Beth Simone Noveck
Professor and Director, The Burnes Center for Social Change
Education
University of Innsbruck, PhD 1994
Yale Law School, JD 1997
Bio
Professor Noveck directs The Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University and its partner project, The Governance Lab (The GovLab) and its MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance. The author of Solving Public Problems: How to Fix Our Government and Change Our World (Yale Press 2021), named a Best Book of 2021 by Stanford Social Innovation Review, she is a member or the faculty at Northeastern’s Institute for Experiential AI (IEAI). New Jersey governor Phil Murphy appointed her as the state’s first chief innovation officer and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel named her to her Digital Council in 2018. Professor Noveck is also visiting senior faculty fellow at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University and a fellow at NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge.
Previously, Professor Noveck served in the White House as the first United States deputy chief technology officer and director of the White House Open Government Initiative under President Obama. Former UK Prime Minister David Cameron appointed her senior advisor for Open Government.
At the GovLab, Professor Noveck directs better governance programs, including work with public institutions on public engagement in lawmaking (CrowdLaw), sources experts to find innovative solutions to hard problems (Smarter Crowdsourcing) and works with citizens and cities to co-create solutions to public problems (City Challenges). She also coaches public problem solvers, working with passionate individuals to take their public interest projects from idea to implementation.
A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, Professor Noveck is a member of the Scholars Council of the Library of Congress and the EPSRC Centre for the Mathematics of Precision Healthcare. She also serves on the International Advisory Board of the NHS Digital Academy and the Yankelovich Democracy Monitor and as a member of the Inter-American Development Bank, the President’s Commission on Transparency and Corruption and the Global Future Council on Technology, Values and Policy for the World Economic Forum. She is an executive member of the steering committee for the Collective Intelligence Conferences and GIGAPP (Grupo de Investigación en Gobierno, Administracion y Politicas Publicas) and a visiting researcher at Japan’s Chiba Institute of Technology Center for Radical Transformation. She is co-editor of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Digital Government Research and Practice journal and a founding associate editor of the Journal of Collective Intelligence.
In 2018, Professor Noveck was awarded a Robert Schumann Fellowship at the European University Institute and a Richard von Weizsaecker Fellowship by the Robert Bosch Foundation. She was named one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government 2018 by Apolitical. Previously, she was selected as one of the Foreign Policy 100 by Foreign Policy as well as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company and Top Women in Technology by Huffington Post.
In addition to Solving Public Problems, Professor Noveck is the author of Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise and the Future of Governing (Harvard University Press 2015) and Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger and Citizens More Powerful (Brookings 2009) and co-editor of The State of Play: Law, Games and Virtual Worlds (NYU Press, 2005). She also delivered a TED talk, “Demanding a More Open-Source Government.” She tweets @bethnoveck.
Fields of Expertise
- Law and Society
- Law and Technology
- Public Interest Advocacy
- Social Justice
Selected Works
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- Solving Public Problems (Yale University Press, 2021).
- Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise and the Future of Governing (Harvard University Press, 2015).
- Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger and Citizens More Powerful (Brookings, 2009).
- The State of Play: Law, Games and Virtual Worlds (NYU Press, 2005) (co-editor).
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- “Responding to Mass, Computer-Generated, and Malattributed Comments,” 74 Administrative Law Review 95 (2022) (co-author).
- “Randomistas vs. Contestistas,” Stanford Social Innovation Review (November 23, 2021).
- “Mass, Computer-Generated, and Mal-attributed Comments,” Administrative Law Review (2021) (co-author).
- “The Innovative State,” Dædalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Special issue on the administrative state in the United States in the twenty-first century, Mark Tushnet, ed., (150 (3) Summer 2021).
- “Old Dog, New Tricks: Retraining and the Road to Government Reform,” Democracy Journal (2021).
- “Smarter Crowdsourcing: Education - New Measures of Non-Academic Learning,” The GovLab (2021).
- “Smarter Crowdsourcing COVID-19: A Playbook of Innovative Legal, Technical, and Policy Proposals and a Guide to their Implementation,” GovLab/Inter-American Development Bank White Paper (December 2020).
