bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Information Technology in the Practice of Law Enforcement
Authors: Rebstock Williams Susan , Aasheim Cheryl
Published: May 2011

In February 2001, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department began the rollout of a “mobile” information system that will eventually enable all information relating to incident reports, arrests, and investigations to be collected, distributed, and managed in a paperless, wireless environment. The system, dubbed Knowledge-Based Community Oriented Policing System (KBCOPS), began as a “grass roots” project within the police department to reduce paperwork, increase data accuracy, share knowledge and information, and promote a problem solving analytical framework. The system has been under development for seven years, from concept to implementation. The strategies and approaches used to develop this system, the technologies employed, and, most importantly, the challenges faced in merging wireless, wired, database, and applications technologies while satisfying the user requirements of the police department are detailed in this report.
Authoring of Adaptive Hypermedia
Authors: Cristea Alexandra I. , Stewart Craig
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on the aspect of Authoring in Adaptive Hypermedia from some of its different perspectives. It starts by showing the necessity of research in this area, then describes a new framework model for authoring of Adaptive Hypermedia, LAOS. Within LAOS, the adaptation model, which is the main aspect of adaptive hypermedia, is detailed into a separate model, LAG. The flexibility offered by the LAOS framework is analyzed and estimated. To illustrate the theory, the chapter describes an implementation of this framework, MOT, and test results. The chapter ends with conclusions and discussion on future trends.
Information Imbalance in Medical Decision Making
Authors: Joseph Jimmie L. , Cook David P.
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores the ethical implications of a reduction in information asymmetry between health care providers and their patients. In many human interactions, asymmetry of information and experience typically raises ethical dilemmas for the party with the greater degree of information. This chapter illustrates that it is the reduction in information asymmetry that is raising ethical dilemmas in dealing with medical issues. Understanding this phenomenon may assist in identifying and managing future ethical quandaries that may occur as Internet resources provide broad access to information previously distributed only to a subset of the population.
Employees' Attitudes Toward Telecommuting
Authors: Abdel-Wahab A. G.
Published: May 2011

Thousands of companies today in a wide variety of industries are experiencing the benefits of allowing employees to work from their homes. Telecommuting has become a recognized and accepted work alternative for millions of Americans and has grown exponentially during the past 20 years. The main purpose of this article is to explore the attitude of Egyptian information workers toward the concept of telecommuting and to examine the relationships between such attitude and workers’ expectations of their productivity and job satisfaction if they participated in a telecommuting program. Original data were collected by using a self-administered questionnaire. A national sample of 228 Egyptian information workers in Dakahlia governorate in Egypt completed the questionnaires with usable data. The results revealed that more respondents are in favor of telecommuting than those who are not in favor of the concept and that the increase in the attitude score toward telecommuting tends to be paired with higher expectations about telecommuting productivity and satisfaction.
Believe It or Not
Authors: George S. E.
Published: May 2011

This paper considers the development of virtual communities focusing upon virtual religion and its impact on humanity. It is important that religion is expressed communally and socially, and the Internet has provided a new community context for religiosity, linking people from geographically, socially, and culturally disparate backgrounds, facilitating interactivity as never before in an intriguing anthropological development. We find examples of “online religion” that are already occurring and see technology as playing a crucial positive role in humanity in the 21st century. While there are limitations with virtual interaction compared to face-to-face engagement, there are benefits, primarily that such technology starts to answer the deeper philosophical questions associated with technology, especially the question of how technology cannot rob people of the essence of what it is to be human. By facilitating virtual religion, technology assists the uniquely human pursuit of religiosity, and merely provides a new “meeting place” for exchange.
Ecology of E-Governance
Authors: Sharma Sangeeta
Published: May 2011

