Policy Informatics Talk at Universidade do Minho – April 2012

On, April 13, I will deliver a research talk at the Department of Information Systems, University of Minho (in Guimarães). The title of my talk is Policy Informatics: Embracing Complexity, Information, and Systems. The talk will feature my recent work on policy informatics and the policy informatics book project. I will also briefly highlight work featured in my recent book, […]

Developing Innovative Apps for Challenges: A Series of Interviews with App Developers

Over the next few weeks, my research team and I will be interviewing prominent App Developers. All interviewees contributed apps for various challenges run by Federal agencies (e.g. the FCC/Knight Foundation Apps for Communities Challenge, NLM Show Off Your Apps Challenge, etc), and, in most cases, even received prizes and recognition for their apps. These […]

Leveraging the Wisdom of Crowds through Participatory Platforms – Planetizen

My article on Leveraging the Wisdom of Crowds through Participatory Platforms was published on Planetizen.  The future of design and planning is certain to be around participatory platforms, designers and planners should embrace these platforms and leverage their potential towards designing smart(er) cities through open, inclusive, and collaborative approaches.Planners need to learn how to orchestrate participation […]

Leveraging Technologies in Public Agencies: US Census Bureau and the 2010 Census – Public Administration Review

I recently completed an examination of how the US Census Bureau leveraged technologies during the 2010 Census with Akshay Bhagwatwar (Kelley School of Business, Indiana University). I am pleased to announce that this paper will appear in a future issue of Public Administration Review. This paper is an illustrative outcome of the policy informatics initiative at the Metropolitan Institute. Policy informatics is […]

Citizen Apps to Solve Complex Urban Problems – Journal of Urban Technology

I have a paper accepted for publication in the Journal of Urban Technology. Co-authored with Akshay Bhagwatwar (Kelley School of Business, Indiana University) this paper looks at how citizen apps are employed to solve complex urban problems. Abstract: Tackling complex urban problems requires us to examine and leverage diverse sources of information. Today, cities of all kinds and […]

Investigative Journalism

Over the next few months, I will be working with a team of researchers, graduate students, and practitioners to study the resiliency of local networks to crises (and catastrophic disasters) using a journalistic lens. Through interviewing subjects, we hope to collect a series of videos that can be used for traditional research analysis, but can […]

Metropolitan Institute Partnership with German Marshall Fund Awarded $2.5 million Grant

Christmas came early for us at the Metropolitan Institute!  We were recently awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD chose the  German Marshall Fund (GMF) partnership as the recipient of the $2.5 million award to manage the Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) fellowship program. GMF’s Urban and Regional Policy Program leads a partnership […]

IBM Center for the Business of Government Grant: Citizen Apps as a Democratizing Technology

I have received a grant from the IBM Center for the Business of Government for my research project, Citizen Apps as a Democratizing Technology:  Challenges and Opportunities for Federal Agencies. This project will be conducted as part of the policy informatics portfolio at the Metropolitan Institute. Most US federal agencies have embraced President Obama’s vision […]

New Project – Examining Public Participation in ACTion Alexandria

The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech has entered into an agreement to partner with ACT for Alexandria to advance the design of citizen engagement platforms.I will lead a team of researchers who will work in collaboration with ACT for Alexandria personnel to examine public participation on the ACTion Alexandria platform. The team will look at how user interactions on […]