Jane Fountain, Director of NCDG, and Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, delivered a keynote address on March 8, 2017 at ICEGOV2017, one of the world’s foremost international research conferences on digital government and knowledge societies. This year’s conference took place in Delhi, India.
Fountain’s keynote was titled “Political Priorities and Administrative Performance: Building Cross-Agency Capacity.”
Fountain’s keynote address was based in part on her recent research, including:
The ICEGOV2017 conference theme was “Building Knowledge Societies: From Digital Government to Digital Empowerment.” At the conference, Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched Open Forge – the Government of India’s platform for open collaborative software development of e-Governance applications based on open data and open standards — and introduced the Digital India Global Roadmap, an action plan connecting the goals of Digital India with the United Nations Development Program sustainable development goals.
Fountain attended the conference, and associated planning meetings for the Digital India program, as a guest of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. The conference was organized by the Ministry through its Digital India Program and by the United Nations University. The conference presented peer-reviewed papers from 60 countries.
Jane Fountain, Director of NCDG, was invited to participate in the 4th World Government Summit at the invitation of His Highness Lt General Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of the United Arab Emirates. The Summit was held from 8-10 February in Dubai under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. Fountain, Distinguished University Professor, Political Science and Public Policy, is the Chair of the Political Science Department and Director of the National Center for Digital Government.
The World Government Summit focuses on shaping governments of the future and improving government service delivery through innovation. Billed as the largest annual government gathering in the world, the Government Summit serves as a global platform by gathering officials, thought leaders, policy makers and business leaders dedicated to developing the future of government.
This is not Fountain’s first visit to the region. As former Chair, Vice Chair and current member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government she has participated in summits and meetings in the UAE for the past seven years and previously worked with executives and government leaders at the Dubai School of Government.
At the Summit, Fountain heard President Barack Obama, who gave the keynote address by video; Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, who discussed the growing influence of the UAE as a force for innovation and change in the Middle East and Africa; Muhammed Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; and Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and President of Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice.
During her visit, Fountain also met with US Ambassador to the UAE, Barbara Leaf, to discuss digital government, cybersecurity policy and innovation. Fountain was joined at the meeting, which took place at the US Embassy, by Hon. Chester Atkins, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives and of the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives; and by Boston University Professor Jessica Stern, terrorism expert and policy consultant. Fountain said, “The UAE is one of fastest growing nations in the world and has the region’s most highly developed infrastructure. It has become an international leader in important areas of government innovation and use of technology. While its path is quite different from that of the west, it is a country that merits close observation for its impressive innovations.”
Jane Fountain with Hon. Chester Atkins at the World Government Summit
Fountain also met with principals and analysts at Hedayah, one of the world’s top international institutes dedicated to countering violent extremism through research, analysis, dialogue, communication and capacity building. Hedayah’s activities range from counter-messaging and work with former fighters and victims of terrorism to police training, the role of women, empowering communities, participatory approaches, national strategies and legal issues in prevention of terrorism.
Jane Fountain with UMass alumns and Robotics for Good winners
Among the highlights of the Summit was the UAE AI & Robotics Award for Good. The award supports innovations in artificial intelligence and robotics that focus on practical areas of value to society such as health, social services and education. Two UMass Amherst alumni – Michael McKinley and Maciej Pietrusinki, both of whom received Bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering – were members of the teams that won first and third place, respectively. McKinley’s team, SUITX, has developed affordable exoskeletons for children with neurological disorders. Pietrusinki is founder and president of AndrosRobotics LLC, which developed a robotic leg advancement device that administers gait training therapy to stroke and other neurological patients.
The Summit featured an Innovation Lab. Among the displays:
Rats trained to detect land mines and TBChina works with Baidu, the UN and others to pay citizens to recycle e-waste to prevent pollutionDrones for emergency relief in hard to reach areas.Patient centered medicine
Dubai will soon launch the Museum of the Future in a building suitably designed fit for its purpose.
Beyond facial recognition … detecting emotion from facial images
Prototype exhibits at the Summit examined human enhancement, facial recognition, robotics and more.
Thought provoking exhibits on human augmentation
Events such as the World Government Summit are critical for global information sharing and knowledge transfer. It is impressive to see the Emiratis take the lead in such an important international gathering.
