Department of Applied Informatics in Management

Abstract: This paper focuses on the challenge of sustaining Electronic Governance (EGOV) initiatives in developing countries to ensure their real impact on the society. While the challenge is well-recognized in the international development community, there is little evidence of research that discusses this challenge and how it could be addressed. This paper attempts to fill this gap by presenting a comprehensive approach which directly addresses the sustainability issues as part of the EGOV development lifecycle, and ...

The Digital Government landscape is continuously changing to reflect how governments are trying to find innovative digital solutions to social, economic, political and other pressures, and how they transform themselves in the process. Understanding and predicting such changes is important for policymakers, government executives, researchers and all those who prepare, make, implement or evaluate Digital Government decisions. This article argues that the concept of Digital Government evolves towards more complexity and greater contextualization and specialization, similar to evolution-like processes that lead to changes in cultures and societies. To this end, the article presents a four-stage Digital Government Evolution Model comprising Digitization (Technology in Government), Transformation (Electronic Government), Engagement (Electronic Governance) and Contextualization (Policy-Driven Electronic Governance) stages; provides some evidence in support of this model drawing upon the study of the Digital Government literature published in Government Information Quarterly between 1992 and 2014; and presents a Digital Government Stage Analysis Framework to explain the evolution. As the article consolidates a representative body of the Digital Government literature, it could be also used for defining and integrating future research in the area.

Abstract: There are several well-established surveys on e-government. These surveys employ different assessment models for e-readiness, digital divide and other relevant factors, leading to varying conclusions on the global state of e-government. This paper presents a comparative study of 11 international surveys on egovernment between 2001 and 2004. It identifies a common set of 'core indicators' for assessing e-readiness and suggests ways to determine the weights for them. The paper also introduces the concept ...

Semantic Interoperability is arguably the least developed aspect of Government Interoperability Frameworks. This could be explained by poor understanding of the semantic interoperability problem in government, considering its substance and scope, difficulties encountered in aligning technical solutions with the practice of government organizations, and the paucity of mature semantic technologies and complete semantic interoperability architectures and solutions (beyond metadata specification and semantic annotation of ...

This paper presents generic domain models to underpin the development of Electronic Public Services (EPS)–from conceptual models, through requirements and architecture, to implementation models. The conceptual model follows the analysis of 25 concrete business licensing and 6 social welfare services delivered by governments to businesses and citizens respectively. Based on this model, we characterize generic business licensing and social welfare services and, following the Governance Enterprise ...

The availability of Electronic Public Services (EPS) is essential for achieving meaningful e-Government. As governments deliver many services to citizens, businesses and other customers, making all these services available online requires a systematic and rigorous approach. A crucial element in this approach is the availability of an Infrastructure to enable rapid EPS development. This demo presents an Electronic Licensing (e-Licensing) Service developed upon a prototype Software Infrastructure for EPS. The Infrastructure ...

The paper presents a formal model for a knowledge repository shared by members of a Virtual Community of Practice (VCPs), describes how the repository can be used underpin collaborative problem solving, and how to build computer support for such processes. The repository comprises the resources used and developed by VCPs particularly through problem solving. As a case study, the paper illustrates how the problem solving process and the underlying repository can be applied in disaster prevention and ...

The paper presents a case study illustrating a collaborative problem solving process in Virtual Communities of Practice. The process relies on the existence of an underlying shared knowledge base–a repository of resources, and is carried out collaboratively by members of the community in six defined steps. The case study presents a Virtual Community of Practice dedicated to Disaster Prevention and Handling and explains the process for solving a problem posted by a member. The process is applied step-by- ...

A policy framework is the backbone of public governance and a major contributor to its quality. Such a framework is particularly required in the areas where public governance seeks technology support, as is the case for Electronic Governance (e-Governance). This paper explains the need to put in place a comprehensive set of policies, and presents a model for policy interventions supporting e-Governance development. The model comprises a classification of policies based on their nature and applicability, and describes core ...

