# Research on likeminded orgs — DN

DESIS LAB

I like this bit...
maybe not the format but something like that

Foundations

Three foundations guide our research in design strategies:

Bridging structural holes: Social settings often suffer from severe information asymmetries. We seek to bridge information gaps and find ways of sharing needed information more effectively.

Valuing tacit knowledge: People in a social system rely on both explicit forms of knowledge and “tacit knowledge”—information individuals and communities develop and share through habits and customs. The use of participatory design methods reveals and codifies this subjective knowledge.

Nurturing heterarchies: Whereas researchers have focused on social hierarchies and structural asymmetries, little attention has been paid to heterarchies—the lateral forms of collaboration through which social life is constructed.

We promote such interdependent networks as it generates more opportunities for heterogeneous forms of collaboration.

---

# Research - CS

## Desis / Desis Network

http://www.desisnetwork.org/

## Public Polic Lab

nice way of organizing projects
http://publicpolicylab.org/our-work/

## NYC Civic Service Design

http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/servicedesign/index.html

* Housed within NYC Opportunity
* Service Design
* Beautiful site design
* really cool way of delivering information about tools (a way to teach creatively)

>Our goal for service design is to make public services as effective and accessible as possible for all New Yorkers.
NYC Civic Service Design Tools + Tactics provides a central resource for best practices in service design to support public servants and help spread service design methods across New York City government.

>It was produced by the Service Design Studio at the NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity. We used the service design process to create this resource in its entirety. And in true service design fashion, it will continue to grow and evolve with feedback and use.

## Buckminster Fuller Institute

https://www.bfi.org/challenge

Challenge already announced for 2017.

> the whole systems approach to understanding and intervening in complex and interrelated crises for wide-scale social and environmental impact

* we can read more about this years winner and see the finalists to gain more of an idea of fit - http://www.bfi.org/static/challenge/2017/2017_Call_for_Proposals.pdf

* we should apply for next year!

## Civilla, Detroit

> a design studio dedicated to [changework](http://www.civilla.com/way/)

* two ways to engage
* studio
* gov partners
* 2-3/year
* "do changework" together
* executive immersion
* sharpen leadership skills
* Civiilla Executive Leadership program
* 4 weeks of immersive learning
* Previous participants include: McKinsey & Company, GreenPath Financial Wellness.

I like the way they visualize certain things — e.g. http://www.civilla.com/work/

## 3x3.co

> research-informed strategy and planning
> 3x3 Design is a social innovation consultancy for urban and economic development initiatives. Our research driven process helps organizations focus on their audiences' needs to build successful and scalable programs, services, and strategies. At 3x3 Design, we use practical knowledge of today's complex urban systems, collaborative and tireless engagement, and context-based insights to help implement resource-efficient programs that create social value.

* very much research focused roles
* lots of briefs/reports
* process breakdown helpful for direciton/framing...provides a good example of what not to do also
* http://3x3.co/process/

## New Urban Mechanics - Boston, MA Gov Innovation Lab

> As the City's civic research and development team, we pilot experiments that aim to improve the quality of life for Boston's residents.

https://www.boston.gov/departments/new-urban-mechanics

Direction: Nigel Jacobs

http://nyc.pubcollab.org/nigel-jacobs-new-public-goods-labs-publics-and-practices/

* Crisis of trust
* makes work tough
* Hates the word "pilot"
* Experiments as attempts to learn something about a community and innovation (8:18)
* 4.5 years by 2014
* team expanded under new major
* engaging with public servants; those that know the problem deeply
* which ones would these by in talk to nyc?
* cultural of policy entrepreneurs
* curating talent within local gov
* similar to po network?
* City on Wheels
* gov going to the people
* project in boston, supported by new mechanics
* data volunteerism
* citizens submitting data for public good needs
* focus on what residents are telling you, listen to them
* how is nyc listening to its residents?
* they went to community meetings to hear from citizens
* team of 5
* discover schools system
* kayak for schools
* could this work for housing website?
*
> [name=claudina sarahe] sourcing ideas from public at meetings using decidim style?? testing out decidim this summer

* Holopolis project related: https://www.boston.gov/departments/new-urban-mechanics/participatory-chinatown
* quite interesting!

