I’ve just finished my first week at Georgetown University, where I’ll be through the end of 2017 (locals can find me at cw986). I’m here to do field work for a case study on the institutional context of open government, and it’s an exciting theme to be digging into right now, as the US revamps work on it’s much speculated OGP participation.
I’ll be hosted by the Beeck Center for social impact and innovation while I’m here, which is a fantastic place to be thinking about the conditions that facilitate government opening and engaging with citizens. We’re also looking for ways for me to contribute to the center’s work on congressional capacity for citizen engagement, as well as the data for social good project with Hollie Russon Gilman. I’m also a visiting fellow with the Science, Technology and International Affairs program at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, looking for ways to collaborate with Rajesh Veeraraghavan‘s research on open government adaptation in Indian bureaucracies. Thanks to Jonathan Fox and Stefaan Verhulst for the connections.
If you’re interested in hearing more about my work here, pls feel free to get in touch. I’ll try to start blogging more regularly during my stay, also about what it’s like to be a visiting researcher in the belly of American political theater. Though I’m only beginning to the see the contours of civic tech and open gov are actually structured, and so far I might be most overwhelmed by how simply comfortable it is to be at an affluent American university. Read: #hammocks
