www.ksg.harvard.edu/netgov

David Lazer

The Program on Networked Governance

Author: Prof. David Lazer, Director, david_lazer@harvard.edu

04/19/23 p. 2

Program on Networked Governance

Programming: colloquia, joint symposia with National Center for Digital Government at UMass Amherst (Jane Fountain), videoconferenced trans- Atlantic events with ETH Zurich and University of Amsterdam

Fellows: Thomas Langenberg, Alexander Schellong, Birgit Rabl, Allan Friedman

Research: DNApolicy.net, Team-network project, Connecting to Congress, Public Health officials

www.ksg.harvard.edu/netgov Supported by NSF grant 0131923.

Author: Prof. David Lazer, Director, david_lazer@harvard.edu

04/19/23 p. 3

The Problem of Parallel Problem Solving

Many agents working on similar problems. How to harness the problem solving capacity of many agents. Common issue in computer science (optimization algorithms), not much in

social sciences. Trade-off: avoiding re-invention of wheel, while encouraging

experimentation.

Author: Prof. David Lazer, Director, david_lazer@harvard.edu

04/19/23 p. 4

Connecting to Congress

Collaborators: Kevin Esterling (UCR), Michael Neblo (OSU), Ines Mergel

Looking at the use of the Internet by Members of Congress

Why is potential underutilized? What personal networks are critical to

supporting use of computer networks? Supported by NSF grant # 0429452.

Author: Prof. David Lazer, Director, david_lazer@harvard.edu

04/19/23 p. 5

DNApolicy.net

Collaborators: Ines Mergel, Maria Binz-Scharf

Use of Internet to facilitate knowledge sharing in geographically dispersed community

What are the obstacles (psychological, institutional) to asking and answering questions?

Supported by NSF grant 0131923 and the Ash Institute.

Author: Prof. David Lazer, Director, david_lazer@harvard.edu

04/19/23 p. 6

Teams and Networks

Collaborator: Nancy Katz (Harvard) What communication patterns within

and outside of team help it perform well?

What role do the different media play in communications? Why do people choose the media that they do?

Supported by grants from the Center for Public Leadership and the Women and Public Policy Program.

Author: Prof. David Lazer, Director, david_lazer@harvard.edu

04/19/23 p. 7

State Health Officials

Collaborators: Ines Mergel, Nancy Katz Knowledge Sharing in dispersed community of practitioners (one SHO per

state) How does knowledge of experienced SHO’s get transferred to new SHO’s Supported by RWJF.

Author: Prof. David Lazer, Director, david_lazer@harvard.edu

04/19/23 p. 8

The dark side of making the world smaller

Collaborator: Allan Friedman How does altering communication structure affect parallel problem solving? Method: simulations Preliminary answer: more communication can improve short run performance but at

the expense of long run performance. See paper at www.ksg.harvard.edu/netgov. Supported by NSF grant 0131923.