Governance in the Information Era

Erik W. Johnston is the Director of the Center for Policy Informatics at Arizona State University and an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Affairs. He also holds joint or affiliated positions in Applied Mathematics for the Life and Social Sciences, the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, the School for Social Dynamics and Complexity, and the Decision Theater.

• Foreward Rick Shangraw Introduction 1. Conceptualizing Policy Informatics Erik W. Johnston Part 1: Basics 2. The Value and Limits of Government Information Resources for Policy Informatics Sharon S. Dawes and Natalie C. Helbig 3. Evidence for Policy Inquiry Anand Desai and Kristin Harlow 4. Visualization Meets Policy Making: Visual Traditions, Policy Complexity, Strategic Investments Evert Lindquist Part 2: Analysis 5. The Endogenous Point of View in Policy Informatics George P. Richardson 6. Model-Based Policy Design that Takes Implementation Seriously I. David Wheat 7. Public-Private Partnerships: A Study of Risk Allocation Design Envelopes David N. Ford, Ivan Damnjanovic, and Scott T. Johnson 8. Policy Informatics with Small System Dynamics Models: How Small Models Can Help the Public Policy Process Navid Ghaffarzadegan, John Lyneis, and George P. Richardson 9. Quantitative Modeling of Violent Group Behavior Using Open-Source Intelligence Christopher Bronk and Derek Ruths 10. Making a Difference Kimberly M. Thompson Part 3: Administration 11. Governance Informatics: Using Computer Simulation Models to Deepen Situational Awareness and Governance Design Considerations Christopher Koliba and Asim Zia 12. Complexity and Educational Policy Informatics: Exploring Unanticipated Consequences and Unrealized Opportunities of Policy Decisions Nora H. Sabelli, William R. Penuel, and Britte H. Cheng 13. Policy Modelling of Large-Scale Social Systems: Lessons from the SKIN Model of Innovation Petra Ahrweiler, Andreas Pyka, and Nigel Gilbert 14. Lend Me Your Expertise: Citizen Sourcing Advice to Government William H. Dutton Part 4: Governance 15. Synthetic Information Environments for Policy Informatics: A Distributed Cognition Perspective Christopher L. Barrett, Stephen Eubank, Achla Marathe, Madhav Marathe, and Samarth Swarup 16. Participatory Simulation as a Tool of Policy Informatics: Definitions, Literature Review, and Research Directions Gerard P. Learmonth, Sr. and Jeffrey Plank 17. Action Brokering for Civic Engagement: A Case Study of ACTion Alexandria Jes A. Koepfler, Derek L. Hansen, Paul T. Jaeger, John C. Bertot, and Tracy Viselli 18. Breaking the Silos of Silence: The Importance of New Forms of Knowledge Incubation for Policy Informatics Ines Mergel Part 5: Conclusion 19. The Future of Policy Informatics Justin Longo, Dara M. Wald, and David M. Hondula

"Governance in the Information Era is an excellent and comprehensive map of innovations in how we address systems-level challenges such as polio eradication and educational reform. Erik Johnston has brilliantly assembled a stellar community of scholars coming from diverse backgrounds but all committed to applying policy informatics to improve people's lives. The chapters are clear, insightful and show remarkable interconnections between technology's potential to transform public decision making and the public's capacity to co-create solutions. A much needed contribution to the existing literature."—Stefaan Verhulst, Co-Founder of the GovLab at NYU and Chief of Research of the MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance"This volume shines a light for policy professionals on those technologies that have the power to transform how we govern and for computer and data scientists on the application of such technology for tackling the most pressing challenges of our time. It offers a practical portrait of how government organizations can take advantage of new information and communication tools from big data to social media to govern more effectively, legitimately and efficiently. Its chapters combine engaging case studies with insightful scholarship and analysis that together provide a roadmap for the transformation of government. At the same time, Policy Informatics is an implicit call to action for graduate and professional schools to embrace cross-disciplinary research, scholarship and teaching. We need more books like this if we are to train the next generation of public manager and change agent!"— Beth Simone Noveck , Jerry M. Hultin Global Network Visiting Professor at New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering and Director of The Governance Lab