Smarter Data & Policy

About

The New Zealand public sector is only at the beginning of the Government 2.0 revolution. Over the last year or so, there has been renewed interest in Government 2.0 and how ICT has transformed and continues to revolutionise the policy making process for both decision-makers and policy analysts in government and NGOs

Throughout these two days we examine these questions and show how public sector organisations and NGOs can take advantage of IT processes to deliver better policy implementation, better policy outcomes and more fully embrace the public service ethos.

We understand that government and government funded organisations are required to be cost-conscious and deliver value for money. Take advantage of our special deal on this event. Second and subsequent delegates from the same organisation receive a 50% discount on the registration!

High profile speakers include:
Geoff Bascand, Government Statistician, Statistics New Zealand
Colin Jackson, Independent Consultant and former President of InternetNZ
Laurence Millar, Independent Consultant and former CIO State Services Commission
Dr. Paul Duignan, Principal, Evaluation Strategist, Parker Duignan Consulting
Chaired by: Julian Carver, Seradigm

Hear how IT has been used to enhance policy process and policy evaluation with emerging topics such as:
• IT as a policy enabler
• Matching IT tools with policy methods
• Knowledge management and production for policy makers
• Evidence based policy
• Open data opportunities
• Smarter policy evaluations
• Future of policy IT

Plus! Separate Bookable Workshop: Policy analysis, alignment and evaluation with visual policy outcomes models by Dr Paul Duignan

With case study presentations and contributions from many public sector organisations and NGOs:
Statistics NZ | Royal Society of New Zealand | Environment Waikato | NIWA | University of Auckland
Canterbury DHB | Presbyterian Support Upper South Island | Health Sponsorship Council
Charities Commission | Department of Labour

Workshop

Full day, separately bookable workshop - 22nd November 2010: 9.00am – 5.00pm

Using IT to ‘see where we are going’: policy analysis, alignment and evaluation with visual policy outcomes models

In the workshop, we examine a major aspect of cutting edge use of IT in policy making – the use of policy outcomes model visualization as an all-inclusive framework for better policy options analysis, policy priority setting, outcome specification, implementation and for evaluating policy outcomes.
Part 1: The policy development problem – getting better ways of defining, analysing and communicating policy options.
Part 2: Creating your policy outcomes model to define policy options, map previous evidence, identify priorities and set up monitoring and evaluation.
Part 3: Using your models for contracting within policy implementation, monitoring policy implementation
and reporting on policy outcome evaluation. Group discussion: Examples will be worked through looking at how
policy outcomes models make it easier to clarify policy thinking, its implementation and evaluation.

Your workshop leader:
Dr Paul Duignan, Principal, Policy and Evaluation Strategist, Parker Duignan Limited.
Dr Paul Duignan works extensively with public sector agencies in New Zealand and overseas on policy, outcomes measurement and evaluation. He is the developer of DoView outcomes process software which will be used during the workshop. See OutcomesCentral.org for more information on his work.

Agenda

Agenda: Day 1

8.30

Registration and coffee

9.00

Opening remarks from the Chair

Julian Carver, Managing Director, Seradigm

9.10

Conceptualising smarter IT and smarter data as a policy enabler

Globally, government organisations and NGOs recognise the need to start sharing information, datasets and information to develop integrated solutions. In this opening presentation we examine what smart IT and smart data mean for policy makers and policy analysts and discuss successful examples of their use.
• How can policy making benefit from smarter data and smarter IT?
• Where has smart IT and smart data been applied successfully?
• What do we need to confront to realise this vision?

Geoff Bascand, Government Statistician and Chief
Executive, Statistics New Zealand
With contributions by Matjaz Jug, CIO, Statistics New
Zealand

10.00

Matching new policy IT tools to policy questions

In this presentation we consider several potential new methods from an evidence-based policy perspective, sketching out a framework for how to best determine what works for your organisation and what doesn’t.
• The new wave of approaches and policy tools
• Deciding on the best approach by asking “what kinds of policy”, “what kinds of policy areas?”, “who are the users?”, and “who will do the analysis?”
• Evaluating the effectiveness of new IT tools for policy
• Practical examples from people who’ve done it before (discussion)

Jez Weston, Policy Analyst, Royal Society of New Zealand

10.50

Morning tea

11.10

Case Study: Using smarter policy tools to create better futures (Case Study)

Environment Waikato has been working with researchers, IT specialists, central and local government and other stakeholders to develop tools for integrated spatial planning and decision-making. How these tools can assist to better link information to smarter outcomes and to improve the policy process will be demonstrated and discussed. Examples include:
• Monitoring and reporting community outcomes: The MARCO Group has developed a set of community indicators for local councils and the Waikato DHB
• Integrated Spatial Decision Support System: The Waikato Integrated Scenario Explorer

Dr Beat Huser, Programme Manager Sustainability, Environment Waikato

12.00

Case Study: The challenges and future of knowledge production for policy (Case Study)

As a CRI, NIWA has to balance its public-oriented mandates with requirements to recover costs and be profitable. Here we cover the data management challenges NIWA faces indelivering environmental data sets and scientific analysis tools to decision makers and commercial organisations.
Jochen will also share his view on the future relationship between organisations like NIWA and policy makers.
• Producing, managing and selling data and the challenges of usability
• Providing analysis tools, datasets and collaboration tools
• The future of knowledge management for policy makers

Jochen Schmidt, Chief Scientist, Environmental Information

12.50

Lunch

1.40

The semantic web and its impact on researchers & policy makers

Researchers and policy-makers are currently overwhelmed with information, yet still poorly equipped to find exactly what they are looking for. This talk will:
• Explore the trends that drive the proliferation of electronic information.
• Examine how new media tools can help researchers and policy analysts to better understand the electronic resources they use, produce and share; consequently improve outcomes.
• Describe the opportunities and challenges of providing rich descriptions of electronic content for data consumers.

