Comparing and Contrasting e-Government Maturity Models: A Qualitative-Meta Synthesis

The e-government maturity model has dissimilar stages that range from basic to advance online interaction competence. E-government’s portals use the stages to determine maturity. The aim of this paper is to evaluate e-government maturity models through a comprehensive review of related literature by identifying and mapping cohesions across the models. Apparently, the paper picks seventeen different e-government maturity models and makes contrasts and comparisons using a qualitative meta-synthesis method. Ideally, the paper draws two key results namely presence, communication and integration are main stages involved in all the maturity models and the level of interaction and complexity are found in all models

Towards formulating a digital diplomacy maturity framework: A theoretical prospective

Diplomacy is the key driver of international relations and platform of the interaction of countries in areas such as art, negotiation, promotion, representation, social engagement and mutual benefits. Traditionally, nations use conservative communication approaches due to issues of bureaucracy, secrecy, sovereignty, and various other obstacles. This research presents a novel conceptual framework for evaluating the maturity of e-diplomacy in foreign missions. The e-diplomacy maturity framework is derived from the literature review of e-government maturity models as well as theories and practice of diplomacy. It involves two variables, level of complexity and level of interaction. The interaction of these two variables produces different stages of e-diplomacy maturity framework. Stages include intra-organization capabilities, mobile access, citizens' interaction and open diplomacy. However, the maturity framework faces challenges of organization structure, secrecy and sensitivity of diplomatic functions, communication nature of diplomats, socio-cultural norms, and political-economic aspects.https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2016/eGov/Presentations/3

e-Diplomacy: a systematic literature review

Digital diplomacy (also popularly known as e-Diplomacy), is generally defined as the use of information and communication technology for purposes of attaining foreign policy goals. Many experts have particularly defined digital diplomacy as an electronic component of public diplomacy. Although digital diplomacy is an emerging new field with a wide range of important applications in international relations, only a few previous studies have been conducted in this area. This has contributed to a significant research gap. The primary aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the current e-diplomacy studies based on a systematic literature review research methodology. The results have highlighted two key findings. Firstly, most of the previous studies have been primarily conducted in North America and Europe. Secondly, the majority of studies adopted qualitative methods to gather new empirical evidence to support existing literature and develop new propositions on e-Diplomacy. Finally, based on the findings, the paper highlights a few areas in which further research may be needed in order to help develop the emerging concept of e-Diplomacy

Poking COVID-19: insights on genomic constraints among immune-related genes between Qatari and Italian populations

Host genomic information, specifically genomic variations, may characterize susceptibility to disease and identify people with a higher risk of harm, leading to better targeting of care and vaccination. Italy was the epicentre for the spread of COVID-19 in Europe, the first country to go into a national lockdown and has one of the highest COVID-19 associated mortality rates. Qatar, on the other hand has a very low mortality rate. In this study, we compared whole-genome sequencing data of 14398 adults and Qatari-national to 925 Italian individuals. We also included in the comparison whole-exome sequence data from 189 Italian laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases. We focused our study on a curated list of 3619 candidate genes involved in innate immunity and host-pathogen interaction. Two population-gene metric scores, the Delta Singleton-Cohort variant score (DSC) and Sum Singleton-Cohort variant score (SSC), were applied to estimate the presence of selective constraints in the Qatari population and in the Italian cohorts. Results based on DSC and SSC metrics demonstrated a different selective pressure on three genes (MUC5AC, ABCA7, FLNA) between Qatari and Italian populations. This study highlighted the genetic differences between Qatari and Italian populations and identified a subset of genes involved in innate immunity and host-pathogen interaction

The Three Generations of Electronic Government: From Service Provision to Open Data and to Policy Analytics

Part 1: E-Government FoundationsInternational audienceFor long time research and practice in the area of Electronic Government (e-government) has been focusing on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for improving the efficiency government agencies’ internal operations, as well as transactions with citizens and firms. However, the increased needs and expectations of citizens, and the proliferation of ‘participatory democracy’ ideas, gave rise to a new generation of ICT exploitation by government for increasing and enhancing citizens’ participation. Furthermore, the increasing social problems and challenges that had to be addressed by government through appropriate public policies, such as the increasing inequalities and poverty, the aging society, the environmental degradation, and the rising number of ‘unpredictable’ events, such as the financial and economic crisis, give rise to the development of a new wave of e-government focusing on policy analytics for supporting the design of effective responses - public policies for these challenges. Therefore, evolutions in the needs of modern societies, in combination with technological evolutions, give rise to evolutions in e-government, and the emergence of new generations of it. This paper aims at the identification and better understanding of the main characteristics of the different e-Government generations, using an analytical framework based on two rounds of literature review. The results of the study provide insights on the main features of the three main e-government generations, regarding their main goals, obstacles, key methods and tools, and reveal the new emerging generation of e-Government 3.0 and its basic characteristics. Furthermore, within the first and to some extent the second e-Government generation there have been substantial advancements, which have created distinct sub-generations of them, revealed and analysed through extensive relevant growth/maturity stages research

Helpful Partner or Infringing Interloper? Examining Discursive Contestation in the Engagements on the EU Delegation in the Philippines’ Facebook Page

This paper examines the nature and dynamics of discursive contestation on the EU Delegation to the Philippines’ Facebook page. It hopes to make a significant contribution to the digital diplomacy literature by examining audience engagement on a digital diplomacy platform. This is done through a discourse analysis of comments that were published over a year starting 1 September 2016. The findings indicated that commenters’ articulations coalesced into two views of the EU in the Philippines: (1) as helpful partner, and (2) as interloper infringing on local sovereignty. The presence of two contrasting discourses allowed for the examination of the nature of discursive contestation on the EU’s Facebook page. The study’s findings highlight the importance of context in order to fully appreciate the discourses that are articulated. The social and discursive aspects of context influenced how commenters articulated themselves. Viewed from a broader perspective, the context also created the conditions for the discursive contestation to occur on the EU Delegation’s page. It is hoped that through this paper, digital diplomacy specialists will gain a better appreciation for engagement on social media platforms, and that they appreciate the significance of the concepts of discourse and context in the work that they do