- “Public Entrepreneurship and Policy Engineering: Training the Next Generation of Leader and Problem Solver,” 62 Communications of the ACM 29 (December 2019).
- “Our Opportunity for More Data-Driven Nonprofit Program Evaluation” Stanford Social Innovation Review (Jan 24, 2018) (co-author.
- “Rights-based and Tech-Driven: Open Data, Freedom of Information, and the Future of Government Transparency,” 19 Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal 1 (2018).
- “Is Open Data the Death of FOIA?,” 126 Yale Law Journal 273 (2016).
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- “CrowdLaw,” in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Interest Groups, Lobbying and Public Affairs, eds. P. Harris et al. (Springer, 2021).
- Foreword in “The State of Open Data: Histories and Horizons,” eds. T. Davies et al. (African Minds, IDRC, 2019).
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- “7 Skills to Save the World,” TEDxNortheasternU (August 2022).
- “Federal Digital Academy: CIO Bund Sets Up Expert Council,” Federal Ministry of the Interior and Homeland (July 5, 2022).
- “Today's Problems, Tomorrow's Toolkit: The Public Sector and the Future of Work,” FWD50 (May 10, 2022).
- “The Only Good Thing Left About Facebook,” The Atlantic (April 28, 2022).
- “Public Availability of Electoral Roll Data Raises Privacy Concerns,” The Kathmandu Post (April 28, 2022).
- “ROI Influencers: Technology 2022 — Beth Noveck,” ROI-NJ (April 22, 2022).
- “Northeastern Launching $20M Social Change Research Center,” Boston Business Journal (April 15, 2022).
- “A Center for Social Change at Northeastern that Won’t be Afraid to Take Chances,” The Boston Globe (April 14, 2022).
- “Northeastern Launches the Burnes Center for Social Change,” News@Northeastern (April 14, 2022).
- “Book Review: Solving Public Problems by Beth Simone Noveck,” Apolitical (April 11, 2022).
- “Stories from the Frontier,” Aspen Institute (April 5, 2022).
- “Podcast Episode: Your Tax Dollars At Work,” Electronic Frontier Foundation (April 5, 2022).
- “Solving Public Problems: An Interview with Dr. Beth Simone Noveck,” Chicago Policy Review (March 23, 2022).
- “Hey, It's a Start!,” Democracy: A Journal of Ideas (February 2, 2022).
- “Uno Tiene que Tener Una Visión de Por Qué Usar la Tecnología en Primer Lugar,” El Mercurio (January 10, 2022).
- “Transmite CNN Chile: Espacio Público Invita a Seminario Internacional Sobre Aprendizajes y Desafíos de la Crisis Sanitaria,” CNN Chile, (January 6, 2022).
- “SSIR’s 2021 Social Innovation Reading List,” Stanford Social Innovation Review (December 20, 2021).
- “100 Most Influential Academics in Government,” Apolitical (December 17, 2021).
- “Top Reads of 2021,” eRepublic (December 17, 2021).
- “Future-proofing the Public Sector Through Digital and Innovation Skills Training,” Apolitical, (November 23, 2021).
- “Modernizing Public Service… And Public Servants,” GovExec Daily Podcast (October 26, 2021).
- “A Conversation with Beth Simone Noveck on Solving Public Problems: How to Fix our Government and Change the World,” Thought Economics (September 4, 2021).
- “A Conversation with Beth Simone Noveck on Solving Public Problems,” Press Conference USA (podcast), Voice of America (September 3, 2021).
- “Conectarse en Red Empodera Sobre Todo a Las Mujeres,” La Vanguardia (August 23, 2021).
- “The Hidden Cost of E-Rulemaking,” American Enterprise Institute (July 28, 2021).
- “NJ Chief Innovation Officer on Problem Solving,” Bloomberg Businessweek (July 1, 2021).
- “How the Next Generation is Reshaping Political Discourse,” MIT Media Review (June 30, 2021).
- “What Draws Private Sector Tech Execs to Government?,” CIO DIVE (June 30, 2021).
- “Why Understanding Virtual World Economies Is Important For Crafting Real World Policies Today,” New World Notes (June 21, 2021).
- “Solving Public Problems,” Science Magazine (June 1, 2021).
