Electronic Government

The channel choice branch of e-government studies citizens’ and businesses’ choice of channels for interacting with government, and how government organizations can integrate channels and migrate users towards the most cost-efficient channels. In spite of the valuable contributions offered no systematic overview exist of channel choice. We present a literature review of channel choice studies in government to citizen context identifying authors, countries, methods, concepts, units of analysis, and theories, and offer suggestions for future studies.

Public sector organisations seem to be embracing social media for information dissemination and engagement, but less is know about their value as information sources. This paper draws from the notion of the imagined audience to examine how policy teams in the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) conceptualise the value of social media input. Findings from a series of interviews and workshops suggest that policy makers are broadly positive about sourcing useful input from social media in topics like farming and environmental policies, however audience awareness emerges as an important limitation. As different groups of the public use social media for professional activities, policy makers attempt to develop their own capacities to navigate through audiences and understand whom they are listening to. The paper makes suggestions about the technical, methodological and policy challenges of overcoming audience limitations on social media.

Developing countries continue to rely on solutions and research from developed countries as they strive for more successful e-government endeavours. Different authors argue that the transfer of solutions and expertise among developed and developing countries is not a straightforward task and the context of countries is a significant influencing factor. This paper investigates and compares e-government design and implementation approaches in developed and developing countries. Along the qualitative analysis, differences and similarities in the approaches are highlighted, and recommendations are brought forward. The paper adds value to current e-government developments, particularly in developing countries, by eliciting approaches applied in developed countries and their impacts to more successful e-government implementation.

We seek to analyze the research into the field of social media implementation in public administrations, examining the theories that support the use of social media, the main use of this technology for public administrations and the trends and research innovations in this area in the future. In addition, a comparative study will be performed in order to identify differences of research, research gaps and interest on the different domains of this topic into different contexts. To achieve the aims, the scientometric methodology will be applied to a sample of papers published in journals listed in the fields of Public Administration, Information Sciences and Communication. In this sense, the research about social media has not been the same in all areas. Knowledge gaps and research opportunities are identified from these observations, which reveal changes in the research methods applied, reinforcing the development of a theoretical framework so that the application of social media may efficiently contribute to improving management in the public sector.

Smart cities focus on using existing resources in a better way to improve the urban environment. At the same time Big and Open Linked Data (BOLD) can be used to better understand the use of the resources and to suggest improvements. The objective of this paper is to investigate the complementariness of the smart cities and big and Open Data research streams. Two inductive cases concerning different aspects of smart cities, energy and mobility, are investigated. The idea of using BOLD for smart cities seems initially straightforward, but the cases show that this is complex. A taxonomy for forms of collecting and opening data is derived. A major challenge is to deal with data distributed over various data sources and how to align the data push with the citizens’ needs. This paper highlights a continuous scale between open and closed data and emphasizes that not only Open Data but also closed data should be used to identify improvements. BOLD can contribute to the ‘smartness’ of cities by linking and combining data or employing data or predictive analytics to improve better use of resources. A smart city only becomes smart when there are smart citizens, businesses, civil servants and other stakeholders.

Working with innovation is important in several sectors and industries. One emerging arena for innovation is the arrangements of innovation contests. The aim of the paper is to describe and characterize an open innovation contest for improving healthcare, and to address the challenges involved. The research is a qualitative, explorative and interpretive case study of a Swedish region providing publicly funded healthcare. The conclusions show the need to generate and analyze data from actors with several perspectives in the contest. Challenges identified include defining and precisely expressing the problem, separating and delimiting the different problems and achieving a joint view. Other challenges were identifying and attracting knowledgeable participants, to consider incentives, and communicating the contest. In the collaboration stage, challenges involved the contest design, enabling knowledge sharing, managing various agendas, and being open-minded to new ideas; and finally, assessing whether the problem is suitable for open innovation contests at all.

