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Opportunities and challenges for digital governance in a world of digital participation
Abstract
Digital technologies are changing information flows and transforming some of our current social structures. From some perspectives, increased interactions among people on social media platforms are already transforming the role of the free press in modern democracies, with the potential to influence our governance systems. Moreover, government and nongovernment organizations are promoting digital participation through the development of technology platforms, such as e-Consultation and e-Petitioning systems, to promote social interactions as well as political conversations with the aim to improve the public policy development process. These trends continue to change our democratic governance system by opening opportunities for citizens to directly influence policy issues and democratic participation. However, lack of transparency in how the conversation is initiated and structured in these same platforms provides new opportunities for private interests to influence public conversations.
... Entretanto, cada uma dessas plataformas possui seus próprios recursos, estruturas, funcionalidades e base de usuários o que significa que as configurações de tais ferramentas se refletem diretamente nos meios e modos como seus usuários as utilizam (Bossetta, 2018;Luna-Reyes, 2017;Ernst et al., 2017). ...
... Isto é, mesmo que as redes sociais digitais possam facilitar a comunicação entre Portanto, as diferentes funcionalidades, configurações e estruturas das redes sociais digitais interferem no processo comunicativo, corroborando o que foi apontado por investigações anteriores (Bossetta, 2018;Luna-Reyes, 2017;Marques, 2016b;Davis, 2015 Resumen ¿Cómo utiliza el agente de inspección la comunicación en línea? La idea de transparencia pública en las redes sociales de la Contraloría General de la Federación El artículo investiga si la Contraloría General de la Federación (CGU) aborda la idea de transparencia en sus perfiles de redes sociales y de qué manera. ...
O artigo investiga se, e de que forma, a Controladoria-Geral da União (CGU) aborda
a ideia de transparência em seus perfis de redes sociais. Três questões orientam a
análise: Como o tema da transparência pública é mobilizado pela CGU no Facebook
e no Twitter? Uma vez que Facebook e Twitter dispõem de estruturas e usuários
distintos, que estratégias de comunicação são privilegiadas em cada rede? Em que
medida as rotinas de comunicação digital da CGU foram transformadas na transição
entre os governos Rousseff e Temer? A análise de conteúdo de 4.212 publicações
no Facebook e no Twitter em 2015 e 2016 revelou que a instituição privilegia dois
temas: transparência e corrupção. Ademais, autoridades públicas são pouco
mencionadas, afastando-se uma perspectiva personalista de instrumentalização da
comunicação. Descobriu-se, ainda, que a transição governamental efetivamente
interferiu nas rotinas de publicação da entidade.
... These developments highlighted the governance challenges and opportunities from vast increases in computation and the global interconnectedness of computation (DeNardis, 2020). Digital governance, for example, has become its own area of inquiry (Milakovich, 2012;Luna-Reyes, 2017;Manoharan et al., 2023). However, modern machine learning and neural network forms of AI became more capable in the early 2010s. ...
This essay examines how Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are becoming more integral to international affairs by affecting how global governors exert power and pursue digital sovereignty. We first introduce a taxonomy of multifaceted AI payoffs for governments and corporations related to instrumental, structural, and discursive power in the domains of violence, markets, and rights. We next leverage different institutional and practice perspectives on sovereignty to assess how digital sovereignty is variously implicated in AI-empowered global governance. States both seek sovereign control over AI infrastructures in the institutional approach, while establishing sovereign competence through AI infrastructures in the practice approach. Overall, we present the digital sovereignty stakes of AI as related to entanglements of public and private power. Rather than foreseeing technology companies as replacing states, we argue that AI systems will embed in global governance to create dueling dynamics of public/private cooperation and contestation. We conclude with sketching future directions for IR research on AI and global governance.
... 153 Digital technologies offer new engagement avenues for community involvement through social media, 154 civic mobilization websites, and policy change platforms. 155 In fragile and post-conflict contexts, these technologies can help boost civic engagement in local affairs, 156 provide citizen-based early warning services, 157 monitor and report on land or natural resource disputes, 158 strengthen the identity and representation of minorities, 159 and enable marginalized migrant groups to start business ventures. 160 The fundamental commonality for the success of these approaches is their emphasis on local ownership, by combining the empowerment of grassroots initiatives, decentralization, and the rationalization of governmental and international interventions. ...
Peaceful and healthy environments are prerequisites for sustainable development, but in many regions of the world, the devastating impacts of armed conflict, unsustainable resource exploitation and climate change are intensifying the degradation of our environments and contributing to fragility, instability, and insecurity.
In response to these challenges, the field of environmental peacebuilding has evolved as a holistic and multidisciplinary approach, addressing the crucial role of the environment and natural resources in preventing, mitigating, resolving, and recovering from conflicts. This field promotes social cohesion, healthy ecosystems, and resilient environments through sustainable management of natural resources, effective environmental governance, and proactive climate change adaptation measures.
A key objective of environmental peacebuilding is to manage the environment and natural resources in a manner that fosters peace and trust among individuals and groups. This is achieved by creating inclusive platforms for engagement, facilitating dialogue, encouraging collaboration, and fostering mutual benefits. Through these efforts, environmental peacebuilding seeks to transform environmental risks into opportunities for cooperation and peace, thereby contributing to a more stable and sustainable future.
While digital technologies are increasingly used in environmental peacebuilding a comprehensive analysis exploring both the opportunities and risks these technologies present across the peace and security continuum has yet to be conducted. Prior research has delved into the application of digital technologies within humanitarian operations, mediation, and broader peace and security.
However, there is a notable gap in understanding how these technologies specifically intersect with conflict risks and peacebuilding opportunities related to environment, natural resources, and climate change.
In light of this gap, the primary objective of this report is to explore a pivotal question: What are the potential opportunities and risks for communities, governments, international actors, and other stakeholders in harnessing digital technologies for environmental peacebuilding?
To answer this question, this report uses a horizon-scanning approach that compiles 17 case studies of digital technologies already in use by environmental peacebuilding practitioners at different stages of the peace and security continuum, with the aim of providing a nuanced understanding and guiding strategic decision making in this increasingly important intersection of digital technology and environmental peacebuilding
... Die Art und Weise, wie sich Geschäftsmodelle durch die Digitalisierung verändern, wird auch in der Forschung untersucht. Es existieren allerding nur wenige Studien, die untersuchen, wie der öffentliche Sektor mit dieser Veränderung umgehen kann (Dunleavy et al., 2006;Luna-Reyes, 2017, Welch et al., 2005. Die Mehrzahl der Studien konzentriert sich auf den privaten Sektor und deren Geschäftsmodelle (Bouwman et al., 2018;Caputo et al., 2021). ...
... The opportunities and risks of digital participation in the decision-making process depend on various conditions that can be modeled theoretically and tested empirically. Furthermore, the use and acceptance of such digital tools contributes to the overarching discussion on how web-based instruments can shape new forms of governance and policymaking worldwide (Hutchinson, 2019;Kassen, 2023;Luna-Reyes, 2017;Margetts et al., 2021;Schlaeger, 2012;Theocharis et al., 2021). ...
Infrastructure siting has been shown to lead to high contestation across political systems. To counteract this, policymaking has introduced participatory instruments that were recently supplemented by web‐based tools. Drawing on theoretical perspectives on policy conflict, this paper investigates how different conflict intensities reflected in public discourses can shape citizens' perceptions on the potential and limitations of digital participation tools. To this end, we conducted a survey experiment with students who evaluated the potential functions of a web‐based tool considering criteria, such as transparency, efficiency, and inclusion of new expertise. Participants were randomly assigned fictitious project descriptions that used either conflict or concord words. The results show that while users see several positive influences of digital tools on increased transparency and inclusivity in participation processes, this perception is negatively influenced by a supposedly high level of conflict. Furthermore, digital public participation in railroad planning is perceived as contributing to decreasing escalation and strengthening the democratic quality of policy processes. However, digital participation can only develop its strengths if there are accompanying measures and discourses to secure trust. In addition, the tool's potential seems to be higher in less escalated conflict situations and fully escalated situations than in asymmetrically escalated conflicts.
... Media as an approach tool contributes to developing knowledge, understanding technical issues, and developing a critical attitude towards technology and data (Knaus, 2020). The increasing number of people's interactions on social media has changed the role of press freedom in a modern democratic system (Luna-Reyes, 2017). The availability of egovernment digital technology has answered current public problems (Filgueiras et al., 2019). ...
As a result of the high value of destructive perceptions of Indonesian government services and the high value of perceptions of corruption in Indonesia, the purpose of this study was to analyse artificial intelligence in Indonesian government governance with the last four-year edition, namely 2018-2022. The research data source reviewed 57 news stories from Indonesian online media. This research data analysis uses the Qualitative Data Software Analysis approach with the NVivo 12 Plus tool and the NCapture feature. The results of the data analysis show that artificial intelligence in Indonesia is seen from four aspects: accountability, transparency, the rule of law, and participation. The results showed that reform and bureaucratic reform from the accountability aspect had the highest percentage, namely 54.55%. Human development and culture from the aspect of participation has a percentage of 33.33%. Ministry of communication and informatics, from law supremacy, has a percentage of 53.85%, and the ministry of health, from the aspect of transparency, has a 21.74%. This study’s findings represent that artificial intelligence systems have efficient and environmentally friendly selling points. However, this research sees that the artificial intelligence system is fundamental and has not been optimised by Indonesian government agencies’ entire scope of work. Even so, it can be seen that the Indonesian government continues to strive for artificial intelligence in the scope of government work so that it is used continuously until people’s satisfaction with the performance of the government system is achieved.
