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

How do older adults communicate with the UK public sector? : Comparing online communication channels

Copyright and all rights therein are retained by the authors. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and conditions invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be re-posted without the explicit permission of the copyright holdersGovernments around the world are moving away from conventional ways of face to face communication to a more digital approach when delivering services to their citizens. This includes using the internet as both a communication tool and an information source to improve efficiency in their services. However, not all the citizens are making use of these changes, especially the older adults. Therefore, this research-in-progress paper aims to investigate and identify the factors that encourage older adults to continue using a particular communication channel when interacting with the government. In addition, future directions, limitations and conclusions are also provided within this paper. The implication of this study to academia is viewed to be the development of an extended framework that allows an understanding of continuance intention of online communication tools usage. Equally, this framework will benefit industry by informing providers of communication channels to the government to be aware of the factors that influence older adults’ choices when interacting with the government. For policymakers this research will identify the communication channels that promote interaction with citizensFinal Published versio

Alter ego, state of the art on user profiling: an overview of the most relevant organisational and behavioural aspects regarding User Profiling.

This report gives an overview of the most relevant organisational and\ud behavioural aspects regarding user profiling. It discusses not only the\ud most important aims of user profiling from both an organisation’s as\ud well as a user’s perspective, it will also discuss organisational motives\ud and barriers for user profiling and the most important conditions for\ud the success of user profiling. Finally recommendations are made and\ud suggestions for further research are given

Incentives for Municipal Planning towards Citizen-centric Public e-Government - Swedish empirics

This paper offers critical aspects on this ongoing development within the Swedish municipalities with the strategic use of ICT , for the purpose to create a digital government and to making public administration more citizen-oriented, efficient, and responsive to the needs of the public. It aims to discuss incentives for local planning towards citizen-centric public e-government based on lessons and critical aspects learned from case studies of the implementation of public contact center implementation within Swedish municipalities. A recent Swedish governmental action plan stresses the importance of using ICT in order to effectively develop the Swedish public administration with the aim to â€make it as simple as possible for as many as possible†leading to improved accessibility for the citizens. This has led to that more and more public contact centers have been established in Swedish municipalities. The action plan also stresses that the needs of the users, i.e. the citizens, always should be the starting-point of e-service development. However, there are groups of citizens, even in the mature information society of Sweden, who are excluded from having access to computers and the Internet and do not have the competence to use them. They have difficulties or do not feel comfortable with this way of handling public services - the digital divide dilemma. Therefore there are methodological as well as democratic challenges when identifying the needs of the complex diversity of different citizen groups who require different types of services from the municipality. The final part of the paper addresses the issue of a tentative framework for identifying the needs of the public e-services to support decision-making and service improvement for the planning of municipal e-governance aiming at sustainable planning for the local municipalities’ future e-government.