The University of Massachusetts Amherst

Category: Science, technology & society

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Faculty Honors & Awards Science, technology & society

Fountain Appointed to Advisory Committee on e-Government in Asia

Distinguished Professor Jane Fountain (political science and public policy) has been appointed to a three-year term as a member of the Experts Advisory Committee of the E-Government Research Center of the Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (EROPA).

Founded in 1960, EROPA is an organization of states, groups and individuals in Asia and the Pacific designed to promote regional cooperation in improving knowledge, systems and practices of government administration in order to help accelerate economic and social development. Fountain is the only non-Chinese member of the approximately 10-member Experts Advisory Committee.

Earlier this month, Fountain served as the keynote speaker at the first international conference organized jointly by EROPA and the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science, eGovernment Research Center.

Photo: Fountain poses before her invited lecture at Tsinghua University School of Public Policy and Management, China’s top public policy school.

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Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research Governance Science, technology & society

Fountain Appointed UMass Distinguished Professor

University of Massachusetts President Robert L. Caret has appointed Professor Jane Fountain (political science and public policy) a distinguished professor.

Fountain is a world-renowned expert on using technology to improve government services and accountability: She founded the National Center for Digital Government and has served as chair and vice chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government. Fountain is also highly regarded in the United States for her research on innovative and effective governance structures.

“We are honored to have Jane as a faculty member at the Center for Public Policy and Administration,” said Kathryn McDermott, CPPA’s acting director. “Jane is a world-class researcher, but also makes a point to convey that research to people in the trenches. She is committed to using her findings to ensure that governments around the world make information more openly accessible to their citizens.”

Long before Fountain had a leadership position at the World Economic Forum’s Council on the Future of Government, she was considered a global expert on the subject. Her 2001 book, Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change, was translated into Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. She has worked with governments and research institutions at the World Bank, United Nations and European Commission, as well as in Japan, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Mexico, Chile, Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

More recently, Fountain’s expertise has been employed closer to home. In 2012 Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick appointed her to his Council for Innovation, which advises the governor on opportunities to use technology to streamline delivery of services to people, businesses and local governments. Fountain is also an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, an independent body that helps government leaders build more effective, efficient, accountable and transparent public sector organizations.

At UMass, Fountain directs the National Center for Digital Government and heads the Science, Technology and Society Initiative, both of which are based at CPPA. The National Center was created with support from the National Science Foundation to develop research and infrastructure for the emerging field of information technology and governance. The Science, Technology and Society Initiative conducts multidisciplinary research on the intersection of science and technology with today’s social, political and economic issues.

Before coming to UMass in 2006, Fountain was a faculty member at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She earned her Ph.D. in political science and organizational behavior from Yale University; a master of education in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University; and a bachelor’s degree from the Boston Conservatory of Music.

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Environmental policy Events Grants Science, technology & society

U.N. Environmental Project Concludes; CPPA Looks to Continue Science Policy Initiatives

On June 17, a morning of presentations, panel discussions and small group brainstorming celebrated the conclusion of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s collaboration with the Museum of Science in Boston on the international environmental project known as World Wide Views on Biodiversity. But those gathered also discussed ways that the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) and the museum can continue developing forums for public deliberations around issues related to science and technology in our state and globally. Held at the museum, the morning’s activities were sponsored by a UMass Public Service Endowment grant.

During the wrap-up event, Professor Jane Fountain (political science and public policy) discussed the importance of citizen participation in technology assessment and global governance, and introduced Gregory Watson, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Resources, who talked about his experience with community engagement initiatives that succeeded due to the inclusion of diverse voices.

The museum’s planetarium director, David Rabkin, also spoke of how and why his organization first got involved in facilitating public deliberations of science policy issues. CPPA lecturer Gretchen Gano then highlighted the results of World Wide Views on Biodiversity.

That project brought together last September more than 3,000 citizens in 34 different discussions, throughout 25 countries, to consider how their own governments and world leaders might strengthen regulations that affect biodiversity. World Wide Views organizers then delivered to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity a report that highlighted the consensus of participants from around the world: Political action should be taken in order to stop the planet’s decline in biodiversity.

