Meghan Cook is joining other leading international experts to help the Russia government develop an open government strategy. In April of 2012, Russia announced its intention to join the Open Government Partnership (OGP), an international organization aimed at increasing the transparency and accountability of countries. In order to become an OGP member country, Russia must submit a National Action Plan that elaborates concrete commitments on open government. As part of this process, Russia is holding a conference with Russian and international experts and representatives of government, business, and civil society. During the two day event, Meghan will be leading two workshops and taking part in brainstorming sessions. The event is organized by the federal minister on Open Government, Moscow city government and Government expert council, with the support of the World Bank, Russian State Academy of Civil Services, and SAP.
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Sharon Dawes will be participating in a meeting of the consortium and scientific advisory board for the eGovPoliNet project in Koblenz, Germany. The eGovPoliNet/Crossover Consortium, sponsored by the European Commission FP7 research program, represents an expanding international network of research institutions investigating these globally important challenges. As a consortium member, under a grant from the NSF, CTG is conducting a literature review on research in the US focusing on the use of ICTs for policy modeling, governance, and related topics such as evidence-based policy making and policy informatics. This work has the potential to identify universal factors and to understand how the same challenges play out differently in different cultural and political settings.
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To be one of the most competitive cities in the world is a complex and constant challenge. It’s not enough for cities to be “smart;” cities must act on that intelligence to truly improve the lives of their citizens. Thought leaders from SAP, the Center for Technology in Government, and The Brookings Institution will discuss what it means to be a “best run city.” The panel will also feature representatives from progressive cities in North America who will answer questions about the pioneering approaches they are taking to spark innovation in policy-making, sustainability, government finance, and citizen interaction. This event is only for media and analysts; RSVP is required, please contact Evan Welsh at evan.welsh@sap.com.
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This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations University - International Institute for Software Technology (UNU-IIST). In celebration of its anniversary, the institute has held activities throughout the year, which will culminate in a Gala Dinner on 30 November 2012. The dinner is expected to be attended by close to one hundred guests, including the UNU Rector; UNU-IIST Board Members; current staff, fellows, and students; former UNU-IIST Directors, institute staff and members of UNU governing bodies; and representatives and collaborators from the higher education sector and government agencies. As chair of the UNU-IIST board, Sharon is also participating in the annual board meeting.
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The New York State Office of Information Technology Services and the New York State Senate, in collaboration with CTG, are pleased to announce Capitol Camp 2012, November 15-16, in Albany. The third annual “Unconference” and “Hackathon” brings together government technology stakeholders together from the public and private sectors to discuss how technology can foster a more transparent, efficient, and participatory government for all New York State citizens. Capitol Camp 2012 spans two days and includes a Hackathon targeted toward computer programmers on Thursday, November 15th; and an Unconference targeting a wider audience of both technical and non-technical participants on Friday, November 16th.
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Barcelona, an innovative city and a pioneer in implementing sustainable policies, is the host of the Smart City Expo World Congress, a global benchmark and a unique event at which to learn, share, make contacts and find inspiration for developing the cities of the future. Theresa Pardo will be speaking on a panel about Smart and Open Government, which will address the question: How can governments be accessed by the citizen to gain a higher involvement and greater transparency?
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CTG is leading the development of a set of products for the Nigeria's Open Government efforts. As the leader of the Open Government Alliance, a group of organizations dedicated to helping governments throughout the world, CTG is drafting Nigeria's Open Government Plan for their entry into the international Open Government Partnership. Also, as part of this work, CTG is conducting a quick open government readiness assessment with recommendations for capability development.
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Theresa Pardo will participate as part of a multidisciplinary group of thinkers and doers in London for a two-day planning meeting supported by the MacArthur Foundation and hosted by NYU Wagner to develop a strategy for using technology to create more collaborative ways of governing to tackle the world’s hardest problems. The group will talk through their shared understanding of open and peer progressive governance; focus on how the techniques and technologies of open and participatory governance can help us tackle hard, real world problems; and examine these questions from the perspective of specific disciplines – with a focus on the potential of data science. Working groups will develop specific high impact projects that can help us refine our understanding of this new and evolving political theory for the digital age.
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This year’s roundtable, Advancing Policy Informatics at APPAM, will explore how policy relevant information and data have changed over the past few years and what that might imply for how we conduct policy and management research. Interest in policy informatics is motivated by advances in computational tools and information and communication technologies that have allowed us to deal explicitly with complexity, networks, and emergence, often using a systems approach/perspective. Speakers include John Kamensky, Senior Fellow and Associate Partner, IBM Center for the Business of Government; Gregory Bloss, Public Health Analyst/Program Official, National Institute of Health (NIH); Maureen Pirog, Editor, Journal of Public Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM) and Professor at the Indiana University; John C. Bertot, Editor, Government Information Quarterly (GIQ) and Professor at the University of Maryland; and Louise Comfort, Professor, University of Pittsburgh.
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The Association for Public Policy and Management (APPAM) is holding its Annual Conference, focusing on the theme: Policy Analysis and Public Management in an Age of Scarcity: The Challenges of Assessing Effectiveness and Efficiency. Natalie Helbig is presenting a paper, coauthored with Luis Lunes-Reyes (Universidad de las Americas) and Michael Deegan (Institute for Water Resources), entitled The role of performance information artifacts: A key mechanism for meaningful use.
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Meghan Cook and Dan Morgan, associate director at Phase One Consulting Group, on assignment with the Office of the Chief Information Officer at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), presented a tutorial at ICEGOV using CTG’s Public Value Framework and their Open Government Portfolio Public Value Assessment Tool (PVAT) as the foundation. During the the session, participants learned the basic concepts in public value analysis and hear lessons learned from the US Department of Transportation about their experiences in using the PVAT to develop their five year open government plan.
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CTG will be host to the 6th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV2012). This year’s conference is expected to bring together 300 practitioners, developers and researchers from government, local municipalities, academia, industry and civil society from over 50 countries from all over the world. One of the key themes of ICEGOV 2012 will be organized around the Open Government Partnership (OGP), and the role of openness in improving responsiveness, fostering accountability, creating efficiencies, promoting innovation and growth, fighting corruption, improving performance, and capturing dispersed knowledge in support of smarter policies. Taking place a year after the launch of the OGP, ICEGOV 2012 will be positioned for participants throughout the world to come together to share knowledge, discuss efforts of the OGP participating countries, as well as share challenges and lessons learned.
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The goal of this session, organized by the eGovPoliNet/Crossover Consortium, sponsored by the European Commission FP7 research program, along with the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) and UNU-IIST, is to exchange current practices and experiences using ICT solutions for governance and policy modeling between developed and developing countries. In addition, the session explored the opportunities and challenges for developing and engaging a robust community of policy makers, researchers, practitioners working in policy development and e-government domains.
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The Envisioning a Smart Binghamton Workshop was organized to bring together the City of Binghamton department heads to identify and discuss the challenges, needs, and goals towards creating a smarter Binghamton. The objective of the workshop was to gather information in order to inform the development of the city’s roadmap. Taking an interactive and interdisciplinary approach, the workshop activities took place in a plenary session facilitated by Meghan Cook and Theresa Pardo. The workshop is part of a larger project CTG is conducting with Binghamton to develop a holistic view of the city’s information management challenges and identify where necessary investments should be made in becoming a smarter city. Meghan and Theresa alos gave a presentation to the City Council that evening.