The paper presents a rigorous framework to plan, perform and manage foundational e-government projects. Each project aims to establish a government-wide direction for e-government and create an initial impetus in this direction within individual agencies. The framework identifies five kinds of tasks–survey, development, training, research and dissemination, and prescribes how they can be planned, performed and managed to achieve the stated objectives. The general focus is on support for strategic ...

Electronic Government (e-Government) has the potential to contribute to the good government agenda through citizen engagement, effective service delivery and improved efficiency in government. However, realizing this potential is dependent on strong Technology Leadership (e-Leadership) realized through executive IT leaders and Government Chief Information Officers (GCIOs). The paper presents the motivation for e-Leadership and GCIOs, introduces the evolving role of GCIOs, and discusses the main ...

Seamless Government is a new paradigm that prescribes the behavior of government agencies as a whole, in order to best respond to the needs of citizens and businesses based on collaboration and networking between the government units. Seamless Government enables the provision of customer-focused, high-quality public services, accessed through a one-stop contact and grouped according to the needs of customers, such as life events for citizens and business episodes for enterprises. ...

This document describes a research and development project-Semantic Web and Cooperative Problem Solving for Online Communities of Practice. The aim of the project is to build a system supporting Cooperative Problem Solving within the framework of online Communities of Practice, applying the concepts of the Semantic Web. The document presents the background, objectives and partial results of the project.

This paper provides insights on the adoption or use of OpenCourseWare (OCW) to support broader research, training and institutional capacity development goals, based on the experience of the United Nations University. Specifically, it explains the strategic context for the use of OCW in the university through its related efforts in the area of Virtual and Open Learning, and how OCW fits these requirements. Finally, the paper presents the current status, and discusses challenges and future directions of the OCW project at the United ...

Many governments worldwide ate establishing one-stop portals to provide access to various public services based on the needs of citizens or businesses and not the internal structure of the government. A critical support for such one-stop portals is a workflow infrastructure, supporting the matching of the needs against provided services and coordination of the implementing processes, often spanning several government agencies. This paper describes a generic workflow infrastructure for one-stop government-GovWF. GovWF ...

The central role of ICT in development and its ethical implications have kept the longstanding discussions of the Digital Divide active in the international development and research communities, with new perspectives on how to measure and interpret this inequality. In this paper, we examine the nature of the Digital Divide in the Maldives–between the nation's capital and the Atolls, between the Atolls and across the nation, and the evolution of these divides over time. In order to inform more effective policy ...

This report serves as a toolkit to guide Information Technology (IT) Managers in carrying out strategic IT planning in government organizations. It presents process models and detailed descriptions of the various activities and tasks involved in a typical IT strategy exercise in public institutions. The report begins by explaining the concept of strategic planning and why it is an important exercise in achieving organizational-IT alignment. Next, it reviews different models for strategic planning and subsequently presents a generic ...

A promising strategy to promote good governance is harnessing the opportunities provided by the use of mobile phones, widely accessible to most segments of the society, for delivering public information and services and for decision-making by government. This paper investigates the design and implementation of mobile governance (MGOV) strategies for development (MGOV4D). Specifically, it presents an MGOV4D strategy framework to support mobile Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for development ( ...

e-Government Readiness Assessment is a vital step in developing effective e-Government strategies which provides important knowledge for policy-and decision-makers. Particularly for developing countries, it is imperative to analyse the conditions, opportunities and challenges of an existing environment to ensure that the resulting e-Government strategy is realistic and workable, whilst enabling public administration reform in support of a sustainable development agenda. While there are different approaches to e-Government ...

Software technology is gaining prominence in national information technology (IT) strategies due to its huge potential for socioeconomic development, particularly through the support it provides in the productive sectors of the economy, delivery of public services and engagement of citizens. In growing numbers of developing countries, software technology is also being leveraged for income generation from digital services and products. For instance, in recent years, India, Chile, the Philippines, Brazil, China, and Indonesia have emerged ...