The University of Massachusetts Amherst

Category: Science, technology & society

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Environmental policy Grants Science, technology & society Student news

CPPA Team Helps Organize U.N. Environmental Project

A team from the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) helped organize a successful and robust Massachusetts component of a recent international day of dialogue about environmental regulations and policies.

CPPA lecturer Gretchen Gano and students Maria Delfin Auza (MPPA ’13) and Lindie Martin (MPP ’14) spent the summer recruiting nearly 200 applicants from across Massachusetts to fill 100 spots for a guided discussion last month about biodiversity in our region and policies that affect our natural environment. The Massachusetts conversation, held at the Museum of Science in Boston, was one of 34 that took place that day in 25 countries as part of the World Wide Views on Biodiversity project. CPPA is involved thanks to a university Public Service Endowment grant to the Science, Technology and Society Initiative (STS), a CPPA-affiliated endeavor that conducts multidisciplinary research on the intersection of science and technology with today’s social, political and economic issues.

“We are incredibly honored to participate in such a creative project,” said STS Director Jane Fountain. “What’s so innovative about the World Wide Views in Biodiversity project is that it gives everyday people, who are not scientists or environmental experts, a voice in international environmental policymaking discussions.”

Results from all of the sessions around the world have been compiled into a report, which is being released this week at the meeting in Hyderabad, India, of the U.N. Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity. When looked at altogether, the results indicate significant similarities of opinion between countries, across continents and among different age groups.

Participants in Boston and the other three U.S. locations — Denver, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., — agreed with their counterparts around the world: Political action should be taken in order to stop the global decline in biodiversity. Many also thought education at all levels is one of the most important steps to help protect the Earth’s biological diversity.

Despite the general consistency between views in developed and developing countries, a significant difference emerged regarding who should pay for preserving biodiversity. The majority of participants in all of the sessions thought developed countries should pay the main part of costs for preserving biodiversity. But people in developing countries were more likely than those in developed countries to say that developing countries should pay the main part of the cost for preserving biodiversity.

Martin, a senior majoring in environmental conservation and a member of CPPA’s accelerated Master of Public Policy program, said this project has helped strengthen her social science research skills and has given her a sense of personal satisfaction. “I am passionate about helping people and giving our community a voice that can be heard on an international level,” Martin said. “This project tested a fundamental model that has the potential to change the direction of our planet’s future.”

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Events Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research Science, technology & society

Fountain to Give UMass Distinguished Faculty Lecture on Oct. 24

Professor Jane Fountain (political science and public policy) will kick off this year’s UMass Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series on Wednesday, Oct. 24 with a talk titled “Technological Change as a Variable in State Development.” The lecture will start at 4 p.m. and will be held in the Massachusetts Room of the Mullins Center.

This talk will examine the implications of technology for the future of the state, citizenship, democracy, the relationship between individual and society, and personal freedom. Fountain will show how information and communication technologies could help solve policy problems such as disaster preparedness, disease outbreaks and environmental degradation. She will also explore the impact of powerful surveillance and aggregation systems, which now track individuals and groups at a level of detail never before imaginable.

After her lecture, Fountain will be presented with the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest recognition bestowed to faculty by the campus. This event is free and open to the public.

Fountain is an internationally recognized expert when it comes to using information and communication technologies to transform democracies and improve government services around the globe. In recent years she has served as chair and vice chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government. Last spring, she was named to Gov. Deval Patrick’s Council for Innovation, an appointed body that advises the governor on ways to improve government efficiency and use technology to streamline delivery of services to people, businesses and local governments.

In addition to these posts, Fountain directs the National Center for Digital Government and heads the Science, Technology and Society Initiative, both of which are based at the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA). The National Center was created with support from the National Science Foundation to develop research and infrastructure for the emerging field of information technology and governance. The Science, Technology and Society Initiative conducts multidisciplinary research on the intersection of science and technology with today’s social, political and economic issues.

CPPA is the hub of interdisciplinary public policy research, teaching and engagement at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The CPPA program is the 2011 recipient of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration’s Social Equity Award, created to honor a public administration, affairs or policy program with a comprehensive approach to integrating social equity into its academic and practical work.

