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Shaping the Future
Monday, February 18th, 2013
DFID have put together this microsite that tracks the shaping of the post-2015 development agenda. It also links to two further UN-supported sites that encourage citizens to get involved in choosing what changes in the world matter to them the most. READ MORE
Democracy Fund
Friday, January 18th, 2013
Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, launched the Democracy Fund this week. The Fund aims to invest in and support social entrepreneurs who want to make government ‘Of, By and For the People’ – including increasing accountability, informing the electorate and fostering dialogue in order to reduce ‘hyper-partisanship’. Investees include the Campaign Finance Institute, the Bipartisan Policy Center and Flackcheck.org (which looks at ways of reducing the impact of ‘deceptive campaign ads’). READ MORE
School of Data
Friday, January 18th, 2013
The School of Data is an online community of data advocates. They aim to ‘spread data literacy’ through helping people to identify opportunities to use data effectively. The website features a range of online courses focusing on data fundamentals – from sourcing data to analysis and misconceptions – and a ‘Data Wrangling Handbook’. Their blog also shares examples of data best practice. READ MORE
The EU’s Open Data Hub
Friday, January 4th, 2013
Just before Christmas the European Commission quietly launched the public beta of its data portal. At the time of writing it contains 5,811 datasets from a range of EU Directorates-General, Agencies and Research Centres. Eurostat, the statistical department of the EU, dominates with 5,634 datasets uploaded. The data is meant to build on national open data repositories such as www.data.gov.uk. Some commentary suggests that the portal’s URL is not being widely circulated ahead of its official launch later this month. READ MORE
State of Evaluation
Friday, December 7th, 2012
Evaluation is still seen as one of the lowest priorities of the US nonprofit sector, notes the annual Innovation Network report. More positively, 90% of organisations are evaluating their work and 100% (!) – exclamation mark taken from the report’s summary – are using and communicating their findings. Although the report focuses on US organisations the challenges faced by the sector are relevant here. Evaluation needs to be prioritised and increased, and further qualitative data collection and analysis is required. READ MORE (pdf)
Truthmarket
Thursday, October 18th, 2012
Truthmarket is a new factchecking site that aims to tackle unverified statements by public figures by offering a ‘bounty’ to expose false statements. Or, as it explains, ‘put up or shut up’. Fact checkers are paid to find evidence for or against a particular claim. Given there are current “bounties” on the site to prove climate change is real and Obama was born in the US, it’s not set its bar especially high. Does “rewarding truth” like this encourage more responsible, evidenced debate or is it just more partisan vigilantism? READ MORE
Crowdsourcing legislation
Friday, September 28th, 2012
The Open Ministry platform in Finland will soon allow citizens to propose new laws. If a suggestion receives 50,000 supporters within six months the Finnish parliament is required to vote on it. The government recently approved the electronic ID mechanism that underpins the platform, and it’s due to go live on Monday. The platform is open-source so in theory could be replicated elsewhere. However, this overview of the project notes that Finland is perhaps particularly suited to this form of civic engagement. READ MORE
Open Policy Making
Friday, August 31st, 2012
“Open policy making will become the default. Whitehall does not have the monopoly on policy making expertise.” So says the new Civil Service Reform White Paper, which anticipates a “smaller”, “pacier” and “more innovative” civil service. There’s lots to be worked out in terms of what this means in practice and The Democratic Society are kicking off a new programme of work to explore some of the central questions. READ MORE
Britain 2012
Friday, August 17th, 2012
The Olympics has been quickly linked with a resurgence in British pride, patriotism and national identity. This Ipsos MORI analysis released before the Games kicked-off hints at a deeper malaise. Can the Olympics counter the ‘gloomy’ outlook of 2012 Britons? READ MORE (PDF)
Community Life Survey launched
Friday, June 22nd, 2012
The Cabinet Office has announced plans to survey ‘local action, volunteering and charitable giving’ in a new “Community Life” survey. Interestingly, reporting will be quarterly, which is more frequent than normal, (the British Social Attitudes survey is annual), suggesting they think community life changes quickly. Whilst it has been designed to inform policy, it has the potential to be really useful for charities, campaigners and others planning local action. First results are expected towards the end of the year. READ MORE