Exploring e-government in the state of Qatar: Benefits, challenges and complexities

Information and communication technology facilities offered by the Internet have encouraged not only business enterprises, but also governments around the globe to invest significantly into electronic service delivery in the form of e-government. Despite many lessons that can be learned from the experiences of those e-government initiatives, developing countries are still faced with various issues pertaining to the implementation of e-government services in their countries. Like many other developing countries, the e-government initiative in Qatar has faced a number of challenges since its inception in 2000. Using survey and interview based research this paper examines some of these challenges from a citizens' and governments' perspective. Among others, this research found that although having a superior ICT infrastructure and being one of the regional broadband leaders in the Arab World, issues such as lack of awareness, bureaucratic business practices, socio-cultural issues and citizens' satisfaction levels of current national e-government strategy was influencing the adoption of e-government services in the state of Qatar

E-government adoption: A cultural comparison

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008.E-government diffusion is an international phenomenon. This study compares e-government adoption in the U.K. to adoption in the U.S. In particular, this study seeks to determine if the same factors are salient in both countries. Several studies have explored citizen acceptance of e-government services in the U.S. However, few studies have explored this phenomenon in the U.K. To identify the similarities and differences between the U.K. and the U.S. a survey is conducted in the U.K. and the findings are compared to the literature that investigates diffusion in the U.S. This study proposes a model of e-government adoption in the U.K. based on salient factors in the U.S. A survey is administered to 260 citizens in London to assess the importance of relative advantage, trust and the digital divide on intention to use e-government. The results of binary logistic regression indicate that there are cultural differences in e-government adoption in the U.K. and the U.S. The results indicate that of the prevailing adoption constructs, relative advantage and trust are pertinent in both the U.S. and the U.K., while ICT adoption barriers such as access and skill may vary by culture. Implications for research and practice are discussed

Adoption of wireless internet parks: An empirical study in Qatar

This paper examines the adoption of free wireless internet parks (iPark) by Qatari citizens as means of accessing electronic services from public parks. The Qatar government has launched the iPark concept with a view of providing free internet access for all citizens while enjoying the outdoors. By offering free wireless Internet access, the Qatari government encourages its citizen's to actively participate in the global information society with a view of bridging the digital divide. Using a survey based study this research set out to examine the Qatari citizens' perceptions of the iPark initiative. Results of the survey showed that there is a positive level of relation between the independent variables, usefulness, ease of use, Internet safety, and Internet speed/response time and one dependent variable, intention to use the iPark in Qatar. The paper provides a discussion on the key findings, research implications, limitations, and future directions for the iPark initiative in Qatar

E-government: A comparison of strategies in local authorities in the UK and Norway

In Europe almost all countries have implemented some form of e-government, not to mention the UK and Norway which are now both well into their sixth year of e-government implementation. These six years have seen various strategic plans formulated, implemented and also intermittently postponed in the two countries. Although time may result in the amplification of e-government experience for Norway and the UK, the postponement of implementation deadlines indicates that not only political and social issues, but also strategic and organisational issues need to be addressed when formulating plans for deploying e-government. Using empirical research this paper examines the strategies adopted by the UK and Norway in the context of aligning central and local government plans for implementing e-government services. While technical, political and social issues are considered as key areas to be addressed in any e-government exploitation plan; this paper examines how different perspectives on e-government definition, strategy, awareness and related organisational change influence implementation. The need to align central and local e-government plans, guidelines for local level implementation, user centred solutions, strong leadership and a common understanding of the definition of e-government are highlighted in the paper as some of the key components of good e-government implementation practice

The Effects of Socio-Cultural factors on E-Governance Adoption in Nigeria

The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which socio-cultural factors, specifically; age, gender, and ethnic background influence the adoption of e-government services by Nigerians. Three aspects of the program (e-government) were identified viz. openness, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. The methodology of this research is quantitative research based on a survey method using questionnaire as a data collection technique. The findings showed that age, gender and ethnic background all affect the satisfaction and adoption of e-government in Nigeria. It is believed that policy makers will find it helpful if they knew citizens’ perceptions toward e-government services

Developing a Conceptual Framework for Evaluating Public Sector Transformation in the Digital Era

When evaluating Public Sector transformation efforts in the UK during the past three decades, three waves can be identified. The first wave in the mid 1960s to the late 1970s is regarded as Traditional public administration and the second wave in the late 1970’s to 1990’s is labelled as New Public Management (NPM). The third wave began in the late 1990s and can be characterised as the post NPM or Digital Governance Era. This study aims to examine the concepts and associated factors that influence post NPM public sector transformation in the UK. Initial literature analysis found that while the post NPM era has no dominant model, a number of key concepts have emerged in the literature and policy statements that characterise the key attributes of post NPM public sector transformation in the UK. This paper attempts to conceptualise these concepts by formulating a conceptual framework for public sector transformation in the digital era

e-Government for Development: A Case Study from Mozambique

This paper draws upon Amartya Sen’s concept of development as freedom as an effective approach to analyze e-government for development initiatives. An interpretive analysis of three projects ongoing in Mozambique report that although some freedoms are currently reachable through these initiatives, a lot needs to be done to achieve development as freedom. The use of this theoretical approach provides a valuable contribution to the research domain of ICTs for development. This article also draws practical recommendations to assist managers of e-government projects in Mozambique, as well as other developing countries

E-Government and public service delivery in Nigeria

The innovation in ICTs and the resulting emergence of the internet were strong drivers for shifting to an information era from the industrial age. In this movement, nations found succour in using information technologies for service delivery and this becomes the most significant epoch in the history of governance transformation. Despite the huge commitment of the government towards the e-government project in Nigeria, significant growth is not yet recorded on the use of ICT in governance as evidenced in the 2018 recent ranking by the United Nations on e-Government global ranking and assessment, Nigeria was positioned on 143rd of the 193 United Nation Member States. This paper therefore sought to investigate the reasons for the poor performance in the sector. This was done through secondary data collected with a structured interview from ICT directors of eight (8) purposively selected Federal Agencies in Nigeria. With due use of thematic analysis of the interview data, the study found that the challenges confronting e-government implementation in Nigeria were national challenges such as infrastructural deficiency, ICT illiteracy in addition to peculiar challenges like data privacy, security concerns. The paper thus concluded that unless these problems are tacked, the likelihood of having a successful e-government implementation outing in Nigeria would remain a mirage

IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES FOR INFORMATION SECURITY AWARENESS INITIATIVES IN E-GOVERNMENT

With the widespread adoption of electronic government services, there has been a need to ensure a seamless flow of information across public sector organizations, while at the same time, maintaining confidentiality, integrity and availability. Governments have put in place various initiatives and programs including information security awareness to provide the needed understanding on how public sector employees can maintain security and privacy. Nonetheless, the implementation of such initiatives often faces a number of challenges that impede further take-up of e-government services. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the challenges contributing towards the success of information security awareness initiatives implementation in the context of e-government. Political, organizational, social as well as technological challenges have been utilized in a conceptual framework to signify such challenges in e-government projects. An empirical case study conducted in a public sector organization in Greece was exploited in this research to reflect on these challenges. While, the results from this empirical study confirm the role of the identified challenges for the implementation of security awareness programs in e-government, it has been noticed that awareness programmers often pursue different targets of preserving security and privacy, which sometimes results in adding more complexity to the organization