Jane Fountain, NCDG Director, speaking at the press conference for Global Agenda Council Award.
The World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government was honored with a Visions Award at 2014 Summit on the Global Agenda held in Dubai on November 9-11, 2014. The awards were announced during the opening plenary, Shaping the Transformations of the World.
United Arab Emirates Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum with Visions awardees and World Economic Forum leaders. From left: Espen Barth Eide, Managing Director, WEF; Achankeng Leke, Director, McKinsey & Company, South Africa; Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, WEF; Prof. Subramanian Rangan, INSEAD; Jamie McAuliffe, President & CEO, Education for Employment; His Highness Sheik Mohammad; Kathleen Matthews, Exec. VP, Marriott International; Dist. Prof. Jane Fountain; and David Kappos, Partner, Cravath, Swaine & Moore
Jane Fountain received the Visions Award on behalf of the Council on the Future of Government and spoke on the work of the Council at the press conference on the Global Agenda Council Award. She was chair of the Future of Government Council in 2010-11, vice chair in 2011-12, and has been a council member since its inception in 2008. She wrote the Smart Toolbox chapter on Political Representation, highlighting the importance of decision makers to use ICT to increase representation, decrease citizen apathy, and to interpret civic engagement in light of the subgroups and individuals actually represented online.
The Future of Government Smart Toolbox offers a practical, state of the art guide for government leaders and those interested in government innovation. The Smart Toolbox was developed under the leadership of Joe Nye, former Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, who chaired the Council, and Diana Farrell, President and CEO of the JPMC Institute, who served as vice chair, during 2013 and 2014. The toolbox focuses on eight key areas for government improvement: anti-corruption, political representation, service delivery, modernization of bureaucracy, increasing trust, leadership, innovation and security. Thirty two case studies drawn from every region of the globe illustrate and make concrete best practices.
Photos: Flickr
Jane Fountain speaking at the press conference on the Global Agenda Council Awards. Dubai, 2014.
Christoph Demers, Fellow at the National Center for Digital Government, contributed to the National Priorities Project’s “State Smart” initiative, from June – August, 2014. Released October 2014, State Smart examines how federal dollars flow to states. State Smart aims to recreate the Census Bureau’s Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR), which had been a vital tool to economists and researchers for decades, before it was cancelled in 2011 due to budget cuts. Other attempts by the federal government to make government spending data more accessible, such as the USASpending.gov website, have thus far failed to provide researchers with a reliable and consistent data source. Most recently, a Government Accountability Office report found that for 2012, USASpending.gov was missing $619 billion in federal government spending.
With State Smart, as with the CFFR before it, researchers can download a wide range of (clean!) data sets detailing state and federal level funding flows, including data on federal grants to states, federal contracts, DOD contracts, business and individual, and federal compensation. As the Washington Post noted, the CFFR was “crucial to the work of a small set of researchers, academics and journalists, offering a broad view of how federal money is transferred to states.” But State Smart isn’t meant to be a resource just for researchers and journalists.
State Smart goes beyond the Census’ Consolidated Federal Funds Reports, as it is housed in a user-friendly website with comparative and within-state analyses. The accessible nature of the site allows any interested member of the public to quickly gain an overview of how federal dollars play a role in their own as well as other states. For example, here we see State Smart’s graphic representation of per-person federal aid to individuals by state, with Massachusetts highlighted in green:
Or this 10 year view of the California’s revenue by source:
Importantly, State Smart will be updated as new data from various government sources flows in, ensuring that CFFR-type data will continue to be available to researchers, journalists, and active citizens.
Demers, a research intern at the National Priorities Project, assisted National Priorities Project staff in combining and then analyzing the assorted data sets that make up State Smart, including those from the Census, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the IRS, and USASpending.gov, among others. “Christoph played a critical role in the launch of State Smart. He quickly learned the nuances of troubleshooting and cleaning disparate data sources, and the final product is a testament to his detailed-oriented approach,” said Becky Sweger, Director of Data and Technology at the National Priorities Project.
The National Priorities Project is a national non-profit, non-partisan research organization dedicated to making complex federal budget information transparent and accessible.
Jane Fountain, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, has been named to the 2014 “Top Federal 100” by Federal Computer Week, one of only two academics on the list.