A key objective of open government programs is to promote public accountability by using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to release data on the internal working of public agencies. However, it is not clear how actual accountability (such as sanctions or rewards) may be achieved from the data disclosed. Nor it is clear how ICT in general should support it. To better understand how ICT can support open data initiated accountability processes in achieving their goal, this paper considers the three phases (information, discussion, and consequences) usually used to describe such processes. Defining ICT support for these major phases is a difficult effort, since each phase encompasses different tasks and support requirements. This paper aims to address this problem by providing a detailed account of the tasks associated with the whole public accountability process. This may be used by those responsible for open government programs to design and deploy comprehensive ICT support platforms using a task-technology fit perspective.

A design science approach is followed to develop architectural blueprints for implementing platforms to source open government applications from citizens. Zachman framework is initially used as a guide to categorize and develop the artefacts. After designing the blueprints, their usefulness is demonstrated through prototype implementation, and their potential for problem solution is evaluated from the development perspective as well as communicated to governmental peers. Contributions to research and practice include a set of blueprints covering the top levels of a platform’s enterprise architecture, a reusable sourcing platform prototype, set of validated test cases for following up the implementation process, as well as success factors and lessons learned from the government perspective.

A significant part of open data provided by governments and international organizations concerns statistics such as demographics and economic indicators. The real value, however, of open statistical data will unveil from performing analytics on top of combined datasets from disparate sources. Linked data provide the most promising technological paradigm to enable such analytics across the Web. Currently, however, relevant processes and tools do not fully exploit the distinctive characteristics of statistical data. The aim of this paper is to present a process that enables publishing statistical raw data as linked data, combining statistics from multiple sources, and exploiting them in data analytics and visualizations. Moreover, the capability of existing software tools to support the vision of linked statistical data analytics is evaluated. We anticipate that the proposed process will contribute to the development of a roadmap for future research and development in the area.

Research on open government data focuses mainly on standards for publishing data and access to data. In this study of the uptake of Digital Post in Denmark open data is applied in the analysis of the course of events leading up to the implementation of the mandatory digital mail-box. The study reflects on the impact of communication via local print media and discusses the body of literature which focuses on print media as a vehicle for communication to citizens. The study opens for a discussion of how open government data-sets give new opportunities for generating scholarly insights but also how it can challenge the position of researchers.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been given scant attention in e-government literature, whereas promises are high. The IoT describes a situation whereby physical objects are connected to the Internet and are able to communicate with, and identify themselves to, other devices. These devices generate a huge amount of data. When it is possible to combine data from devices and other systems, new insights may be created which may provide important benefits. In this paper we explore the expected benefits of IoT for e-governance by investigating case studies at the Directorate General of Public Works and Water Management of the Netherlands. The results show that IoT has a variety of expected political, strategic, tactical and operational benefits which implies that IoT enables effective knowledge management, sharing and collaboration between domains and divisions at all levels of the organisation, as well as between government and citizens.

Collaboration between the public and the private sector is seen as an instrument to make governance smarter, more effective, and more efficient. However, whereas there is literature on public-private collaboration, very little of it addresses how these collaborations can be shaped to make use of the huge potential that technological innovations in ICT may offer. To address this gap, this paper addresses public-private collaborative development of digital information infrastructures (IIs). Drawing on a combination of literature on public-private partnerships and on digital information systems or infrastructures, this paper studies an initiative for exchanging information among international trade supply chain partners and between the businesses and government (e.g. for declarations, compliance, border control). Specifically, it explores what would be the Dutch end of such an II, to understand the interplay between the technological innovation and partnerships that form the social context thereof.

E-service development has grown to become a daily practice in most public organizations as a means for realizing digital agendas and e-government initiatives on different levels (local, regional, national and transnational governmental levels). Public e-service development is often an inter-organizational (IO) effort with multiple actors and organizations involved in the multi-faceted dimensions of design, development and delivery decisions. Still, there is a lack of research focusing on IO public e-service development practices in particular. In order to address this lack we elaborate on reported challenges and their implications for IO public e-service development in practice. By returning to two empirical cases of IO public e-service development, the IO dimension is evolved. Our purpose is to highlight challenges in IO public e-service development with implications for research and practice. Findings are presented as eight emerging lessons learned from an inside-out perspective related to phases in IO public e-service development processes.

