The role of intermediaries in facilitating e-government diffusion in Saudi Arabia

Recent studies of e-government activity have highlighted adoption and diffusion issues as important subjects for rating e-government success. However in developing countries inadequate resources and limited citizens’ capabilities regarding new e-government have resulted in low diffusion and adoption of e-government services. This paper examines the role of intermediaries, which can be played by a third party; in bridging the gap between e-government implementation and social reality, and looks at the roles a third party can add within the e-government services mechanism. This paper uses a case study approach in order to reflect e-government progress within the context of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) as one developing country. The result of this paper shows that intermediaries play an important role in the diffusion of e-services in relation to improving the availability, accessibility and enhancing privacy and security

E-Governance Frameworks - Agenda Ahead

Electronic governance may be defined as the delivery of the government services and information to the public using electronic means. Use of IT in the government facilitates an efficient, speedy and transparent process for disseminating information to the public and other agencies, and for performing the government administration activities

Portugal: Leapfrogging Digital Transformation

This report is structured as follow: Section 1 presents details about Portugal enabling or inhibiting its digital transformation. Section 2 analyzes the main motivations for the digital transformation strategy; Section 3 summarizes its main challenges, while Section 4 presents the main components of the strategy. Section 5 analyzes the governance model, and Section 6, the legal and regulatory framework. Section 7 discusses critical enablers for the digital transformation of government services. Section 8 introduces 16 key initiatives of the strategy. Section 9 summarizes the lessons learnt, followed by an assessment of the strategy’s impact in Section 10. Section 11 synthesizes lessons for Latin American countries. Finally, Appendix A enumerates main legal and regulatory instruments supporting the digital transformation in Portugal, Appendix B presents a set of 18 sections providing details of the initiatives analyzed in the report1, and Appendix C explains how the digital transformation efforts contributed to face the challenges raised by the COVID-19 pandemics.Fil: Estevez, Elsa Clara. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Fillottrani, Pablo. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Linares, Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Economía. Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Cledou, Maria Guillermina. Universidade do Minho; Portuga

Government to citizens E-Service Co-Design

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University Londone-Government services are typically developed by internal service providers, often neglecting the service end user. Subsequent delivery of services can be jeopardised without due consideration of the service user, lacking in consideration of their needs and expectations in the design process. However, the service provider when designing e-services for varied users, find it is hard to meet the prospective users’ expectations and needs and involve them in an iterative design processes. To address this issue; a Co-design approach has been applied and focuses on Jordanian Government to Citizens (G2C) e-services. Co-design tools/methods maximize opportunities and provide new possibilities for communicating and collaborating with varied and diverse users. The main aim of this research is to improve the quality and efficiency of G2C e-services by adopting the Co-design approach including its tools/methods to support user participation throughout design process, and how these tools/methods pretend the features of user participation. A novel G2C e-Service Co-Design Framework (G2C-SCOF) is constructed with mechanisms for understanding the stakeholders’ requirements, and granting them an active role throughout design process of G2C e-service design. A wiki-based Co-design prototype (WCP) is developed and introduced as a response to and evaluation of the developed G2C-SCOF. This research also presents results from the case study in Jordan and used to evaluate WCP effectiveness regarding users’ participation role(s) throughout the Co-design process based on standard service design phases. Interestingly, involvement throughout design process as such can be an enriching experience for the users. Offering a channel to uncover their own creativity and provide enjoyment for them as they see their contributions evolve into a viable service. A robust method for uncovering domain concepts is derived that bridges the requirements’ gap between service provider and service user within a G2C e-service design context. A first iteration evaluates the adoption and acceptance of Jordan Government Portal (JGP) based on a model titled Methodology for e-Government Service Adoption and Acceptance Measurement (MEGA-M). MEGA-M is then used to design a survey and subsequently investigate how citizens perceive the quality of the JGP. RepGrid methodology with semi-structured interviews are deployed in the second iteration – with 24 participants from diverse backgrounds contributing to a synthesised cognitive model titled Stakeholder’s requirements map for G2C Service Design’ (SRM-G2C). Finally, a prototype WCP is developed as the third iteration for evaluation purposes. WCP is a platform for facilitating the sharing and expression of ideas and/or assumptions used to improve the effectiveness of G2C e-service design. The conclusions and contributions drawn from this research are expected to benefit researchers, providing insights for future research in the field of e-Government service design, and practitioners, providing a systematic framework for supporting the collaboration among stakeholders in designing G2C e-services