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Environmental policy Events Faculty Research Science, technology & society

Gano’s Faculty Colloquium Talk to Address Global Environmental Policies

On Oct. 1, Gretchen Gano will discuss her recent work in a talk titled “Hearing and Heeding Citizen Voices in the Global Governance of Biodiversity.”

Gano is a lecturer at the Center for Public Policy and Administration and a doctoral candidate in Arizona State University’s Human Dimensions of Science and Technology program. Through the Science, Technology and Society Initiative housed at CPPA, she co-directs the Massachusetts branch of a United Nations environmental project called World Wide Views on Biodiversity.

This lecture is part of CPPA’s fall 2012 Faculty Colloquium series, which consists of informal talks, often about works-in-progress, with presenters providing a significant amount of time for audience discussion and feedback. All talks will be in Thompson 620, from noon to 1 p.m. They are open to the public and brown bag lunches are welcome.

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Alumni news Faculty Research Science, technology & society

Sept. 6 Event to Celebrate Publication of Book by Schweik and English

Please help us celebrate the publication of Internet Success: A Study of Open Source Software Commons, by Charles Schweik, associate professor of environmental conservation and public policy, and Robert English (MPPA ’08). The Center for Public Policy and Administration will host a book launch party for Schweik and English on Thursday, Sept. 6 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Gordon Hall Atrium.

Internet Success is the result of the first large-scale empirical study examining the social, technical and institutional aspects of open source software. Schweik and English look at the factors that lead to some open source projects successfully producing usable software and sustaining ongoing product development, while other open source projects are abandoned. The book has received praise from the open source software community, including in this review.

This book launch is part of the CPPA student orientation week and will introduce new students to one aspect of intellectual life at CPPA. Faculty and students from other departments are also welcome.

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Faculty Research Science, technology & society

Fountain Leads World Economic Forum Session

During the recent World Economic Forum Summit in Istanbul, Professor Jane Fountain (political science and public policy) led heads of state and government, senior ministers, business leaders and academic experts in a working session about the future of government.

Participants in the session explored ways that governments can more effectively meet the increasing challenges of global and national macroeconomic inequalities and transnational political conflicts in an increasingly interconnected world. The summit’s theme, bridging regions in transformation, focused on jobs, youth education and employment, and ways to promote economic development throughout the region.

Fountain is the vice chair of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government, and led the session with Lord Peter Mandelson, the council’s 2012 chair. She headed the council last year and has been a member for four years.

During the trip, Fountain was interviewed on social media and digital government in Turkey and throughout the region. She also met with key government, media business and academic leaders, including Nursuna Memecan, one of only a few women members of parliament in Turkey and delegate to the Council of Europe. Among other issues, they spoke of the need for greater appreciation for diversity in European politics. Among the academics Fountain met was Professor Zuhre Aksoy of Istanbul’s Bogazici University. Aksoy is an expert on international environmental politics and received her doctorate in political science from UMass Amherst.

Fountain directs the National Center for Digital Government and the Science, Technology and Society Initiative, both of which are based at the Center for Public Policy and Administration. The National Center for Digital Government, a research center, regularly hosts international visiting fellows as part of its mission to build a global network of scholars focused on technology and government.

To watch an interview with Professor Fountain on the Turkish television station ATV, click here [in Turkish]. A copy of the Future of Government report is available through the World Economic Forum website, as is more information about the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government.

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Environmental policy Science, technology & society

CPPA Participates in Launch of Global Biodiversity Policy Project

Three representatives from the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) participated this week in the U.S. launch of an international project that aims to give ordinary people a voice in biodiversity discussions at the United Nations.

Students Maria Delfin Auza (MPPA ’13) and Lindie Martin (MPP ’14) attended the World Wide Views on Biodiversity kick-off at the Washington, D.C., Koshland Science Museum on June 5. Also in attendance was CPPA lecturer Gretchen Gano, who co-directs the Massachusetts branch of this global project.

