uStudio: Flipping Classrooms

#Gov30 Sets A New Standard for Learning Out Loud

For my final semester at NYU, I wanted to do something different.  I registered for Professor Noveck’s Gov 3.0 class because I knew I wanted to learn about the principles of open government and participatory democracy and ultimately, to test my own assumptions about how government, organizations and individuals are leveraging technology-enabled platforms to make a difference in improving people's lives. I also wanted to ask critical questions to a community of experts about what is not being done, who isn’t being heard because of the digitial divide and how we --  the next generation of civic innovators --  can leverage the tools, knowledge, networks and skills to address issues we care deeply about. The class met all my expectations and beyond.  

During the 14 week course, my 45+ classmates and I had the chance to converse with expert change agents such as Joel Gurin, Former Chair, White House Task Force on Smart Disclosure, and Chris Vein of the World Bank just to name a few; to access a curated list of podcasts and videos from top thinkers in open government ranging from Steven Johnson, Author of Future Perfect and Leif Perciveld, Founder of Don’t Flush Me. Unlike any other class I’ve taken at NYU, Professor Noveck challenged us to openly share our ideas online through our blog posts as opposed to simply submitting our papers to her and her only. By sharing out loud, we began to enter the narrative around open government and build awareness about what others are saying and sharing.  During class, we used the twitter feed to share photos, links and quotes via #gov30. Visitors from outside of the class chimed in and participated with us via the hashtag.   We took notes during classs collectively on Hackpad and recorded the key lessons.  We also uploaded their final presentations  on Truonex, a social media hub for projects. Moving forward, Loomio and similarily designed collaborative decision making sites would be helpful platforms to consider to enhance collaboration even more.  

This course and my experience working with the Governance Lab have strengthened my understanding of how governments can foster innovation and train the next generation of change agents within government, and in partnership with the private sector.  As we wrap up the inaugural Gov 3.0 class, I am more versed, skilled and knowledgeable the policies, technologies, regulations, and processes surround open government and how  governments and organizations can better gather and visualize data to help people make smarter, effective choices. Gov 3.0 sets a new standard for how institutions of higher education can re-image the way civic innovation and open government are taught inside and outside the classroom. And it's just the beginning. 

 

Smart Disclosure & Health Startups

How is the government enabling entrepreneurs through smart disclosure? Through smart disclosure, a more specific type of open data, meant for personal citizen use, new companies are cropping up to respond, serve and profit from new needs and possibilities.

Through the Blue Button Data initiative and recent policy changes, companies like Mana Health are popping up to offer beautifully designed patient portals that take a citizen’s downloaded mess of health documents and turn them into easy to understand information thats organized, fun to look at and even offers opportunities to learn and understand their health, and what medical words mean.

Without smart disclosure, Mana Health would likely never be able to get enough citizens and their health data onto their technology, but Blue Button makes it easy.

Mana is a NYC tech startup based in Brooklyn, and part of their success comes from their ability to work through each challenge the government sets. Just this month (May 2013) Mana Health won the patient portal competition.

It’s exciting to see companies jump in, be excited about the future of industries, and work across sector to make strong products that serve our society and collaborate with legislation and public officials.

Building Two Way Communication Between Government and Citizens

During the Inaugural GovLab Experiment in April of this year, I had the chance to listen in and participate in a design session with some of the top thinkers, developers and leaders in open government. Facilitated by Neil Kleiman of NYU, the group discussed tools and methods by which citizens can quickly identify problems that they care about and elicit meaningful responses from policy-makers to address these issues. The group specifically spoke about this issue in the context of Philadelphia and worked with Mark Headd, the Chief Data officer of the City of Philadelphia to understand the context of this issue and what specific problems they faced in Philly.

I was struck by two things during the conversation: First, citizens don’t engage with government because they don’t believe that their efforts will lead to action. On a similar vein, one participant rightfully pointed out that “citizens are not sure what government handles and what it doesn’t.”  In essence, how do citizens know they are being heard by government? What signaling systems can be put into place? Citizens don’t know where to begin, or how to raise the issue in a productive way.  Second, designing a robust platform that creates sustainable, two-way communication between citizens and policy-makers means both sides have to be engaged in a meaningful way that isn’t simply responsive or rapid. In Philadelphia where 42% of the population does have access to in home internet, digital divide and lack of access to technological tools are challenges issues government officials and civic innovators must consider when designing new tools.

 

Communities and governments are hungry for new methods and tools to restore channels for communication and connect people to service and one another.  While improving the way governments and citizens interact with one another is not an easy task, the GovLab Experiment was an exciting continuation of the dialogue and building process to drive solutions forward.

