How Can I Help You? A chatbot’s answers to citizens’ information needs

AI-based chatbots are becoming an increasingly common part of the front-line of public services. Through natural language, users can write simple queries to a chatbot which answers with appropriate information. We have investigated how a public chatbot operates in actual practice and how it answers the citizens’ questions about the rules and regulations for welfare benefits. We use the concept of citizens’ information needs to determine the quality of the chatbot’s answers. Information needs are often not formulated from the start as answerable questions. We analyse logs from chat sessions between the chatbot and the citizens, and focus on problems that arise, e.g., that the chatbot gives irrelevant answers or omits important information. The paper shows how the inner workings of the chatbot shapes the answerable questions. We conclude that responsible use of AI (such as chatbots) is a matter of design of the overall service and includes acknowledging that the AI itself can never be responsible

Explaining differences in environmental governance patterns between Canada, Italy and the United States.

The objective of the paper is to formulate a hypothesis that can help explain the different patterns of environmental governance in three countries: Canada and the United States (both federal states) and Italy (a decentralized unitary state). To that effect, we will make use of what is a robust theory of the assignment of powers in federal and decentralized unitary states on the role of competition as a driving force in shaping these assignments. The differing patterns of environmental governance we wish to explain are that most environmental policies are enacted and implemented by the national government in the United States, by provincial governments in Canada, and by both national and regional governments in Italy.

The impact of central government steering and local network dynamics on the performance of mandated service delivery networks: the case of the Primary Health Care networks in Flanders

This paper focuses on the impact of central – local relations on the performance of local service delivery networks set up by central government. Analyzing network literature leaves us with some questions about the impact of coordination strategies of central government as a possible determinant of network-level effectiveness for this type of network and the possible interaction between central government coordination (as part of the network context) and internal network dynamics and the combined effects hereof on the effectiveness of mandated service delivery networks in particular. Our analysis shows that both levels are important to explain the outcomes of the Primary Health Care networks in Flanders. Our study also leads to some important observations about the meaning of ‘central government coordination’ in this context

The governance of formal university–industry interactions: understanding the rationales for alternative models

This article develops a conceptual framework to explain the economic rationale underpinning the choice of different modes of governance of formal university–industry interactions: personal contractual interactions, where the contract regulating the collaboration involves a firm and an individual academic researcher, and institutional interactions, where the relationship between the firm and the academic is mediated by the university. Although institutional interactions, for numerous reasons, have become more important, both governance modes are currently being implemented. We would argue that they have some important specificities that need to be understood if university–industry knowledge transfer is to be managed effectively and efficiently

Ordering Networks: Motorways and the Work of Managing Disruption

This thesis contributes to a new understanding of the motorway network and its traffic movements as a problem of practical accomplishment. It is based on a detailed ethnomethodological study of incident management in the Highways Agency’s motorway control room, which observes the methods operators use to detect, diagnose and clear incidents to accomplish safe and reliable traffic. Its main concern is how millions of vehicles can depend on the motorway network to fulfil obligations for travel when it is constantly compromised by disruption from congestion, road accidents and vehicle breakdowns. It argues that transport geography and new mobilities research have overlooked questions of practical accomplishment; they tend to treat movement as an inevitable demand, producing fixed technical solutions to optimise it, or a self-evident phenomenon, made meaningful only through the intensely human experience of mobility. In response, the frame of practical accomplishment is developed to analyse the ways in which traffic is ongoingly organised through the situated and contingent practices that take place in the control room. The point is that traffic does not move by magic; it has to be planned for, produced and persistently worked at. This is coupled with an understanding of network topology that reconsiders the motorway network as always in process by virtue of the materially heterogeneous relations it keeps, drawing attention to the intensely collaborative nature of work between operators and technology that permits the management of disruption at-a-distance and in real time. This work is by no means straightforward – the actions of monitoring, detecting, diagnosing and classifying incidents and managing traffic are revealed to be complexly situated and prone to uncertainty, requiring constant ordering work to accomplish them. In conclusion, this thesis argues for the frame of practical accomplishment to be taken seriously, rendering the work of transport networks available for sustained analysis

Multi-channel customer management: A case study in Egypt

Channel management is one CRM systems component much influenced by the behaviour of customers in relation to the implementation and use of channel management CRM component. The consumers’ behaviours, preferences, perceptions and expectations are crucial for the implementation and use of channel management. Customers’ contact with the organization’s multi-channels can occur at several touch points through out customer lifecycle. Customers’ behaviours may be differentiated according to the individual or micro level, but it might also differ at an ecological or macro level of analysis (Ramaseshan et al., 2006). In this paper the author has conducted a case study in Egypt to analyze customers’ behaviours at a macro level and customers channel choices, through out the customer lifecycle. The author has used a Structurational Analysis model (Ali and Brooks, 2008) to identify the cultural factors (Ali, et al. 2008) that influence the multi-channel customer management in Egypt

An Evaluation of the Need and Cost of Selected Trade Facilitation Measures in India: Implications for the WTO Negotiations

The study finds that in case of Article X, which basically deals with the publication and administration of trade regulations, India has already implemented most of the requirements. However comprehensive efforts are required to implement, the provision related to single inquiry point which may require software compatibility among various agencies involved apart from addressing the infrastructural constraints. In case of GATT Article VIII which deals with issues related to fees and charges and import and export formalities and documentation requirements most of the provisions are in place but efforts are required to improve the border agency coordination. In case of Articles X and VIII, the minimum cost is estimated at around Re. 2,016 million. This includes a major expenditure on equipments and infrastructure (82 per cent). The installation of electronic cargo clearance units is a major requirement at most of the leading ports in India. In Article V there is lot to be expected from India, the infrastructure requirements, especially for the physical infrastructure, deserve huge and urgent funding. This includes additional efforts required to support and strengthen the level of communication at the border points. Most of the Land Customs Stations (LCSs) require better infrastructure. There is need to attach greater priority to include various provisions of GATT Article V in the bilateral trade and transit treaties especially with land locked countries for greater facilitation of transit trade.GATT, WTO, Trade Facilitation, India