The concept of e-governance in the modern times refocuses on the fundamental role of government as the institution of transformation of society. To understand the intricacies of e- governance it will be pertinent to examine the concept from an ecological perspective. The system of governance in order to meet the challenges must equip itself with the mechanisms of managing the pressures generated from different subsystems. The interrelationship and interdependence of these subsystems explain the operational reality of bureaucratic systems in relation to societal transformation. In last few decades, the history of humankind has seen the enormous growth of technology and its utilization for creating a better global society, by disseminating the knowledge down to common person and transcending the geographical boundaries. The accessibility of knowledge is not confined to any nation. Thus, the whole world has to acquire a bigger vision of coexistence with divergent societal patterns in future, because it is the source of developing shared visions. The present analysis focuses on the normative aspects of e-connectivity, specifically, 1. It proposes a conceptual framework to understand the futuristic operational dynamics of ecology of e-governance; 2. It proposes how the interactions of various components of e-governance, can help in evolving a universal society with ethical axis to create a better world; 3. It suggests that the whole world eventually has to move in the direction of evolving a global society by inculcating universal values of coexistence with divergent ethos. Hence, the need to transform the society cannot be subdued; and 4. It focuses on striving a balance between technological and human aspects by bringing out philosophical core at the centre to evolve global society.
E-Government Act of 2002 in the United States
Authors: Seifert Jeffrey W. , Relyea Harold C.
Published: May 2011

The United States is frequently ranked among the most advanced e-government countries in the world (Accenture, 2004; United Nations, 2003; West, 2004). While many of these surveys emphasize the importance of technological issues, such as Web sites, interoperable data standards, and security protections, considerably less attention has been focused on the legislative environment that either facilitates or hinders the development of e-government at the national level. Like all countries, the United States has long grappled with the problem of how to centrally coordinate a diverse and sometimes incongruous collection of departments and agencies to achieve improved efficiencies, while maintaining a level of flexibility that enables these entities to carry out their specialized responsibilities effectively. This challenge can be made harder by the integration of information technology into government, by reifying organizational boundaries in the form of so-called “stove pipes” and “islands of automation.” To combat these problems, national governments are attempting to use legislative means to harmonize a cacophony of independent initiatives, and establish benchmarks for oversight. On December 17, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the E-Government Act of 2002 (116 Stat. 2899; P.L. 107-347) into law. Although there are many existing laws regarding issues such as information technology (IT) management, privacy, and information security, the E-Government Act of 2002 is the first national law that specifically addresses e-government in the United States. Prior to the passage of the E-Government Act, the law frequently cited as the most comprehensive information technology-related law was the Clinger-Cohen Act, signed into law in 1996, just 5 years after the development of the World Wide Web (1991) and at a time when the potential uses of the Internet were just beginning to be recognized by the larger, general public. The Clinger-Cohen Act provisions focus primarily on a narrow range of issues, including the decentralization of IT management within the U.S. federal government, pilot testing of new IT procurement procedures, and the establishment of chief information officer (CIO) positions in the major departments and agencies. In contrast, the provisions of the E-Government Act, described in greater detail below, address a much more comprehensive range of issues, suggesting that the integration of IT into government operations has reached a critical turning point. Some of these provisions include information security, IT management and training, the digital divide, and the creation of an Office of Electronic Government to coordinate and oversee e-government initiatives government-wide, among other duties.
Business Process Redesign in Implementing E-Governement in Ireland
Authors: Hughes Martin , Scott Murray , Golden Willie
Published: May 2011

Competitive pressures and improvements in information technology constantly force organisations to re-evaluate their business strategies (Porter, 2001; Venkatraman, 1994). Although public-sector organisations may not operate in a competitive environment, changes in management philosophies are causing public-sector organisations to think and act more like private-sector organisations (Gulledge & Sommers, 2002). Electronic government is one means by which governments can offer more effective and efficient services (Layne & Lee, 2001). This article investigates the evolution of e-government in Ireland. A case study is presented detailing how the Irish government’s e-government strategy was devised and implemented. The success of this implementation yields valuable insights into the identification and management of critical concerns during the evolvement and attainment of business-process redesign in e-government. Cumulatively, these lessons provide a road map for the successful attainment of citizen-centric e-government.
Usability Driven Open Platform for Mobile Government (USE-ME.GOV)
Authors: Olmstead Paul Moore , Peinel Gertraud , Tilsner Dirk , Abramowicz Witold , Bassara Andrzej , Filipowska Agata , Wisniewski Marek , Zebrowski Pawel
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the USE-ME.GOV project that supports and encourages the authorities with the access to new e-government services at any time and anywhere through the use of mobile communications and Semantic Web technologies. The USE-ME.GOV system addresses openness, interoperability, usability, and security scienti?c goals, and throughout the chapter the methodology and main outcomes are described.
Benchmarking Local E-Government
Authors: Yigitcanlar Tan , Baum Scott
Published: May 2011