Those assembled earlier this month at the Museum of Science agreed that projects like World Wide Views are valuable tools in our modern democratic society, as they provide a unique forum in which people can have educated discussions based on scientific research and facts. And thanks to the partnership that World Wide Views had with the U.N., participants felt empowered knowing that their voices would become part of an international policy discussion.

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Alumni news Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research Governance Science, technology & society

CPPA Team Recognized in Collaborative Governance Competition

Lucia Miller (MPPA ’12) and Associate Professor Charles Schweik (environmental conservation and public policy) have received an honorable mention in an international competition of case studies and simulations that focus on collaboration in public management.

The student-teacher duo studied the use in Massachusetts state government of open standards, a topic that has long been of interest to Schweik. They began working together while Miller was in Schweik’s Information Technology class and continued the project after she graduated last spring. Schweik and Miller then submitted their report, titled “The Adoption of Technology Open Standards Policy by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” to the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC) at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University.

“As a very non-traditional graduate student, I was looking to the MPPA program to backfill my 25-plus years of experience in the nonprofit world,” said Miller, who is the development director in the University of Massachusetts’ College of Humanities and Fine Arts. “When Charlie mentioned his interest in researching and writing a case on the Commonwealth’s open standards policy, I jumped on the opportunity to work with him. I knew that not only would I learn a lot, but also would be teaming up with one of the most innovative IT educators and scholars. It was an honor and a great project.”

The winning peer-reviewed studies in the PARCC competition are made available on the program’s website as a free, online resource for educators around the globe whose teaching focuses on collaborative public management, networks, governance, and/or problem solving.

Schweik has been recognized repeatedly for his cutting-edge approaches to both studying and teaching about open-source technology. Last fall he was named one of 2012’s top 50 innovators in education by the Center for Digital Education. Earlier this month he received an award honoring the legacy of Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom for his innovative efforts over the last 15 years to study Internet-based collective action, particularly related to open-source software.

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Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research Science, technology & society

Schweik Granted Award Honoring Legacy of Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom

Associate Professor Charles Schweik (environmental conservation and public policy) is one of three senior scholars worldwide to receive a new award honoring the late political economist Elinor Ostrom, the only woman to date to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Throughout her career, Ostrom, who died in 2012, focused on demonstrating that “collaboration is possible, frequent and occurs among individuals of different rationalities and in different contexts,” according to the website for the new award. She thereby challenged the previously accepted “conventional wisdom that common property is poorly managed and should be either regulated by central authorities or privatized.” As a result, Ostrom dramatically changed the norms that had regulated not only political science and economics, but also social and behavioral sciences more generally. In 2009 she received the Nobel memorial prize “for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons,” and shared the award with fellow economist Oliver E. Williamson.

Schweik was recognized with the Elinor Ostrom Award on Collective Governance of the Commons for his innovative efforts over the last 15 years to study Internet-based collective action, particularly related to open-source software. In his book Internet Success: A Study of Open Source Software Commons (MIT Press, 2012), Schweik and his former graduate student Robert English analyzed more than 170,000 Internet-based common property projects and tested more than 40 theoretically based hypotheses.

The Ostrom award also recognizes Schweik’s commitment to putting his open-source research into practice in the form of open-education projects. For example, since 2007 Schweik has led an effort to build an international network of faculty that collaborate on open-source geographic information systems education. Over the last couple years he has also worked closely with the University of Massachusetts’ provost’s office and staff at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library on the Open Education Initiative, a program that promotes the production and use of open-access educational materials to engage students and keep their textbook costs down. Last year the Center for Digital Education named Schweik one of the top 50 innovators in education for his cutting-edge use of open-source software in the classroom and as a research focus.

Finally, the recognition also highlights Schweik’s efforts in promoting and mentoring students in the study of “knowledge commons.” Schweik recently founded the Workshop in the Study of Knowledge Commons, which brings together faculty, staff and students on the UMass campus who want to understand new models for producing and sharing information that can feed humanity’s knowledge.