Electronic service, or e-service, is a key concept in today’s e-Government development. The availability and quality of electronic services are important indicators of e-Government maturity. However, we argue that our understanding of the concept e-service is poor and we show that the ambiguity surrounding the concept creates problems when building ontologies and thus makes it difficult to achieve better interoperability between systems. We thus propose a model for e-services building on a framework for categorizing services using some basic terms. In this way we can describe and model various types of communication between citizens and public agencies based on a consistent set of elementary categories. Our model also draws on EU’s proposed Core Public Service Vocabulary (CPSV). The paper is conceptual and is mainly based on a literature review.

A major objective of government-to-government (G2G) e-government is information sharing and connecting different islands of information. Various barriers impede this connection. Factor research provides a partial explanation of why so many G2G information systems fail. In this paper we take a broader perspective by applying process research to study eight recurrent problems of Flemish G2G IS in their dynamic context. We test whether Sauer’s needs and support-power analysis framework can provide additional management insights compared to factor based project management. Our results, based on interviews and focus groups, show that process management is better qualified for dealing with the dynamic context and interactions of Flemish G2G IS.

The idea that public e-services are better off being designed with the potential users’ needs in focus is today an almost unquestioned truth (user centered design maybe being the most frequent methodological toolbox). The idea that they are even better off being designed with the potential users is an almost equally established understanding (where participatory design could be claimed to be the most prominent methodology). However, in this paper the overall claim is that by a combination of updated design thinking, and development and participatory studies from outside the digital design discipline, a deepened and more nuanced understanding of participatory practices is presented. This is shown by an exploratory study on the design process of a public e-service to make the city accessible for its citizens and visiting tourists.

The effective management of stakeholders’ benefits is crucial for the success of e-government projects. This success can be expressed as the match between realized project benefits and their anticipation by stakeholders according to their expectations. Unfortunately, recent studies report that there is often a mismatch between realized and expected benefits. Hence, understanding the reason for this mismatch would be of value for theory and practice. Guided by stakeholder and resource dependency theory, we aim at explaining this mismatch. Therefore, benefit aspects to be considered during realization planning are derived from literature. Based on these aspects, we interpret four types of benefits in a study of an e-government project in a German public administration: project guiding, endangered, questioned and out-of-focus benefits. We suggest that a mismatch between realized and expected benefits results from issues concerning particular benefit types and provide conjectures for effective management in practice.

This article introduces and explores the potential of an active electronic data safe (AEDS) serving as an infrastructure to achieve transformational government. An AEDS connects individuals and organizations from the private and the public sector to exchange information items related to business processes following the user-managed access paradigm. To realize the transformational government’s vision of user-centricity, fundamental changes in the service provision and collaboration of public and private sector organizations are needed. Findings of a user study with a prototype of an AEDS are used to identify four barriers for the adoption of an AEDS in the light of transformational government: (1) offering citizens unfamiliar services having the character of experience-goods; (2) failing to fulfil common service expectations of the customers; (3) failing to establish contextual integrity for data sharing, and, (4) failing to establish and run an AEDS as a multi-sided platform providing an attractive business model.

Amidst this rapid explosion of interest in eGovernment there is absent a clear definition of the concept and its domain. We review the extant definitions of the term and present an ontology of eGovernment to articulate its combinatorial complexity. The ontology parsimoniously encapsulates the logic of eGovernment. It moves away from technology-based conceptualizations to a systemic one. It makes the ‘elephant’ visible. It can be used to articulate the components and fragments which constitute eGovernment using structured natural English sentences and phrases. It serves as a multi-disciplinary lens to study the topic drawing upon concepts from information systems, knowledge management, public administration, and information technology. The ontology can be used to systematically map the state-of-the-research and the state-of-the-practice in eGovernment, discover the gaps in research and between research and practice, and formulate a strategy to bridge the gaps.