Increasingly, almost everything we do in our daily lives is being influenced by information and communications technologies (ICTs) including the Internet. The task of governance is no exception with an increasing number of national, state, and local governments utilizing ICTs to support government operations, engage citizens, and provide government services. As with other things, the process of governance is now being prefixed with an “e”. E-governance can range from simple Web sites that convey basic information to complex sites that transform the customary ways of delivering all sorts of government services. In this respect local e-government is the form of e-governance that specifically focuses on the online delivery of suitable local services by local authorities. In practice local e-government reflects four dimensions, each one dealing with the functions of government itself. The four are: (a) e-services, the electronic delivery of government information, programs, and services often over the Internet; (b) e-management, the use of information technology to improve the management of government. This might range from streamlining business processes to improving the flow of information within government departments; (c) e-democracy the use of electronic communication vehicles, such as e-mail and the Internet, to increase citizen participation in the public decision-making process; (d) e-commerce, the exchange of money for goods and services over the Internet which might include citizens paying taxes and utility bills, renewing vehicle registrations, and paying for recreation programs, or government buying office supplies and auctioning surplus equipment (Cook, LaVigne, Pagano, Dawes, & Pardo, 2002). Commensurate with the rapid increase in the process of developing e-governance tools, there has been an increased interest in benchmarking the process of local e-governance. This benchmarking, which includes the processes involved in e-governance as well as the extent of e-governance adoption or take-up is important as it allows for improved processes and enables government agencies to move towards world best practice. It is within this context that this article discusses benchmarking local e-government. It brings together a number of discussions regarding the significance of benchmarking, best practices and actions for local e-government, and key elements of a successful local e-government project.
Electronic Signature
Authors: Ruzic Fjodor
Published: May 2011

E-Business, as well as all of the active participants in the digital economy environment, raises a host of new legal issues that must cope with the fact that the technical expectations imposed by participation in digital economy will increase. Besides technology implementation, it is evident that the biggest barriers to E-Business today come from the notion that people don’t trust the security and authenticity of the E-Business environment. Since the companies doing E-Business activities are not operating in an unregulated world, the old rules still apply in the new digital environment. Considering the functionality and applicability of such issues, this chapter is finding one, generic shaped, key category that links all of the separate E-Business legal issues in one regulated scene – the answer is done by introducing the electronic signature as the equivalent of a hand-written signature no matter what type of information technology is in use. There are more legal environments, solutions and applications of electronic signature from which several examples are described accompanied with the E-Business view on electronic signature utilization.
Development Stages of Digital Government
Authors: Kaaya Janet
Published: May 2011

In recent years, a number of authors have reported studies on the emergence and development of digital government or e-government using various criteria (Forlano, 2004; Holliday, 2002; Kaaya, 2004; Layne & Lee, 2001; Netchaeva, 2002; Reddick, 2004; Silcock, 2001; Stowers, 1999, 2004; UN, 2001, 2002, 2004). From such studies, models have been proposed which indicate two to six stages of e-government development. Some of the models place emphasis on the structural features of government agencies in relation to electronic provision of services; others place emphasis on the nature and evolution of government Web sites and corresponding services. Still, a few models consider the evolution of the use of information technology (IT) to facilitate the undertakings of government tasks. However, with the exception of the latter, the consensus emerges from the models that the development of digital government entails an evolutionary process starting with the creation of simple government Web sites for publishing information on the functions of government agencies. These simple Web sites further develop into sophisticated portal designs which correspond with the services provided, along with the levels of transactions with the users. The majority of the countries of the world are implementing e-government strategies and various assessments have categorized countries according to their stages of development based on the existing models. Apart from the brief description of the models, this chapter will also give examples of the levels of development of e-government services in different regions and countries.
Digital Governance and Democratization in the Arab World
Authors: Wheeler Deborah L.
Published: May 2011

