Beth Simone Noveck

Professor, Director of the Governance Lab (The GovLab)

Technology, Culture and Society
Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP)

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Beth Simone Noveck

Beth Simone Noveck directs the Governance Lab (The GovLab) and its MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance. She is a Professor in Technology, Culture, and Society and affiliated faculty at the Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering and a Fellow at NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge. New Jersey governor Phil Murphy appointed her as the state’s first Chief Innovation Officer and Chancellor Angela Merkel named her to her Digital Council in 2018. She is also Visiting Senior Faculty Fellow at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. Previously, Beth served in the White House as the first United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer and director of the White House Open Government Initiative under President Obama. UK Prime Minister David Cameron appointed her senior advisor for Open Government.

At the GovLab, she directs better governance programs, including work with public institutions on public engagement in lawmaking (CrowdLaw), expert-sourcing innovative solutions to hard problems (Smarter Crowdsourcing), co-creation between cities and citizens (City Challenges). She also coaches "public entrepreneurs." working with passionate individuals to take their public interest projects from idea to implementation.

A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, she is a member of the Scholars Council of the Library of Congress and the EPSRC Centre for the Mathematics of Precision Healthcare. Beth also serves on the International Advisory Board of the NHS Digital Academy and the Yankelovich Democracy Monitor as well as a member of the Inter-American Development BankPresident’s Commission on Transparency and Corruption and the Global Future Council on Technology, Values and Policy for the World Economic Forum. She is a member of the Steering Committee for the Collective Intelligence Conferences and GIGAPP (Grupo de Investigación en Gobierno, Administracion y Politicas Publicas). She is co-editor of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Digital Government Research and Practice journal.

In 2018, Beth was awarded a Robert Schumann Fellowship at the European University Institute and a Richard von Weizsaecker Fellowship by the Robert Bosch Foundation. Beth was named one of the “World’s 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government 2018” by Apolitical. Previously, she was selected as one of the “Foreign Policy 100” by Foreign Policy as well as one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company and “Top Women in Technology” by Huffington Post.

Beth is the author of Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise and the Future of Governing (Harvard Univ Press 2015) and Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger and Citizens More Powerful (Brookings 2009) and co-editor of The State of Play: Law, Games and Virtual Worlds (NYU Press, 2005). Her next book, Solving Public Problems: How to Fix Our Government and Change Our World will appear with Yale Press in 2021. Her TED talk is here. She tweets @bethnoveck.

Research Interests: Open government, open data, institutional innovation, technologies of expertise, information law and policy

Yale Law School 1997
JD, Law

University of Innsbruck 1996
PhD, Political Science

Harvard University 1992
AM, Comparative Literature

Harvard University 1991
AB, Social Studies

Noveck, Beth Simone. Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise and the Future of Governing, Harvard University Press, 2015

Noveck, Beth Simone. Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful, Brookings, 2009

Balkin, Jack M. and Beth S. Noveck, eds. 2006. The State of Play: Law and Virtual Worlds, NYU Press, 2006

 

  • Shaping a post-pandemic future: The role of data and technology in institutional reform

    As we navigate a post-Covid-19 future, the role of data in global, national and local policy decision-making is being brought to the fore. On an international scale, countries have used different ways to track and inform their response to the pandemic, raising questions about the legitimacy and responsiveness of governments, as well as fuelling household debates on whether we should trust Big Government over Big Tech, how to ‘flatten the curve’ or the value of international Covid case comparisons.