The CPPA team, in collaboration with the Museum of Science in Boston, is organizing a day-long discussion to be held at the museum in the fall, when 100 people from across Massachusetts will discuss regional biodiversity issues and related public policy issues. Massachusetts is home to one of 45 sites across the globe participating in the World Wide Views project by convening a day of citizen dialogue on September 15. Results of the conversations in Boston and the other 44 sessions taking place that day will be presented to U.N. delegates who work on biodiversity issues, thereby helping to shape the agenda and deliberations of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity in India this October.

A UMass Public Service Endowment grant to the university’s Science, Technology and Society Initiative made it possible for CPPA to participate in the World Wide Views on Biodiversity project. The Science, Technology and Society Initiative is a CPPA-affiliated endeavor that conducts multidisciplinary research on the intersection of science and technology with today’s social, political and economic issues.

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Environmental policy Science, technology & society Student news

MPP Student Awarded Funding to Participate in Global Biodiversity Research Project

Lindie Martin is acting locally but thinking globally. She has been awarded funds from the university to work this summer as a researcher on the World Wide Views on Biodiversity project, a program affiliated with the United Nations with which the UMass Science, Technology and Society Initiative is involved. Martin is one of only eight rising seniors to receive a stipend through a UMass Public Service Endowment grant to participate this summer in the Commonwealth Honors College’s Community Research Engagement program, which is made possible through the office of the vice chancellor for research and engagement.

The team that Martin will work with this summer is coordinating a day-long discussion to be held in September at the Museum of Science in Boston, where people from across Massachusetts will discuss regional biodiversity issues and related public policy topics. Massachusetts is home to one of 45 sites across the globe participating in the World Wide Views project by convening a day of citizen dialogue on September 15. Results of the conversations in Boston and the other 44 sessions taking place that day will be presented to U.N. delegates who work on biodiversity issues, thereby helping to shape the agenda and deliberations of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity in India this October.

Martin is majoring in environmental science and minoring in natural resource economics, with a concentration in environmental policy. She has been accepted into the new accelerated Master of Public Policy (MPP) program at the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA), which gives her the opportunity to double-count some coursework and earn her graduate degree one year after finishing her bachelor’s. But CPPA is already a home of sorts to Martin; she was a work-study student here during the 2011-2012 academic year.

Her job this summer will be to determine how to recruit and select participants for the September day of dialogue so that the 100 Massachusetts residents chosen will proportionally represent the commonwealth racially, socioeconomically, politically and geographically. Gretchen Gano, the project’s co-director, will mentor Martin. Among the skills she will learn are designing an effective research model and social science data collection. Gano is a lecturer at CPPA and a doctoral candidate in Arizona State University’s Human Dimensions of Science and Technology program.

Martin already has substantial experience in the realms of biodiversity, environmental policy and community engagement. She has worked on a native species restoration project with a land trust in western Massachusetts; served as a mentor for elementary school girls exploring science beyond the classroom; and worked at the Fund for the Public Interest, canvassing communities in support of proposed Massachusetts recycling legislation.

“The chance to work on the World Wide Views project has inspired me to go more in-depth with this kind of citizen engagement in science-related policymaking,” Martin said.

She will meet periodically with other participants in the Community Research Engagement program for seminars and training in community-based research. Martin will also present her research study proposal aims and hypotheses to the group, and will present her study findings to students and faculty at summer’s end.

In addition to Gano and Martin, the team planning for the September day of discussions includes David Sittenfeld, the other project co-director, who manages the Forum Program at the Museum of Science in Boston, and Maria Delfin Auza, a master’s candidate at CPPA.

The Science, Technology and Society Initiative is a CPPA-affiliated endeavor that conducts multidisciplinary research on the intersection of science and technology with today’s social, political and economic issues.

Categories
Environmental policy Science, technology & society

Online Intro to GIS Course Offered June 5 – July 10

Interested in being able to collect, manage, display and analyze data geographically? Gain new skills through the online Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) course that the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) is offering this summer.

This three-credit course is not only an excellent opportunity for a graduate student to pick up some valuable technical experience, it also offers professionals who want or need to learn about GIS the chance do so in a flexible, convenient format.