Making the choice to be an Internet society is not a process governed simply by a state’s attitudes towards computers and the data that flows between them. Rather, being an Internet society means fostering the wide embrace of perspectives modeled on the technology itself. The basic components of designing an Internet society include a commitment to the free flow of information across and among hierarchies; a belief that it is best not to privilege any single information node; a realization that censorship is difficult if not futile; and a commitment to the idea that communities, companies and individuals have the right to represent themselves within electronic landscapes. All of these information attitudes have spill over effects in the real world. While constructing an Internet society is also about building information infrastructure and teaching people to use new tools, it is the clear spill over effects linked with the technology’s design principles that have most developing countries proceeding with caution. For many countries around the world, especially (semi) authoritarian ones, no matter how strong the economic incentives for being an Internet society are, politically and socially, accepting such processes of change without selective state intervention is uncommon. Nowhere are these interventions more apparent than in the puzzling mosaic of Internet led development in the Arab World. This article entertains a series of questions regarding emerging Internet societies in the Arab World: 1. To what degree is the Internet spreading in the Arab World and what factors are most commonly driving (or inhibiting) these processes of technological change? 2. In what way is the Internet contributing to processes of political change in the region? And how is the authoritarian state intervening to regulate Internet use in an attempt to control the spill over effects of such use? 3. What might be the longer term impacts of emergent Internet cultures in the region?
Digital International Governance
Authors: Amoretti Francesco
Published: May 2011

Up to 1980, development, which had been defined as nationally managed economic growth, was redefined as “successful participation in the world market” (World Bank, 1980, quoted in McMichael, 2004, p.116). On an economic scale, specialization in the world economy as opposed to replication of economic activities within a national framework emerged as a criterion of “development.” On a political level, redesigning the state on competence and quality of performance in the discharge of functions was upheld, while on an ideological plane, a neo-liberal and globalization project was to the fore. The quite evident failure of development policies in peripheral countries, on the one hand, has contributed to the debate on the need for reform of governing institutions in the world (de Senarcless, 2004); and, on the other, has pushed them, de-legitimized as they are, in the direction of finding new strategies and solutions. In the 1990s, considering their leading role in government reform, international organizations such as the United Nations Organization (UN), the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) classified e-government as a core issue on their agenda. Innovation through information and communication technologies (ICTs) (social and economic advancement among the peoples of the world has become increasingly tied to technology creation, dissemination and utilization) is at the core of the renewed focus on the role of the state and the institutions in this process. Redefining the state—functions, responsibility, powers—as regards world-market priorities and logics, has become a strategic ground for international organization intervention, and ICTs are a strategic tool to achieve these aims.
An Opportunity for E-Democracy in Rebuilding Lower Manhattan
Authors: Green Claudia G. , Murrmann Suzanne K.
Published: May 2011

Following the events of September 11, 2001 (9-11), the Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York established a forum for the purposes of gathering citizen opinions on the nature of the rebuilding of New York City’s Lower Manhattan area. Citizens gave their opinions on the development of space for a memorial, performing arts spaces, museums, restaurants, hotels, residences and businesses. This effort was named “Listening to the City.” Civic Alliance organized two types of citizen opinion-gathering strategies: face-to-face focus groups and online dialog focus groups (www.listeningtothecity.org). The purpose of this article is to assess citizen satisfaction with veness of the online format of citizen involvement in making decisions regarding the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan following the attacks of 9-11. The results contribute to our understanding of the use of Internet technology in gathering citizen opinions in urban development and planning.
A Case Study of Public Servants Engaged in E-Consultation in Australia
Authors: Walsh Lucas
Published: May 2011

This article examines some of the challenges faced by local government during the development and implementation of a relatively new area of e-democratic innovation in Australia: e-consultation. E-consultation is seen as a valuable way through which a two-way relationship can be developed and enhanced between citizens and elected representatives. It involves the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs), such as the Internet, to extend and/or enhance political democracy through access to information, and to facilitate participation in democratic communities, processes, and institutions. Drawing on a case study of the Darebin eForum in Victoria, Australia, this article focuses on the role of public servants as moderators of this local form of e-consultation. The discussion has three parts: online policy consultation is defined within the context of e-democracy; some of the ways that e-consultation challenges the roles of the public service, elected representatives, and citizens are outlined; and the author then argues for an e-consultation strategy that is situated within a continuum of citizen engagement that is ongoing, deliberative, educative, and inclusive.
A Conceptual Framework for Considering the Value of E-Government
Authors: Downey Ed
Published: May 2011