The other senior scholars to receive this year’s Ostrom award were Ben Cousins (University of Western Cape, South Africa) and Harini Nagendra (Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, India). More information on the award is available at www.elinorostromaward.org.

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Events Science, technology & society

Hackathon to Develop Solutions to Local Civic Challenges

What do the public safety net, private wells, banking locally and saving seeds have in common? All are part of challenges being presented during this weekend’s Hack for Western Mass.

The two-day hackathon, to be held June 1 and 2 in the Integrated Science Building at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is one of more than 90 events around the country that are part of the National Day of Civic Hacking. Community organizers, software developers and designers, entrepreneurs and activists will work together to collaboratively create solutions to challenges presented by local nonprofits and government entities.

Among the challenges already submitted by western Massachusetts organizations are:

  • Creating a map that compares the location of people receiving safety net services with U.S. Census data that shows where those services are most needed.
  • Creating a database and subsequent map of private wells, which can help reduce the likelihood of and problems associated with groundwater contamination.
  • Developing an online library to share information about locally available seeds, with the aim of improving the adaptability of crops and strengthening local food sovereignty.
  • Representing visually the resources available through and the benefits of banking locally.

The National Day of Civic Hacking is a project initiated by the White House. According to the national website, the event “will provide citizens an opportunity to do what is most quintessentially American: roll up our sleeves, get involved and work together to improve our society.”

The Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) and the National Center for Digital Government are both co-sponsors of Hack for Western Mass. Registration for the two-day event is free, but required.

CPPA is the hub for interdisciplinary public policy research, teaching and engagement at UMass Amherst.

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Faculty Research Science, technology & society

Schweik Co-Authors Report on Open-Access Educational Resources

Associate Professor Charles Schweik (environmental conservation and public policy) has co-authored a paper touting a fledgling UMass Amherst effort to reduce student textbook costs; it will appear in the upcoming issue of Research Library Issues.

The article, titled “Open Educational Resources as Learning Materials: Prospects and Strategies for University Libraries,” highlights the Open Education Initiative, a collaboration between University Libraries and the Office of the Provost that started in 2011. To date this project has awarded a handful UMass faculty members modest grants to find alternatives to costly traditional textbooks for one of their courses.

In its first two semesters, the Open Education Initiative awarded $27,000 in grants to 21 instructors, who then sourced free or low-cost open-source materials comparable to those they would have assigned anyway. In the process, professors saved their students $205,000 in textbook costs during those two semesters. University officials estimate that the Open Education Initiative saved each student in each of the affected courses $128.

That figure may seem small when compared with the $6,615 students pay per semester for in-state tuition and fees. But it represents a full 10 percent savings for UMass Amherst students, who, on average, spend $1,168 annually on textbooks and other course materials, according to the Research Library Issues article.

As this UMass project continues, coordinators are straightening out some kinks in the system so that the Open Education Initiative can be a truly helpful tool for all. Specifically, organizers are working to make sure the selected course materials can be accessed by multiple students concurrently and are compatible with mobile devices and traditional computers alike. Those involved with the initiative are also determining how to make open-access course resources available to everyone enrolled in a class, including blind students and others who may not be able to access standard online materials.

In addition to his teaching role, Schweik is associate director of the National Center for Digital Government. The Center for Digital Education last year named him one of the 50 top innovators in education for his use of open-source software in the classroom and as a research focus. Schweik co-authored the Research Library Issues article with Marilyn Billings; Sarah Hutton; Jay Schafer; and Matt Sheridan.

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Events Science, technology & society

Knowledge Commons Leads Discussion about Open-Access Regulations and Academic Research

These days everyone from private funders to government agencies seems to be considering how to ensure that research — and data — is openly accessible. For example, the White House has mandated open access for federal agencies, and in Great Britain, all publicly funded scientific research now must be freely accessible to all.

