Explaining the Variation in the E-Government Characteristics of Municipal Websites: An Analysis of E-Content, E-Participation, and Social Media Features in Municipal Websites in Canada

This paper examines the variation of specific e-Government features in Canadian municipalities and it assesses the quality of municipal websites by evaluating their ability to meet criteria in the three areas of e-Content, e-Participation, and social media capacity. An e-Government Index was developed to evaluate website quality with respect to the three areas and a study of medium-sized Canadian municipalities – excluding those in Quebec – was conducted. The findings reveal that as a whole, medium-sized municipalities in Canada are more successful at developing the e-Content features of their websites compared to the e-Participation features, demonstrating that they are better at delivering information than they are at engaging citizens in online participation, and there is little use of social media in most municipalities

Implementation of an Interactive Crowd-Enhanced Content Management System for Tourism Development

This paper investigated the role of interactive tourist mobile apps in tourism development. The researchers presented the e-Tracer application, which was developed taking into consideration the recent advantages in mobile computing, the importance of user-generated content and the needs of northern Greece and the lower Balkan countries. Apart from crowd-based content creation, a new generation of apps for tourism development may include additional components like serious games for tourists, map-based navigation systems and augmented/virtual reality applications, in order to offer memorable user experiences for tourists. An agile content management system design methodology was followed by taking into account the needs of alternative tourist destinations, small to medium sized real-world museums and driver rest areas located around highways which connect cross-country destinations in the lower Balkan countries and Turkey. This work positioned the role of interactive crowd-enhanced platforms for content management of tourist-related information in tourism development, economic growth and sustainability of the Egnatia motorway surrounding areas in Greece. Keywords: mobile computing, content management systems, recommender systems, serious games, virtual/augmented reality, tourism developmen

Rebranding the World with SPHINX

At the conference will be presented the results of a part of the researcher's postdoctoral work, which extends the results of the doctoral dissertation by creating a digital database (SPHINX). This database will function as a website showcasing (projecting) the existing tangible and intangible networks of the landscape so that the user understands and experiences it holistically. The adopted methodology will be prepared and implemented as a pilot in the area of Boeotia. The main purpose is to reconstituting and highlighting the cultural identity of the field of application but also of any other area -various spatial/urban global scale- where the digital system SPHINX will be applied.Crystallizing the above, it becomes clear that the present adopted methodology aims to highlight the cultural identity of an area with a field of research in Boeotia. The landscape, with any cultural production that emerges from it -as an element of its definition- constitutes an anthropological structure (anthropology of space). At the same time the landscape constitutes the expression of its inner meaning through a strong symbolic system.It is worth noting that in support of the author's doctoral dissertation, the seven-member examination committee considered the sphinx system to be innovative. In this article the term innovative will be adopted based on the critique of this committee

Community Wellness Center: Providence, Rhode Islan

The Wellness Center in Providence, Rhode Island incorporates alternative medicine, medical, and dental facilities for the benefit and education of patients within and around surrounding neighborhoods as well as for others who reside outside the immediate area. These services, all of which are available in one centrally located area have the potential to captivate and entice those who are interested in creating a better lifestyle for themselves. A predominant focus of this facility is to instill and promote healthy lifestyles while at the same time educating the public who can contribute to a society and become capable of addressing and solving problems and issues before they become too big. City inhabitants regardless of social or economic status can become the promoters of a healthier life once they receive the tools. They too become educators by spreading the word, which is directly influential to those around them and the society in which they live. The concept of creating buildings that promote balance between mind, body, and spirit will begin a process, which facilitates a realignment of societal values and ethics through the practice and education of medical, dental, and holistic care. As the building radiates the essence of interactions between people and space, and building within its environment, the experience becomes that of probability. Another important aspect of this project is to create a purposeful building within a city environment with consideration given to existing historical buildings and landscape while at the same time generating a positive influence and effect in a tactful manner consistent with contextual surroundings

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

A theoretical model for the application of Web 2.0 in e-Government

Government organisations in many countries have started embracing modern technologies such as second generation web (Web 2.0) in an attempt to maximize on the benefits of these technologies as well as keeping up with the current trend. Nevertheless, the advancement and the adoption of these of technologies is in its initial stages in the public sector. Therefore, the research problem is that the literature surrounding the application of Web 2.0 is still highly tentative and exploratory. In particular, there is a lack of research exploring the application of Web 2.0 technologies in the context of local e-Government. This study aims to address this research problem by presenting a comprehensive decision-making tool to aid the effective application of Web 2.0 technologies amongst local government authorities (LGAs). In doing so, resulting in the development of a theoretical model that is underpinned by information systems evaluation criteria and impact factors of Web 2.0 from an internal organizational perspective. By addressing the research problem, this study will make a significant contribution to the normative literature by providing new insights of Web 2.0 technologies within the public sector. This will be of specific relevance to scholars, policy makers, LGAs and practitioners who are interested in the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in an e-Government context. This paper presents the proposed theoretical model and is largely devoted to an explanation on the development of the model

Sustainable development in higher education in Europe. Good practices compendium

Higher Education Institutions among all educational structures are vested with significant responsibility in implementing the concept of Sustainable Development, both to incorporate this concept within their activities (teaching, research, operations) and to widespread Sustainable Development in the society and business world. The report is the final product of Work Package 3 (WP3) entitled “Identifying sustainable and user-friendly Good Practices”. The objective is the identification and diffusion of Good Practices concerned with Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Higher Education Institutions. The topic is analysed in a broader sense, on one side considering the characterisation of the political and institutional framework, and on the other side describing formal and informal learning experiences in Higher Education Institutions. 36 Good Practices are discussed and presented in systematic forms, that have been categorized according to the following topics related to the implementation of Sustainable Development education: policies, institutional activities, teaching and practical experiences. The Good Practices represent a wide range of situations concerning different European countries, institutions, typologies of the initiatives, geographical levels of implementation. However in this diversity some characterizing aspects emerge: the holistic and interdisciplinary approaches to ESD, the attention in achieving tangible results, the involvement of local communities and the bottom-up approaches, the importance of partnerships and networking, the capacity building, the innovation of the initiatives, and the attention in building a framework favorable to Sustainable Development. The Good Practices were selected in a wider range of case studies, emerging from a “State of the Art” analysis in the field of Sustainable Development in the University Studies of Life Sciences in Europe, carried out within the ISLE project, and from the research of the project partners. The selection has been done in accordance with the criteria of transferability, pertinence, capacity building, user friendless, innovation, networking capacity and interdisciplinarity.peer-reviewe