E-government implementation requires public administrators to respond to stakeholder value. While there are many concepts of value in the field of public administration, an integrated framework that public administrators can use to consider the value of e-government to stakeholders is lacking. The new public management suggests that public administrators can best produce value by becoming entrepreneurial and more responsive to stakeholder needs (Barzelay, 1998; Denhardt & Denhardt, 2000; Frederickson, 1980; Goodsell, 1993; Kettl, 1993; Kettl & Milward, 1996; Moe, 1994; Osborne & Gaebler, 1992; Osborne & Plastrik, 1997; Stillman, 1995). Certainly e-government applications hold the promise of strengthening the relationship between public administrators and stakeholders in ways that better respond to needs and thus provide more value to stakeholders and to society in general. Current e-government classification methodologies tend to focus more on the stages of development of e-government applications (Layne & Lee, 2001; Moon, 2002; UN & ASPA, 2001; West, 2004) than on the different kinds of value that can result from meeting stakeholder needs. There is an emerging emphasis on stakeholder needs and value in the e-government literature rather than on classification methodologies that focus on stages of development (Grant & Chau, 2005; Reffat, 2005; Savoie, 2004; Schware & Deane, 2003; Tan, Pan, & Lim, 2005; Welch, Hinnant, & Moon, 2005). This article responds to these ideas by focusing on stakeholder value to develop a conceptual framework that public administrators can apply to e-government. Such a framework will provide insight into: whether or not an e-government application is worthwhile; and if worthwhile, what political management strategies might be employed to support it. The framework will also facilitate the comparison of e-government alternatives.
E-Government Business Models for Public Service Networks
Authors: Janssen Marijn , Kuk George
Published: May 2011

Whilst the concept of business model has become popular in the networked economy, unexplored is whether it is equally applicable to e-government, which emphasizes cross-agency collaboration in form of public service networks. Drawing upon the literature on resource-based views, dynamic capability, and coordination theory, we develop a framework comprising of six elements: (1) organizations in the public service network, (2) service offerings, (3) network coordination, (4) business processes, (5) shared resources and (6) network capabilities. We use this framework to analyze three case studies in detail. The model is useful for understanding the relation between service offering and the challenges of coordinating public service networks. Overcoming these challenges results in better leveraging the advantages of business models. Our findings indicate business models that facilitate knowledge transfer and understanding of shared resources and network capabilities can further enhance better resource mix in migrating toward citizen-oriented business models.
E-Democracy and Local Government - Dashed Expectations
Authors: Smith Peter J.
Published: May 2011

This article examines the impact of information and communications technologies (ICTs) on electronic democracy at the local government level. It concentrates on measures taken by local governments in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom to transform their relationship to citizens by means of e-democracy. The emphasis on democracy is particularly important in an era when governments at all levels are said to be facing a democratic deficit (Hale, Musso, & Weare, 1999; Juillet & Paquet, 2001). Yet, as this article argues by means of an examination of the available evidence in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, e-democracy has failed to deepen democracy at the local level, this at a time when local government is said to be becoming more important in people’s lives (Mälkiä & Savolainen, 2004). The first part of the article briefly summarizes the arguments on behalf of the growing importance of the city as a major locus of economic and political activity. It then discusses how e-democracy relates to e-government in general. Next, it discusses the normative relationship between two models of democracy and ICTs. The article then reviews the evidence to date of e-democracy at the local level of government in the aforementioned countries. Finally, it discusses why e-democracy has not lived up to expectations highlighting the dominance of neo-liberalism.
Reusability in Governmental Electronic Services
Authors: Lepouras George , Vassilakis Costas
Published: May 2011

Reusability in the everyday life is the capacity of using existing objects or even concepts again in the same or other contexts. When applied to information systems reusability is the capability of using the same parts of an application in other applications or in other contexts. As defined by IEEE (IEEE, 1990), reusability is the degree to which a software module or other work product can be used in more than one computing program or software system. Although rapid application development environments such as MS Visual .NETTM (Visual .NET, 2005) and DelphiTM (Borland Delphi, 2005) have to some extent employed reusability of components to aid the fast implementation of software applications, the extent to which existing objects can be used again in the implementation of new software systems is usually limited to basic building blocks of the interface. One problem that hinders reusability of larger building blocks is the fact that once a component which encompasses a number of objects is built it also encapsulates algorithms (sets of well-defined instructions that perform a task) in the form of code that define the functioning of the component. Tight coupling between the program logic and the program code makes portability of the component between applications difficult, when even small modifications in the program logic are required. A second problem that hinders reusability is that even when the same component can be directly used between applications, recognizing that such a component exists and retrieving it, is not an easy task. Reusability plays an important role in software development industry. If a set of well-defined components is available, valuable resources can be saved by utilizing again these components. As Rich Seely observes (2003) “as part of that cost-saving message, Gartner recommends vendors and consultants focus on reusability of Web services applications and components.”
E-Government Strategies for Poverty Reduction in Africa
Authors: Baharul Islam K. M.
Published: May 2011

