Suchergebnisse

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multilateral initiative which aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. For South Africa, one of OGP's founding countries, membership presents a real opportunity to advance open government. But for this to become a reality in implemention, interdepartmental coordination within the government needs to function properly. This applied research, from the Open Democracy Advice Centre, examines examples of best and worst practice in inter-departmental coordination from several OGP member countries in order to draw out lessons for advancing South Africa's commitments under the OGP. ; DFID ; USAID ; SIDA ; Omidyar Network

Under which conditions does the open method of co-ordination match the standards for demoi-cracy? To answer this question, we need some explicit standards about demoi-cracy. In fact, open co-ordination serves three different but interrelated purposes in European Union policy: to facilitate convergence; to support learning processes; and to encourage exploration of policy innovation. By intersecting standards and purposes, we find open co-ordination is neither inherently 'good' nor 'bad' for demoi-cracy, as it depends on how it has been put into practice. Therefore, we qualify the answer considering the empirical evidence on how normative principles hit the road of implementation. In the final part of this paper, we look into the demoi-cratic effects of the Eurozone's economic and financial crisis on our findings. Adapted from the source document.

The impact of the digital revolution on our societies can be compared to the ripples caused by a stone thrown in water: spreading outwards and affecting a larger and larger part of our lives with every year that passes. One of the many effects of this revolution is the emergence of an already unprecedented amount of digital data that is accumulating exponentially. Moreover, a central affordance of digitization is the ability to distribute, share and collaborate, and we have thus seen an "open theme" gaining currency in recent years. These trends are reflected in the explosion of Open Data Initiatives (ODIs) around the world. However, while hundreds of national and local governments have established open data portals, there is a general feeling that these ODIs have not yet lived up to their true potential. This feeling is not without good reason; the recent Open Data Barometer report highlights that strong evidence on the impacts of open government data is almost universally lacking (Davies, 2013). This lack of evidence is disconcerting for government organizations that have already expended money on opening data, and might even result in the termination of some ODIs. This lack of evidence also raises some relevant questions regarding the nature of value generation in the context of free data and sharing of information over networks. Do we have the right methods, the right intellectual tools, to understand and reflect the value that is generated in such ecosystems?

The application of complex adaptive systems (CAS) analysis can enhance the effectiveness of coordination in international peacebuilding interventions. This study demonstrates the utility of an inductive CAS analysis approach using rich field data from Kosovo in 2010. It reveals unintended patterns of interaction across key sectors that blocked many intervenors' peacebuilding policies. Most notably, it shows that international actors pragmatically using informal coordination practices to advance peacebuilding goals also fuelled negative dynamics that, paradoxically, undermined those same goals. The methodology employed illuminates the complex, non-linear dynamics of interactions between international and local actors that led to many hybrid outcomes in Kosovo. Although the resulting insights on Kosovo's challenges are specific to the 2010 period, many continue to resonate today. More broadly, it shows how a CAS approach can be used to support evidence-based coordination and adaptive management processes in international peacebuilding interventions to improve outcomes.

"Higher Education Policy in the European Union" published on by Oxford University Press.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how collaborative information technology (IT) tools and a crowdsourcing model can be leveraged for the purpose of strategic planning. To achieve this objective, a formal method of open strategic planning (OSP) is proposed.


Design/methodology/approach
Based on a review of the literature a set of activities, stakeholders, and governing rules are identified in the form of an OSP method. The proposed planning method is implemented in a case study of strategic planning in an Australian university. Observations by the research team, and archival records were used to ascertain the relevance of the used method.


Findings
A method for OSP is presented and assessed. The method contains four phases: pre-planning, idea submission, idea refinement, and plan development. These phases cover the activities required from conceptualization to preparing and publishing the strategic plan. The findings clarify how the principles of OSP helped the organization to include more stakeholders and provided the opportunity to make the planning process transparent through use of a collaborative IT tool.


Practical implications
The study provides managers and planning consultants with detailed guidelines to implement the concept of open strategy.


Originality/value
This study is among the few to propose a method for OSP based on empirical research. The study also shows how collaborative IT tools can be used for high-level organizational tasks such as strategic planning.