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Surveying PSI labs' methods, roles and skills

Lab Notes - May edition

The May edition of Lab Notes brings together inspiring news, publications and other resources for public sector and social innovators around the world, including a revealing new surey of public sector innovation units in Australia and New Zealand; a playbook for innovation learning; how to detect "innovtion theatre"; and more ...

This month's key lab picks

1. What are the methods, roles and skills used in public sector innovation labs? This survey of labs in Australia and New Zealand delves into the data, finding that the recent growth of PSI units is higher than previously thought.

2. Nesta has published a new ‘Playbook for innovation learning’, a summary of 35 diagrams to assist practitioners in spreading innovation methods and tools.

3. Writing about her experiences from a small innovation team in San Jose, USA, Michelle Thong outlines how local government innovators can act as multipliers that do less and lead more.

4. A new report from the International Institute for Environment and Development provides clear lessons on how to collect evidence generated by citizens and communities themselves, drawing on examples from the informal food economy in Indonesia and Uganda.

5. As part of its ‘Finding Legitimacy’ project, the Centre for Public Impact has brought together 46 examples of governments around the world engaging more meaningfully with people.

6. A new guidebook from the Open Data Institute provides policymakers with a clear overview of open data standards and how they can be used to make it easier for government to publish, access, share and use better quality data.

7. Following on from The GovLab’s recent conference on the topic, Cristiano Ferri gives an overview of the emerging field of CrowdLaw, some key challenges for governments, and what pioneers in Brazil, Spain and Taiwan are doing.

8. New research cited in The Conversation draws on ten years of evidence from Johannesburg, South Africa, illustrating how qualitative research can identify the gaps in national policies designed to alleviate poverty.

9. Mark Kuznicki’s provocative Medium piece identifies clear signals for detecting hype in the world of innovation labs, or what he terms ‘innovation theatre’.

10. An article for InDaily brings together policies from Canada, Finland and Australia to help us imagine what a more experimental government might look like.

11. In a world where services are more rapidly prototyped and delivered than ever before, how can public policy become faster, more accountable and more attuned to the complexities of the digital age?

Author

Theo Bass

Theo Bass

Theo Bass

Senior Researcher, Government Innovation

Theo was a Senior Researcher in Nesta's Research, Analysis and Policy Team

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Matt Stokes

Matt Stokes

Matt Stokes

Senior Researcher, Government Innovation

Matt was a senior researcher working on the collaborative economy and digital social innovation.

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