  • Workspheres

    Museum of Modern Art, R&D Salon 31. May 2019

  • Smart Government

    Efficient State Congress, Behöden Spiegel (in German). May 2016

  • Google and Apple’s rules for virus tracking apps sow division among states (Politico, June 2020)
  • How Congress can improve productivity by looking to the rest of the world (The Hill, May 2020)
  • How to run the world remotely (Vox, May 2020)
  • N.J. hospitals were expected to hit peak capacity last weekend. It didn’t happen. Here’s why. (New Jersey Local News, April 2020)
  • Coronavirus preparedness: Insurers and Medicaid need to relax prescription refills (The Hill, March 2020)
  • How a Government Innovation Office Aims to Modernize Its Services (Brink, February 2020)
  • Never listen to advice but do get lots of information (The Commons, January 2020)
  • People learn in different ways. The way we teach should reflect that (Apolitical, January 2020)
  • A Form that functions (The Aspen Institute, December 2019)
  • Digital Economy: Digital democracy (The Economist Podcast)
  • Internet está creando desigualdad, pero hay formas de arreglarlo (RETINA, April 1 2019)
  • Das tägliche Entscheider-Briefing zu Digitalisierung & KI, 28.03.2019 (Der Tagesspiegel, 2019)
  • Salon 31: Workspheres (MoMa R&D, May 2019)Professor Beth Simone Noveck’s talk at the MoMA R&D Salon which discussed the changing landscape of workspheres in the current political and social climate.
  • Beth Noveck, Asesora de Obama, Nos Explica Cómo la Tecnología Puede Hacer Más Transparentes Nuestras Democracias (El País, December 16, 2015)An article in El País describing Professor Beth Simone Noveck’s tenure in the White House as Deputy Chief Technology Officer.
  • Beth Noveck: On the C-SPAN Networks (C-SPAN, 2009)
  • Professor Beth Simone Noveck discusses topics like transparency, open government, and civic engagement across three appearances in the C-SPAN video library.
  • How Germany is preparing to digitize government and labor (Deutsche Welle, May 2019)
  • Igualdad: Internet Está Creando Desigualdad, Pero Hay Formas de Arreglarlo (Montse Hidalgo Perez & Guillermo Vega, Retina, April 1, 2019)
  • The Future of City Innovation (Beth Noveck, Bloomberg Cities, March 19, 2019)
  • New Ways of Working for Government (Bloomberg, 2018)
  • El Ejemplo de Madrid y por qué la Participación Ciudadana Aún no Funciona (Jordi Pérez Colomé, El País, December 10, 2018)
  • Top 10 Books About Building Cities (Jonathan Carr, The Guardian, March 13, 2019)
  • New Jersey Chief Innovation Officer Beth Noveck: Using Technology to Shape Policy (Casey Leins, US News, September 21, 2019)
  • Who knows best? Cities consult citizens for fresh ideas (Sophie Davies, Thomson Reuters Foundation News, February 12, 2019)
  • Beth Noveck on How Open Data and Direct Democracy Could Restore Our Faith in Politics (Australian Broadcasting Corp, September 12, 2018)
  • Elections Won’t Save Our Democracy. But ‘CrowdLaw’ Could. (Beth Noveck, The Washington Post, October 2, 2018)
  • NJ’s First CIO Explains How Technology Can Improve Government Services (Briana Vannozzi, NJTV News, October 1, 2018)
  • Innovation Lead Will Help New Jersey Modernize Process, Support the Tech Economy (Theo Douglas, GovTech, August 27, 2018)
  • Artificial Intelligence and the End of Government (Daniel Araya, Forbes, January 4, 2019)
  • Digital Crusaders: Technology Offers Weapons for the Battle Against Corruption (Chris Wellisz, IPS News, December 18, 2018)
  • Renovating Democracy from the Bottom Up (Nathan Gardels, The Washington Post, October 5, 2018)
  • NJ’s first CIO explains how technology can improve government services (NJTV News, October 1, 2018)
  • New Jersey Chief Innovation Officer Beth Noveck: Using Technology to Shape Policy (US News, September 21, 2018)
  • The Simple but Ingenious System Taiwan Uses to Crowdsource Its Laws (Chris Horton, MIT Technology Review, August 21, 2018)
  • Australia’s Top 4 on the Global Stage of Digital Government Influencers (Harley Dennett, The Mandarin, August 9, 2018)
  • The Impact of Technology on Democracy (The Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2018)
  • [German] Die Digitalrätin aus New York (Die Zeit, August 29 2018)
  • Citizen participation in law-making and public policy: An Interview with Beth Simone Noveck (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, August 28 2018)
  • The ex-White House digital champion bringing innovation to New Jersey(Apolitical, August 23 2018)
  • New Jersey hires GovLab founder as its first Chief Innovation Officer(Govtech, August 13 2018)
  • Best and worst of times: how disruption will reshape work (Sydney Morning Herald, August 11 2018)
  • If a robot's eating your job, it's probably eating your life expectancy too (Sydney Morning Herald, July 2018)
  • Managing Through Uncertainty: Why Public Servants Should Embrace Data Science. (Public Sector Digest, June 2018)
  • Interview with Beth Noveck in ERR Novataar (Eesti Rahvusringhääling, May 2018)
  • More Than a Coin: The Rise of Civic Cryptocurrency (Forbes, March 2018)
  • City Challenges: Collaborative Governing for Public Problem Solving (Forbes, January 2018)
  • La Madre Del Gobierno Abierto (La Vanguardia, 2017)
  • Experta expondrá este jueves sobre uso de nuevas tecnologías en el gobierno (La Tercera, 2017)
  • The Policy Labs We Urgently Need (Governing, December 13 2017)
  • Five hacks for digital democracy (Nature, April 2017)
  • Another NHS crisis looms - an inability to analyze data (The Guardian, February 2017)
  • The Power of Networking in Reforming Criminal Justice (Governing, February 2017)
  • Could crowdsourcing expertise be the future of government? (The Guardian, November 2016)
  • Can Smarter Crowdsourcing Stop Zika? (CityLab Miami 2016, Video): Beth Simone Noveck in conversation with Rudi Borrman.
  • In the Fight Against Hunger, Technology Brings Power to the People (USA Today, September 2016)
  • The International Congress on Government Administration and Public Policy (#GIGAPP2016, Video): An Interview with Beth Simone Noveck.
  • The Tech Presidency - Governing in the Age of Big Data and Machine Learning (LinkedIn Speaker Series, 2016, Video): Beth Noveck’s talk at the LinkedIn Speaker Series
  • The Obama administration wanted to open up government to citizen input. Why hasn’t it worked? (The Washington Post, 2016): An interview with Beth Simone Noveck
  • Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise (#BCTECHSummit, 2016, Video): Beth Noveck’s talk at the #BCTECHSummit
  • The big data opportunity (#BCTECHSummit, 2016, Video): Panel discussion moderated by Beth Noveck at the #BCTECHSummit
  • The Tinder Approach to Fixing Our Government (The Brian Lehrer Show, 2016, Audio): Beth Noveck on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC 93.9 FM
  • The Innovation the Grantmaking Process Needs (Governing, January 2016)
  • Swipe right to fix the world: can Tinder-like tech match solutions to problems? (The Guardian, December 2015)
  • What Citizens Can Teach Civil Servants About Open Government (Governing, December 2015)
  • How Technology can make our democracy more transparent (El Pais, 2015, Video): An interview with El Pais
  • Participatory Democracy's Emerging Tools (Governing, March 2015)
  • Demand a more open source government (TED, 2012, Video): Beth Noveck at TED2012
  • Can the Open Data Revolution Change Our Democracy (TED Radio hour, 2012, Audio): NPR TED Radio Hour
  • What government can learn from tech (TechRepublic, 2015): A conversation with Beth Noveck
  • Bringing Democracy into the 21st century (Scenario Magazine, 2016): J.P O’Malley in the Scenario Magazine
  • The International Congress on Government Administration and Public Policy (#GIGAPP2016, Video): An Interview with Beth Simone Noveck

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