... Scholars have linked digital participation with political participation and proposed the concept of digital political participation (De Marco et al., 2014). The widespread use of the Internet has changed the governance system of modern countries, with the potential to influence governance systems (Luna-Reyes, 2017). Digital political participation has an impact on network actions. ...
Plain Language Summary
The purpose of the study is to examine the influencing factors of digital participation, including digital skills, interpersonal communication, online immersion and mediating roles of online interpersonal communication and online immersion. The study selected 1,204 samples from the 2017 China General Social Survey. Amos 26.0 was used to test the theoretical model using the structural equation model (SEM). The conclusions are that this study revealed the key role of digital skills in improving digital participation and proposed strategies to strengthen digital skills training and education and optimize digital platform page operation. In addition, this study examined the positive effects of online interpersonal communication and online immersion on digital participation. The implications are that this study demonstrated that online interpersonal communication and immersion played an intermediary role in the process from digital skills to digital participation, which enriched the understanding of the changes of communication relationship and physical and mental perception produced by individuals through networks. Meanwhile, this study indicated that gender, education, and regional differences influenced the results, and it is necessary to further improve the measures of digital platforms in content guidance and target group selection. The limitations of the study are that this study was mainly aimed at adults, as data on the digital participation of adolescents is insufficient. Meanwhile, this study did not investigate a specific group, and future research could be targeted from the economic, education, and other aspects of classification research.
... In their works on the subject, the general line is traced for the need not only to implement technological solutions, but also for the importance of achieving effective organizational and cultural change. It is understood that the development of e-government is entering a phase of the so-called Personalized digital government, namely personalization of the provided public services and the creation of a two-way relationship with citizens in order to adapt policies to specific needs of society [13]. In some countries such as Bulgaria, however, it is difficult to speak of such a degree of development. ...
The aim of this publication is to present key results of an empirical study conducted, affecting the processes of digital transformation of the municipal administration as part of the public sector in Bulgaria. The research section is by planning areas, using methods of analysis such as expert assessment, GAP analysis, induction and deduction. The main results of the study outline challenges to the transformation of the public sector such as the need to change the organizational culture of those employed in the administrations, as well as to increase bilateral interaction with citizens in order to reach a level of personalization of public services.
... Mainstream digital governance studies typically take a macro-level view and consider the effects of technologies, such as facilitating governance, empowering citizens, deepening the digital divide and inequality, and invading privacy (e.g. Chen, 2017;Luna-Reyes, 2017;Milakovich, 2012). However, this approach largely overlooks the various individuals and interests behind these technologies. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic propelled many countries into a “state of
exception,” under which several regular governance norms were
suspended and emergency regulations were enacted. China was
no exception. After its initial domestic vacillation, China implemented rigorous measures to control its borders and employed digital technologies, such as health codes and intelligent gate magnets, to streamline inbound travel management. These measures were in place until the end of 2022. Drawing on 30 in-depth semi-structured interviews and public and social media posts, this study examines the multifaceted role of digital governance in the management of inbound travelers during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Digital governance facilitated and streamlined the quarantining of inbound travelers. Meanwhile, the use of digital measures was entangled with the institutional logic of China’s local governance, which sometimes had to reconcile contradictory goals. Theoretically, the paper enriches our understanding of not only the idiosyncrasies of Chinese digital governance but also of
techno-biopolitics under a COVID-19-induced tentative state of
exception, which sheds light on a possible future in which digital
technologies are deeply integrated into the institutional logic of
governance in an increasingly turbulent world.
... The latter is based on a new approach based on the understanding that providing only electronic administrative services is not enough, it is necessary to achieve a higher degree of personalization based on the events of the users' personal lives (Al-hassan et al., 2009). It is widely believed that technologies enable users not only to consume, but also to create a two-way relationship by actually influencing the process of offering public services together with public authorities and contributing to their public utility (Luna-Reyes, 2017). In this regard, authors such as Scupola and Mergel direct their research precisely in the direction of delineating a theoretical framework that will help answer the question of how to go through a digital transformation of public services using co-production methods (Scupola & Mergel, 2022). ...
The aim of the article is to outline strategic perspectives for electronic administrative services in the context of intensive processes of digital transformation in society. Administrative service in the public sector is investigated, and in particular, the focus is on attitudes towards the transformation from conventional to electronic administrative service. Based on a thematic analysis, the environment for the development of electronic administrative services at the municipal level has been mapped. The results of a study of the level of provision of electronic services by all 265 municipalities in Bulgaria are presented, opportunities and challenges to the process are identified, and public attitudes regarding the prospects for electronic administrative services in the country are examined.
... Citizens and other external stakeholders are viewed as co-producers, rather than as customers, of government services. Luna-Reyes (2017) [30] examined how technological advancements, such as the development of platforms for electronic petitioning or the utilization of social media, made extensive citizen participation possible. Other types of research investigated the effect that e-governance can have on democratic representation and democracy itself [31][32][33]. ...
Governments are altering how they operate to enhance the provision of public services, be more successful and efficient in their plans, and accomplish goals such as greater transparency, interoperability, and citizen pleasure. There are, however, limited studies about how public sector managers are currently identifying digital transformation in their own day-to-day practices, how they are implementing digital transformation projects, and what their expected results are, aside from the reports provided by consulting firms. The aim of this article is to present a case study in order to gain an understanding of the current expectations that public managers have regarding the implementation of digital transformation projects, as well as the outcomes that they anticipate these projects will produce. A qualitative analysis was conducted based on experts who were involved in digital transformation projects with a thorough understanding of government decisions and in-depth knowledge of execution procedures. Based on the results derived from interviews, this paper aims to support managers in examining the barriers of digital transformation in the public sector in order to improve this process.
... Besides, the emergence of a digital age, with the repercussions of a digital governance (Cinquini, 2019;Luna-Reyes, 2017), characterised by the interaction of companies with their stakeholders by social media, has expanded the diverse audience and interests of stakeholders, making a decisive contribution to the transparency of corporate decisions, especially in the ESG field (Lepore et al., 2022). This has undoubtedly had a positive effect on the involvement of various corporate audiences in sensitive issues, such as carbon emission, water consumption, gender diversity and employee safety. ...
The aim of this study is to investigate the role of board independence on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and the moderating role of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee on the relationship between these variables. The sample includes 2,925 companies from 18 industries and 38 countries for the period of 2002–2020. To test our hypotheses, we developed a regression model based on the panel data dependence technique. The results confirm that the establishment of a CSR committee within the board moderates the relationship between board independence and ESG performance. A CSR committee acts as a booster into enhancing the effectiveness of the board as a corporate governance mechanism. This article contributes to the academic literature evidencing the importance of establishing a sub-committee within the board of directors delegated to CSR issues. It provides also interesting insights for companies and policy makers for formulating future guidelines on corporate governance.
... Em resumo, trata-se de um termo com origem na iniciativa privada e que os governos passaram a adotar, composto pelos seguintes aspectos: uso da tecnologia para transformar a prestação de serviços (ROOKS, 2017); uso de tecnologia para transformar a cultura organizacional e relacionamento com os cidadãos (MEIJER, 2015;LUNA, 2017); criação de valor como resultado da transformação (CORDELLA; PALETTI, 2018). Não há dúvidas de que os governos estão em busca de tornar os serviços públicos mais eficientes, sobremaneira ao considerar as novas exigências da sociedade (MERGEL et al., 2019). ...
A busca por mais eficiência, efetividade e eficácia na administração pública levaram a Transformação Digital do setor público brasileiro a ser debatido e estudado como forma de suprir a essa demanda . Sendo assim, apresenta-se, por meio de uma revisão sistemática de literatura nacional, a análise de como o conceito é estudado e apresentado dentro do recorte temporal de 2015 à 2021 em periódicos eletrônicos. Dentre os resultados, destaca-se que a Transformação Digital vem sendo analisada de forma a resgatar a evolução histórica das medidas governamentais para implementar serviços digitais, além de discutir as principais perspectivas e desafios para que um serviço público digital se torne realidade.
... One obstacle that has both technical and non-technical aspects is related to transparency issues (Kim & Lee, 2012). Assessing and consulting governmental information involves investment in usability and design interaction as well as information management and communication (Luna-Reyes, 2017). Besides transparency, information management should promote awareness by people that their voices are being considered in the participation process (Gulati et al., 2014). ...