The City Protocol Society (CPS) is a new open, global, and progressive working framework for cities worldwide to assess and improve performance in environmental sustainability, economic competitiveness, quality of life, and city services, by innovating and demonstrating new leadership models, new ways of engaging society, and by leveraging new information and communication technologies (ICT). Meghan attended its first workshop in July, which was held in Barecelona, Spain. At this second workshop, the group worked to define the core elements of the CPS, set an action plan and build confidence for the CPS Launch in November at the Smart Cities Expo World Congress, which was attended by Theresa Pardo.
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Sharon Dawes participated in an international roundtable on Semantic Web and Linked Data for E-Governance and Industry as part of the 3rd Russian Conference on Knowledge Engineering and the Semantic Web in St. Petersburg, Russia. The roundtable was organized by the National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO) and hosted at the St. Petersburg Higher School of Management. Presentations and discussions addressed the context and progress of open data initiatives in government, news agencies, civil society organizations, and other settings. Dawes also met with the leaders of ITMO's eGovernment Center to discuss ways to implement a recently signed cooperation agreement between CTG and ITMO to share research interests in open data strategies and technologies.

The 2012 LVI conference will be held in the United States for the first time, hosted by the Cornell Law School. Theresa Pardo, Meghan Cook, Teri Harrison, and Natalie Helbig will be presenting the session, Opening Government: Managing Complexity and Producing Public Value. This panel will focus on the current open government landscape and the role research and practice innovations are playing in managing the complexity of opening government and facilitating the creation of public value.
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Meghan Cook participated in a roundtable discussion funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance as part of the Vera Institute of Justice’s national Cost-Benefit Knowledge Bank for Criminal Justice project (CBKB). The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the purpose of investing in public safety technologies; describe cost-benefit analysis (CBA); and spell out the challenges in using CBA to assess public safety technology investments.
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Meghan Cook participated in this session organized in cooperation with UN-HABITAT, UN partners, and the private sector in support of the MDGs and implementation of the outcomes from UN World Urban Forum 6. The Session will feature the "2012 International Student Design Competition winning projects and presentation of awards." Participants are invited to contribute expertise and insights to enhance the discussion and development of recommendations for Habitat III (2016).

Held annually, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management's international research conferences attract the best researchers from around the world and covers topical issues in the public policy community. The Fudan University School of International Relations and Public Affairs (SIRPA), the University of Maryland School of Public Policy (UMD), and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) are hosting this year's conference, entitled Collaboration Among Government, Market, and Society: Forging Partnerships and Encouraging Competition. Sharon Dawes will present the paper, Collaboration across Nations: Context and Dynamics, coauthored by Brian Burke and Lei Zheng (Fudan University). The paper focuses on the interactions among the participants during the six-year engagement that culminated in the implementation of AIRNow-I Shanghai, with particular attention to the ways in which their work was influenced by the need to deal with important contextual distances associated with culture, language, organizational factors, data, knowledge, and technology.
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The 2013 Major Cities of Europe Annual Conference will focus on "ICT:Fostering Cities' Prosperity.” The annual conference brings together local government managers and CIOs with leading experts in the ICT field to identify innovative solutions for the most pressing challenges cities face today. Meghan Cook will be a Track Chair both facilitating and speaking in the session, DATA: Leveraging a City’s Goldmine. The session will feature presentations and a roundtable from cities and public service ICT companies focused on maximizing a goldmine of data to promote new services, participation, economic development, societal changes.
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The 14th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research (dg.o 2013) will focus on the theme, From e-Government to Smart Government. Natalie Helbig and Theresa Pardo are Track Chairs, Teresa Harrison and Jana Hrdinova are Panel Chairs, and Sharon Dawes and J. Ramon Garcia are co-chairs of the Doctoral Colloquium. Natalie, Theresa, Teresa, Sharon, and Ramon are also on the Program Committee. The dg.o meetings are an established forum for the presentation, discussion, and demonstration of interdisciplinary digital government research, technology innovation, applications, and practice. This year's conference is hosted by the Faculty of Business Administration at Laval University. Paper submissions are due February 1, 2013.
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