What is the impact of Information Systems on democracy promotion and the role in decision-making process

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementThis study aims to contribute to a better understanding of modern democracy and how democracy can be shaped by information systems solutions. We discuss the role of information systems and social media in democratic activities and how information systems can be a part of core democratic processes and contribute to finding solutions for some of the problems democracies face today. The main question being: how is democracy fostered by the introduction of information systems and the existing information systems platforms today? Several common problems of democracies will be identified, analyzed and paired with relevant information systems platforms or solutions resulting in a conceptual framework that nations can use to improve their democratic processes. Areas identified as relevant for the study are direct democracy using existing technological solutions, collaborative democracy, which would allow citizens to increase participation in the creation of laws, the allocation of budgets and online voting. Although it might not be possible to provide an exhaustive listing of all existing solution, due to the rapidly evolving nature of the information systems field, several existing solutions already provide interesting opportunities for the improvement of current democratic processes and if there was a wider adoption of these technologies it would improve the participation of citizens and reduce the increasing percentage of alienated citizens that abstain from taking part in the democratic process of their countries

THE USE OF THE INTERNET TO SUPPORT AND DEVELOP DEMOCRACY

The realization of the idea of e-democracy is an important part of the information society, the establishment of which is a priority for the EU. The article analyses some of the aspects of e-democracy and their importance for strengthening democracy, democratic institutions and democratic processes. Its primary objective is to determine the conditions for implementing of the idea of e-democracy in Bulgaria by defining the key problems related to e-democracy and the causes thereof. A large amount of data was subjected to comparative analysis to determine the current status of the information society, e-government and e-services in Bulgaria and in other European Union countries. The author has put emphasis on the essential role of social media in the process of implementation of various forms of electronic democracy.The author's main thesis is that information and communication technologies (ICT) are a prerequisite and a very important factor for the development of e-democracy. However, the use of the Internet in various forms of democratic life depends heavily on the degree of the e-readiness of the country, its efficient e-government and e-services, the sustained interest of its citizens in participating in its governance and their requirements for transparency and free access to information, its government and civil organizations, the adequacy of its egislation, the level of development of its civil society and its drive for continuous strengthening and development of democratic institutions

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

Building Democracy for All: Interactive Explorations of Government and Civic Life

Designed as a core or supplementary text for upper elementary, middle and high school teachers and students, Building Democracy for All offers instructional ideas, interactive resources, links to primary sources, multicultural materials, and multimodal learning materials for interest-building explorations of United States government as well as students’ roles as citizens in a democratic society. It focuses on the importance of community engagement and social responsibility as understood and acted upon by middle and high school students—core themes in the 2018 Massachusetts 8th Grade Curriculum Framework, and which are found in many state history and social studies curriculum frameworks around the country. Building Democracy for All has been developed by a collaborative writing team of higher education faculty, public school teachers, educational librarians, and college students who are preparing to become history and social studies teachers. The primary editors and curators are from the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Education. Contributing teachers come from school districts in the Connecticut River valley region of western Massachusetts (Amherst, Gateway, Westfield, Hampshire Regional, and Springfield). As an open resource, the book is being revised constantly by the members of the writing team to ensure timely inclusion of online resources and information.https://scholarworks.umass.edu/tecs_ed_materials/1001/thumbnail.jp

The legal and ethical implications of electronic patient health records and e-health on Australian privacy and confidentiality law

This thesis addresses the legal and ethical issues posed by introduction of electronic patient health records. Against the background of an analysis of broader conceptual and theoretical understandings of development of electronic patient health records (EPR) and e-health regimes in Australia and comparable countries over the last few decades, the thesis critically examines the extent to which its implementation is consistent with established legal and ethical principles underpinning traditional health assumptions and practices. To this end the thesis explores the evolution and progress of modern health, technology, law and governance issues in e-health, identifying critical features of emerging EPR and e-health systems such as broad innovative industry technology involvement, and potentially problematic practices such as personal information ‘collection’, ‘sharing’ and ‘networking’ activities. The thesis contends that while adopting technology such as e-health comports with modern day progress, the transformational power of technology on society and individual lives has the potential to impose significant human costs for health consumers and everyday life. Through an analysis of the new electronic regime the thesis reveals how Australian Governments, healthcare providers, consumers and other stakeholders interpret and deal with advances in personal healthcare information changes in the new electronic system. The healthcare privacy model advanced in the thesis, in conjunction with an analysis grounded in theories of deliberative democracy, provides the foundation for the thesis argument that the legal, ethical and democratic challenges posed to privacy and participation interests by implementation of e-health policies can best be alleviated in Australia through further structural reforms beyond those recently proposed by a federal review. The thesis contends that an independent ‘Council’, with broad powers to consult and engage the public is an important part of the solution to the political and economic problems identified by the thesis analysis showing that individual privacy protection in healthcare is threatened and that earlier privacy protection mechanisms may prove inadequate in the emerging global information era