Tag Archives: Geoff Mulgan

Policy hackers: three movers and shakers of governance

Last week I had the good fortune of meeting three public servants of three different countries, each with a very high intellectual profile. Each of them is a point of reference in his or her field.

On Wednesday I was with Geoff Mulgan, British, founder of Demos, CEO at the Young Foundation, appointed to lead NESTA. He comes from a communication background. In the UK he is a star, having served in top posts under the Blair administration; and it seems he is about to becom one in Europe, too, because his voice is heard with attention in Bruxelles on the issue of social innovation, just as the EU is making investment decisions in this field. He is committed to designing Prime Minister Cameron’s Big Society – a controversial, yet carefully studied model. That’s not surprising, because it is the only one that promises a solution for defending the European welfare state in a globalized, finance-dominated world..

That same evening I had dinner with Fabrizio Barca, Italian, director general of the Ministry of the Economy and advisor to the European Commission for the reform of regional policy. He comes from an economics background. He got to be in government coming from Banca d’Italia, together with Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (Ciampi is possibly the best statesman in the history of Italy after unity: a partisan turned central banker turned Prime Minister and then Minister of Treasury, who then went on to be one of the most popular Presidents ever). Ciampi and Barca shared an exceptional experience of institution building, recruiting a group of technicians with international experience to work on the issue of development of lagging Mezzogiorno. The result was the National Strategic Framework, the smartest, noblest policy document I have ever read. Fabrizio has an incredibly wide strategic outlook in which he subsumes everything from scientific papers to policy documents and his own conversations with civil society leaders, and is ultrafast (he answers his mail in minutes, and his colleagues say it is almost impossible to stay ahead of him). He is a leading authority on the issue of economic development.

I spent Thursday with Beth Noveck, American, founder of Peer to Patent, former deputy CTO at the White House, about to start a new appointment with the British government on OpenGov. She comes from a law background. Of the three, Beth is the one I feel I know best (we have been in conversation for a year, and she helped me with my book), and the one I am closest to in terms of interests. We both care about the collaborations between citizens and public authorities, and she is a world class expert in this field. Unlike the other two, she is above all an academic.

My take home from meeting these people is the usual one, always worth repeating: I have still much, much, much to learn. And learn I will.

L’economista errante: ad Amsterdam con Geoff Mulgan, a Roma con Beth Noveck

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Sono di nuovo in viaggio. Ho finito la settimana scorsa con una presentazione del mio lavoro al corso di Complex Social Networks all’European University Institute, a Firenze: adesso sono a Berlino per preparare il programma del WOMEX 2011.

Questa settimana mi aspettano altre due belle occasioni di confronto. Martedì 24 e mercoledì 25 sarò ad Amsterdam alla SIX Spring School sull’innovazione sociale. Mi spetta l’onore di aprire la giornata di mercoledì: gli amici di SIX mi hanno organizzato un’intervista in cui parlare di politiche pubbliche online. In particolare sono interessati al caso Kublai, rappresentativo della straordinaria opportunità che l’Internet sociale offre ai policy makers ma anche delle difficoltà incontrate su questo terreno dalle amministrazioni, concentrate sulle procedure e non sempre in grado di tenere il passo con le dinamiche sociali di rete. Il mio intervistatore è un pezzo da novanta: Geoff Mulgan, l’intellettuale che sembra avere ispirato la recente attenzione della Commissione Europea al tema dell’innovazione sociale. Ex numero uno della Young Foundation, Geoff è diventato recentemente il CEO di NESTA, il principale think tank britannico sul tema dell’innovazione nelle politiche pubbliche. Sono molto curioso di conoscerlo.

Giovedì 26 sarò a Roma, al Senato della Repubblica, per partecipare all’incontro su Democrazia aperta e governo in rete della Fondazione Zefiro (info e registrazione obbligatoria). Sono molto contento di incontrare finalmente di persona Beth Noveck, l’ex vice CIO della Casa Bianca di Obama, con cui ci confrontiamo ormai da un anno. Beth e io faremo i due keynotes della giornata.

E poi a casa! Chissà se Milano è ancora al suo posto… 🙂

The wandering economist: in Amsterdam with Geoff Mulgan, in Rome with Beth Noveck

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Back on the road. I ended last week with a presentation of my work at the Complex Social Networks at the European University Institute, in Florence: now I am in Berlin, to prepare the programme of WOMEX 2011.

This week I look forward to two more great opportunities for learning and exchange. On Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th I shall be in Amsterdam for the SIX Spring School on Social Innovation. I have the honor of opening the second day: my friends in SIX set up an interview session in which I am expected to talk about online public policies. They are particularly interested in the Kublai story, which illustrates the extraordinary opportunity that the social web brings to policy makers but also the challenges it poses to administrations, often procedure-oriented and not always able to keep pace with emergent network social dynamics. The interviewer will be no less than Geoff Mulgan, the thinker who is thought to have inspired the recent wave of European policy on social innovation. Formerly at the Young Foundation, Geoff was recently appointed to lead NESTA, the leading British think tank on public policy innovation. I am very curious to meet him.

On Thursday 26th I will be in Rome, at the Italian Senate, to participate in the event on Open democracy and networked government of Fondazione Zefiro (info and registration). I am really looking forward to finally meeting in person Beth Noveck, ex deputy CIO of the White House; she and I have been talking on the wire for a year now. Beth and I will deliver the two keynotes of the day.

And then back home! I wonder if Milan is still where I left it… 🙂