Policy and Complex Systems
knowledge project , underlying the application of a certain artifact within a certain context , is expected to deliver the most in establishing , reinforcing , and enriching that linking .
In the Piedmont case study concerned with service integration , for example , the knowledge project component underlying the social network application had two main aims : ( a ) to provide a shared reasoning tool among different government offices to investigate the issues of municipality aggregation , and ( b ) to establish a setting where a constructive dialogue around the various facets of the aggregation issue can take place . A regional government initiative , engaging the different actors to treat the municipality aggregation problem by a system approach , promotes the development of a common “ object of discourse ”, which may be conducive to a more participatory and responsible clustering process .
B ) Empowering the government actors
Although the extension of the observation perspective is a general requirement for making the government – governance relationships easier , how this extension is appropriated and used by government actors is an additional question . Being embedded in a more fluid context where there is an increasing variety of partners ( citizens , NGOs , and scientists ), they need to develop a capability to properly extract and mold the available information , in order to undertake their accomplishments 10 .
An aspect often overlooked is how for government actors this capability eventually develops . This has two main facets .
The first , and one hot topic of discussion for the last two decades , relates to data availability : easy , secure , reliable , inexpensive , accessible , and timely data , in fact , are key data features in supporting this capability . By yielding a large amount of new type of data , the extension of the policy perspective mentioned above is likely to contribute substantially to it . However , in front of the unprecedented ICT-related data growth , there is a risk that , without convenient cognitive mediator artifacts , government actors be stacked in a paradoxical situation in which notwithstanding this growth their knowledge capability does not expand but may even be curtailed .
A second aspect is related to how , in practical usage , government actors get hold of data and are able to give significance to them ( transform data / information into knowledge ) for the task they have to undertake 11 . This is largely unexplored , and too little attention has been paid in the past to the role of ( the semantic component of ) cognitive mediation artifacts in supporting this appropriation process in policy practices .
Indeed , this acknowledgement explains why in most ( Italian ) government offices the awareness of those cognitive mediator tools is low and their diffusion is
10
These are manifold and may span across different aspects such as : ( a ) the type of policy activities they refer to ( whether procedural or substantial ) and their time horizon ( whether they are short- or long-term initiatives ); ( b ) the level / type of accountability associated with a certain accomplishment , whether financial , administrative , or informational ( see the recent debate on open data ); ( c ) the type of stakeholders / beneficiaries involved .
11
We assume that a continuum exists in information usage , insofar , depending on the user / task , we can distinguish between raw data , information ( organized data ), and knowledge ( appropriated information by a user for carrying out a certain task ). We also make the hypothesis that the user is willing to update his / her knowledge potential .
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