The success of citizens’ electronic participation, or eParticipation, depends not only on mitigating digital divide challenges, but also on facing socio-organizational issues such as citizen data privacy, ICT literacy, as well as citizen awareness and motivation to participate. Despite the efforts of several researchers to present models and frameworks for empirical applications based on the Capability Approach (CA), we found a theoretical gap when searching for scientific work addressing the social aspects of ICT applications; more specifically, how to operationalize eParticipation for good governance through CA. Hence, aiming to investigate the potential of eParticipation initiatives to enlarge individual capabilities, we carried out an in-depth literature review. As a result, we propose a conceptual framework consisting of four propositions that can contribute toward how approach and discuss the role of eParticipation to create new synergies between technology and development, addressing the demands of people, promoting participatory governance, and fostering human development.
... Existe un consenso en la literatura científica de que la transformación digital de la administración pública es un proceso continuo, social y cultural, que usa intensivamente las tecnologías digitales para mejorar significativamente los servicios públicos. Para ello es necesario promover la participación ciudadana, la transparencia de la gestión y la auditoría social; asimismo, buscar una mejor valoración del gobierno, con el único propósito de atender eficientemente y en forma segura las demandas de la ciudadanía; también, impulsar el desarrollo social y el progreso económico del país (Muñoz et al., 2019;Janowski, 2015;Luna-Reyes, 2017;Aguirre, 2021;De la Selva, 2020;Benayas, 2021;Guerrero-Bayona y Rosado-Gómez, 2020;Porrúa et al., 2021;Mergel et al., 2019;Fairlie y Portocarrero, 2020;Otia y Bracci, 2022). ...
La transformación digital en el Perú se intensificó en el año 2020 para posibilitar el progreso social, el crecimiento económico y una mayor confianza en el gobierno. Utilizar tecnologías digitales ya no es una opción, su aprovechamiento permite mejores condiciones de vida al ciudadano y no hacerlo incrementa las desigualdades sociales. La metodología adoptada en este artículo corresponde a una revisión bibliográfica de la literatura científica y técnica sobre transformación digital en la administración pública, a través de bases de datos de revistas arbitradas (Scopus, Scielo, Proquest, Redalyc y Google académico) correspondientes a los últimos cinco años. La conclusión a que se arriba es que la digitalización debe considerarse como una oportunidad para mejorar la gobernanza, a través de la restructuración de los servicios públicos, utilizando intensivamente las tecnologías digitales con la finalidad de incrementar su eficacia y eficiencia para lograr el bienestar digital de los ciudadanos y ahorros sustanciales. La transformación digital, a su vez, demanda previamente la reducción de las brechas en los ecosistemas digitales, tanto en infraestructura de comunicaciones de alta calidad como en su masificación. Debido a las brechas existentes, la ciudadanía digital en el Perú está en proceso de construcción.
... Introduction of new and advanced technologies in organizations is a challenging process as such (Luna-Reyes, 2017;Meijer & Thaens, 2010;Puron-Cid et al., 2020;van Noordt et al., 2020). When these are introduced in public authorities that are politically steered and governed through a mix of policy making and management structures, such changes become rife with tensions, dilemmas, and failed attemptsthat can indicate important moments of learning, innovation, adaptation, or transformation (Bannister & Connolly, 2015Gustafsson, 2017;Van Cauter et al., 2015). ...
... Introduction of new and advanced technologies in organizations is a challenging process as such (Luna-Reyes, 2017;Meijer & Thaens, 2010;Puron-Cid et al., 2020;van Noordt et al., 2020). When these are introduced in public authorities that are politically steered and governed through a mix of policy making and management structures, such changes become rife with tensions, dilemmas, and failed attemptsthat can indicate important moments of learning, innovation, adaptation, or transformation (Bannister & Connolly, 2015Gustafsson, 2017;Van Cauter et al., 2015). ...
In this study, we propose a governance framework for two-speed innovation as a fruitful approach to manage digitalisation and change in incumbent firms and public organisations. Two-speed innovation is a process that combines ambidexterity and platform-oriented IT architecture, through a particular configuration; a two-speed organisation, supported by two-speed digital technology. We structure the governance framework on dynamic capabilities and use it to investigate two-speed innovation in three large organisations. We describe how the two-speed dynamics unfold and discuss options for managing the process.
... Digital governance relates to the use of Internet, which enables new ways for stakeholders to organize themselves and participate in various contexts (Luna-Reyes, 2017). With the application of network technologies, governance is developing into a more network-oriented form (Barbosa, 2017;Kitsing, 2019). ...
The term eGovernance has been used for almost 2 decades and suggests a relationship between some electronic—or digital—aspects and governance in a traditional form. Several scholars have pointed out that eGovernance has been defined and used in a number of ways in the academic discourse. This is problematic as it may hinder the development of cumulative knowledge and robust theoretical constructs. To investigate how eGovernance has been used and understood, we reviewed the eGovernance and digital governance literature to identify the theoretical foundations and to understand variations in the use of the term. Our overall objective was to contribute to a consolidation of the understanding and use of the term. This chapter suggests that there is considerable variation in how eGovernance is understood and applied in the literature. Recently, some argued that eGovernance has evolved into the term “digital governance”. Although there seem to be more theoretical contributions related to the concept of eGovernance and the digital aspect of digital governance has been slightly more elaborated, we found no clear conceptual distinctions between the two concepts and used digital governance for our conceptualization. To provide clarity, we posit that governance and digital are basic elements of digital governance. Further, we found that digital governance is typically either studied with emphasis on the use of ICT in governance or on structural or normative transformational outcomes of digital governance. As a novel contribution, we suggest a definition of digital governance.
... The notion of electronic government has been commonly associated with the use of ICT in order to promote greater government effectiveness and facilitate the provision of public services (Luna-reyes, 2017). Digital governance consists of the use, by the public sector, of information and communication technologies with the objective of improving the provision of information and of services, encouraging the participation of citizens in decision-making processes and making government more responsible, transparent and effective (Brasil, 2016;Zuiderwijk, Chen, & Salem, 2021). ...
The transparency and accountability of systems and algorithms aims to protect the user against undesirable or harmful results and to ensure the application of laws appropriate to digital environments. Thus, the objective of this study is to evaluate the transparency and accountability provided to citizens in three of the main digital public services (e-services) offered by the federal administration of Brazil (ComprasNet, Sisu and Naturalizar-se) locally recognized for their significant relevance and stage of development and use. Services were evaluated from eight perspectives: accessibility; awareness; access and repair; accountability; explanation; origin of data, privacy and fairness; auditing; validation, accuracy and testing. Adopting a qualitative approach through comparative case studies, this research contributes to information practices theory (construction of a model for assessing transparency and accountability in digital public services). The results obtained show the need to inform the user of possible bias and damage arising from these systems, which are not readily perceived; just as the need to clarify the benefits that arise from the collection of private data are not. This shows that computational models can be distorted as a result of biases contained in their input data, or algorithms. This paper contributes through an innovative combination of dimensions, as a tool to evaluate transparency and accountability of government services.
... Both international organizations [54] and national governments (see, for instance, [5,45,46]) set high expectations from government digital transformation. As predicted by multiple stage digital maturity models [36], unleashing the potential of digital technologies in the public administration is expected to optimize the public value of government services for citizens [7], increase efficiency of government functions [24] and develop new bureaucratic culture [34], support citizen participation [33] and client engagement in public value co-production and co-creation [11]. Government digitalization is expected to significantly reduce administrative costs [48] and improve business environment [26]. ...
The expectations from digital government transformation are remarkably high, especially in public service delivery. However, the recent research points to the fact that often such impacts are overestimated, and the actual results of public administration digitalization are more modest than expected. One of the reasons for that is insufficient adoption of digital public service delivery channels especially in the countries like Russia where digital by default principle has not been established. The significant variance in regional development makes Russia an interesting case for research and comparison both for developed and developing nations. This paper aims at identifying the factors influencing citizen adoption of digital public service delivery channels in Russian regions. Based on the review of theoretical and empirical literature, we selected 11 possible factors that could be related to the extent of adoption of electronic public services at the regional level. While statistically significant correlation was found with most variables considered, no such interrelation was confirmed for age and information security risks indicators. The results of regression analysis suggest that quality of public service supply in electronic form, education, and per capita income determine the extent of digital public services adoption. Our findings demonstrate that social aspects of digital divide are more important than variations in ICT infrastructure development and should be accounted for in the ongoing and future government digital transformation initiatives.
... Indeed, emphasis on the central importance of 'taking public engagement seriously' in technology constructed by government is evident from many authors (e.g. Gerpott & Ahmadi, 2016;Greenway, Terrett, Bracken, & Loosemore, 2018;Kaminis & Tsiouras, 2015;Liu, 2017;Luna-Reyes, 2017;No, Mook, & Schugurensky, 2017;Raford, 2015). ...
There is a markedly broad range of definitions and illustrative examples of the role played by governments themselves within the literature on government platforms. In response we conduct an inductive and deductive qualitative review of the literature to clarify this landscape and so to develop a typology of six definitions of government platforms, organised within three genres along a spectrum from fully centralised, through to fully decentralised. For each platform definition we offer illustrative ‘mini-cases’ drawn from the UK government experience as well as further insights and implications for each genre, drawn from the broader information systems literature on platforms. A range of benefits, risks, governance challenges, policy recommendations, and suggestions for further research are then identified and discussed.