Regardless of where you are on your educational or professional journey, this class promises to offer effective and concrete skills for a career in public policy and administration. The course is designed for those interested in public policy and administration in general, with an emphasis on natural resource policy and management.

Students will learn to construct, manipulate, display and analyze spatial information. Along the way, they will become familiar with georeferencing concepts, online digitizing, GPS mapping and gathering data from the Internet, especially data offered by the Massachusetts Office of Geographic Information. Course participants will also learn the difference between Raster and Vector data and get exposed to fundamental relational database theory.

This course is a great opportunity to learn from a team with both practical and research experience in applied information management as it relates to environmental policy. Charles Schweik is an associate professor of environmental conservation and public policy at UMass Amherst, who has taught classes like this for more than 12 years. He is also the associate director of the National Center for Digital Government and is an affiliated researcher with the Science, Technology, and Society Initiative; both projects are housed within CPPA. Later this year MIT Press will publish Schweik’s first book, Internet Success: A Study of Open Source Software Commons. Lead instructor Walter Jaslanek is an environmental conservation Ph.D. candidate at UMass Amherst who has more than a decade of hands-on professional experience working with GIS and related technologies.

This distance learning course will run from June 5 through July 10. Enrollment information is available here. Sign up today!

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Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research Governance Science, technology & society

Fountain named to Governor’s Council for Innovation

Jane Fountain, professor of political science and public policy, is one of 11 Massachusetts-based experts on technology and government who has been appointed to Gov. Deval Patrick’s newly formed Council for Innovation. The council will advise the governor on the best opportunities to improve government efficiency and use technology to streamline delivery of services to people, businesses and local governments.

Fountain is the founder and director of the National Center for Digital Government, based at the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) at UMass Amherst. The National Center was created with support from the National Science Foundation to develop research and infrastructure for the emerging field of information technology and governance. Fountain also heads the Science, Technology and Society Initiative at CPPA, which conducts multidisciplinary research on the intersection of science and technology with today’s social, political and economic issues.

Prior to this appointment by Gov. Patrick, much of Fountain’s work on e-governance has had an international focus. In recent years she has served as chair and vice chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government.

“This is much closer to home than most of my work,” Fountain said. “It is an honor to serve on this council and to represent our campus in doing so.”

In a news release this week, Gov. Patrick said the goal of the new council is to “support innovation across state government by engaging experts and entrepreneurs to help us make targeted investments in new technology. The Commonwealth’s Council for Innovation will help us find new opportunities to use cutting edge technology to improve service delivery and cut expenses.”

“Our Administration is committed to providing new tools and resources to improve the way government serves people,” said Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray. “The work of the council will be critical as we apply technology to improve everything we do in government including creating jobs, having safer neighborhoods, closing the achievement gap and containing health care costs.”

Proposed in the governor’s fiscal year 2013 budget recommendation, the council will enhance the administration’s ongoing efforts to improve services to residents, businesses and local governments by engaging with technology experts and entrepreneurs to focus on creating technology upgrades that will help streamline the delivery of services.

Joining Fountain on the council are venture capitalists, founders of successful start-ups, technology specialists, innovation experts and other academics. Council members will use their breadth of experience to help the Patrick administration set technology and innovation priorities, identify new opportunities for government to leverage technology to support innovative approaches to delivering government services and identify new partnerships for delivering programs and services to residents.

“The Patrick-Murray Administration has worked to reform the role information technology plays in government so we can invest in IT more wisely, and ensure our IT services are delivered more reliably and with better alignment to business priorities,” said the Commonwealth’s Chief Information Officer John Letchford. “I look forward to working with the governor and Innovation Council to drive technology-infused business strategies that will continue to enhance how we deliver government services to Commonwealth residents, businesses and local governments.”

The Patrick administration has a track record of technology-supported innovation across state government, including implementing a new call system at the Division of Unemployment Assistance that reduces the wait times and implementing “eLicensing” at the Department of Public Safety to allow companies and individuals to apply and pay for their licensing and renewals on-line. Additionally, the administration’s effort to consolidate IT services through Executive Order 532 has generated an estimated $14 million in savings for the Commonwealth since 2011.

