Search results for ""Author Stephen Goldsmith""

Leveraging Big Data and 21st century technology to renew cities and citizenship in America The Responsive City is a guide to civic engagement and governance in the digital age that will help leaders link important breakthroughs in technology and data analytics with age-old lessons of small-group community input to create more agile, competitive, and economically resilient cities. Featuring vivid case studies highlighting the work of pioneers in New York, Boston, Chicago and more, the book provides a compelling model for the future of governance. The book will help mayors, chief technology officers, city administrators, agency directors, civic groups and nonprofit leaders break out of current paradigms to collectively address civic problems. The Responsive City is the culmination of research originating from the Data-Smart City Solutions initiative, an ongoing project at Harvard Kennedy School working to catalyze adoption of data projects on the city level. The book is co-authored by Professor Stephen Goldsmith, director of Data-Smart City Solutions at Harvard Kennedy School, and Professor Susan Crawford, co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg penned the book’s foreword. Based on the authors’ experiences and extensive research, The Responsive City explores topics including: Building trust in the public sector and fostering a sustained, collective voice among communities; Using data-smart governance to preempt and predict problems while improving quality of life; Creating efficiencies and saving taxpayer money with digital tools; and Spearheading these new approaches to government with innovative leadership.

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Dynamic problems require dynamic collaboration and technology. Our communities today face difficult issues—such as climate change, access to health care, and homelessness—which are tangled, complicated, and constantly evolving. Coined “wicked problems” more than 40 years ago by the University of California’s professors Horst Rittel and C. West Churchman, these issues exceed the capacity of any one sector, instead demanding the kind of creative thinking, democratized engagement, and integrated action that come from government, nonprofits, businesses, and citizens working in concert. These different stakeholders, however, don’t always agree on the best approach, strategy, or goals. But their commonality in driving social outcomes relies on place: where problems are happening, where people need assistance and help defining the issues. Maps combine complex and relational information that can be visualized and analyzed to deal with these issues. When used with technological developments in data analytics, visualization, connectivity, and the Internet of Things (IoT), mapping can promote effective cross-sector collaboration. Written for citizens and city leaders, Collaborative Cities: Mapping Solutions to Wicked Problems guides readers into using location intelligence to derive public value from action. Co-authors Stephen Goldsmith (former mayor of Indianapolis and deputy mayor of New York) and Kate Markin Coleman (former executive vice president for branding and strategy at the YMCA) use their combined years of experience to analyze the best civic examples of geospatial technology working across cross-sector networks. Divided into eight chapters, Collaborative Cities addresses the formation, operation, and adaptation of cross-sector collaborations, including five chapters dedicated to specific wicked problems such as public safety, homelessness, and sustainability. Starting with Collaborative Cities, government officials, nonprofit leaders, and citizens alike who are acting for social value can learn how to use a geospatial approach to improve insight, trust, and the efficacy of their combined efforts to solve wicked problems.

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THE POWER of SOCIAL INNOVATION Civic leaders across the U.S. and throughout the world are discovering creative ways to overcome the obstacles that seal the doors of opportunity for too many. These inspiring individuals believe that within our communities lie the entrepreneurial spirit, compassion, and resources to make progress in such critical areas as education, housing, and economic self-reliance. Real progress requires that we take bold action and leverage our strengths for the greater good. The Power of Social Innovation offers public officials, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and individual citizens the insights and skills to create healthier communities and promote innovative solutions to public and social problems. This seminal work is based on Stephen Goldsmith's decades of experience, extensive ongoing research, and interviews with 100+ top leaders from a wide variety of sectors. Goldsmith shows that everyday citizens can themselves produce extraordinary social change. The book explores the levers and guiding principles used by champions of civic progress who drive new organizations, new interventions, or new policies to enhance social conditions. The Power of Social Innovation features illustrative case studies of change-oriented philanthropists, public officials, and civic leaders. While all collaborate across sectors, they run both start-ups and established organizations such as the New York City public schools, United Way of America, the United Negro College Fund, and Teach For America. The book shows the catalyzing role each plays in transforming a community's social service delivery systems. To complement the book's myriad tools and case studies,The Power of Social Innovation web site (www.powerofsocialinnovation.com) provides links to relevant Harvard research as well as additional helpful resources.

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