Jane Fountain, NCDG Director, with Hirokazu Okumura, Tokyo University and former NCDG Fellow, at the Federal 100 Awards Gala
“Federal IT would not function without people like this year’s Fed 100,” says FCW. “And at a time when optimism can be hard to muster in government, their stories are a refreshing reminder of what one person can make possible.” Several UMass Amherst alumni were on hand, and Fountain was accompanied by former NCDG fellow, Hirokazu Okumura of Tokyo University (in the photo above).
The “Federal 100” in IT are selected based on contributions made during 2013. Fountain was selected based on her research on cross-agency collaboration in the federal government. In December 2013, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) released her major report titled “Examining Constraints To, and Providing Tools For, Cross-Agency Collaboration.” The study, commissioned by
ACUS, led to a set of recommendations that were debated and approved by vote of ACUS members at its annual plenary meeting. (Video of the plenary meeting and Fountain’s presentation are available on the ACUS website.) The study was based in part on Fountain’s report for the IBM Center for the Business of Government titled Implementing Cross-Agency Collaboration: A Guide for Federal Managers, the Center’s most downloaded report from January to October 2013. Both studies examine how the traditionally stove-piped federal bureaucracy has sought to become more collaborative in light of technological innovations. Her comments on how to improve interagency collaboration earned her the title “collaboration guru” by Federal Computer Week.
The “Federal 100” was started 25 years ago through the efforts of Frank Reeder, a 25-year veteran OMB official who in the late 1980s initiated with FCW a visible way to recognize and celebrate the achievements and innovations of government officials working in federal IT. Reeder, who was at that time was branch chief for information policy at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OMB, also served during his illustrious career in the legislative branch and through non-governmental organizations. An emphasis on recognizing contributions from all levels of the federal government through a nomination process driven by the expert community and an evaluation process by a blue ribbon panel of judges has continued to be a hallmark of the Federal 100 award for the past quarter century. Photo: Copyright FCW 2014. Photos of the Federal 100 awards event are available through the Federal Computer Weekly website.
Dr. Erdem Erkul, Regional National Plan Manager, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Middle East and Africa, Microsoft and a former NCDG Fellow, participated in the the 52nd CEPIS Council last weekend in Geneva.
CEPIS (Council of European Professional Informatics Societies) in Brussels is the representative body of national informatics associations throughout greater Europe. CEPIS’ main aim is to promote the development of the information society in Europe. It achieves this by focusing its efforts on a number of areas that are of particular interest to its members. The NGO was established in 1989 by nine European informatics societies. It has since grown to represent over 300,000 ICT and informatics professionals as members in 32 countries. CEPIS also supports the European Commission and European Union in technology related policy issues through its activities.
Representatives of member countries and societies meet annually. Erkul has been attending these meetings on behalf of the Informatics Association of Turkey and representing Turkey for four years in the area of informatics and technology.
Last weekend, the 52nd meeting was held in Geneva. Erkul delivered a speech and made a presentation on “The role of NGOs in Public Participation and the Policy Making Process”. At the end of the Council meeting , European representatives, who are presidents/vice presidents of European informatics associations, nominated him for election as Vice President. The election will be held in Brussels in November 2014.
Professor Jane Fountain has been elected a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, which was chartered by Congress in 1967 as an independent body to help government leaders build more effective, efficient, accountable and transparent public sector organizations. Her induction took place on Nov. 15, 2012 during the academy’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
The National Academy relies on its fellows to conduct in-depth studies and analyses that anticipate, evaluate and make recommendations on crucial public management, governance, policy and operational challenges facing the federal government and public sector organizations. Fellows also provide technical assistance, Congressional testimony and participate in forums or conferences.
Fountain joins roughly 700 fellows that include members of Congress; federal and state cabinet members; federal department deputy and undersecretaries; governors; mayors; leading scholars; and chancellors, presidents and deans of colleges and universities. Fellows often are asked to lend their expertise on complex issues that require agreements and partnerships bridging government departments and agencies, and that sometimes necessitate public-private alliances. For example, National Academy fellows have helped create a management transformation plan for federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies and have established benchmarks for environmental programs that span federal, state and local sectors.
New fellows are elected by the entire membership after a rigorous nomination process each spring. For details of the NAPA fall meeting, see http://www.napawash.org/events/academy-2012-fall-meeting/