- “Governor Murphy Announces the “Your Voice, Your Shot” Video Contest,” Insider NJ (April 28, 2021).
- “Congress’ Embrace of Technology is Slow, Hampered by Tradition,” Roll Call (April 27, 2021).
- “La Tecnología Amplía la Participación Ciudadana en la Redacción de Leyes Dentro y Fuera de EEUU,” The Chicago Tribune (April 22, 2021). Reposted in Seattle Times and Mundo Latino.
- “Will Congress Continue Using Tech Tools Forced by COVID-19?,” CQ/Rollcall (March 11, 2021).
- “Government Experts Fear Trump Left Behind a Roadmap for How to Abuse the Presidency,” The Independent, (February 9, 2021).
- “How to Have a Career in Policy—Without Being a Politician," VICE (January 21, 2021).
- “6 Lessons Cities Can Learn from New Jersey’s Cutting-edge Innovation Team," Bloomberg Cities (December 2, 2020).
- “Should the Power of the Crowd be Used to Solve our Social Problems?," Diginomica (November 20, 2020).
- “Will Trump’s Refusal to Concede Help his Base Turn out in Georgia’s Runoffs?,” The Guardian (November 17, 2020).
- “It’s Time to Talk About Voting Technology. No, Not That Kind of Voting,” Marketplace Tech, (November 16, 2020).
- “What Trump Can Do During His Lame-Duck Session,” Vox (November 9, 2020).
- “‘Stick to the Science’: When Science Gets Political,” Nature Podcast, (November 3, 2020).
- “Trump’s Latest Executive Orders Seen as Attempts to Sabotage a Biden Administration and Eliminate Diversity and Inclusion Programs,” LA Sentinel (October 29, 2020).
- “Trump Just Quietly Passed an Executive Order that Could Destroy a Future Biden Administration,” The Independent (October 23, 2020)..
- “Trump Just Signed an Executive Order Letting him Purge Thousands of Federal Workers for Disloyalty,” Vanity Fair (October 26, 2020).
- “Trump Gives Agencies More Power to Hire, Fire Fed. Workers,” Law 360 (October 22, 2020).
- “Workers Fear Losing Full-Time Jobs, No Training, Corporate Surveillance,” NJ Spotlight (September 25, 2020).
- “A Grassroots Effort to Fight Misinformation during the Pandemic,” Scientific American (September 18, 2020).
- “Google and Apple’s Rules for Virus Tracking Apps Sow Division Among States,” Politico (June 2020).
- “How Congress Can Improve Productivity by Looking to the Rest of the World,” The Hill (May 2020).
- “How to Run the World Remotely,” Vox (May 2020).
- “N.J. Hospitals Were Expected to Hit Peak Capacity Last Weekend. It Didn’t Happen. Here’s Why,” New Jersey Local News (April 2020).
- “Coronavirus Preparedness: Insurers and Medicaid Need to Relax Prescription Refills,” The Hill (March 2020)
- “How a Government Innovation Office Aims to Modernize Its Services,” Brink (February 2020).
- “Never Listen to Advice But Do Get Lots of Information,” The Commons (January 2020).
- “People Learn in Different Ways. The Way We Teach Should Reflect That,” Apolitical (January 2020).
- “A Form That Functions,” The Aspen Institute (December 2019).
- “Digital Economy: Digital democracy,” The Economist Podcast (June 2019).
- “The Future of City Innovation,” Bloomberg Cities (March 19, 2019).
- “Top 10 Books About Building Cities,” The Guardian, (March 13, 2019).
- “New Jersey Chief Innovation Officer Beth Noveck: Using Technology to Shape Policy,” US News (September 21, 2019).
- “Who Knows Best? Cities Consult Citizens for Fresh Ideas,” Thomson Reuters Foundation News, (February 12, 2019).
- “Beth Noveck on How Open Data and Direct Democracy Could Restore Our Faith in Politics,” Australian Broadcasting Corp (September 12, 2018).
- “Elections Won’t Save Our Democracy. But ‘CrowdLaw’ Could,” The Washington Post (October 2, 2018).
- “NJ’s First CIO Explains How Technology Can Improve Government Services,” NJTV News (October 1, 2018).