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) launched the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) in May 1996, which serves as a guiding framework for building the information and communication infrastructure in Africa. Since the launch of AISI, ECA has been supporting member states to embark on the development of National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) policies, plans and strategies, which are instrumental to materialize the visions enshrined in the AISI at the national level and to create an environment conducive for information and communication technology (ICT)-led development initiative. Thus far, more than 30 countries in the continent have embarked, in one form or the other, on the development of national ICT strategies, and more countries have expressed interests to initiate national ICT policies. One specific element of the NICI process is to realign the country’s development goals, more precisely the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) objectives, with the emerging ICT Policy. It is not an easy task, as traditionally the decision makers see ICT as a completely separate domain and often fail to see the role of ICT as a tool to attain the PRSP goals. Therefore, The Gambia NICI process was deliberately geared towards centering ICT policies and plans on the country’s declared PRSP elements. The NICI policy that was developed consciously mapped the route to underlay the ICT tools that will help the country reach its PRSP destination swiftly, efficiently and more responsibly to the people. This article illustrates an e-government strategy built on the objectives of poverty reduction as illustrated by a case study of The Gambia e-government strategy and NICI policy. The process and its evolved mechanism might serve as a model for e-government strategy and policy developers, planners and all stakeholders in general working in the area of digital governance.
Trust and Security in Ambient Intelligence
Authors: Servida Andrea
Published: May 2011

The Information Society is increasingly dependent on largely distributed systems and infrastructures for life-critical and business-critical functions. The complexity of systems in Information Society is rapidly growing because of a number of factors like their size, their unboundness and interdependency, the multiplicity of involved actors, the need to pursue more decentralised control and, last but not least, the growing sophistication in functionality. This trend together with the pervasive use both of open information infrastructures for communications as well as of freeware software and common application platforms expose our society to new cyber vulnerabilities and threats that deserve better understanding, assessment and control. Building trust is essential for the development of the Information Society, and the electronic commerce in particular. This paper outlines the main research directions that have been defined as the priority ones in which to engage the European research community in the thematic priority Information Society Technologies (IST) of the 6th Framework Programme. To this purpose, the paper consolidates the results and recommendations of a number of consultation Workshops that were organised by the Commission in the years 2000-2002.
Mechanism of E-Government Undertaking in Japan
Authors: Kaneko Yuko
Published: May 2011

According to the report submitted by the Evaluation Committee of Experts, Government ICT Strategy Headquarters in December 2005 (ECE, 2005), Japan has already established the globally advanced e-government infrastructures for such services as online application and filing. The report also acknowledged that the quantity and quality of information, guidance and search engine at the government portal, “e-Gov”, and individual government Web sites have reached almost the same level as those of the government Web sites of the other world-famous ICT nations. These achievements have resulted from the continuous undertaking of introducing information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the government operations from 1960s (ECHMCA, 2001). In this article, the successful accomplishments of e-government initiative are described followed by the analysis of institutional arrangements and mechanisms concerning e-government initiatives. Lastly, the future challenges will be suggested.
Skills for Electronic Service Delivery in Public Agencies
Authors: Parrado Salvador
Published: May 2011

The text analyses the strategy of OECD countries in order to introduce the needed skills for launching e-government services at the national level. The chapter further establishes the four sets of e-government related skills that are needed within the three relevant communities of public servants: information technology community, information management community and service community. It additionally discusses the framework to identify skill gaps through the revision of different assessment toolkits. Finally, it offers an overview of how ICT-related skills can be outsourced. This chapter draws on documents, policy papers and interviews with experts and managers of national e-government strategies from OECD countries.
Requirements Analysis and General Functional Model of Seamless, Citizen-Oriented Service Delivery
Authors: Pettenati Maria Chiara , Mugellini Elena , Abou Khaled Omar
Published: May 2011

