ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the multidisciplinary origins of policy informatics: how the fields of information science, mass communication, and policy analysis, three key foundations of policy informatics are developed independently, and how they together influence the character of policy informatics and frame future development of the field. The volume's definition of policy informatics is focused on complex public policy and administration problems, people can see how policy informatics owes much to the interdisciplinary field of the policy sciences, or what has ultimately come to be called policy analysis. The policy informatics movement is set in context to describe some of the disciplinary traditions that inform its past and highlight what the field can hope to offer the future. The chapter explores ways to leverage technology to understand and address complex public policy and administration problems, and promote innovations in governance together with colleagues, governance leaders, practitioners, and citizens.
