Dancing with disruption - Panel on Public Sector Innovation

ASIXadmin's picture
Submitted by ASIXadmin on 18 May 2011 - 10:35pm

Dancing with Disruption

 WITH CHARLES LEADBEATER

Sydney Panel with special guests

Social innovation in government and the public sector

Charles Leadbeater is a world expert on collaboration and innovation. His 2011 Australian tour tackles the interesting and growing discussion happening about the role and impact of social innovation in government and across the public sector. 

The points of interaction are growing. 

Some deal with issues of citizen engagement, debate and the crowdsourcing of ideas.  Some focus on new approaches to designing and delivering public services, often harnessing the growing stocks of public sector information now being made available so people can create new services from value-adding and often unexpected combinations. Others again are exploring innovative ways to improve transparency and accountability by making the work of government, the quality of our democracy and the business of the public sector more visible and collaborative. 

But however they interact, the world of social innovation and the world of government and the public sector are increasingly engaged in new relationships as the search becomes more urgent for fresh thinking, more responsive services and better solutions to complex public policy challenges. 

In this dialogue, we will bring together an intriguing mix of thinkers and practitioners to explore this increasingly important “dance with disruption” that has the potential to dramatically impact government and the public sector. 


Joining Charles Leadbeater for this panel discussion will be:

  • Tom Bentley, Deputy Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Julia Gillard (policy and institutional innovation)
  • Matthew Landauer, Co-founder, OpenAustralia (open data; transparency; crowd sourcing service innovation/hacking).
  • Chris Quigley, CEO of UK-based digital democracy company Delib (crowd sourcing; citizen consultation; digital platforms)

Some of the questions to be explored include:

  • How does the public sector learn from citizens and innovators outside government?
  • How should be we redrawing the relationship between “centre” and “edge” in the search for more effective innovation in and with the public sector?
  • How does government listen to social innovators and then absorb and act on ideas?
16 June 2011 - 7:45am - 10:00am

Location

UNSW City Campus
1 O'Connell Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
Australia
33° 51' 52.1892" S, 151° 12' 35.7984" E
See map: Google Maps

Comments

Vern's picture

Re: Dancing with disruption - Panel on Public Sector Innovation

by Vern - 23 May 2011 - 11:47am

This event says it "will explore the role and impact of social innovation in government and across the public sector".

What on earth is "social innovation in government"? Social innovation is surely innovation in society, for society. Innovation in government is surely "public sector innovation". The two things are not the same.

There is huge conceptual confusion about social innovation, and a great deal of misunderstanding about it. Social innovation is not public sector innovation - social innovation will hopefully change the way government operates in relation to society, but anything that originates in government, for government objectives, must not be called social innovation. Otherwise we may as well proclaim that WHITE is now BLACK, and CHALK, from now on, is to be known as CHEESE.

Vern Hughes