Post on 15-Jul-2015
transcript
Civic Tech in Academia
Unless noted otherwise
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.Professor, Information Systems
College of Business, San Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco, CA 94132 USA
http://verma.sfsu.edu/ sverma@sfsu.edu Presented at:
Developing the Caribbean 2015University of the West Indies, Jamaica#DevCA2015
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@sameerverma
Caution: Large variance in context. Follow at your own risk!
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me
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Board of Directors
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Centre of ExcellenceMona School of Business
University of the West IndiesJamaica
http://coe-msb.org/about
Institutional Academic Partner
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Co-founder,One Laptop per Child, Jamaica
http://olpcjamaica.org.jm
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SF State University (1899 - present)
• 29,000 + students
• Colleges: Business, Creative Arts, Education, Ethnic Studies, Health and Human Services, Humanities, Science and Engineering
• Campus:O Main Campus: 1600 Holloway Ave. San FranciscoO Downtown Center: 835 Market St., San FranciscoO Romberg Tiburon Center, Tiburon
http://www.sfsu.edu
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Commons Initiative - Mission
• Two-fold:O To connect people, so they can communicate their ideas,
and collaborate on projects in the digital commons space at SF State. (inward)
O To foster an environment where SF State commons can participate in the commons worldwide. (outward)
http://commons.sfsu.edu
@SFStateCommons
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Two-fold mission
Drupal at
SF StateDrupal Worldwide
for instance...
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Downstream - Upstream
Campusprojects
Worldwide Commons
for instance...
How?
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Not a committee
A community initiative.
Open to all:
Students, Staff, Faculty
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Lenses
• EducationO How to bring “commons” into the classroom.
• TechnologyO Neat stuff happens on campus. Share!
• OutreachO Sustained collaboration and participation.
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Advisory Board
Upstream connections
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Alexis Rossi, Internet Archive
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Alolita Sharma, Wikimedia
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Asheesh Laroia, Openhatch
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Brian Behlendorf, Apache
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Stefano Maffulli, Openstack
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Tim Vollmer, Creative Commons
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OpenData, OpenGov, CivicTech
• Openly available data. Free to use, reuse, share-alike. Provide attribution.
• Government data available to the public. Increase transparency and accountability.
• Use of technology for civic engagement in the public and private sector.
Civic EngagementSocial Justice, Equity, Resilience
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Ad hoc experiences
• Interest began off-campus
• Uncoordinated experiences
• Discovery through Commons InitiativeO Like-minded students, staff, faculty
Let's hack something!
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Hack nights and Hackathons
• Hack nights at Code for America
• San Francisco and Oakland brigades
• National Day of Civic Hacking
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Hackathon in 2013
• Organize event
• Coordinate with National Day of Civic Hacking
• 8 challenges
• 1st time experience
• No student teams
#HackForChange
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My students
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Student team goes to the White House!
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Hackathon in 2014
• More organized
• 10 challengesO 2 from campus
• 4 teams have our students
• High school participation!
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More involved and consistent
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Academic project(s)
• What can we do withO Open DataO Open GovO Civic Tech
• Courses, Internships
• Hackathons
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Statistics 101
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What p-value?
Inferential or Descriptive Statistics
http://rocketscienceofwallstreet.blogspot.com/2012/04/nassim-nicholas-taleb-against-gaussian.html
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Biases
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Experimental course
• Four students
• Embedded as observers at SF Brigade (Code for America)
O 4 weeks observation phaseO 4 weeks participation phaseO Organize hackathon.O Report.
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Problems
• Oversupply of tools and apps
• Little re-use
• Reinvention O Free Software FoundationO Open Source InitiativeO Creative Commons
• Wide variance in skills
• Lack of consistency
• More Tech, less Civic
• Low SustainabilityO Bring into the classroom?
Rich history. Learn from it?
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Civic Tech leads to Civic Engagement
Focus on local problems
Civic tech may or may not be driven by open data
Sustainability is key
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Open Data @ SF State http://data.sfsu.edu
• A to Z Index
• Bike Routes and Racks
• Building Location
• Ewaste Collection Sites
• Sustainability Features
• Water Bottle Filling Stations
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Hackathon 2015
• Focus on:O EducationO HealthcareO Resilience
• http://hackathon.sfsu.edu
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Workshop: Civic Tech and Smart Cities
• June 8, 2015
• Scope: Sciences, Engineering, Business
• Focus: Research, teaching and service
• http://commons.sfsu.edu
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And so it continues...