Group items tagged

"Traditional policy analysis approaches are characterized by a focus on system modeling and choosing among policy alternatives. While successful in many cases, this approach has been increasingly criticized for being technocratic and ignoring the behavioral and political dimensions of most policy processes. In recent decades, increased awareness of the multi-actor, multiple perspective, and poly-centric character of many policy processes has led to the development of a variety of different perspectives on the styles and roles of policy analysis, and to new analytical tools and approaches - for example, argumentative approaches, participative policy analysis, and negotiation support. As a result, the field has become multi-faceted and somewhat fragmented. Public Policy Analysis: New Developments acknowledges the variety of approaches and provides a synthesis of the traditional and new approaches to policy analysis. It provides an overview and typology of different types of policy analytic activities, characterizing them according to differences in character and leading values, and linking them to a variety of theoretical notions on policymaking. Thereby, it provides assistance to both end users and analysts in choosing an appropriate approach given a specific policy situation. By broadening the traditional approach and methods to include the analysis of actors and actor networks related to the policy issue at hand, it deepens the state of the art in certain areas. While the main focus of the book is on the cognitive dimensions of policy analysis, it also links the policy analysis process to the policymaking process, showing how to identify and involve all relevant stakeholders in the process, and how to create favorable conditions for use of the results of policy analytic efforts by the policy actors."

This article examines the foundations of gaming and related concepts, such as policy exercises and serious gaming, in a public policy making context. Examining the relevant publications in Simulation & Gaming since 1969, the author looks back at the development of gaming simulation for purposes such as public policy analysis and planning, and reviews the underlying theories and empirical evidence. The author highlights the recognition that the success of gaming for policy making derives largely from the unique power of that gaming to capture and integrate both the technical-physical and the social-political complexities of policy problems.

My view on the how, what and why of policy gaming.

Forio simulations improve public policy development and implementation by allowing you to: *Model sophisticated behaviors by importing data and formulas from Excel, AnyLogic, and other programs. *Have global access to your Sim via popular web browsers. *Control access with secure user privileges. *Implement updates centrally, ensuring users have the most up-to-date information (preventing old or obselete info from being reused). *Operate worry-free, with dependable security and design measures. Customized simulations apps are easily accessible via standard web browsers, allowing users to easily make adjustments, share and compare results. With Forio's public policy simulations, users can create interactive online tools to generate, manipulate and illustrate "what if" scenarios that are ideal for long-term policy models.With Forio's public policy simulations, users can create interactive online tools to generate, manipulate and illustrate "what if" scenarios that are ideal for long-term policy models.

easy ready made tool to turn system dynamics models into playable games.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive global survey of the policy process. Written by an outstanding line up of distinguished scholars and practitioners, the Handbook covers all aspects of the policy process including: Theory - from rational choice to the new institutionalism Frameworks - network theory, advocacy coalition and development models Key stages in the process - Formulation, implementation and evaluation Agenda setting and decision making The roles of key actors and institutions This is an invaluable resource for all scholars, graduate students and practitioners in public policy and policy analysis.

PUBLISHED ON: Proceedings of the 22nd International System Dynamics Conference (ISDC) YEAR: 2011ISBN: 978-1-935056-08-9AUTHOR/s: Armenia, Stefano, Yannis Charalabidis, Diego Falsini, Fenareti Lampathaki, David Osimo and Katarzyna SzkutaREFERENCE PEOPLE/ORGANISATION: Crossroads ProjectLINKS: http://crossroad.epu.ntua.gr/ DESCRIPTION: The role of Government has evolved over the last thirty years and while its role in service provision has diminished, its regulation activity is growing. The world has become increasingly interconnected, complex, and fast-evolving and the effects of individual behavior and policy choices are not predictable. The paradox is that while the amount of data available to governments has increased exponentially, yet policymakers clearly struggle to make sense of it so that during the last years, the European Commission has decided to invest heavily in research on this issue. In this paper, the authors report about their experience in the CROSSROAD Project, whose main goal was to build a roadmap in order to provide strategic directions for future research in the domain of "ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling". The roadmap, recently approved by European Commission, intends to be the basis for developing a shared vision, inspire collaborative and interdisciplinary research between academia, business, civil society and government, and provide support and orientation to policy-modeling also after the project end. In this context, the paper analyzes the Model-based Governance issue as the part of the roadmap that suggests the development of advanced tools for an efficient and effective decision-making process.

YEAR: 2010 ISSN: 1996-1073 AUTHOR/s: Bassi REFERENCE PEOPLE/ORGANISATION: Millennium Institute LINKS: http://www.millennium-institute.org/ DESCRIPTION: With the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 national leaders have startedinvestigating options for reducing carbon emissions within national borders. Despiteconfronting similar energy issues, every country that adopted the Kyoto Protocol has aunique energy strategy -being characterized by a different context, social, economicor environmental that influences the way different nations deal with climate change andother energy-related issues. Finding that currently available energy models are often toodetailed or narrowly focused to inform longer-term policy formulation and evaluation holistically, the present study proposes the utilization of an integrated cross-sectoralmedium to longer-term research and modeling approach, incorporating variousmethodologies to minimize exogenous assumptions and endogenously represent the keydrivers of the system analyzed. The framework proposed includes feedback, delays andnon-linearity and focuses on structure, scenarios and policies, requires a profoundcustomization of the model that goes beyond a new parameterization. The inclusion of social and environmental factors, in addition to economic ones, all unique to thegeographical area analyzed, allows for a wider analysis of the implication of policies byidentifying potential side effect or longer-term bottlenecks for socio-economicdevelopment and environmental preservation arising from cross-sectoral relations.

