Inside innovation. Year 2. An evaluation of the second year of delivery of a project promoting innovative thinking amongst Prison Service staff

The Inside Innovation programme is the result of a partnership between Media For Development (MFD) and UnLtd. The Inside Innovation programme forms part of MFD’s multi-award winning Inside Job initiative that operates within the criminal justice system in the United Kingdom. MFD staff are responsible for supporting applications to UnLtd for funded awards for good project ideas generated from staff working in the prison sector. In line with equivalent posts at UnLtd, the Development Manager supports Award Winners throughout the lifespan of their projects. During the first year of service delivery, Inside Innovation operated in two prisons, HMP Wandsworth and HMP Downview. During the second year of service delivery, Inside Innovation has been established in two further prisons, HMP Brixton and HMP Highdown

Regional Entrepreneurial Opportunities in the Biotech Industry: Exploring the Transition from Award-winning Nascent Entrepreneurs to Real Start-ups

Knowledge of factors that determine the transition from nascent entrepreneurship into real entrepreneurship is of major importance for policies aiming to effectively stimulate start-ups. Whereas scholars concentrated on person-specific factors to explain transition probabilities, environmental characteristics have been fairly neglected. Given that entrepreneurship is a strongly localized phenomenon, this paper argues that regional entrepreneurial opportunities are a driving force behind the transition from nascent entrepreneurship to new venture creation. Based on unique data on 103 nascent entrepreneurs in the German biotechnology industry, we empirically assess the importance of regional entrepreneurial opportunities on transition probabilities. Further, we introduce a new approach to measure nascent entrepreneurship by capturing individuals that actively participate in start-up competitions and have won at least one competition. Controlling for technology and individual characteristics, we find strong support for our hypotheses relating to the significant impact of general regional opportunities, specific regional opportunities and the entrepreneurial environment for the probability of transition from award-winning nascent entrepreneurs to real start-ups.nascent entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial opportunities, start-ups, regional environment, biotechnology, R&D

Who will win the Nobel Prize?

This paper identifies the determinants of the Nobel Prize Award. The analysis is analogous in spirit to Hamermesh and Schmidt (Econometrica, 2003) on the election of Econometric Society fellows. It is found that the number of citations, age and nationality have significant impacts on the odds of winning the Nobel. We provide the first statistical evidence that John Bates Clark medalists and individuals affiliated with the University of Chicago have a higher chance of winning the Prize.Nobel Prize; John Bates Clark Medal; Logit Model.

Ideas project evaluation, formerly known as Inside Innovation, year three

In the first year of program delivery (January to December 2006), the Ideas Project operated in two prisons, HMP Downview and HMP Wandsworth. During year two of this program delivery (January to December 2007), Inside Innovation expanded to work in HMP Brixton and HMP Highdown. In the third and fourth year of project delivery (January 2008 to December 2009) the Ideas project has rolled out its service to 6 further prisons around London. This report provides details of the projects successfully funded by UnLtd over the four years of the Ideas Project delivery, as well as evaluating the four-year pilot scheme as a whole

The effective participation of the audience in the production of news: encouraging opportunities through data journalism

Digital tools allow and encourage users "to participate in the creation and circulation of media” (Lewis, 2012). This participation can be considered as a remedy against the growing disconnection between journalism and citizens, also as a formula for a greater democratization of the media (Negroponte, 1996 y Castells, 2001). However, most studies show that rarely the participation of the audience become significant, papers indicate that it is actually quite unusual to allow citizens to be part of the productive process. (Domingo et al., 2008). The journalistic organization has not transferred the power to the recipients and the interaction with the audience is only welcome as comments about the information (Peters & Witschge, 2014). This work aims to demonstrate how the Data Journalism comes to enable this effective participation of the audience in the process of news production. Our main objective is to define the terms in which the participation of the audience takes place in Data Journalism, we aim to categorize how and to what extent this relationship occurs and what benefits it brings to the information. To achieve the objectives set for this work we have analyzed the Data Journalism works awarded in the Data Journalism Awards since its foundation in 2012. These awards are the most prestigious of the world and they have also been the reference for other international researches because selecting award-winning works involves studying a sample with quality (Hermida, 2017; Ojo & Heravi, 2017). After an in-depth analysis, sixteen pieces were detected, of more than a hundred, in which citizen participation was perceived.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. This research is part of the R + D project CS02015-64955-C4-3-