... Th e theory highlights the importance of digitalization for optimizing the public value of government services for citizens (Bannister et al. 2014) as well as for raising the effi ciency of government functions by implementing lean government models (Janssen and Estevez 2013). Digital technologies boost citizen participation (Luna-Reyes 2017) and support client engagement in public value co-production and co-creation (Cordella and Paletti 2018). ...
Digital transformation is the modern mainstream of social and economic development promising significant digital dividends to citizens and businesses worldwide. The theory highlights the importance of digitalization for optimizing the public value of government services for citizens; however, despite the high enthusiasm about the prospects of digital transformation in public administration, there is little literature on measuring actual benefits this process might provide to all stakeholders concerned.
While some recent research suggests high correlation between governance indicators and e-government development, the causality between the two is not confirmed statistically for most public administration indicators. International indices used to measure government digitalization (such as the UN E-Government Development Index) often concentrate only on e-services and are based on measuring the availability rather than the actual use or quality of such modes of service delivery; they concentrate more on measuring G2C and, to some extent, G2B interactions and often omit the effects of digitalization for the G2G and G2E dimensions. The EU Digital economy and society index (DESI) is one of the most advanced cases for measuring the progress of digitalization in the EU, but even in this case the costs of digitalization and potential risks of digital government are not fully accounted for.
The paper provides an extensive review of theoretical and practical approaches to measuring government digitalization, identifies key limitations and proposes some steps for enhancing the existing practices. The paper argues that government digital transformation should not be performed for its own sake but should be a means for raising effectiveness and efficiency of public administration. Therefore, both benefits and risks of digital transformation of performing all core government functions for various stakeholders (citizens, businesses, government itself, and public officials) should be accounted for.
... Protest communication as a type of mediated political communication of media functions «inherits» the functions of the media providing information, socialization, mobilization, feedback, recreation / entertainment (communication, interactive exchange of approval, etc.) [Kazimirchik, 2014 ;Kurbatov, 2017 ;Oniszczuk, 2011 ;Small, Vorgan, 2009] ; communicative practices of protestas communicative practices of conflict resolution, conflict (expressed «acute» discrepancy)not as an anomie, but as a potentially constructive force (which determines the advisability of evaluating the studied practices according to the criterion of «satisfactoriness» of communication between the parties and involving, for this purpose, the postulates of «principled negotiation» by representatives of the Harvard school of conflictology R. Fischer and W. Ury) [Deutsch, Coleman, Marcus, 2006 ;Fisher, Ury, Patton, 2011]. Modern communicative protest practices are implemented in the context of technological determinism, growing virtuality as a social state and information administration offering the possibility of (milder) conflict management [Berg, 2017;Luna-Reyes, 2017;Oniszczuk, 2011]. 1) German petitions available at the platform openPetition (https://www.openpetition.de, ...
Conceptualization of the phenomenon of modern protest is important for understanding the current political and social space. The aim of the research is a comprehensive comparative system – communicative study based on a separate communicative practice (online petition) of modern protest in Russia and Germany in the context of changes in the information and communication space, parameters of satisfaction, dialectics of the general and linguo-sociocultural specific. In their research the authors use such approaches as integrative (allowing to use achievements in the given field of linguistics, sociology, political science, cultural studies, media psychology); system-communicative (to study the main communicative dimensions of protest practice), comparative (to determine the general characteristics and linguistic-socio-cultural specifics of the analyzed protest practice). The results obtained contribute to the further development of the provisions of the communicative theory of protest, to the comprehension of the communicative nature of social phenomena, the interaction of technological and socio-cultural changes; they can be used to optimize the management of conflict societies.
... In particular, some researchers have identified the potential impact of social media data and petitioning systems in the early stages of policy making, contributing to the improvement of problem definition and agenda setting activities (Hagen, Harrison, & Dumas, 2018;Janssen & Helbig, 2019;Luna-Reyes, 2017). More specifically, Janssen and Helbig (In Press) pointed to the need for developing methods to analyze content developed with such platforms as sources of inspiration for policy makers. ...
Government agencies collect large amounts of structured and unstructured data. Although these data can be used
to improve services as well as policy processes, it is not always clear how to analyze the data and how to glean
insights for policy making, especially when the data includes large volumes of unstructured text data. This article
reports opinions found in “We the People” petition data using topic modeling and visual analytics. It provides an
assessment of the usability of the visual analytics results for policy making based on interviews with data
professionals and policy makers. We found that visual analytics have potentially positive impacts on policy
making practices. Experts also articulated potential barriers regarding the adoption of visual analytics tools, and made suggestions. Potential barriers included insufficient resources in government agencies and difficulty integrating analytics with current work practices. The main suggestions involved providing training and interpretation guidelines along with the visual analytics tools. Major contributions of this study include: (1) suggesting viable visualization tools for analyzing textual data for policy making, and (2) suggesting how to lower barriers to adoption by increasing usability.
Purpose
This paper explores how COVID-19 has impacted the shift from public participation by conventional means to e-participation. Specifically, we investigated to what extent COVID-19 has been a driver for electronic participation in community participatory budgeting, which is a kind of residents’ consultation on how to spend part of a budget on local projects. We expounded on the concept of e-participation and its sub-concepts and investigated how these were applicable to participatory budgeting.
Design/methodology/approach
We interviewed 34 leading managers in five City Halls in Poland regarding their views and experiences with moving public interactions related to participatory budgeting online during COVID-19.
Findings
The findings indicated that COVID-19 has accelerated the digitalization of the participatory budgeting processes and, to some extent, may have increased community participation in general. We observed increased e-participation in the forms of e-consultation, e-deliberation, e-lobbying and e-voting.
Originality/value
Mainly, this study contributed to the field by providing empirical evidence that COVID-19 increased various forms of e-participation as related to participatory budgeting. Moreover, we delineated various forms of e-participation and mapped them to activities in participatory budgeting.
In dieser Arbeit wird untersucht, welche Auswirkungen die fortschreitende Digitalisierung staatlicher Einrichtungen auf die Venture-Capital-Finanzierung haben und welche Vorteile oder Nachteile die Digitalisierung sowohl für staatliche Einrichtungen als auch für Venture Capital Fonds und Unternehmen mit sich gebracht hat. Diese Arbeit konzentriert sich insbesondere auf den Zeitraum von 2001 bis 2023, welcher Gegenstand der Ministererklärung der Europäischen Union im Jahr 2001 zur Notwendigkeit der Digitalisierung staatlicher Einrichtungen ist. In diesem Zeitraum können die Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung staatlicher Institutionen auf die Venture Capital Finanzierung und das Unternehmertum deutlich gezeigt werden
The tourism industry is increasingly utilizing big data to gain valuable insights and enhance decision-making processes. The advantages of big data make it a promising tool for analyzing various aspects of tourism, including sustainability. Moreover, integrating big data with prominent technologies like ML, AI and IoT has the potential to revolutionize smart and sustainable tourism.
Despite the potential benefits, the use of big data for sustainable tourism remains limited, and its implementation poses challenges related to governance, data privacy, ethics, stakeholder communication, and regulatory compliance. Therefore, strategies must be developed to navigate these issues through a proper governing system.
To bridge the existing gap, this dissertation focuses on the current research on big data for sustainable tourism and strategies for governing its use and implementation in conjunction with emerging technologies. Specifically, this PhD dissertation centers on mobile positioning data as a case due to its unique benefits, challenges, and complexity. Also, this project introduces three frameworks, namely: 1) a conceptual framework for digital twins for smart and sustainable tourism, 2) a documentation framework for architectural decisions to ensure the successful implementation of the DT technology as a governance mechanism, and 3) a big data governance framework for official statistics.
Media sosial telah menjadi alat yang semakin krusial bagi warganet dalam berpartisipasi aktif dalam mewujudkan keadilan dan meningkatkan akuntabilitas penegakan hukum di Indonesia. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk merinci dan menganalisis peran media sosial dalam memfasilitasi partisipasi warganet serta dampaknya terhadap keadilan dan akuntabilitas, khususnya dalam konteks penegakan hukum di Indonesia. Dalam metodologi penelitian ini, dilakukan studi literatur menyeluruh dan analisis mendalam terhadap kasus-kasus kontroversial yang melibatkan media sosial. Temuan utama penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa partisipasi aktif warganet melalui media sosial dapat berkontribusi signifikan dalam mewujudkan keadilan dan meningkatkan tingkat akuntabilitas penegakan hukum di negara ini. Dengan berbagai platform media sosial, warganet dapat dengan cepat menyebarkan informasi, memobilisasi dukungan publik, dan mengawasi tindakan penegak hukum. Meskipun demikian, penelitian ini juga mengidentifikasi beberapa tantangan dan kendala yang perlu diatasi agar potensi media sosial dapat dimaksimalkan dalam mencapai tujuan tersebut. Dukungan yang lebih kuat, pengelolaan konten yang bijaksana, dan regulasi yang tepat diperlukan untuk memastikan bahwa media sosial dapat berfungsi sebagai alat yang efektif dalam mencapai keadilan dan akuntabilitas dalam penegakan hukum di Indonesia.