 

US Suffering from Anemic Civic Health

Former Supreme Court Justice member, Sandra O'Connor, warningly reminds us that: "Half of states no longer require civics education for high school graduation which is a remarkable withdrawal from the very purpose we originally had for public school."  In this telling report published by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, researchers shine light on the data collected by the Southern Poverty Law Center who assigned thirty-five states an F grade because the history standards in their states “require little or no mention” of the civil rights movement which is the most powerful example in the 20^th century of a transformative, broad-based, intergenerational, and interracial social movement for full-democratic citizenship.

 

Civics education and engagement is a necessary pillar on which democracies grow.  Citizens must be encouraged and enabled to make a difference in their own communities, governments, schools, and other place of public interaction.   Tom Erhlich defines civic engagement as "working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and nonpolitical processes.” Sharing what communities learn about effective civic engagement and education can create a positive ripple effect.  

During this moment of history of tremendous change and ever-so presistent challenges, the world needs new forms of leadership and governance that tackle the toughest challenges in  a collaborative, data driven way.  What’s needed is a new approach and mindset to train the next generation of problem solvers in civics education and social innovation across US college campuses. The world needs to train a pipeline of leaders, innovators and intrapreneurs who have the tools, mindset and networks to lead globally and locally, across sectors and disciplines and with an ethos of openness, transparency and collaboration.  We need universities and colleges to step forth more rigorously to take on the challenge and opportunity of preparing youth to serve their communities.  As the American Associaion of College and Universities claim,  “Higher education in a robust, diverse and democratic county needs to cultivate in each of its graduates an open and curious mind, critical acumen, public voice, ethical and moral judgment, and the commitment to act collectively in public to achieve shared purpose.” 

We must bring civics back into the classroom and into our everyday lives. 

 

 

Education Without Borders -- The Future of Learning and Conferencing

What are some of the most pressing challenges in education on a global scale? What are college-aged students around the world doing to address them? What can we learn from each other about the problems and solutions to these complex issues? And what can we do beyond conferences to turn inspiration into action?  These were some of the questions on my mind as I journeyed over the Atlantic traveling from New York City to Dubai, UAE en route to the 7th Biennial Education Without Borders conference earlier this spring.

From March 24  - 29, 2013, hundreds of students gathered in Dubai and Abu Dabi, UAE to discuss these questions and learn from one another. Selected by the Higher Colleges of Technology to serve as a member of the World Student Organizing Committee (WSOC), I was very fortunate to attend the conference as a student representative of New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

On a broad level, the EWB engages students and experts around the world in active dialogue and solution generation. By creating networks across cultures, bringing people to discuss the challenges of today and generating solutions together, students return home after the conference brimming with ideas and tools to lead change within their own communities. I meet college students from Mauritius, Senegal, South Africa, Singapore and Southern France. The diversity and energy of the students was impossible to ignore. For many students, it was an unparalled opportunity in the UAE to meet and interact with a highly diverse, motivated group of students from across the world who all cared about making an impact.  

At another level, the EWB conference also encouraged targeted conversation around specific, localized topics initated by the student delegates themselves. Student presented their projects to peers and experts, proposing new solutions to a range of issues in education, environment, human rights, technology and business. I had to change to meet and interview one of this year’s winners, Ms. Khawla Othman Salman Hussain Hassan. A a 22 year old student at the Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology, she lives in the UAE, is majoring in accounting and  a member of the Model United Nations club. She enjoys photography and filming, reading, swimming and diving. In my interview, we discuss the challenges and changes in the UAE, the role of technology in her college education and the types of learning experiences that have been the most valuable for her.   

My interview with Khawla is located here:  

 

Download Khawla

 

 

Conferences are a great venue to connect with people, ideas and opportunities.  Many of them, however, fall short of their potential unless participants to continue to leverage the newly formed networks to  expand on the mission of the conference in tangible ways.

 

The EWB conference opened an important door to  elicit new, innovative ideas to increase creativity and out of the box thinking.

How are students transforming the inspiring from the conference into projects?  How far does inspiration fuel commitment to smart action? What technologies might we incorporate into the post-production stages of conferences to ensure that we can track progress, move forward and transform lessoned learning into implementable plans?  

In essence, how do you go from conference attendance to knowledge sharing and to solution creation? The EWB alumni of 2013 has a great opportunity to lead change back home -- to move from inspiration to action.