Measuring transparency in public spending: Case of Czech Public e-Procurement Information System

The objective of this paper is to analyze the potential of e-Government tools to enable the general public to oversee spending of public institutions. The paper illustrates the “watchdog” potential of reducing corruption by means of providing information to the public on the example of the Czech Public e-Procurement Information System (further called System). The System is an Internet portal, where public authorities announce their intention to purchase goods and services. Such announcements are monitored by private entities that can compete for the respective public contract. For our paper we used a web robot to collect data about public procurements from the System and utilized them for construction of an original Transparency Index, which rates institutions that award public contracts (so called contracting authorities). The composite Index is constructed as a weighted sum of ten various transparency indicators, computed separately for each contracting authority. This Index could serve as an efficient benchmark for continuous control and comparison of public institutions in the area of public procurement and demonstrates how an e-Government tool can contribute to greater openness and accountability of these public institutions and to enhancement of the civic engagement in the control of governmental activities. The results of our research suggest that although the System is good step forward, its current structure does not enable the public to effectively exercise public control over procurements spending of contracting authorities, because of serious difficulties related to viewing (and extraction) of aggregate data. On the other hand, on example of our Transparency Index, we demonstrate that if the System allowed for easier access to data on public procurements, it would serve as an efficient tool of public control and facilitate open government initiatives.public procurement, Transparency Index, efficient public control, open government, corruption

On any topic? Topics of publications of investigative journalism and journalistic intervention in the local press (on the examples of Poland and the USA)

The author raises an interesting subject, hitherto unexplored comprehensively in American and Polish media studies, namely, the problem o f topics o f investigative journalism and journalistic intervention at the level o f local newspaper publishers. In local media, just as in national media, disclosure of corruption and misconduct of local government happens quite rarely. Additionally, the checking activity - as the watchdog function o f the press - is present in the Polish reality only in some local commercial media which are independent from local government. The author discusses the impact of the media’s checking function for the selection o f topics by local investigative journalists and the nature of the activities of local political and business decision-makers limiting the subjects addressed by investigative reporters. A comparative analysis relates the problems of the functioning o f local government andlocal communities which are aired in articles published by investigative journalists and journalistic intervention. For the comparison, articles recognised by the jury of the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism 1926-2015 and texts submitted and recognised in the “Local Press” competition 2012-2013 organised by the Association o f Local Newspapers were used.Autor podjął ciekawy, chociaż do tej pory niezbadany kompleksowo na gruncie amerykańskiego i polskiego medioznawstwa problem tematyki poruszanej w publikacjach dziennikarstwa śledczego i interwencyjnego na poziomie lokalnych wydawnictw prasowych. Podobnie jak w mediach ogólnokrajowych ujawnianie afer i nagłaśnianie niewłaściwych zachowań władzy zdarza się dosyć rzadko w mediach lokalnych, a działalność kontrolna w ramach watchdog function of the press występuje w polskich realiach tylko w nielicznych lokalnych mediach komercyjnych, niezależnych od organów samorządowych. Autor omawia wpływ funkcji kontrolnej mediów na dobór tematyki przez lokalnych dziennikarzy śledczych oraz charakter działań lokalnych decydentów politycznych i biznesowych ograniczających tematykę podejmowaną przez reporterów dochodzeniowych. Analizie porównawczej poddano problemy funkcjonowania organów samorządowych oraz społeczności lokalnych nagłaśniane w publikacjach demaskatorskich i interwencyjnych. Do porównania wykorzystano artykuły o tematyce lokalnej nagrodzone Pulitzer Prize za dziennikarstwo śledcze w latach 1926-2015 oraz materiały nadesłane i nagrodzone w latach 2012-2013 w konkursie ,,Local Press”, organizowanym przez Stowarzyszenie Gazet Lokalnych