Improving the quality of public services is characterized in the works of modern researchers as a prerequisite for the development of the state nowadays. Its transition to a higher level of development should be science-based management model, considering the interests of citizens, and be aimed at maximizing the satisfaction of the public needs to the quality of public services. The subject of the study is the current directions of quality development in the field of public services. The objectives of the study - to analyze the experience of developed countries in the modern organization of high-quality provision of public services; determination of directions for the development of the quality of public services in Kazakhstan. The article deals with the development of the quality of public services on the basis of digital government. The digital transformation of public services now characterizes a developed public administration. However, there are challenges in providing digital public services. The article examines such experience of developed countries. It is concluded with possible directions of development of the quality of public services in our country, as technologization and customer focus. The practical significance of the research is that the results of the study can be used as a basis for research, analytical and project activities in the field of development management of the quality of public services to the population at the present stage.
Objectives – The research aims to shed light on Israel's official policy towards defining its cyber sovereignty and boundaries based on official Israeli documents published by the Government of Israel, the Israel National Cyber Directorate and the Israel Defense Forces. Prior Work – The terms "Cyber" and "Sovereignty" define two different domains, the artificial and the physical, which may have broad definitions. Therefore, the literature defines "Cyber Sovereignty" differently while reflecting the term's complexity. Over the years, researchers have analysed Israel's cyberspace from broad aspects. However, the literature lacks examination of the Israeli official stand towards cyberspace sovereignty and, therefore, the ability to draw its cyber boundaries based on official Israel publications. Approach – The study analysed 17 of Israel's official publications, looking for the terms "Sovereignty" and "Boundaries" and general references to cyber sovereignty. Results – None of the analysed publications referred directly to the terms "Sovereignty" and "Boundaries" relating to cyberspace—four defined Israeli cyberspace concerning civilian space, excluding the defense establishment but including elements outside national borders. Implications – The research suggests that a lack of clarity and a well-defined term for "cyber sovereignty" as part of Israeli official documents and a lack of dedicated publications drawing cyber boundaries may be due to (1) strategic ambiguity of Israel's government not referring and defining its cyber sovereignty publicly, (2) lack of cyber policy maturity of Israel's government regarding the definition of cyber-related terms, or a (3) combination of both. Therefore, the study emphasises the need for future research to analyse the definition of other cyber-related terms of Israeli cyberspace and compare with other states in the region and beyond to analyse the extent of the phenomenon and validate the current findings worldwide.
This paper explores how COVID-19 has impacted e-participation, i.e., participation by electronic means, in public decision-making, specifically in certain forms of local community budgeting. We expound the concept of e-participation and its sub-concepts and investigate these as applicable to participatory budgeting. 34 managers in five City Halls in Poland were interviewed on their views and experiences with moving public interactions on-line during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly as these interactions relate to participatory budgeting. The findings indicate that COVID-19 has indeed accelerated the digitalization of the participatory budgeting procedures, and to some extent may have increased community participation in general.
As our civilization more and more moves towards an e-society, a society where the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) is increasingly accepted and integrated in all aspects of daily life, e-government may be evolving into e-democracy. Whereas traditionally e-government has been mainly providing information and services to people and organizations over the internet, with the decision-making remaining chiefly on the government side, e-democracy allows the general population to be included in democratic processes (e-inclusion) and participate in policy making (e-participation). This paper provides a framework for e-democracy while exploring the outlook for e-democracy in our increasingly digitalized world.
디지털전환(Digital transformation)이 정치･경제･사회 여러 분야에 극적인 변화를 초래하고 있다.
디지털전환은 업무를 디지털화하기 위해 새로운 기술을 도입하는 것을 넘어 업무 핵심 프로세스의
변화를 수반한다. 그러나, 디지털전환 노력에 따라 공공 가치가 어떻게 창출되는지를 설명하는 실증적
연구는 거의 없다. 이에 본 연구는 ‘과학기술정책의 과학화의 관점’에서 R&D과제평가의 디지털전환
효과를 실증데이터에 기반하여 탐색한다. 특히, 디지털전환이 궁극적으로 공공 가치 창출로 이어질 수
있다는 맥락과 최근 공공부문에서 ESG 경영과 디지털전환의 연계 관점에서 탄소배출 감소 효과를
실증 분석하였다. 이를 위해 평가･관리 전문기관인 공공기관 A의 2020년~2021년간 출장 데이터 총
18,534건을 활용하여, 디지털전환이 탄소배출 감소에 미치는 영향을 검토하였다. 분석의 결과 디지털
회의시스템 활용으로 인한 이동거리 감소가 탄소배출 절감에 유의미한 기여한 것으로 확인되었다.
즉, 본 연구의 결과는 비대면 회의가 탄소배출 감소를 통한 기후변화 대응에 기여할 수 있다는 점을
확인한다.
With the increasing digitalization of society, many new concepts have emerged. In addition to e-business, e-commerce, and e-government, we now also have e-democracy, e-voting, e-parliament, e-information, and many other e-conceptions. What do these terms mean, how do they differ from one-another, and how do they fit in an e-society? In this paper, we try to define,differentiate, and place these concepts, based on the existing literature.
In its ideal, an e-society is a society where technology is fully accepted by the public in all aspects of daily life. Though this ideal may still be some time away, many aspects of the e-society are already in common use or are starting to become widely implemented. This includes e-government, e-democracy, e-information, e-service, e-participation, etc., which have the potential to greatly impact socioeconomic development. In this paper we explore how these innovative e-technologies may transform society in both developed and emerging economies and be used to avert social exclusion from democratic decision-making. Based on literature review, we define several commonly used e-concepts and illustrate their relevance to socioeconomic development with practical application examples around the world. We conclude our paper by pointing to several promising research opportunities.
The purpose of this chapter is to identify and analyze key tensions in the governance, the management, and the organization of RPA-practices in public services. Key tensions will be analyzed in an agency–structure framework and using empirical data on introduction of RPA-tools in income support services in three Swedish municipalities. The analysis will be guided by two research questions: what tensions underly RPA-integration by actors in their practices; and how these tensions can be understood based on an agency–structure framework. The findings discuss issues such as coordination dilemmas in decentralized structures, different interpretations of the legal frames, standardization versus individualization logics of the profession, trust versus control mechanisms, but also elements of municipal innovation and accommodation of case processing when RPA is integrated into income support services.
Los procesos de transformación digital han evolucionado desde posiciones centradas en la tecnología hasta planteamientos de cambio de carácter más integral. En su aplicación al ámbito de la gestión de recursos humanos aparece una progresión similar, desde iniciativas centradas en la automatización hasta las que se orientan a facilitar cambios más substantivos. El potencial de cambio de esta transformación digital se plasma tanto en la automatización de los diferentes subsistemas de la gestión de personal como en su integración a través de la analítica de recursos humanos. Para desplegar este proceso en las organizaciones del sector público resulta esencial contar con las capacidades adecuadas, entre las que destacan las políticas y estratégicas, las de gestión organizativa y la analítica. La confluencia permite apuntar las bases para la introducción de un cambio en el modelo de función pública.
This paper investigates eParticipation practices and the mechanisms of influence that help promote changes in public policy formulation. We use the perspective of power as a lens for our investigation. We analyze eParticipation processes in the drafting of three public mobility policies in major Brazilian cities. Based on comparative and retrospective cases, we propose a processual framework for understanding eParticipation practices and the mechanisms used over time to influence decision-making. We show how the actors involved, tools chosen, platform design, interactions on the platform, mediation, and mechanisms used by engaged citizens and the government influence public policymaking. Our study contributes to the literature concerning eParticipation with an original processual framework to explain actors' practices and the mechanisms of influence on policymaking in digital participation spaces. Additionally, we broaden the discussion regarding the complementarity between possession and practice views of power. We argue that a better understanding of the eParticipation platform interactions that influence public policy decisions requires attention to formal authority and critical resource control. However, it is also necessary to recognize the interactions and mechanisms implemented in practice. Our findings are helpful for policymakers seeking to create effective participatory processes while considering citizens' opinions.
The study reveals the multifunctionality which is typical of German and Russian political blogs. Regardless of the language of the blogs, information and evaluation, political and convening, consolidating, agitation and propaganda, presentation and propaganda, and directive functions are among the dominant functions. The paper briefly describes the linguistic means which represent these functions. It shows the discursive hybridity of political blogs which is manifested in combining the features of Internet discourse with elements of political, news, journalistic, and social values discourses (in German political blogs) and political, business, legal, conversational, and artistic discourses (in Russian political blogs). The authors establish the relevant communicative strategies of the addresser (the strategy to justify a “problem”, the strategy to support / not support demonstrated evaluation) and the tactics that implement them. The authors also define the topics for discussion which initiate the addressee’s protest reaction – these are social issues, international and regional developments, environment and migration crisis in German political blogs and finance and taxes, constitution and government, elections, corruption and officials in Russian political blogs. The paper describes the ways of forming and maintaining convening technologies in the protest practice considered. It considers the features of mediatization of politics and personality in the content analyzed, which are manifested in guiding the political agenda to the needs of the addressee. It also establishes that German and Russian political blogs as a protest practice are characterized by a set of common system and communicative characteristics, a similar strategy and tactic organization, and a different set of problem areas marked with the “threat” index. The results obtained contribute to further development of the provisions of the communicative theory of protest, facilitate the understanding of modern protest forms and attempt to explain how technology, politics and the media sphere are interlinked.