Seamless services provide citizens with what they need to know in a particular topic without having to know which government level or agencies they must contact to get it. Seamless services meet efficiency targets, reduce costs and respond to citizen demands for improved services; they help governments to be more citizen-centered, outcome-oriented, efficient and accountable. This chapter outlines main requirements for the delivery of seamless services and presents a general functional model (e-government service marketplace) for the delivery of shared services to citizens at transaction level (i.e. supporting a complete online handling of a service). The main functionalities of the egovernment service marketplace are analyzed in details. Advantages, disadvantages and the impact of this concept on the three fundamental axes: social, economic and technical are discussed as well. The chapter ends with some insights on future trends and open issues about seamless services delivery and enabling systems.
Innovative Local E-Government through the PEOPLE Project
Authors: De Vivo Roberto , Magnani Marco
Published: May 2011

PEOPLE, one of the most important e-government projects in Italy, was created in 2002, when it was ranked first among almost 400 projects submitted to the Italian government according to its Piano di Azione per l’E-Government, literally, E-Government Action Plan, that is, the program to which the Italian government allocated around €120 million to finance various projects on e-government development. The financial contribution for each project did not exceed 50% of its total expected budget. The name of the project is the acronym for Progetto Enti Online Portali Locali E-Government, literally, Project Public Bodies Online Portals E-Government. The purpose of PEOPLE is “to innovate and to simplify the relationships between Local Public Administrations and citizens” through the online delivery of almost all the services provided by local bodies, leading to the fulfilment of 95% of individual and company requests. The project seeks to create a multichannel network system with a Web portal as the main method of access and interaction.
Healthcare Network Centric Operations
Authors: von Lubitz Dag , Wickramasinghe Nilmini
Published: May 2011

Healthcare has yet to realize the true potential afforded by e-health. To date, technology-based healthcare operations are conducted chaotically, at a wide variety of non-integrated fronts, with little or no long-term strategy, and at a tremendous and ever increasing cost. This chapter proposes that in order for healthcare to ever reap the full benefits from e-health it is imperative for the development of a doctrine of healthcare network centric operations. Otherwise, millions if not billions of dollars will be spent on a futile chase of the definitions of how and when will the computer, healthcare provider, and healthcare administrator interact most efficiently and at the least expense. The concept of a doctrine - “conceptual platform” that outlines the consequent, goal-oriented way forward, and integrates all constituent elements into a smoothly operating whole, is utilized to great effect in the military. Drawing upon the strategies and techniques employed by the military to develop a network centric doctrine, the chapter outlines the essential components necessary for the establishment of the doctrine for healthcare network centric operations (HNCO), and in so doing not only highlights the integral role played by information computer and communication technologies (IC2T) but also the pivotal role of policy makers and governments. In fact, HNCO underscores the important yet rarely acknowledged confluence of e-health and e-government
A Comparative Account of Joined-Up Government Initiatives in Dutch and Belgian Social Security
Authors: Homburg Vincent M.F.
Published: May 2011

In this article, organizational and policy aspects of two national clearing house concepts are compared and discussed. In social security, Belgium has witnessed the emergence of the so called Cross Point Bank and the Netherlands have produced the RINIS initiative. Although both countries are rather comparable, they differ in terms of their politico-administrative structures. From the comparison of the antecedents of both initiatives and their form and shape, it is concluded that e-government is not a universal, necessarily converged concept and that institutions and institutional matter, not so much as to how e-government is talked about (rhetorical convergence), but especially for the ways in which e-government technologies are implemented in the real world of public administration. From the case study, there is little support for decisional and operational convergence of the e-government phenomenon.
E-Rulemaking
Authors: Coglianese Cary
Published: May 2011

