Argument maps as policy memories for informed deliberation: A research note

This is an eGISE network paper. A significant area within eGovernment is concerned with systems to support democratic policy formation and decision making processes. In modern government, both local and national, consultation with interested parties is an important element in maintaining the democratic process. To date online consultation tools have has used existing software tools, which are simple text based tools that were not tailored to the process. This project proposes to develop an online tool that will visualise the issues and arguments graphically as the consultation process proceeds. Using Discourse Analysis and Ontological Engineering it will create Argument Maps that will server not only to inform participants but also the archive record of the consultation – the Policy Memory. We hypothesise that such a tool would allow citizens to be come more engaged with policy formation and enhance democratic participation

Studying eParticipation in Government Innovation Programmes: Lessons from a Survey

While eGovernment is a well-established field in research and practice, eParticipation trails behind with only a low number of programmes and strategies at the moment. With the lessons learnt from a survey for studying eParticipation in Government Innovation Programmes and Strategies, the contribution at hand analyses the degree of integration of eParticipation in ICT and eGovernment research and implementation programmes and strategies. It sets out the types of approach necessary to accelerate progress. Together with insights from two projects that analysed eGovernment innovation strategies, the synthesis and comparison of the survey data led to recommendations for activities and measures for innovation programme managers to include eParticipation in future programmes and strategies. The work was performed in the context of DEMO_net1, the Network of Excellence on eParticipation

Making eParticipation policy - a European analysis: social and political trends in eParticipation: the public policy and the civil society perspectives

The creative and disruptive characteristics of digital networks have profound consequences for the production of citizenship, which has always been technologically constructed, but now derives its significance from a tension between elite intentions and network flows. Our aim in this paper is to explore this tension empirically by interrogating the process of policy-making with regard to eParticipation in six European countries

eParticipation in the institutional domain: a review of research: analytical report on eParticipation research from an administration and political perspective in six European countries

This deliverable of DEMO-net Project provides an analysis of existing research about eParticipation in the institutional domain. It includes a review of the empirical research about eParticipation in six European countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden) and in the international research. This report also provides a comparative picture of national and international research, and outlines overall research findings and research gaps

Electronic participation with a special reference to social media - a literature review

As a consequence of the interdisciplinary nature of Electronic Partici-pation (e-Participation), current research on the field is fragmented and scattered. The exciting blurry boundaries and the immature identity of the field are making difficult the understanding of the main domain themes being investigated, in par-ticular for “neophytes” researchers. In practice, several e-Participation initiatives often attract a wide audience but face serious limitations regarding involvement of those who attract. Recently, the potential of using social media to address cit-izens’ involvement deficit has been subject of academic debate. By consulting 44 e-Participation papers, considered highly relevant to the aforementioned chal-lenges, this paper produces a general overview of e-Participation research, par-ticularly through social media. The findings show that the e-Participation field still faces the challenge of identity and strive for gaining wider recognition as an independent research area. Concerning e-Participation through social media which seems to be partly overlooked in the field research, the politicians-citizen’s interaction has dominated scholars' attention and the adoption of such initiatives sponsored and driven by governments are rarely examine. Based on the findings, several research suggestions, which could play a significant contribution to advance future e-Participation research, are proposed

Mapping eParticipation Research: Four Central Challenges

The emerging research area of eParticipation can be characterized as the study of technology-facilitated citizen participation in (democratic) deliberation and decision-making. Using conventional literature study techniques, we identify 105 articles that are considered to be highly relevant to eParticipation. We develop a definitional schema that suggests different ways of understanding an emerging socio-technical research area and use this schema to map the research contributions identified. This allows us make an initial sketch of the scientific character of the area and its central concerns, theories, and methods. We extend the analysis to define four central research challenges for the field: understanding technology and participation; the strategic challenge; the design challenge; and the evaluation challenge. This article thus contributes to a developing account of eParticipation, which will help future researchers both to navigate the research area and to focus their research agendas

Predicting citizens acceptance of government-led e-participation initiatives through social Media: a theoretical model

Whilst the idea of utilizing social media to advance government-led e-Participation initiatives has proliferated significantly in recent years, mostly such initiatives do not meet the intended expectations, as the majority of them fail to attract wider citizens’ audience. Overall, the key factors that could explain and predict citizens’ participation are not yet thoroughly identified. Therefore, the current study develops a theoretical citizen-centric model that seeks to explain and predict the intention of citizens’ behavior towards their involvement in government-led e-Participation initiatives through social media. The methodological approach is primarily based on utilizing and extending one of the well-known theories for describing a person acceptance behavior, namely the Theory of Planned Behavior. The model applies the main constructs of the Theory – attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control; and complements them with several constructs drawn from relevant literature. The paper contributes to understanding the reasons why citizens decide to engage or not in government-led e-Participation initiatives through social media.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Towards a network government? A critical analysis of current assessment methods for e-government

Contemporary public administrations have become increasingly more complex, having to cordinate actions with emerging actors in the public and the private spheres. In this scenario the modern ICTs have begun to be seen as an ideal vehicle to resolve some of the problems of public administration. We argue that there is a clear need to explore the extent to which public administrations are undergoing a process of transformation towards a netowork government linked to the systematic incorporation of ICTs in their basic activities. Through critically analysing a selection of e-government evaluation reports, we conclude that research should be carried out if we are to build a solid government assessment framework based on network-like organisation characteristics

Family policies : a promising field of eParticipation

Three cities in Germany – Hamburg, Berlin and Munich – have opened up a new field for eParticipation. They initiated a dialogue on the Internet to ask their citizens what family-friendly living in each of the cities should look like. All three discourses – conducted between November 2005 and November 2008 – provide comparable and interesting results on four aspects: context, course, clients and results. One of the most promising results of all three debates is that the issue attracts a user group which is not a majority in political discussions. The discussions in Hamburg, Munich and in Berlin were able to motivate female participants in particular to have their say and to dominate the discourse. This is an encouraging result for politics and eParticipation in general. Politicians are able to get into contact with a group which is more difficult to reach and involve in the political process. By addressing this topic, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin have taken a big step forwarding the field of eParticipation. As a result, it is to be expected that other European cities and municipalities will take up this topic, not only to promote eParticipation but also to help politicians harness expert local knowledge in the interests of successful and sustainable family policy