EVIDENCE-BASED, TRANSPARENT AND

ACCOUNTABLE POLICY ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION:

THE POLICY COMPASS APPROACH

Ourania Markaki, Panagiotis Kokkinakos, Sotiris

Koussouris, Habin Lee, Obaid Abdul Fatah, Martin

Löhe, Yuri Glikman

9 July 2014 t-Gov Workshop 2014 – Brunel University, West London

Project Overview

Policy Compass http://policycompass.eu/

•STREP Project, co-funded by the European Union under

the “ICT for Governance and Policy Making” theme (ICT-

2013.5.4, Grant Agreement No: 612133)

•Project start: 1 October 2013

•Duration: 36 months

•Project Coordinator: Fraunhofer FOKUS (Germany)

•Consortium: 7 organizations from 5 different countries

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Policy Compass Consortium

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The Problem

• Wealth of information readily

available on the internet

• Lack of consensus about a

suitable metric for measuring

progress • Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

• Human Development Index (HDI)

• Genuine Progress Index (GPI)

• Difficulty of tracking political events

to their practical effects

The Opportunity

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Context

easy to-use tools for both the lay public and

professional policy makers to improve the

quality and transparency of the policy analysis

and monitoring phases of the policy life-cycle.

open

public data

social

media

fuzzy

cognitive

maps

e-participation platforms

& argumentation

technology

The Policy Compass Promise:

Concept and Main Functionalities

• A research prototype of an easy-to-use, highly visual and intuitive tool for:

• Constructing prosperity and other policy metrics with an easy-to-use visual

language for defining variables and functions over open data sources.

• Constructing graphs and charts visualizing metrics for selected

geographical regions and time periods.

• Annotating graphs and charts with political or policy events

• Constructing causal models with an easy-to-use visual tool for Fuzzy

Cognitive Maps (FCM).

• Sharing and debating prosperity graphs and FCM across popular social

media platforms.

• Summarizing and visualizing the debates in argument maps and

conducting structured surveys about policy issues

• Aggregating opinions on policy issues, to formulate a common position

using delegated voting via the Adhocracy platform.

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Methodological Approach

Policy Compass

Online Deliberation

and Argument Mapping (ODAM)

Building Causal Policy

Models (BCPM)

Evaluating Performance

of Policies (EPP)

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Evaluating Performance of Policies (EPP)

EPP1. Data Discovery

and Processing

• Search for Open Data Sources

• Importing Data Series to Policy Compass

• Search Policy Compass Platform for existing metrics

EPP2. Metrics

Definition

• Selection of Predefined Metrics

• Construction of Composite Metrics

EPP3. Metrics

Calculation and

Visualisation

• Application of metrics on Open Data sets

• Visualisation of Metrics over Time

EPP4. Improving

Understanding of Trend Lines

• Comparison of Metrics Trend Lines

• Search into Events registry to identify time points where graphs show abnormalities

• Annotating Graphs points through linking with Events

EPP5. Seeking further

explanation of Policy Impacts

• Seeking for existing Policy Models explaining interrelations and causal effects

• Identifying factors contributing to certain policy output/impact and their weighting

EPP5. Sharing

Knowledge and

Results

• Pushing Visualisation snapshots and metrics to the Policy Compass deliberation tools

• Sharing Visualisations and Composite Metrics to Web2.0 channels

to BCMP

to ODAM

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Building Causal Policy Models (BCPM)

BCPM1. Discovering Open Data related to Policies

• Search for relevant available (open) data on the World Wide Web.

• Construct a library of data to be used for link data with impacts.

BCPM2. Creating/Refining Causal

Networks

• Create a new Policy Model or Edit an existing One

• Create concepts by relating data with their impacts

• Create Causal Networks by defining directional links

BCPM3. Turning Causal

Networks to Fuzzy

Cognitive Maps

• Setting fuzzy values on the Causal Model

• Turning the policy model into a Fuzzy Cognitive Map

BCPM4. Simulating FCMs and Visualising

Impacts

• Select Simulation Variables for the FCM

• Perform Simulations

• Visualise Simulated Results for better understanding of Impacts

BCPM5. Sharing

Knowledge and Results

• Pushing Simulations snapshots to the Policy Compass deliberation tools

• Sharing Fuzzy Congintive Maps to Web2.0 channels

to

ODAM

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Online Deliberation and Argument

Mapping (ODAM)

ODAM1. Initiate/Participate in Deliberations

• Create a new deliberation topic or participate in an existing topic

ODAM2. Transforming

Structured Discussions into Argument Maps

• Identifying statements and opinions voiced

• Transforming statements and opinions into arguments

• Deriving the discussion argument map

ODAM3. Navigating

Argument Maps

• Navigate through the argument maps to better understand the relations and the debates amongst different positions.

• The Policy Compass will be

realized as an online Web

platform integrating the

tools developed in the

project.

• The platform will provide an

open API for integrating its

datastore and services into

external platforms, and

widgets for integrating its

user interfaces into

selected eParticipation

platforms and social

networks.

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Technical Approach

Added Value of the Approach (1/2)

• Simplify the way to utilize, interact, mash-up, visualize

and interpret the increasing amount of international open

economic data and wealth indicators.

• Improve the analysis and evaluation of policies

• Broaden the use of open data by citizens to support and

improve policy making.

• Raise and objectify the European public discourse on how

• to measure growth in the economy and society

• to develop holistic prosperity and progress indices

• Facilitate more objective, evidence-based and transparent

policy deliberations.

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Added Value of the Approach (2/2)

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• Visualize the effects of their politics

• Communicate policy outcomes to citizens clearer

• Stimulate public debate

• Build confidence in progress towards societal goals

• Create their own prosperity /community development indices

• Monitor and control the indicator modeling process

• Leverage open statistical data

• Monitor and critically discuss the quality of public policies

• Explore the effects and costs of policies

• Engage in the development of prosperity indices

• Participate in on-line debates

• Improve the objectivity and evidential basis of their

arguments

• Learn about the social and economic consequences of

policies

Decision

Makers

Civil Society

Citizens

and especially

the Younger

Generation

www.PolicyCompass.eu

www.twitter.com/PolicyCompassEU

www.facebook.com/PolicyCompass

PolicyCompass

Thank you!