 

 

 

Key Questions from the GovLab Experiment: Experts Session

Last month, I participated in the inaugural GovLab Experiment and sat in on the "Identifying Experts" session. The topic of the session was "how to find the people who know the most about a topic" with Hon. Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Minister of Youth and ICT (MYICT) in Rwanda as the Change Agent and Chris Vein, CIO of the World Bank as facilitator.

The session brought together an eclectic mix of academics, technologists, bureaucrats, and practitioners to make for an incredible conversation throughout the day. A few key questions from the session include:

• How to make something concrete out of collective expertise?
• Defining the current institutional problems related to finding the right expertise and incentivizing them to engage?
• How to form teams between people with diverse skill sets?

I was personally struck by one question that was brought up: what are the cultural impediments to sourcing experts for government decision making? As an international development student at NYU Wagner, I found it particularly interesting to contemplate the cultural obstacles in finding experts to work on their public problems. At the beginning of the session, the Minister had discussed his current problem sourcing experts to work on local issues within MYICT. I wondered what types of cultural obstacles may exist in sourcing experts and what type of role might this play in potential outputs. At the completion of our session, I spoke with the Minister about a potential innovation network to pull expertise from the local level, to which he was very interested. I am currently writing up a proposal for an innovation network project, while being particularly mindful of the cultural impediments discussion from our session. 

 

Open Data, Open Education

 

Open data has changed the face of education in a monumental way. 

Self-learning has been taken to a new level with sites like Quora or Stack Exchange, where you can easily post a burning question and receive surprisingly accurate answers. How to videos on almost anything are readily accessible at the push of a button on YouTube from "How to Understand String Theory" to a "Barbie Tutorial". The open data revolution has given every day citizens to share their invididual expertise with the world in an amazing way.  

The formal education sector is also evolving. From educational networks like Khan Academy, Coursera to Skillshare, learning is becoming more easily accessible and free. Classrooms are changing just as fast. Flipped classrooms that integrate technology and open data into the curriculum to supplement teaching are being more popular through classes just like Gov 3.0 or through initiatives such as LinkedUp Education. The ever expanding network of open data gives educators a prime opportunity to encourage self-directed learning, classroom innovation, and develop more effective teaching methods.

In addition to innovations in classroom learning, education management systems are also evolving. The Open Source Education Management Information System (EMIS) is rethinking how school data is tracked and stored for policy makers and education stakeholders to better evaluate their education systems. The U.S. Department of Education is also making headway by creating tools to help students succeed and empower them to make informed educational decisions. For example, over 78 million people are now able to download their own Federal student loan and grant data from the Department of Education through the NSLDS Student Access system. 

Sharing educational resources freely around the globe, also known as "open education" has been adopted by over 200 higher academic institutions worldwide and is growing rapidly. At NYU, the open education movement has been gaining momentum as well. NYU's goal is to become the first university to deploy 21st‐century technology throughout their global network university. Their current open ed pilot, which was launched in fall 2009, focuses on the creation of public content, greater online student interaction, reuse of course content, and expanded outreach. "According to the OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCW), open education has three main advantages: access and distribution of knowledge to regions of the world where higher education is not readily available; recruitment and retention of students, as well as curriculum development and research collaboration among faculty; and sustainability of interest in and access to higher education."

Free and open access to information has become a staple of our daily lives. Education is more alive than ever in ways that many of us don't even realize. Whether you are checking wikipedia for definitions or reading the news off your twitter feed, humans are engaging in a new kind of self-education and societal integration. 

 

What are LOCAL Governments Doing for Entrepreneurs?

What are LOCAL Governments Doing for Entrepreneurs?

City Initiatives:

• Reno & Cedar Rapids launch 1 Million Cups, a program by the Kauffman Foundation that lets entrepreneurs present to mentors, makers, and the startup community. 
• Arlington has BizLaunch, a small business assistance network to provide free research assistance, business advice, counseling and loan information in english and spanish. 
• The City of San Buenaventura, California has a Jobs and Investment Fund that set up an incubator and works with venture funds to support young companies. 

 A Few State Bills on the Table:

1) SENATE BILL NO. 2018, North Dakota

Read the bill here.

Update: Sent to Governor on May 2, 3013

Section 9: “Research North Dakota venture investment program.

1. The corporation shall administer a research North Dakota venture investment program that provides investments to startup or spinoff businesses that utilize technology developed at a research university, as defined in section 54-65-01, or jointly developed by a research university and the private sector.