Purpose. The study focuses on characteristics of public positions from the perspective of the communicative approach which is considered to be an actual practice of protest communication in the Russian Federation. The example taken in the study is the Russian Public Initiative petition platform.
Methodology. The methodology is based on scientific theses on the contingence of technological and social and cultural changes, discursive reality construction, mediation of the political sphere and systemic-communicative autonomy of protest.
Results. The spatiotemporal, collective-personal and objective systemic-communicative dimensions of Russian-speaking online petitions are described; their integrative nature is revealed; the specifics of the discursive construction of the problem, a complex addressee, a petition addressee and Internet solidarity are characterized.
Practical implications. The results of the study make certain contribution to further understanding of modern protest, the correlation of technological and social and cultural changes, politics and mass media sphere; these results are of interest to specialists in the field of social conflicts management.
Digital transformation approaches outside the public sector are changing citizens' expectations of governments' ability to deliver high-value, real-time digital services. In response to the changing expectations and triggered by supranational agreements, governments are changing their mode of operation to improve public service delivery , be more efficient and effective in their designs, and achieve objectives such as increased transparency, interoperability, or citizen satisfaction. However, beyond the availability of consultancy reports, there is little systematic insight into the way that public administrators themselves are currently defining digital transformation in their own day-today practices, how they are approaching digital transformation projects, and what their expected outcomes are. We provide an empirically-based definition of digital transformation derived from expert interviews and develop a conceptual framework with reasons for, processes to, and expected outcomes of digital transformation in the public sector.
Digital transformation is a holistic approach to move government organizations from simple digitization efforts to cultural, managerial, procedural, and developmental changes of the organization as a whole. Using a theory of change approach, this article derives a definition of digital transformation as the outcome variable and the necessary preconditions and activities to reach this outcome. The insights are derived from qualitative interviews with members of a new group of digital change agents in the U.S. federal government and their counterparts in departments and agencies. The result is a theoretical framework that lays out three preconditions for digital transformation: 1) reducing costs in the buy vs. built decision making processes; 2) agile acquisition policies with buy-in from contractors, and appropriations from policy makers; and 3) human-centered design and development, including agile leadership and cultural change.
How control over information creation, processing, flows, and use has become the most effective form of power: theoretical foundations and empirical examples of information policy in the U.S., an innovator informational state.
As the informational state replaces the bureaucratic welfare state, control over information creation, processing, flows, and use has become the most effective form of power. In Change of State Sandra Braman examines the theoretical and practical ramifications of this "change of state." She looks at the ways in which governments are deliberate, explicit, and consistent in their use of information policy to exercise power, exploring not only such familiar topics as intellectual property rights and privacy but also areas in which policy is highly effective but little understood. Such lesser-known issues include hybrid citizenship, the use of "functionally equivalent borders" internally to allow exceptions to U.S. law, research funding, census methods, and network interconnection. Trends in information policy, argues Braman, both manifest and trigger change in the nature of governance itself.After laying the theoretical, conceptual, and historical foundations for understanding the informational state, Braman examines 20 information policy principles found in the U.S Constitution. She then explores the effects of U.S. information policy on the identity, structure, borders, and change processes of the state itself and on the individuals, communities, and organizations that make up the state. Looking across the breadth of the legal system, she presents current law as well as trends in and consequences of several information policy issues in each category affected.
Change of State introduces information policy on two levels, coupling discussions of specific contemporary problems with more abstract analysis drawing on social theory and empirical research as well as law. Most important, the book provides a way of understanding how information policy brings about the fundamental social changes that come with the transformation to the informational state.
Funding for the OA edition is provided by Texas A&M University.
Electronic petitioning (e-petitioning) provides a unique and promising channel through which people can directly express their policy preferences. E-petitions may be viewed as a natural laboratory for determining subjects of public interest, and thus can be used by policy analysts to understand social needs and constraints. In this paper, we introduce textual analysis tools (such as NER and topic modeling) and extract three types of novel variables (informativeness, named entities, and 21 topics) from We the People petition texts. The regression result shows that informativeness, named location, and several topics are significantly correlated with the log of the signature counts. These exploratory but promising results indicate that textual analysis tools can complement traditional statistical methods by providing descriptive measures that are helpful for making causal inferences from electronic petition data. These new tools, we believe, will facilitate policy analysis and policy informatics by enabling meaningful use of large volumes of online archives containing public expression regarding policy preferences.
As managers spend more of their time in meetings, the study of information technology to support meetings becomes increasingly important. Several unique systems to support meetings electronically have been developed in industry and universities. The PLEXSYS systems at the University of Arizona have been operational since 1985 and are now being implemented in industrial sites. This article proposes and defines a new term for information technology systems that support group meetings: electronic meeting systems (EMS). EMSs are more than group decision support systems (GDSS): they support more tasks than just decision making; they focus on communication. They move beyond the GDSS decision room, where groups must meet at the same time in the same place, to meetings that can be conducted across time and space. The article then presents a model of the EMS concept, which has three components: group process and outcomes; methods; and environment. Each of these components is explained in turn, and the implications derived from their study to date are discussed. Finally, the implementation of information technology for meeting support and its use in corporate settings will be addressed, as it has implications for productivity, meeting size, group member participation, and the role of the IS department.
This study aims to reveal patterns of e-petition co-signing behavior that are indicative of the political mobilization of online ''communities''. We discuss the case of We the People, a US national experiment in the use of social media technology to enable users to propose and solicit support for policy suggestions to the White House. We apply Baumgartner and Jones's work on agenda setting and punctuated equilibrium, which suggests that policy issues may lie dormant for periods of time until some event triggers attention from the media, interest groups, and elected representatives. In the case study presented, we focus on 21 petitions initiated during the week after the Sandy Hook shooting (14–21 December 2012) in opposition to gun control or in support of policy proposals that are alternatives to gun control, which we view as mobilized efforts to maintain stability and equilibrium in a policy system threatening to change. Using market basket analysis and social network analysis we found a core group of petitions in the ''support law-abiding gun owners'' theme that were highly connected and four ''communities'' of e-petitioners mobilizing in opposition to change in gun control policies and in favor of alternative proposals.
DOI: 10.1145/2757401.2757421
Citation:
Hagen, L., Harrison, T. M., Uzuner, Ö., Fake, T., LaManna, D., & Kotfila, C. (2015). Introducing Textual Analysis Tools for Policy Informatics: A Case Study of E-petitions. In Proceedings of the 16th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research.
Electronic petitioning (e-petitioning) provides a unique and promising channel through which people can directly express their policy preferences. E-petitions may be viewed as a natural laboratory for determining subjects of public interest, and thus can be used by policy analysts to understand social needs and
constraints. In this paper, we introduce textual analysis tools (such as NER and topic modeling) and extract three types of novel variables (informativeness, named entities, and 21 topics) from We the People petition texts. The regression result shows that informativeness, named location, and several topics are significantly correlated with the log of the signature counts. These exploratory but promising results indicate that textual analysis tools can complement traditional statistical methods by providing descriptive measures that are helpful for making causal inferences from electronic petition data. These new tools, we believe, will
facilitate policy analysis and policy informatics by enabling meaningful use of large volumes of online archives containing public expression regarding policy preferences.
Co‐production is already up‐and‐running in public services and high levels of effort are often already being put into it by users and communities. Moreover, there appears to be a high latent willingness of citizens to become more involved ‐ but only if they feel they can play a worthwhile role.
However, the potential of co-production will only be fully realised if the public sector learns to work in a very
different way with co‐producing users and communities. In particular, the co‐production efforts of citizens and service users must be harnessed, not wasted, by public agencies – up to now, public sector accounting and evaluation systems have encouraged public agencies to be profligate in the way they have viewed citizen inputs, while being very parsimonious in their use of public sector inputs. This has meant that many opportunities for improvements of public outcomes have been lost or mismanaged. Co‐production will only be well‐managed when public sector managers and staff have started to see what citizens are actually contributing to outcomes, rather than being fixating solely on their own contributions.
Moreover, most citizens are only likely to throw themselves wholeheartedly into co‐production in a relatively narrow range of activities that are genuinely important to them personally. This is a great challenge to public agencies, which typically have little experience in tailoring their marketing to specific market segments. Moving from a ‘blunderbuss’ to a ‘rifle’ approach to citizen involvement will require a huge change in attitudes and skills on the part of staff.
Of course, co‐production is not a panacea for all issues in the public sector. In particular, the role of users and other citizens in co‐production will usually demonstrate some conflicting priorities, which only political decision makers can resolve.