- “Innovation Lead Will Help New Jersey Modernize Process, Support the Tech Economy,” GovTech (August 27, 2018).
- “Artificial Intelligence and the End of Government,” Forbes (January 4, 2019).
- “Digital Crusaders: Technology Offers Weapons for the Battle Against Corruption,” IPS News (December 18, 2018).
- “Renovating Democracy From the Bottom Up,” The Washington Post (October 5, 2018).
- “NJ’s First CIO Explains How Technology Can Improve Government Services,” NJTV News (October 1, 2018).
- “New Jersey Chief Innovation Officer Beth Noveck: Using Technology to Shape Policy,” US News (September 21, 2018).
- “The Simple but Ingenious System Taiwan Uses to Crowdsource Its Laws,” MIT Technology Review (August 21, 2018).
- “Australia’s Top 4 on the Global Stage of Digital Government Influencers,” The Mandarin (August 9, 2018).
- “The Impact of Technology on Democracy,” The Wall Street Journal (November 11, 2018).
- “Citizen Participation in Law-Making and Public Policy: An Interview with Beth Simone Noveck,” Australian Broadcasting Corporation (August 28 2018).
- “The Ex-White House Digital Champion Bringing Innovation to New Jersey,” Apolitical (August 23 2018).
- “New Jersey hires GovLab founder as its first Chief Innovation Officer,” Govtech (August 13 2018).
- “Best and Worst of Times: How Disruption Will Reshape Work,” Sydney Morning Herald (August 11 2018).
- “If a Robot's Eating Your Job, It's Probably Eating Your Life Expectancy Too,” Sydney Morning Herald (July 2018).
- “Managing Through Uncertainty: Why Public Servants Should Embrace Data Science,” Public Sector Digest (June 2018).
- “More Than a Coin: The Rise of Civic Cryptocurrency,” Forbes (March 2018).
- “City Challenges: Collaborative Governing for Public Problem Solving,” Forbes (January 24, 2018).
- “The Policy Labs We Urgently Need,” Governing (December 13, 2017).
- “Five Hacks for Digital Democracy,” Nature (April 20, 2017).
- “Another NHS Crisis Looms - An Inability to Analyze Data,” The Guardian (February 8, 2017).
- “The Power of Networking in Reforming Criminal Justice,” Governing (February 8, 2017).
- “Could Crowdsourcing Expertise be the Future of Government?,” The Guardian (November 30, 2016)
- “In the Fight Against Hunger, Technology Brings Power to the People,” USA Today (September 16, 2016).
- “The International Congress on Government Administration and Public Policy (#GIGAPP2016, Video): An Interview with Beth Simone Noveck.
- “The Tech Presidency - Governing in the Age of Big Data and Machine Learning (LinkedIn Speaker Series, 2016, Video): Beth Noveck’s talk at the LinkedIn Speaker Series
- “The Obama administration wanted to open up government to citizen input. Why hasn’t it worked? (The Washington Post, 2016): An interview with Beth Simone Noveck
- “Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise (#BCTECHSummit, 2016, Video): Beth Noveck’s talk at the #BCTECHSummit
- “The big data opportunity (#BCTECHSummit, 2016, Video): Panel discussion moderated by Beth Noveck at the #BCTECHSummit
- “The Tinder Approach to Fixing Our Government (The Brian Lehrer Show, 2016, Audio): Beth Noveck on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC 93.9 FM
- “Swipe Right to Fix the World: Can Tinder-Like Tech Match Solutions to Problems?,” The Guardian (December 29, 2015).
- “What Citizens Can Teach Civil Servants About Open Government,” Governing (December 16, 2015).
- “How Technology Can Make Our Democracy More Transparent,” El Pais (2015).
- “Participatory Democracy's Emerging Tools,” Governing (March 2015).
- “What Government Can Learn From Tech: A conversation with Beth Noveck, TechRepublic (November 19, 2015).
- “Demand a More Open Source Government,” (TED2012).
- “Can the Open Data Revolution Change Our Democracy,” NPR's TED Radio Hour (January 31, 2014).
Beth Simone Noveck
Professor and Director, The Burnes Center for Social Change