Laboratories for innovation in data management

Current approaches to public policy-making that respond quickly to changing trends in technology are too often unsuccessful. Policy makers are often pressured to develop and adopt laws or guidelines without the evidence needed to do so safely and without the opportunity to consult affected experts and users - meaning that they will not be designed with the needs of those who will be directly affected by them later in life in mind.

This problem is particularly acute in the case of emerging technologies, where, in addition, some companies often actively resist regulation by using their own lobbying, or simply by occupying the regulatory vacuum by setting de facto standards through their own practices.

For all these reasons, policymakers are beginning to adopt some alternative approaches to public policymaking in the technological environment. Among these alternatives is the rise of laboratories of innovation on public policy, whose main objective is to offer a tool that facilitates the agile creation of such policies by ensuring that they are oriented towards the public interest while at the same time enabling innovation and the development of enterprises.

What is a public policy laboratory?

A Policy Lab is a space where different stakeholders are invited to work together, each contributing their particular skills to find solutions to common problems. This is done through an open and iterative process in which possible solutions are experimented with, while maintaining a permanent focus on the needs and expectations of the individuals concerned. The work of these laboratories is based on evidence to address issues that are of particular social relevance, often in very dynamic and growing areas such as technology, climate change or finance.

Policy labs are therefore becoming increasingly popular mechanisms for building bridges between experts, public administration and society in order to solve outstanding challenges while taking advantage of the opportunities offered by emerging areas of knowledge. Such laboratories have been flourishing profusely lately, both in Europe and in the United States. Technology policy labs in particular aim to advance technology policies through research, education and thought leadership, thereby restoring confidence in the design and decision-making mechanisms needed to make such policies successful. Some current examples are:

• The Tech Policy Lab at the University of Washington focuses on Artificial Intelligence and influences both state and federal legislation.
• The Digital Technologies Policy Laboratory at University College London (UCL), whose current projects address the Internet of Things and online privacy.
• The EU Policy Lab, of the European Commission, which experiments with the design of services in priority thematic areas for the EU - such as shared economy, blockchain technologies or health.

Open Data Policy Labs

Within the technology policy labs it is also common to find some specialised in more specific subjects, as is the case of the Open Data Policy Labs. The aim here is to support decision makers in their work to accelerate the responsible re-use and exchange of data for the benefit of society and the equitable dissemination of social and economic opportunities associated with such data.

A clear example is the Open Data Policy Lab, recently launched by Microsoft and the GovLab to help government agencies at all levels identify best practices to improve the availability, reuse and usefulness of the data they manage - from developing effective legislative models to addressing the challenge of identifying and publishing high-value datasets needed to help address critical societal challenges.

Its work is to facilitate collaboration between governments, the private sector and society to address a number of obstacles that currently stand in the way of accessing data responsibly - including the absence of an enabling governance model, lack of internal capacity, or limited access to external knowledge and resources. To this end, the Open Data Policy Lab focuses on four main activities:

• Analysis: through research to identify best practices in the field of open data and inform about the development of data initiatives that contribute to economic and social development.
• Guidance: by developing methodologies, guidelines, toolkits and other materials to facilitate more effective data sharing and promote evidence-based decision making when addressing public policy issues.
• Community networks: building a community of data managers and decision makers in the public and private sectors to share knowledge, conduct collaborative work and stimulate data exchange.
• Action: Identifying key societal challenges that can benefit from open data and implementing proof-of-concept initiatives that demonstrate how to harness the power of open data to solve those challenges.

In short, public policy laboratories are promising tools that can definitively contribute to taking the step towards the expected third wave in the movement of open data, since they have all the elements necessary to confront and provide solutions in an agile manner to the limitations in current data governance models through openness that is respectful of data, based on public interests and built on collaborative action.

Content prepared by Carlos Iglesias, Open data Researcher and consultan, World Wide Web Foundation.

Contents and points of view expressed in this publication are the exclusive responsibility of its author.