2. A qualified applicant for a research North Dakota venture investment: a. Must be a business operating in North Dakota that is in the startup or spinoff state; b. Must be utilizing technology that is licensed from a research university or a nonprofit foundation affiliated with a research university; and c. Must meet underwriting guidelines established by the corporation.

3. An investment under this section may not exceed two hundred fifty thousand dollars. A recipient business may not receive more than one award under this section.”

Section 25: “The department of commerce shall use up to $300,000 for a grant to a nonprofit organization assisting individuals with business ideas. The department of commerce shall use any remaining amount for the technology-based entrepreneurship grant program.”

Section 42: “It is the intent of the sixty-third legislative assembly that the North Dakota development fund, incorporated, use funding transferred to the North Dakota development fund, incorporated, in section 18 of chapter 50 of the 2011 Session Laws for investments under the research North Dakota venture investment program.”

2) New York S4574-2013:

Apr 11, 2013 — REFERRED TO COMMERCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND SMALL BUSINESS

Goal: Create Micro Business Outreach Centers & A Micro Business Network.

“PURPOSE: To create a means of supporting existing business outreach centers and creating additional centers that are serving micro enterprises as well as providing them with the opportunity to facilitate individuals of communities that are geographically and socially isolated from the mainstream economy with access to economic development counseling services and funds.”

Read the short, conscise bill here.

3) SF 1545, Minnesota

Read the Bill here.

“Section 1. ASSISTANCE TO ENTREPRENEURS; APPROPRIATION. (a) $360,000 in fiscal year 2014 and $360,000 in fiscal year 2015 are appropriated from the general fund to the commissioner of employment and economic development for a grant to the small business development center hosted at Minnesota State University, Mankato, for a collaborative initiative with the Regional Center for Entrepreneurial Facilitation.

4) S 0827, Rhode Island

Referred to Senate Finance

Read the bill here.

“SECTION 14. Section 44-43-2 of the General Laws in Chapter 44-43 entitled "Tax Incentives for Capital Investment in Small Businesses" is hereby amended to read as follows: 44-43-2. Deduction or modification. -- (a) In the year in which a taxpayer first makes a qualifying investment in a certified venture capital partnership or the year in which an entrepreneur first makes an investment in a qualifying entity, the taxpayer or the entrepreneur shall be allowed:

(1) A deduction for purposes of computing net income or net worth in accordance with chapter 11 of this title; or

(2) A deduction from gross earnings for purposes of computing the public service corporation tax in accordance with chapter 13 of this title; or

(3) A deduction for the purposes of computing net income in accordance with chapter 14 of this title; or

(4) A deduction for the purposes of computing gross premiums in accordance with chapter 17 of this title; or

(5) A modification reducing federal adjusted gross income in accordance with chapter 30 of this title. (b) The deduction or modification shall be in an amount equal to the taxpayer's qualifying investment in a certified venture capital partnership or an entrepreneur's investment in a qualifying business entity and shall be measured at the year end of the certified venture capital partnership, the year end of the qualifying business entity, or the year end of the investing taxpayer, whichever comes first.”

ADOPTED:

5) New York R633: Establishes the Senate Select Committee on Science, Technology, Incubation and Entrepreneurship

Read the legislation here.

“be it RESOLVED, That a Select Committee on Science, Technology, Incubation and Entrepreneurship is hereby established, to conduct meetings, conferences, examinations, and public hearings, to gather information and make legislative proposals, reports, and recommendations, and to provide outreach to and interaction with private and public organizations that provide incubation, innovation, and entrepreneurship programs, and to make recommendations on efforts to strengthen entrepreneurial and job creation including related legislative proposals and resolutions before the State Legislature in such areas; all with the aim of growing the spirit of enterprise and innovation in New York”

Sources:

• http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/center-for-research-and-innovation/economic-development/small-business-and-entrepreneurship/providing-support-services-to-strengthen-your-small-businesses
• http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/center-for-research-and-innovation/economic-development/small-business-and-entrepreneurship/asheville%E2%80%99s-efforts-to-support-and-attract-entrepreneurs
• http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/center-for-research-and-innovation/economic-development/small-business-and-entrepreneurship/a-city-in-action-the-san-buenaventura-jobs-and-investment-fund
• http://www.vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/hatching_an_idea/7705/

OGP Political & Economic Inclusivity

What can the Open Government Partnership (OGP) do to open doors for political and economic inclusivity?

Foreign aid from official sources to developing countries around the world has amounted in over $2.3 trillion dollars over the past 50 years with little to show for sustainable impacts. In 2011, the Open Government Partnership was founded with new hopes to promote long-term political and economic inclusivity in developing countries.