Next Wednesday, April 3, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Workshop in the Study of Knowledge Commons is hosting a brown bag discussion titled “WHOA! How the White House Open Access Directive Will Affect You.” This session will help members of the university community understand the impact these recent regulatory changes will have on their academic research and publication. Laura Quilter, a copyright attorney and librarian at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library’s Scholarly Communication Office, will lead the discussion at noon in the Teaching Commons room on the 26th floor of the Du Bois Library.

The Workshop in the Study of Knowledge Commons is a non-hierarchical group of UMass faculty, staff and students that meets informally and regularly to work collaboratively to discuss and conduct research on new models for production and sharing of information that can feed humanity’s “knowledge.” This interest is fueled by the ease with which we now can collaborate globally, thanks to Internet-based technologies, on such endeavors as open-access information and media; crowd-sourced systems of production; open-education initiatives; open-source software systems; and open-source hardware.

For more information about this event or the Knowledge Commons, email Associate Professor Charles Schweik.

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Environmental policy Science, technology & society

Gano Speaks about Public Engagement in Science Education during National Conference

Earlier this month CPPA lecturer Gretchen Gano addressed the American Association for the Advancement of Science during an annual meeting session titled “In the Eye of the Beholder: Engaging the Public in Societal Implications of Science.” Gano, who is also a research affiliate with the UMass Amherst Science, Technology and Society Initiative, used the recent World Wide Views on Biodiversity deliberations as an example of how informal science institutions can get involved in public engagement activities linked to policymaking.

The session in which Gano spoke also featured two other projects aimed at expanding informal science education and science communication practices to include the benefits of science as seen through the eyes of the public, not only the scientific community. In the first presentation, representatives from the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISEnet) described how they train educators to build real-life implications for society and public policy perspectives into science museum exhibits and programs; NISEnet collaborates on that project with Arizona State University’s Center for Nanotechnology in Society. Later, session participants learned of emerging efforts to better engage everyday people in conversations with scientists and academics about synthetic biology.

For the last year, Gano has co-directed the Massachusetts branch of World Wide Views on Biodiversity, an environmental policy project affiliated with the United Nations. Gano and two CPPA students worked throughout the summer and fall to recruit 100 participants from across Massachusetts for a day-long discussion about environmental regulations and policies. The Massachusetts event, held at the Museum of Science in Boston, was one of 34 that took place that day in 25 countries around the globe. Results from all of the sessions were then compiled into a report, which was released in October at the meeting in Hyderabad, India, of the U.N. Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity.

CPPA was able to participate in this innovative global project thanks to a university Public Service Endowment grant to the Science, Technology and Society Initiative, a CPPA-affiliated endeavor that conducts multidisciplinary research on the intersection of science and technology with today’s social, political and economic issues.

The Center for Public Policy and Administration is the hub of interdisciplinary public policy research, teaching and engagement at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research Science, technology & society

University Fellowship Allows Harper to Develop New Service-Learning Course

Associate Professor Krista Harper (anthropology and public policy) has been named a 2013 UMass Service-Learning Faculty Fellow. As such, she receives training and support from the university’s Community Engagement and Service-Learning program to develop a new course with a service-learning component.

Harper is creating the course in collaboration with Gretchen Gano, a lecturer with the Center for Public Policy and Administration. The course, called “Participatory Digital and Visual Research,” will be offered for the first time in fall 2013. While its theme will vary each semester, the graduate course will train students to use participatory digital and visual research methods. Students will learn these innovative skills while working on a community-based participatory research project in the local area.

Next fall Harper and Gano plan to have students work with community organizations in Holyoke and Springfield in order to engage everyday people in discussions about how science and technology could be used to improve their local communities. The efforts of this class will be part of a nationwide program wherein citizens of and stakeholders in six different U.S. cities will deliberate together the possible role of nanotechnology in future urban environments.

While Harper is excited about developing the new course, she is thrilled about the ways in which technology is democratizing research. “Digital and visual approaches to participatory research offer opportunities to open up the ethnographic research process and to share research with a diverse array of audiences beyond the academy,” she said. “These methodologies produce rich visual and narrative data guided by participant interests and priorities, putting the methods literally in the hands of the participants themselves.”