Throughout the world, governments use regulation to combat monopoly power, protect consumers, and reduce health, safety, and environmental risks. Regulation promotes the safety of transportation, the cleanliness of the air, and the quality of their food and drugs. Today, nearly every major aspect of contemporary public life is significantly affected by rules made by regulatory agencies, ministries, or bureaus (Kerwin, 2003). Given the consequential and complex nature of regulatory decision-making, crafting rules presents government agencies with significant informational challenges. Government regulators must collect information to understand the causes of regulatory problems, identify available regulatory options, and predict the effects of each alternative (Coglianese, Zeckhauser, & Parson, 2004). To develop a new rule, regulators must often undertake extensive studies and analyses and respond to comments from industry groups and other interested organizations. E-rulemaking—or the use of information technology in government rulemaking—promises to help regulatory agencies make rules more efficiently and with better quality (Brandon & Carlitz, 2002; Johnson, 1998). E-rulemaking may also help expand public access to and participation in government decision making. Despite the significance of regulatory decisions, they have often been made in relative obscurity, with organized business lobbies sometimes having disproportionate influence over policymaking. Information technology may facilitate greater transparency and democratic accountability in the rulemaking process. Already, regulatory agencies are making use of information technology to create Websites containing notices of new regulatory proposals and various background documents. They have also begun to allow citizens to use the Internet to share comments on new regulatory policies or engage in online dialogues (Beierle, 2003; Brandon & Carlitz, 2002). In early 2003, for example, the United States government launched a new Web portal called Regulations.Gov that allows the public to locate and comment on all new regulatory proposals announced by hundreds of federal regulatory agencies (Skrzycki, 2003). In addition, American officials are currently at work developing a government-wide, online docket system that will make available all the extensive information contained in each agency’s rulemaking files (Skrzycki, 2004). Efforts such as these are likely to continue and can be expected in other regulatory jurisdictions around the world.
Privacy Protection Overseas as Perceived by USA-Based IT Professionals
Authors: Shah Jaymeen R. , White Garry L. , Cook James R.
Published: May 2011

Privacy laws for the Internet are difficult to develop and implement domestically and internationally. A clear problem is how such laws are limited to national jurisdictions. What is legal in one country may be illegal in another. Due to differences in cultures and values, and government types, it may not be possible to establish global standards and legislations to ensure privacy. Due to the nonexistence of global privacy standards, multinational (international) companies usually select one of the following two possible solutions: (1) implement a most restrictive “one size fits all” privacy policy that is used across various countries, or (2) implement different privacy policies that meet the privacy regulations of different countries and expectations of those citizens. In order to investigate a solution that may be used by multinational companies, and how companies view domestic privacy laws, the authors conducted a survey of U.S.-based employees of domestic and multinational companies. The results of the survey suggest that the majority of the multinational companies prefer the first solution—most restrictive “one size fits all” approach. They develop and implement a single set of privacy policies that is used across their operations in different countries. The majority of the companies surveyed consider domestic privacy laws in the United States to be practical, but ineffective.
E-CRM and Managerial Discretion
Authors: Coltman Tim , Dolnicar Sara
Published: May 2011

Most sectors of industry, commerce, and government have reported variation in the performance payoff from electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM). In this paper we build on surprisingly sparse literature regarding the importance of managerial discretion to show that the heterogeneity of beliefs held by managers about e-CRM execution matter when explaining e-CRM success. Drawing on a data sample comprising 50 interviews and 293 survey responses we utilise segmentation techniques to identify significant differences in managerial beliefs and then associate these belief segments with e-CRM performance. Results indicate that (1) three distinct types of managers can be identified based on the heterogeneity of their e-CRM beliefs: mindfully optimistic, mindfully realistic, and mindfully pessimistic; (2) that there is far less homogeneity at the individual firm level than is normally assumed in the literature; (3) that het-erogeneity in managerial beliefs is systematically associated with organisational performance; and (4) these results serve to remind practitioners that e-CRM performance is dependent upon the right balance between managerial optimism and realism.
E-Moderation in Public Discussion Forums
Authors: Carson Lyn
Published: May 2011

Very little has been written about the crucial role of the moderator in public discussion forums or discursive communities. Group theory tends to draw upon group experiences from non-moderated groups such as criminal juries or groups convened for the purpose of observation. Therefore group theory is concerned with group members’ behaviour that is not affected by intervention by someone with the overall process in mind. Practicing moderators and process designers understand the importance of this role in face-to-face consultation. The translation of these skills into an online environment is the subject of this article. Unfortunately those who write about e-democracy rarely mention this important function, focusing instead on the technology, even though the moderator role is increasingly employed, for example in online collaboration or decision-making. The role of the e-moderator or e-convenor has attracted some attention, both in public deliberation circles (for example, National Issues Forums in the U.S.) and tertiary education (Salmon, 2002). Understanding e-moderation requires an appreciation of moderation per se. This article draws on input from a network of professional facilitators (in Australia, Canada, the United States, and the UK) who were asked by the author (in November 2004) to describe the qualities of an effective facilitator/moderator in a face-to-face (F2F) environment. Their combined responses, previously unpublished data, are used in this article. This primary data is combined with the author’s own critical reflections based on 20 years of experience as a group facilitator and is integrated with the writings of theorists and practitioners.