Handing Back the Social Commons

* Handing Back the Social Commons. A REPORT TO THE NEW ZEALAND PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION. James Mansell, April 2015

URL = http://www.productivity.govt.nz/sites/default/files/social-services-draft-james-mansell.pdf

Summary

"Hand back the business of policy, service design and innovation to the NGOs, philanthropists, citizens, innovators and researchers within the sector. A sector-owned data commons and peer-to-peer mobilisation enable the sector to be organised as a Social Commons. One that is orientated and aligned to value, is self-learning and is highly enabled to be adaptive and innovative to constantly improve outcomes.

The transformative influence of big data can be used to improve effectiveness and innovation within the social sector. It is possible today to enable the social sector to be better focused on delivering value, more easily learn what works, and better mobilise a community of common interests within the sector who will better adapt and introduce innovative new services to improve outcomes.

Safe, high-trust data sharing forms the foundation for the sector to become a shared “Social Commons”. It would mean building a sector that is managed peer-to-peer (P2P) by the key actors within the sector; non-government organisations (NGOs), innovators, researchers, service providers, and citizens; where visibility and interest and alignment in social values and the ability of actors within the system to own and change the system are all held in common.

Handing back ownership of a Social Commons to the actors within the sector will deliver a step change in social, fiscal and economic return on New Zealand’s investment in social services.

This report shows how that is possible and what needs to be done to achieve it"