In addition to establishing a Council for Innovation to support innovation efforts across state government, the executive order creates a Government Innovation Officer (GIO) position within the Executive Office for Administration and Finance to focus on improving internal government efficiencies and identifying technology savings and efficiencies. The executive order also establishes a statewide innovation competition to solicit proposals for innovative uses of technology that will enable the Commonwealth to better serve its residents and save money. Details on the competition are being developed and will be announced in the coming months.

The council members include:

  • Mohamad Ali (Arlington, MA), Chairman of the Mass Technology Leadership Council
  • Jeff Bussgang (Newton, MA), General partner at Flybridge Venture Capital and Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship
  • Marla Capozzi (Wellesley, MA), Senior innovation expert and co-leader of Global Innovation at McKinsey & Company
  • Art Dorfman (Sharon, MA), National vice president for SAP America
  • Jane Fountain (Sturbridge, MA), Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Diane Hessan (Boston, MA), President and CEO CommuniSpace
  • Elaine Karmack (Brewster, MA), Professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
  • Andrew McAfee (Cambridge, MA), Principal research scientist at MIT’s Center for Digital Business at the Sloan School of Management
  • Bill Oates (Brighton, MA), Chief information officer for the City of Boston
  • Jim O’Neill (Hingham, MA), Chief information officer at HubSpot
  • Phil Swisher (Boston, MA), Senior vice president for innovation at Brown Brothers Harriman
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Grants Science, technology & society

UMass Science, Technology and Society Initiative Receives Public Service Endowment Grant

The UMass Science, Technology and Society (STS) Initiative, under the auspices of the Center for Public Policy and Administration, has received a $14,720 Public Service Endowment Grant from the University. The grant will support the Commonwealth’s participation in World Wide Views on Biodiversity (WWVB), a project that will bring citizens’ voices to the 2012 United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (COP 11) in India next October.

The grant will also support a collaboration between UMass Amherst and the Museum of Science in Boston, which will host a day of dialogue and deliberation about biodiversity for 100 residents throughout Massachusetts on September 15, 2012. The proceedings from that day will be summarized and distributed to policymakers for their use at COP 11, along with views gathered from citizens in nations around the world.

An important component of the project is a graduate-level course at UMass, “Global Governance and Biodiversity,” taught this spring by Gretchen Gano, a staff member at Amherst College completing her doctorate at Arizona State University. Gano’s research focuses on the human dimensions of science and technology, particularly deliberative democratic strategies for governing complex and emerging technologies in society.

Students enrolled in the course will develop an ethically-based, inclusive strategy for selecting area and other state residents as participants in the day of dialogue next September. Students will also write op-eds and/or issue briefs for state policymakers, assist with a citizen information guide about local and regional biodiversity issues, and design an evaluation strategy for assessing the state’s involvement in WWVB.

According to Jane Fountain, professor of political science and public policy and director of STS, “We are delighted to receive this grant, which will serve the Commonwealth by helping to ensure that Massachusetts citizens are represented in deliberations about issues that affect their present and future quality of life.”

The grant includes funds for outreach to low-income residents in western Massachusetts and support for their participation in the Museum of Science event next fall.

According to Gano, “This grant is focused on supporting the involvement of western Massachusetts residents in the World Wide Views initiative, participation that might otherwise be limited because of the traditional east-west divide in our state. But the project will benefit the entire Commonwealth by supporting Massachusetts’ role as a World Wide Views site, joining other sites that currently include Arizona, Iowa, Colorado and the District of Columbia.”

State residents not directly participating in WWVB will be able to learn and discuss issues related to biodiversity, citizen science and citizen engagement through a planned lecture series and/or area town hall this coming year.

Spaces are still available for students to enroll in PUBP&ADM697ST: Global Governance and Biodiversity.  Advanced Five College undergraduates may also enroll with the instructor’s permission.

For additional information about the course or WWVB, please contact Gretchen Gano (ggano@amherst.edu).  Additional information about WWVB is also available at http://www.tekno.dk/subpage.php3?article=1739&survey=15&language=uk.