Prof. Mark Gahegan Director Centre for eResearch, University of Auckland

2.30

Online Policy Consultation At The Coalface

(Summary TBC)

Keith Taylor, Policy Manager, Inland Revenue Department
Brent Lewers, Senior Policy Analyst, Inland Revenue Department

3.10

Afternoon tea

3.30

Case Study: Popping the top of the black box: Data and content sharing in population and public health (Case Study)

Community and Public Health provides population and public health services to Canterbury, South Canterbury and the West Coast DHB and has a long history as an active producer and consumer of shared information services. We have learned along the way that such non-technical factors as organisational culture, leadership and ownership are success factors in a collaborative information-sharing project. We’ll talk about: projects we have initiated and have been involved in, the particular challenges and opportunities faced by a regional agency with multiple accountabilities and reporting lines.

Chris Ambrose, Development Specialist - Community and Public Health, Canterbury DHB

4.15

Case Study: Social service meets IT: The mastering of a foreign language

Can you show how your interventions achieve good results? Do you access all the information available to you to continually improve your services? Presbyterian Support will present on the challenges and joys of supporting a diverse workforce to successfully embrace IT. We will:
• Describe the client evaluation process including outcomes measured, data collection and analysis methods
• Explain how IT is used in research to enhance how we gather and reflect upon what we know
• Identify how IT supports our accident and incident reporting, and our quality improvement systems

Sue Quinn, Researcher/Policy Analyst &
Anne-Marie Moore, Health, Safety and Quality Manager
Presbyterian Support Upper South Island

5.00

End of day one & networking drinks

Agenda: Day 2

9.00

Opening remarks from the Chair

Julian Carver, Managing Director, Seradigm

9.05

Open data, open source and open opportunities for organisations

Open data, data sharing and open source sets create a new opportunity for smaller nimbler NGOs to reduce costs, coordinate better and act where government is less capable. We examine where the open movement has been heading both in New Zealand and overseas and how open datasets have been used to develop better coordinated policies and the opportunities open source presents for the future.

Colin Jackson, Independent Technology Consultant

9.50

Case Study: Effective use of open data by NGOs and businesses (Case Study)

Following on from the opening presentation, NZTA will share its success stories with regards to Infoconnect and how it delivers innovation with open data usage.
• Why open? Challenges of getting policy buy-in and delivering better data
• How have open datasets been used effectively and innovatively to match public demand?
• Legal and ethical issues arising from open data use

Deidre Hills, Project Manager, NZ Transport Agency

10.30

Morning tea

10.45

Panel Discussion: IT and the future of the policy process (Case Study)

Policy analysts and IT managers will discuss the challenges, opportunities and benefits IT provides in the policy arena and what the future will look like.
• Has IT delivered its promises? Where are the opportunities?
• How can we act as leaders in our space to ensure IT enablement?
• What developments will affect our future and what will the future bring?

Nadia Webster, Senior Web Specialist
Department of Internal Affairs
Colin Jackson, Independent Technology Consultant
Keitha Booth, Senior Advisor, ICT
State Services Commission

12.15

Lunch

1.00

Case Study: Challenges in sharing datasets across stakeholder organisations (Case Study)

The charities commission will discuss:
• How our database relates to the concepts of open transparent an accountable government
• Examples of where the database has been used to deliver better efficiencies and used for policy making
• Future challenges and opportunities of the database

Trevor Garrett, Chief Executive, Charities Commission

1.40

A new visualisation approach to specifying policy outcomes and evaluating their achievement

In spite of attempts to encourage a focus on results and outcomes within the public sector, up until now relatively little use has been made of large-scale visualisation of outcomes in policy planning, monitoring and evaluation.
• How large visual outcomes models are being used in a number of government departments for policy planning and strategic planning
• How they can be used as the basis for policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation and outcomes focused contracting
• How newly developed outcomes processor software (DoView) can be used in such modelling work
http://tinyurl.com/otheory288

Dr Paul Duignan, Principal, Evaluation Strategist
Parker Duignan Limited

2.20

Afternoon tea

2.40

Case Study: Transforming policy evaluation data into a national strategy (Case Study)

Using a case study, Brett will discuss the issues, challenges and successes the Department of Labour has had in data evaluation and how it relates to its overall national strategy and policy implementation.
• Identifying key trends and formulating a response strategy
• Challenges for handling data at macro and micro levels
• Sharing information and obtaining collaboration between
various internal and external stakeholders
• Predicting and developing polices that can be applied in a
wider context

Brett Lineham, Policy Manager, Research and Evaluation
Team, Department of Labour

3.20

Case Study: How smarter data analysis enhances the policy process (Case Study)

Using data from real examples, Darren will share how smarter data analysis and IT have allowed it to implement more effective policies, enhance collaboration with stakeholder organisations and better evaluate the effectiveness of its policies
• How better data analysis and cross-collaboration can lead to better policy outcomes
• Opportunities better datasets and IT can bring
• How IT can assist in policy evaluation

Dr Darren Walton, Director, Research &

4.00

Closing remarks from the Chair and end of conference

Sponsors/Partners

Interested in sponsorship?

There are some exclusive opportunities to promote your company, and its products and services, at this leading event. Contact the sponsorship team below to request a prospectus or discuss the options, or view more about event sponsorship.