The pdf file attached is "the accepted version." The final paper copyrighted by IEEE is published in this url: http://conferences.computer.org/hicss/2015/papers/7367c134.pdf
Hagen, L., Uzuner, O., Kotfila, C., Harrison, T. M., & Lamanna, D. (2015). Understanding Citizens’ Direct Policy Suggestions to the Federal Government: A Natural Language Processing and Topic Modeling Approach. In 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) (pp. 2134–2143). http://doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2015.257
We used a topic modeling approach to uncover emergent topics within We the People petition texts. We applied a natural language processing technique of topic modeling to a collection of 2,850 petition texts initiated from 2011 November to 2014 June and produced 30 emergent topics. 21 out of the 30 topics were initially coded as high-quality topics. Upon qualitative investigation, all but one of these 21 topics were determined to have a coherent theme. Our results imply that topic modeling has the potential to enable the interpretation of large quantities of citizen generated policy suggestions through a largely automated process.
A new public administration movement is emerging to move beyond traditional public administration and New Public Management. The new movement is a response to the challenges of a networked, multisector, no-one-wholly-in-charge world and to the shortcomings of previous public administration approaches. In the new approach, values beyond efficiency and effectiveness—and especially democratic values—are prominent. Government has a special role to play as a guarantor of public values, but citizens as well as businesses and nonprofit organizations are also important as active public problem solvers. The article highlights value-related issues in the new approach and presents an agenda for research and action to be pursued if the new approach is to fulfill its promise.
The International Teledemocracy Centre at Napier University has designed an innovative e-democracy toolkit to support participation in the democratic decision-making process. Electronic petitioning is one of the web-based applications in the toolkit. It can be found at www.e-petitioner.org.uk and has the functionality to create petitions; to view/sign petitions; to add background information, to join discussion forum; and to submit petitions. On 14 th March, 2000, the Scottish Parliament agreed to allow groups and individuals to submit petitions using the e-petitioner system for a trial period. The special arrangement between the Teledemocracy Centre and the Scottish Parliament has allowed both parties to start to evaluate the use and civic impact of electronic petitioning in Scotland. The development, deployment and evaluation of e-petitioner have demonstrated how straightforward computing techniques can enhance public participation in the newly established Scottish Parliament. As well as the system being used to submit e-petitions to the Scottish Parliament, it is also hosting the first ever e-petition to the British Prime Minister at No.10 Downing St.
As managers spend more of their time in meetings, the study of information technology to support meetings becomes increasingly important. Several unique systems to support meetings electronically have been developed in industry and universities. The PLEXSYS systems at the University of Arizona have been operational since 1985 and are now being implemented in industrial sites. This article proposes and defines a new term for information technology systems that support group meetings: electronic meeting systems (EMS). EMSs are more than group decision support systems (GDSS): they support more tasks than just decision making; they focus on communication. They move beyond the GDSS decision room where groups must meet at the same time in the same place, to meetings that can be conducted across time ands pace. The article then presents a model fo th EMS concept, which has three components: group process and outcomes; methods; and environment. Each of these component is explained in turn, and the implications derived form their study to date are discussed. Finally, the implementation of information technology for meeting support and its use in corporate settings will be addressed, as it has implications for productivity, meeting size, group member participat9ion, and the role of the IS department.
What are the consequences of the ongoing process of informatisation for the democratic constitutional state? To answer this question a topical perspective of the constitutional state is provided. In this perspective, the constitutional state is portrayed as a ‘house’, an edifice to which new storeys and rooms have been added and furnished over the course of centuries. Each storey of this edifice originated as a result of the major societal transitions that occurred during previous centuries. The majority of western societies are currently once again in the throes of yet another such transition, namely from an industrial to an information society. The possible consequences of this newest transition for the constitutional state, are reviewed on the basis of four important features of the information society (deterritorialisation, turbulence, horizontalisation and dematerialisation). Renovation, the simple adaptation of the house to the needs of the information society will suffice in a number of cases. Innovation is called for in some respects: deterritorialisation of democracy, horizontalisation of the constitutional state and the development of transparency as a new supporting topos
The International Teledemocracy Centre at Napier University has designed an innovative e-democracy toolkit to support participation
in the democratic decision-making process. Electronic petitioning is one of the web-based applications in the toolkit. It
can be found at www.e-petitioner.org.uk and has the functionality to create petitions; to view/sign petitions; to add background
information, to join discussion forum; and to submit petitions. On 14th March 2000, the Scottish Parliament agreed to allow groups and individuals to submit petitions using the e-petitioner system
for a trial period. The special arrangement between the Teledemocracy Centre and the Scottish Parliament has allowed both
parties to start to evaluate the use and civic impact of electronic petitioning in Scotland. The development, deployment and
evaluation of e-petitioner have demonstrated how straightforward computing techniques can enhance public participation in
the newly established Scottish Parliament. As well as the system being used to submit e-petitions to the Scottish Parliament,
it is also hosting the first ever e-petition to the British Prime Minister at No. 10 Downing St.
This paper investigates the prospects and compares the potential pathways of the open government, transparency, collaboration, and citizen participation initiatives in the US and in Mexico. The study aims at increasing the understanding to what extent and under which circumstances these initiatives might successfully establish or re-establish the balance of powers among the branches of government and major government-external players, which the founding fathers of the US constitution once had envisioned. We present a dynamic hypothesis geared at capturing the nonlinear dynamics in the relationships of the major players involved. An initial dynamic hypothesis poses that several favorable circumstances need to come into play together in order to make the vision of an inclusive and power-balanced democracy of the 21st century a reality. We suggest that the outcomes in the US and in Mexico might significantly differ from each other.
How control over information creation, processing, flows, and use has become the most effective form of power: theoretical foundations and empirical examples of information policy in the U.S., an innovator informational state? As the informational state replaces the bureaucratic welfare state, control over information creation, processing, flows, and use has become the most effective form of power. In "Change of State", Sandra Braman examines the theoretical and practical ramifications of this "change of state." She looks at the ways in which governments are deliberate, explicit, and consistent in their use of information policy to exercise power, exploring not only such familiar topics as intellectual property rights and privacy but also areas in which policy is highly effective but little understood. Such lesser-known issues include hybrid citizenship, the use of "functionally equivalent borders" internally to allow exceptions to U.S. law, research funding, census methods, and network interconnection. Trends in information policy, argues Braman, both manifest and trigger change in the nature of governance itself. After laying the theoretical, conceptual, and historical foundations for understanding the informational state, Braman examines 20 information policy principles found in the U.S Constitution. She then explores the effects of U.S. information policy on the identity, structure, borders, and change processes of the state itself and on the individuals, communities, and organisations that make up the state. Looking across the breadth of the legal system, she presents current law as well as trends in and consequences of several information policy issues in each category affected. "Change of State" introduces information policy on two levels, coupling discussions of specific contemporary problems with more abstract analysis drawing on social theory and empirical research as well as law. Most important, the book provides a way of understanding how information policy brings about the fundamental social changes that come with the transformation to the informational state.
It has long been recognized that the media play an essential role in government accountability. Even in the absence of censorship, however, the government may influence news content by maintaining a "cozy" relationship with the media. This paper develops a model of democratic politics in which media capture is endogenous. The model offers insights into the features of the media market that determine the ability of the government to exercise such capture and hence to influence political outcomes. (JEL D72, D73, L82)
Motivated by the multiple ‘success stories’ of the open innovation paradigm in the private sector, and also by the increasing complexity of social problems and needs, the public sector has started moving in this direction, attempting to exploit the extensive knowledge of citizens for the development of innovations in public policies and services. As the direct transfer of open innovation methods from the private sector to the public sector is not possible, it is necessary to develop effective ‘citizen-sourcing’ methods, which address the specific needs of the public sector, and then analyze and evaluate them from various political and management sciences' perspectives. This paper makes a two-fold contribution in this direction: i) It evaluates a novel method of monitoring relevant social media (e.g. political blogs, news websites, and also Facebook, Twitter, etc. accounts) by government agencies, by retrieving and making advanced processing of their content, and extracting from it external knowledge about specific domains of government activity or public policies of interest, in order to promote and support open innovation; ii) For this purpose it develops a multi-perspective evaluation framework, based on sound theoretical foundations from the political and management sciences, which can be of wide applicability; it includes three evaluation perspectives: a political perspective (based on the ‘wicked’ social problems theory from the political sciences), a crowd-sourcing perspective (based on previous management sciences research on crowd-sourcing) and a diffusion perspective (based on Roger's diffusion of innovation theory from management sciences). The above evaluation provides interesting insights into this novel method of promoting and supporting open innovation in the public sector through social media monitoring, revealing its capabilities and strengths, and at the same time its problems and weaknesses as well, and also ways/interventions for addressing the latter.
