Data Ingredients: smart disclosure and open government data as complementary tools to meet policy objectives. The case of energy efficiency.

Open government data are considered a key asset for eGovernment. One could argue that governments can influence other types of data disclosure, as potential ingredients of innovative services. To discuss this assumption, we took the example of the U.S. 'Green Button' initiative – based on the disclosure of energy consumption data to each user – and analysed 36 energy-oriented digital services reusing these and other data, in order to highlight their set of inputs. We find that apps suggesting to a user a more efficient consumption behaviour also benefit from average retail electricity cost/price information; that energy efficiency 'scoring' apps also need, at least, structured and updated information on buildings performance; and that value-added services that derive insights from consumption data frequently rely on average energy consumption information. More in general, most of the surveyed services combine consumption data, open government data, and corporate data. When setting sector-specific agendas grounded on data disclosure, public agencies should therefore consider (contributing) to make available all three layers of information. No widely acknowledged initiatives of energy consumption data disclosure to users are being implemented in the EU. Moreover, browsing EU data portals and websites of public agencies, we find that other key data ingredients are not supplied (or, at least, not as open data), leaving room for possible improvements in this arena

Model-Based Management – Design and Experimental Evaluation

Business Process Models contain a lot of information. They are created with different objectives in mind by people with different background. Many models contain information about an organization’s structure and the application systems or services used within the organization. Several tasks are done by people with different roles using different resources. Identity Management Systems (IDMS) try to offer a way to manage all these information automatically. After introducing an IDMS it is easy to cope with changes in identities (persons) and their roles. However, one main question often remains: How to identify good roles that are capable to ease the task of assigning people to resources? In this article a model-based approach using ratios is presented. Complexity, cohesion and coupling for roles are introduced and evaluated to come to a good set of roles representing what they should represent: a bundle of similar organizational functions and resources

COCOPS Executive Survey on Public Sector Reform in Europe.

Background and aims of the survey The COCOPS project aims to assess the impact of New Public Management-style (NPM) reforms on public administrations in Europe, as well as, more particularly, on public services attending to citizens’ service needs and on social cohesion. The research explores trends and development of future public sector reform strategies, especially given the context of the financial crisis, by drawing lessons from past experience, exploring trends and studying emerging public sector coordination practices. The research is comparative and evidence-based, drawing on both existing data and innovative new quantitative and qualitative data collection, at both national and policy sector levels. As one of the largest comparative public management research projects in Europe, the project therefore intends to provide a comprehensive picture of the challenges facing the European public sector of the future. The consortium implementing the research consists of a group of leading public administration scholars from eleven universities in ten countries. The project is funded through the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme as a Small or Medium-Scale Focused Research Project, and runs from January 2011 to June 2014. More information on the project is available at www.cocops.eu. The third phase of COCOPS (or its ‘Work package 3’) is a cornerstone of the project, as it produces an original, large-scale survey exploring the opinions and perceptions of public sector managers in ten Europe countries with regards to NPM reforms. The work package thus provides novel quantitative data regarding NPM reforms and their impacts in Europe, coming from the actors involved at close range in the conception and especially in the implementation of reforms: public sector executives across Europe active in the areas of (as delineated in the project’s reference points) general government, employment and health. Moreover, the data resulting from the survey constitutes a building block for other project phases which, based on an analysis of trends and opinions identified by the civil servants surveyed, try to establish innovative practices in tackling unintended consequences of NPM reforms, effects of the financial crisis and also possible scenarios for the future of the public sector

Collaboration in public infrastructures projects: survey on utility managers

none3noThe survey confirms that collaborative arrangements in early project stages improves infrastructure projects. Greater benefits are generated in the Knowledge and Public Acceptance domains. Nevertheless, it cannot be excluded that these positive effects are traded off against a lack of progress in the area of Efficiency. The permitting procedures that frequently create a time escalation in infrastructure projects are effectively managed when early stages are governed through a co-creation but other inefficiency sources do not find a remedy with the cooperative governance.openGiuseppe Cappiello; Paola Garrone; Paolo NardiGiuseppe Cappiello; Paola Garrone; Paolo Nard