This paper provides an evaluation of eight local e-Government websites in Canada and the United Kingdom, utilizing web diagnostic tools. The results of the diagnostic evaluation are synthesized for a comparative case analysis between the various local e-Government websites, providing recommendations for areas of improvement in terms of accessibility. Furthermore, the study will offer insight into the varied approaches to e-Government website conceptualization and design among local officials. While eight local websites are evaluated, only the city of Calgary and Hillingdon are explored in-depth through interviews with local officials. The exploration of the use of web diagnostic tools as an evaluative method for local e-Government websites will supply local officials and webmasters with a valuable and feasible option for internal evaluation. The study is unique in that it evaluates multiple e-Government websites at a local level rather than a federal level between two countries.

Governments initially used social media mainly in order to disseminate information to the public about their activities, services, policies and plans. Then they started using social media also in order to collect from citizens useful information, knowledge, opinions and ideas concerning the problems and needs of modern societies and more recently in order to apply crowdsourcing ideas in the public sector context and promote ‘citizensourcing’. In this direction governments first used their own accounts in various social media, in which they provide information about specific problems and policies, and solicit citizens’ feedback on them (active citizensourcing). Recently, they attempt to take advantage of the extensive public policy related content developed beyond their own social media accounts, in various political forums, blogs, news websites, and SM accounts, by the citizens, without any stimulation (passive citizensourcing). These constitute significant innovations in policy formulation– citizens communication processes and practices of government. Therefore it is important to evaluate them from various perspectives, in order to learn from them as much as possible, identify and address their weaknesses, make the required improvements, and in general achieve higher levels of effectiveness and maturity of these highly innovative practices. This paper makes a two-fold contribution in this direction: initially it develops a framework for evaluating such citizensourcing innovations based on the passive social media monitoring; and then it uses this framework for the evaluation of three pilot applications of a novel method of government passive citizensourcing through social media monitoring, which has been developed as part of an international research project.

The requirement specifications are centric in the IS acquisition process, also in public sector. In addition to the regulatory factors multiple stakeholders are often involved in the procurement process. Yet their expertise varies and is often limited to a narrow sector or a specific field. For this paper, we conducted a single case study on an IS acquisition in a middle-sized city. The function nominated a project manager for the project, with little if any prior experience of IS or of their acquisition. The counterpart in the CIO’s office had that knowledge but had little domain knowledge about the requirements. The third party involved was the Procurement and Tendering office. Having specialized in serving the variety of functions in that particular field, the specific areas become inevitably omitted. All three parties argued that their requirements specifications were good, if not great. We observed how such a trident, having reported successful completion of their duties, still missed the point. The tendering resulted in little short of a disaster; two projects were contested, and lost in the market court.

Proactive records management is often described as a prerequisite for a well-functioning public administration that is efficient, legally secure and democratic. In the context of e-government, official information is seen as a valuable asset, which is why technical solutions are developed to improve accessibility and reusability. Yet how to ‘capture’ and preserve the information is still unclear, and adaptations of routines which have originated in a paper based administration to practices suitable for managing digital records are often lacking. This risks impeding on the work of public agencies, their services toward citizens, and the goals of e-government. This paper uses current plans for developing a national e-archive service in Sweden as a case, applying literary warrant and the records continuum model to discuss how archives management can support the goals of e-government and facilitate proactivity. A special focus is placed on ‘capture’ as a vital part of holistic recordkeeping. The result shows that despite regulations and ambitions supporting proactivity, ‘capture’ is not emphasized as a necessity for using, sharing and preserving official information. This could create archives that are incomplete, and risk contributing to a decline in governmental transparency and openness.