In order for the OGP to achieve its objectives within the participating countries, instead of evolving into a top-down technocratic transparency initiative, two key areas must be prioritized: building political inclusivity and improving oversight and accountability. Thus far, over 50 countries have joined the OGP to develop action plans hoping to create more inclusive institutions. Particularly by fighting corruption and improving transparency, the OGP has the potential to grow developing economies by making member countries more attractive to foreign direct investment. Firstly, access to political power must be equitably distributed to create a solid foundation for representative decision-making, leading to economic inclusivity. A minimum requirement for membership in the OGP is active citizen engagement in decision making which is determined by the EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit) Democracy Index’s Civil Liberties indicator for voting laws. Secondly, the OGP must ensure that countries abide by the minimum requirements outlined by their Open Government Declaration through careful monitoring and evaluation.

Political institutions that distribute power across society and create citizen incentives for innovation, such as the government of South Korea have exhibited tremendous growth after adopting such policies. Better distribution of power, allows for citizens to voice concerns and contribute to decisions that directly affect their living standards, thus positioning citizens for better quality lives and participation in their economy.  The cyclical relationship between equitably-distributed political power and economic opportunity among citizens feeds into the growth and prosperity of society. Participating countries are currently awarded points for establishing a provision of public services and system of law, but the OGP should place increased emphasis on participatory politics in each county’s required Open Government Declaration, as it plays a key role in the advancement of each citizen’s economic capabilities.

The OGP Steering Committee is responsible for carefully monitoring the minimum requirements for all participating countries. Pivotal to the success of the OGP’s principles of political and economic inclusivity, is its ability to effectively gather data about each country’s progress. Currently, strict measurements and annual steering committee evaluations are in place to ensure specific openness standards are met. Moving forward, the OGP steering committee should assist participating governments in the designing of more organized, accessible, and efficient data management and tracking systems. In addition, the OGP should capitalize on civil society to assist in the accurate evaluation of government inclusivity as the beneficiaries of many of these openness policies. Government institutions should encourage citizens to actively participate in evaluation surveys and conduct in-depth focus groups to understand the effectiveness of policies.

+Acumen - 3000 users in 103 countries.

April 25, 2013  -- Sasha Dichter, Chief Innovation Officer of Acumen, shared his insights and knowledge about impact investing and patient capital to a group of NYU students enrolled in Professor Hans Taparia’s social entrepreneurship class.  I was lucky enough to be one of the students.

Acumen is a non-profit organization that raises charitable donations to invest in companies, leaders, and ideas that are changing the way the world tackles poverty. Founded by Jacqueline Novogratz in 2001, Acumen has invested over 50 million dollars in 50 companies across the globe.  During his talk, Sasha explained that Acumen looks for world class teams leading financially sustainable, scalable companies with game changing ideas; that Acumen looks for companies that have a new ways to solving tough problems that put people and planet before profit. In her 2010 TED Talk, Novogratz shares how she imagines “a world one day when people take resources to change the world in positive ways.”  

In 2012, Acumen launched +Acumen, an online leadership course that teaches students of all ages and backgrounds skills in entrepreneurship, innovation and moral imagination. To sign up for a class - which range in topic and in length - students have to form groups of two to six members.  By encouraging people to form groups and follow a guided schedule, +Acumen trains people with the tools and knowledge they need to improve their abilities to solve problems together. Courses include Lean Start Up, Storytelling and design thinking.  This year alone, over 3,000 people signed up for their courses in 103 countries.  The teachers in experts in the field of online learning and open innovation including Steve Blank of Stanford University and the design firm, Ideo.   

As the world turns to more online learning, +Acumen’s blended approach of team-based projects and learning -by-doing is a unique approach of spreading what Acumen is learning about impact investing to a wider, interested audience. While not every entrepreneur "fits" the bill of an Acumen Fellow, there are millions of people who are hungry for tools and community to take one step forward in learning how to be more innovative.  In our conversation in the class, Sasha and the students were interested in discussing how the curriculum can be made as widely and strategically available to as many communities possible.   I'd personally love to see more freshman in undergraduates institutions or high school seniors applying the model to solve problems in their own back yards. 

How cool would if be if every freshman student entering their schools in August 2013 had a new +acumen roommate (designated based on interests and fit) with whom they could tinker on a game changing idea? Global, multidisciplinary teams, with a prize incentive at the end of the course to the teams that show the most progress and promise to chanege the world.  

 

 

Learn more about +Acumen here: 

 

http://plusacumen.org/courses/lean-for-social-impact/