" Generate sales leads Campaign participants are high-conversion leads (potential customers) whom you can follow up with via emails. Receive customer insights Learn about the segments supporting each idea, including information about age, gender, education, occupation, city and interests Erdem Ovacik, Direktor Tine Wedell, Project Manager Cengiz Bayram, Technical Lead We serve clients internationally We are based in Copenhagen, and serve clients in Europe and abroad. Wedecide already support 6 languages. Wedecide platform is a Facebook application, where you ask specific questions to your audience, ans support your question with a video or slideshow.  Users develop ideas together and win points for being part of successful ideas. All of this is integrated with Facebook and Twitter with a slick UI.  Click here to check out the platform. "Using Wedecide, we engaged hundreds of Europeans to debate energy efficiency policies which resulted in dozens of valuable policy ideas. With this innovative method, we greatly improved the collaboration of our audience on policy proposals of the ALDE Party." Didrik de Schaetzen, Communications Director, ALDE Party Read our blog Call us: +45 26 37 29 96 Mail us: erdem [at] wedecide.com CVR: 33268394 "

The need for policy makers to understand science and for scientists to understand policy processes is widely recognised. However, the science-policy relationship is sometimes difficult and occasionally dysfunctional; it is also increasingly visible, because it must deal with contentious issues, or itself becomes a matter of public controversy, or both. We suggest that identifying key unanswered questions on the relationship between science and policy will catalyse and focus research in this field. To identify these questions, a collaborative procedure was employed with 52 participants selected to cover a wide range of experience in both science and policy, including people from government, non-governmental organisations, academia and industry.

Organizations like World Bank and the CDC have discovered how easy it is to design policies, create customized policy models, facilitate decision-making, build stakeholder consensus and share insights with simulations by Forio.

In a government bureaucracy, any innovation can take years to come to fruition. But that can change, says Tom Kalil, deputy director for policy for the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House. Kalil recently participated in a two-day conference at Wharton titled, "For the Win: Serious Gamification," which looked at the application of gaming techniques in business, education, government and other scenarios. Before the conference, Kalil spoke with Kevin Werbach, a conference organizer and a professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton, about why gamification has become a hot topic at the White House.

MIT course on agent-based modeling for health policy with AnyLogic Nathaniel Osgood - Associate Professor, University of Saskatchewan made a MIT graduate based course on agent-based modeling for health policy with AnyLogic. Please find the original materias here. Material from other supporting lectures and tutorials outside of the scope of this course can be accessed here. This page includes separate tables of materials for both lectures and Java for AnyLogic tutorials; assignments are also available.

The Workshop on Argumentation Technology for Policy Deliberations will present the results of the European FP7 IMPACT Project, along with invited talks by leading developers and users of argumentation tools for supporting public participation in policy deliberations on the World-Wide-Web.

PUBLISHED ON: Proceedings of the 22nd International System Dynamics Conference (ISDC) YEAR: 2004 ISBN: 0-9745329-0-8 AUTHOR/s: Armenia, Onori et al.- REFERENCE PEOPLE/ORGANISATION: Armenia, Onori USED TOOL: POWERSIM DESCRIPTION: The implementation of specific management control/decision support systems, based on System Dynamics models, allow first for a better learning of the environmental dynamics which influence the economic behavior of the firm, and second, for a deep understanding of the results of the decisional policies which the Chemist himself, together with his collaborating staff, may choose among a plethora of strategic choices. By ignoring that "structure influences behavior", all the actions, even the ones deemed most brilliant, may have a very different result if the very nature of the environment is not clear. A system dynamics approach has helped identifying those modeling and conflict resolution policies which may help in conducting a group model building session, towards the sharing of a common mental model and the collegiality of decisions which, in the long run, may bring economic success to the Chemist's business.

Report on the first Corssover Project workshop: "Report on Using Open Data: policy modeling, citizen empowerment, data journalism" (aka PMOD)

As today's policy challenges become more complex, it has become clear that American media - online news, television, radio, newspapers, and magazines - are not up to the task of explaining the problems underlying them or providing citizens with all the information they need to engage in public conversations about them. Democracy cannot function properly without those conversations. But one new medium - videogames - may well fill the gap. By their very nature, videogames can engage players in ways that enable players to make their way through the intricacies of policy problems. As players begin to understand them in all their complexity, games may well help their governments forge solutions.

After Masters of Networks, 

HDI Forum III: The Health Datapalooza promises to bring together a diverse group of data experts, technology developers, entrepreneurs, policy makers, health care system leaders, CIOs, CTOs, and community advocates to support innovative applications of health and health care data. The Health Data Initiative (HDI), originally launched in 2010 by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as the Community Health Data Initiative, is a public-private collaboration that encourages innovators to utilize health data to develop applications to raise awareness of health and health system performance and spark community action to improve health. The Forum will feature keynote addresses, an Apps Expo, demonstrations of new, cutting-edge apps, and thought-provoking panel discussions. There will also be plenty of time for networking and one-on-one interaction. It is a great opportunity to be in on the vanguard of data applications to improve health and health care. This year's event promises to be one you do not want to miss!

interesting case of data-intensive policy-making

Climate Interactive is building a community that creates, shares, and uses credible models, accessible simulations, and related media in order to improve the way leaders and citizens around the world think about the climate. Our purpose is to get these sims and insights into the world as accessible products so they can be tweaked, enhanced, translated, distributed and used to power change around the world. We're building sims that are easy to use by climate analysts, communicators, and leaders of many types, and that provide immediate feedback, so users can see the results of different scenarios on atmospheric carbon levels and temperature. And we're sharing our own analysis so that leaders have access to powerful insights. In particular, the "Climate Action Initiative" which includes policy leaders such as Dr. Robert Corell is using our simulations to make change at the highest levels of governments.

A Euro project looking at the impact of citizen participation in a knowledge-intensive policy field.