Factors affecting e-Government implementation and adoption in the State of Qatar

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Electronic government (e-government) has established as an effective mechanism for increasing government productivity and efficiency and a key enabler of citizen-centric services. However, e-government implementation is surrounded by organisational, technological, political and social issues, which have to be considered and treated carefully in order to facilitate this change. Conversely, from an adoption perspective, e-government services are yet to be universally accepted as a medium for accessing online public services since its inception more than a decade ago. In terms of prior research into understanding the implementation challenges and adoption factors, most existing literature focus into either the implementation context or adoption context separately and no research studies were found that take a holistic viewpoint of both implementation and adoption. Furthermore, only a few researchers have explored and reflected on the important factors that can impact e-government implementation using well founded theoretical models or frameworks. Besides, there is no universal model for e-government implementation and adoption that is applicable for all countries to ensure success, especially for developing and Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC). Therefore, this thesis attempts to explore and investigate the key challenges that influence e-government implementation and the factors influencing citizen adoption in the state of Qatar. By simultaneously analysing and aligning the implementation issues of e-government with the adoption aspects, this study aimed to develop a better understanding of the gaps that exists between implementation and adoption. Through combining the implementation and adoption aspects of e-government, this thesis proposes a unified conceptual model which could be used as a frame of reference by government institutions that seek to implement and diffuse e-government systems in Qatar. To do so, the research draws from two well established theoretical models, Institutional Theory (for understanding implementation) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model (for understanding adoption). The research adopted a multi-method approach [combining qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (survey) methods] to explore practices and experiences of implementing and adopting e-government systems in the State of Qatar

An information systems security framework for the e-Government Programme of Jordan

Any e-government programme provides e-services as one of the most important means by which the interaction between citizens, businesses and governments takes place. This has brought great opportunities but also raises serious cybersecurity challenges. Critical information assets are facing various potential security risks and threats. Information systems security is necessary to mitigate those risks and threats that are faced by the e-government programme and to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the available e-services. In light of the above, the aim of this study is to examine how information security is managed and approached within e-government programmes and the case study of the Ministry of ICT in Jordan informs that aim. The study deconstructs information security through the Technical/Formal/Informal (TFI) framework and enriches that framework by customising it for e-government, expanding it also to include citizens’ online trust. To achieve this aim, a qualitative investigation of the Jordanian e-government programme was conducted by following the research design of a case study in the interpretivist tradition. Furthermore, a survey was used as a complementary phase to examine citizens’ perspectives on e-government security. By combining, analysing and reflecting on the empirical data, a consolidated information security framework was developed for different security aspects, based on the TFI model (technical, formal and informal). The dissertation contributes to the knowledge domain at the intersection of e-government and cybersecurity both practically and theoretically, focusing on technical aspects and non-technical aspects as well. The proposed framework provides an overview of the TFI-categorised elements that can help governments reflect on and manage the security challenges of their corresponding e-government programmes

Establishing Trust in e-Governance using Web Services

Trust Management is one of the most challenging issues in the emerging Web Engineering and InternetTechnologies. Over the past few years, many studies have been proposed different techniques to address trustmanagement issues. However, despite these past efforts, several trust management issues such as privacy, security,accessibility, integrity and scalability have been mostly ignored and need to be proposed in Web Engineeringtechnologies. Web services provide many opportunities for enterprises to built trustworthiness. In India the growingeconomic infrastructure with lightening speeds towards the adoption and successful implementation of e-governance.Establishing trust in e-governance services is quite important as now government has many services for commonman at their door step and more services are in future. But the common man has to know about it and have usedfrequently for their daily requirements. This paper is emphasized to trust on the web services and what steps shouldbe adopted for better service

Prospects of collaborative consumption in the context of digital government

Rapid advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) combined with rising economic constraints are causing a change in behavior towards new forms of consumption called collaborative consumption (the sharing economy). Research on this phenomenon from the government perspective has however not received much attention. This paper therefore performed a systematic literature review to make sense of how the notion of collaborative consumption (CC) has been investigated in the digital government context, further reflecting on the implications for developing countries. The findings suggest that there is a significant research opportunity on CC in digital government settings to developing countries such as in Latin America, Africa or Australia. Specifically those developing countries are unreflectively sharing based on what developed countries consider needs to be shared. The study contributes theoretically a research agenda on CC in a digital government setting and practically on how to share public services with limited resources