Despite over a decade-long experience of implementing e-Participation initiatives, there have been limited efforts so far to develop a detailed, comprehensive conceptualization for e-Participation considered from three distinct perspectives: as democratic process, a project and a deliberation platform. Current e-Participation literature is replete with fragmented models, which only partially describe aspects of e-Participation with main focus on structuring the “e-Participation” concept as a domain. This has made consistent descriptions and comparative analysis of e-Participation initiatives difficult, thus hindering the overall evolution of e-Participation. Consequently, no comprehensive, formal, executable e-Participation Ontology exists, that could be directly leveraged to facilitate operations of e-Participation initiatives or improving communication and knowledge exchange between similar e-Participation initiatives. In addition, current generation of e-Participation models does not explicitly support the emerging phenomenon of spontaneous, citizen-led e-Participation, in particular hosted on the social media platforms. This work bridges this gap by providing a practical, yet sufficiently detailed, conceptualization along with corresponding formal and executable ontology for next generation e-Participation. These semantic models cover the core facets of e-Participation — as a democratic process, an initiative and a sociotechnical system. The developed models also explicitly support the integrated citizen- and government-led model of e-Participation. For demonstration and validation, we employed the developed e-Participation Formal Ontology as a “design artefact” to describe two e-Participation initiatives at Local Government and European levels.
Our societies face complex problems that challenge the sustainability of our social and economic systems. Such problems require joint efforts from the public and private sectors as well as the society at large to find innovative solutions to them. Today, the open government movement constitutes a revitalized wave of open access to data to promote innovation through government transparency, participation and collaboration. In this paper we argue that combining emergent information technologies, analytical methods, and open data constitute an effective way to develop innovative solutions to the problems we face. This strategy would require adequate governance models, individuals with analytical skills, the availability of adequate data, and information technologies. The potential benefits of creating organizations with advanced analytical capabilities within governments, universities, and non-government organizations are numerous as well as the potential impacts on society. However, there are also some important political, organizational, and technical challenges that we discuss in the last section of the paper.
Public access to accurate and reliable information is fundamental to democracy and democratic decision-making. In emerging democracies, during political crises or controversial elections, reliable information is often difficult to obtain. In authoritarian regimes, citizens' perceptions of information reliability are tightly linked to trust in government, and both are typically low. Open government policies help build trust that is essential during protests or contentious elections. Uses and gratifications (U&G) theory states that people use diverse media to try to satisfy their need for reliable information. Gratifying this need is tied to the larger concept of political information efficacy (PIE), i.e., the belief a person holds about him/herself as being politically informed and competent to participate in political thought and action. We investigated these inter-related concepts by administering a survey to an opportunity sample of young adults at a public state university in Mexico. We find that respondents perceived that information from face-to-face and telephone communication with members of their social network, as well as online sources were the most reliable. Information from offline sources, such as TV and newspapers, especially pro-government sources, were the least reliable. Further, the information factors of availability, reliability, influence and sharing had positive relationships with PIE. These results suggest that in conditions of uncertain political information, social networks and online information sources are essential to political information efficacy democratic political participation. Categories and subject descriptors: H.4.3 [Information Systems Applications]: Communications Applications (e.g., email, information browsers, bulletin boards). General terms: Measurement, Reliability, Experimentation, Human Factors.
Many policy-makers are struggling to understand participatory governance in the midst of technological changes. Advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) continue to have an impact on the ways that policy-makers and citizens engage with each other throughout the policy-making process. A set of developments in the areas of opening government data, advanced analytics, visualization, simulation, and gaming, and ubiquitous citizen access using mobile and personalized applications is shaping the interactions between policy-makers and citizens. Yet the impact of these developments on the policy-makers is unclear. The changing roles and need for new capabilities required from the government are analyzed in this paper using two case studies. Salient new roles for policy-makers are outlined focused on orchestrating the policy-making process. Research directions are identified including understand the behavior of users, aggregating and analyzing content from scattered resources, and the effective use of the new tools. Understanding new policy-makers roles will help to bridge the gap between the potential of tools and technologies and the organizational realities and political contexts. We argue that many examples are available that enable learning from others, in both directions, developed countries experiences are useful for developing countries and experiences from the latter are valuable for the former countries.
Information and communication technologies have altered the rela- tions between the political system and citizens. Policy-formulation is enhanced by e-consultations that extend the knowledge base and the legitimacy of policy- making. However, current e-consultation practice in the EU falls short of the potential. The paper proposes a deliberative turn, the use of special purpose technologies and the integration of social media discourse into the consultation process as means to further open it up and to strengthen the connection between government and citizens.
The use of online forums to support civic discourses on local politics has gained momentum, but it is not clear whether such online conversations generate relevant outcomes for democratic decision-making. Empirical studies in online deliberation suggest that online forums often produce fragmented and unorganized public preferences when conversations occur naturally without facilitation. However, it remains unknown as to what degree an unfacilitated online forum can achieve desired quality. Here we report a detailed content analysis on local newspaper forums to reveal the patterns of progression towards the formation of public preferences in a local planning context. Towards this goal, we developed a new coding scheme that incorporates speech acts as indicators of deliberation quality and a progressive five-phase model of deliberative decision-making. Using this coding scheme, the selected newspaper forum was analyzed using a three-step procedure. Our results pinpoint portions of the observed dialogue where progress is not made towards advanced phases of deliberation due to failure to develop common ground and joint assessment of alternative courses of action.
The core issue for this study concerns less the social than the political consequences of the rise of knowledge societies; in particular, the capacity of the Internet for strengthening democratic participation and civic engagement linking citizens and government. To consider these issues, Part I summarizes debates about the impact of the Internet on the public sphere. The main influence of this development, as it is theorized in a market model, will be determined by the “supply” and “demand” for electronic information and communications about government and politics. Demand, in turn, is assumed to be heavily dependent upon the social characteristics of Internet users and their prior political orientations. Given this understanding, the study predicts that the primary impact of knowledge societies in democratic societies will be upon facilitating cause-oriented and civic forms of political activism, thereby strengthening social movements and interest groups, more than upon conventional channels of political participation exemplified by voting, parties, and election campaigning. Part II summarizes the sources of survey data and the key measures of political activism used in this study, drawing upon the 19-nation European Social Survey, 2002. Part III examines the evidence for the relationship between use of the Internet and indicators of civic engagement. The conclusion in Part IV summarizes the results and considers the broader implications for governance and democracy.
This article describes and evaluates two different models of structured electronic consultation, using multiple evaluation methods: discussion tree analysis, quantitative evaluation, and qualitative evaluation. The results indicate that structuring the electronic consultations leads to higher-quality focused debates, however, it can create participation difficulties and barriers to less-sophisticated and educated citizens, so it might result in reduced participation and exclusion of some groups. This can increase the “quality,” but at the same time decrease the “quantity” of e-participation.
A proliferation of e-participation research in recent years has produced fragmented contributions in the area of e-participation models. Without a mechanism for analyzing, relating and consolidating these models, further development of the domain is in danger of repeating itself. This paper presents such a mechanism -- an Integrative Framework which organizes e-participation models based on the nature and specific aspects of e-participation supported. The Integrative Framework enables mapping of models to 12 different facets constructed from a combination of three related perspectives and four canonical aspects of e-participation. While our genealogical analysis of the models showed in general weak relationships among models, our Framework enabled logical groupings of these models as a basis for consolidation, alignment or complementarity analyses. Mappings also clearly revealed aspects of e-participation that are yet to be (sufficiently) addressed. We conclude with recommendations for fostering rigorous and incremental model development in the e-participation domain.
Research into relationships among government, society and technology has grown substantially over the past 30 years. However, most research and most advances in practice address narrowly defined categories of concern such as government organization, citizen services, interoperability, or personal privacy. By contrast, the future presents complex and dynamic challenges that demand a more holistic and flexible perspective, including consideration of what constitutes an appropriate infrastructure for continued development of government and governance in the digital age. This paper outlines a conceptual framework for considering the future, drawn from a stakeholder-driven investigation into potential scenarios of society and government. The framework reflects a dynamic socio-technical system encompassing interactions among societal trends, human elements, changing technology, information management, interaction and complexity, and the purpose and role of government.
The core issue for this study concerns less the social than the political consequences of the rise of knowledge societies; in particular, the capacity of the Internet for strengthening democratic participation and civic engagement linking citizens and government. To consider these issues, Part I summarizes debates about the impact of the Internet on the public sphere. The main influence of this development, as it is theorized in a market model, will be determined by the "supply" and "demand" for electronic information and communications about government and politics. Demand, in turn, is assumed to be heavily dependent upon the social characteristics of Internet users and their prior political orientations. Given this understanding, the study predicts that the primary impact of knowledge societies in democratic societies will be upon facilitating cause-oriented and civic forms of political activism, thereby strengthening social movements and interest groups, more than upon conventional channels of political participation exemplified by voting, parties, and election campaigning. Part II summarizes the sources of survey data and the key measures of political activism used in this study, drawing upon the 19-nation European Social Survey, 2002. Part III examines the evidence for the relationship between use of the Internet and indicators of civic engagement. The conclusion in Part IV summarizes the results and considers the broader implications for governance and democracy.
Este artículo presenta un análisis de la pertinencia del presidencialismo
en México, a la luz de los fundamentos teóricos en los que descansan
los regímenes de gobierno presidencial parlamentario y semipresidencial,
de cara a los nuevos retos de pluralidad democrática que enfrenta nuestro
país hoy en día.
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