## Gov Lab, NYC

* http://www.thegovlab.org/
* http://www.thegovlab.org/static/files/govlab-onepager.pdf

> DEEPENING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TO GOVERN
MORE EFFECTIVELY AND LEGITIMATELY THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

### Mission

Our goal is to strengthen the ability of institutions – including but not limited to governments – and people to work more openly, collaboratively, effectively and legitimately to make better decisions and solve public problems.

We believe that increased availability and use of data, new ways to leverage the capacity, intelligence, and expertise of people in the problem-solving process, combined with new advances in technology and science can transform governance.

We approach each challenge and opportunity in an interdisciplinary, collaborative way, irrespective of the problem, sector, geography and level of government.

### People

Beth Noveck

> research focuses on “people-led innovation,” namely the ability of communities and institutions to work together to solve problems more effectively and legitimately.

* Reid Hoffman (funding news from SCV, blurbed Novcek's book)
> Simone Noveck lays out a fresh and ambitious vision for a more democratized democracy, one in which our government takes full advantage of the Networked Age and the vast resources of its citizenry. Highly recommended! (Reid Hoffman, cofounder/chairman of LinkedIn and coauthor of The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age)
* https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Citizens-Smarter-State-Technologies/dp/0674286057
* The State of Play presents an essential first step in understanding how new digital worlds will change the future of our universe
* https://nyupress.org/books/9780814799727/
* https://www.ted.com/talks/beth_noveck_demand_a_more_open_source_government
* http://www.nature.com/news/five-hacks-for-digital-democracy-1.21849
* https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2016/nov/30/could-crowdsourcing-expertise-be-the-future-of-government

## Mexico City Gov Lab

https://vimeo.com/105775776

#### Video Notes

* 50% of people are under age 26
* 2014 the gov wanted to pass a law to limit the internet
* allow me to have ideas and allow me to co-participate in the creation of the city
* Minecraft for youth and city design project
* > 7000 youth participated
* mixed team of people that have all never worked within government
* use language to give themselves the ability to do work ****
* facilitation project "collaborative confrontation" to address transprotation
* > how can the city put out events like these that help citizens engage?

#### Reactions

* Like how they have designed cards to identify project types
* Use of language
* Provocations
*

## CMU Design School

* Design the future lecture series
* http://www.design.cmu.edu/designthefuture

## Studio X Columbia

> conveys the sense that a whole new platform for research and debate is needed to face the array of urgent questions that will face the next generation of designers.

* https://www.arch.columbia.edu/studio-x

### Housing Project

In recent decades, debates on slums and the future of urban life have raged. Novelists, filmmakers, academics, cultural institutions, NGOs, foundations, and think tanks from across the political spectrum have offered ways to alternately upgrade, reinforce, preserve, integrate, and learn from these precarious landscapes, highlighting their many complex socio-spatial questions.

In Housing the Majority, scholars, architects, urban planners, artists, and activists gather from global cities with soaring rates of inequality—Cairo, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, New York City, Mumbai, Istanbul, and London—to define the terms of the debate. Moving beyond traditional and quantifiable definitions of informality, the panels focus on politics, representation, governance, and form as entry points to the difficult humanitarian challenges to “housing the majority.”

Organized by Dean Amale Andraos and Studio-X Amman, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro, with support from the Columbia Global Centers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8peJYhtL6c

## Center for Artistic Activism

* inactive since summer
* offers trainings
* has nice selection of learning materials https://artisticactivism.org/category/news/ and a resource on [artistic activism](https://artisticactivism.org/2017/04/why-artistic-activism/)

> [name=claudina sarahe] I feel like this is worth actioning into learning pile, but immediately relevant to work at hand

## CS thoughts

* more details on civilla leadership program
* who runs it?
* what qualifications do they have
* how do they get their clients
* Talk to NYC as part of Talk to (.us) movement
* Principles, like g0v, for creating (regulation, transparency, reform??) at local level
* Potential advisors
* Micah
* Mary Silver
* Jasmine Sanchez
* Beth Noveck
* Jihan (filmaker winner of emmy)
* Eldar Shafir (economic advisor, white house)

### collecting info to parse for later

* https://www.theatlantic.com/live/events/citylab-2017/2017/
* education opportunities https://www.bloomberg.org/program/government-innovation/bloomberg-harvard-city-leadership-initiative/
* https://www.bloomberg.org/program/government-innovation/innovation-teams/#innovation-teams-tel-aviv
* https://citiesofservice.org/about/