 9/11/01. It draws heavily on an oral history archive compiled by the Department after the event but withheld until 2005 and released then only under court order. Analysis of the interviews shows that coordination and communication were serious problems; securing information early in the emergency was difficult; commanders lacked solid information to direct efforts; information was contradictory and difficult to interpret; the collapse of the WTC towers was difficult to conceptualize; improvisation was common; and false information compounded confusion. The oral history archive also offers insight into the information-processing and decision-making processes of commanders and front-line responders. The oral histories were useful in FDNY analysis of performance on that critical day but they do not provide definitive answers to critical questions such as the timeliness of the order to evacuate the towers. The use of information on 9/11 also provides other insights into the optimal use of information by emergency service departments.     

我国信息环境管理的政策调控与信息立法问题

国家信息化建设离不开一个能够使信息资源得以充分开发和有效利用的信息环境.本文讨论了制定我国信息环境管理政策的原则,对信息政策指导下的信息立法问题进行了初步探索.