Semantics in the wild : a digital assistant for Flemish citizens

Public service fragmentation across more than 800 digital channels of government administrations in the region of Flanders (Belgium), causes administrative burden and frustrations, as citizens expect a coherent service. Given the autonomy of the various entities, the fragmentation of information and budget constraints, it is not feasible to rewire the entire e-gov ecosystem to a single portal. Therefore, the Flemish Government is building a smart digital assistant, which supports citizens on the governmental portals, by integrating status information of various transactions. This paper outlines our ongoing research on a method for raising semantic interoperability between different information systems and actors. In this approach, semantic agreements are maintained and implemented end-to-end using the design principles of Linked Data. The lessons learned can speed-up the process in other countries that face the complexity of integrating e-government portals

Real-Time, Real World Learning—Capitalising on Mobile Technology

This chapter explores the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies to promote active learning by students and to both mediate and enhance classroom instruction. Web 2.0 refers to open source, web-enabled applications (apps) that are driven by user-manipulated and user-generated content (Kassens-Noor, 2012). These apps are often rich in user participation, have dynamic content, and harness the collective intelligence of users (Chen, Hwang, & Wang, 2012). As such, these processes create “active, context based, personalised learning experiences” (Kaldoudi, Konstantinidis, & Bamidis, 2010, p. 130) that prioritise learning ahead of teaching. By putting the learner at the centre of the education process educators can provide environments that enhance employability prospects and spark a passion for learning that, hopefully, lasts a lifetime. As such, we critique an active learning approach that makes use of technology such as mobile applications (apps), Twitter, and augmented reality to enhance students’ real world learning. Dunlap and Lowenthal (2009) argue that social media can facilitate active learning as they recreate informal, free-flowing communications that allow students and academics to connect on a more emotional level. Furthermore, their use upskills students in the technical complexities of the digital world and also the specialised discourses that are associated with online participation, suitable for real world learning and working (Fig. 16.1). Three case studies explore the benefits of Web 2.0 processes. The first details the use of Twitter chats to connect students, academics, and industry professionals via online synchronous discussions that offer a number of benefits such as encouraging concise writing from students and maintaining on-going relationships between staff, students, and industry contacts. The second details a location-based mobile app that delivers content to students when they enter a defined geographical boundary linked to an area of a sports precinct. Finally, we explore the use of augmented reality apps to enhance teaching in Human Geography and Urban Studies

E-consultation and the quest for inclusive governance in Nigeria

Inclusive governance through public consultation is fundamental to sustainable development as reiterated in the SDG16. Citizens’ consultation in the policy planning and determination enhances the quality of policy outcomes and help to build public trust in political institutions. Traditional institutions for public consultation are however, often limited thus, policy decisions are in most cases, at variance with public aspirations. The consequence is a growing public cynicism of governmental institutions. To address this democratic decline, governments across the world are now utilizing ICT tools to better consult with citizens in the public policy process. This paper which adopts a mixture of descriptive and analytical research designs engages a systematic literature review for collecting and analysing data. The aim is to investigate the adoption of ICTs as tools for public consultation to enhance inclusive governance in Nigeria. Findings reveal among others that the increase in acceptance and usage of mobile technologies in the face of the challenges of infrastructure, energy instability and low level of ICT literacy among others, provide veritable platform for e-consultation. E-consultation brings to bear the equally important bottom-up approach in policy making by providing additional channel for greater public voice in the policy-making process. E-consultation thus poses to be cardinal to achieving sustainable development goal of just, peaceful and inclusive societies in Nigeria

HIN6/427: Co-operative Health Information Network in Europe: The Greek experience

INTRODUCTION: The co-operative health information network (CHIN) was developed during the last three years in eight regions of six European countries: Finland, Germany, Greece, Spain, Sweden and UK (Scotland). In Greece, the CHIN project is managed by the National Center for Scientific Research 'Demokritos'. The main objective of the CHIN project was to establish a network of regional Co-operative Health Information Networks (CHINs) to support comprehensive and integrated sets of health care telematic services for a broad range of users. METHODS: CHIN provides on-line services for professional and public access. Services for professional access support various working scenarios between hospital staff and doctors in practices outside the hospitals such as remote access to multimedia patient records, quality control for screening results, referrals and resource planning. Services for public access include web-based regional healthcare resource directories (a presentation platform for regional healthcare service providers) on-line consultation and information for health education. Technically, CHIN favourites standardised, simple, open and scaleable solutions for computer and networking technologies (ISDN based Intranets, HTTP) and for the medical applications (DICOM, HL7). Users access the patient records via a standard Web interface. RESULTS: The Greek resource directory provides bilingual (Greek/English) information that includes: a pilot presentation of a disease (diabetes) focusing on education of children, the largest on-line presentation on the Greek National health system (in Greek only), exclusive lists of all hospitals in Greece, and information on medicine and telemedicine in Greece. Furthermore, two applications have been developed for professionals. The first is an application that runs on a network interconnecting a hospital with a healthcare center and allows the electronic exchange of medical results. The second is the installation and pilot used of a PACS system (DxMM by Medasys) and a Web-based system to access virtual patient records (WebMed by GMD). DISCUSSION: The Greek CHIN server is one of the largest health-related Web sites in Greece. The ultimate goal is to establish this site as the entry point for Internet users looking for health-related information about Greece. For this purpose, a number of activities have been initiated. For example, collaborations with other health-care related sites, such as the one developed by the ministry of Health and Welfare, are pursued. Also, Web sites are developed and included in the CHIN server free of charge for any Greek hospital and health care center that wishes to participate in this effort. In terms of professional services, the goal in to establish a slide-less hospital, meaning that images of patients from various modalities along with diagnostic reports would be electronically available in all department within a hospital

The Governmental Markup Language (GovML)

The value of public sector information can be significantly increased by employing standards. For example, the use of a metadata standard for describing governmental resources allows citizens and businesses to locate and retrieve these resources in a more efficient and effective way. Furthermore, the use of a common document template for describing elementary and integrated public services (such as life events) can also substantially improve management and reuse of information and increase citizens' satisfaction. This paper proposes ametadata element set for governmental resources and a template for describing life events and public services. The proposed metadata element set can be used to facilitate the search and retrieval of governmental resources such as electronic documents. The proposed document template, termed the Governmental Markup Language (GovML), is a recommendation for describing public services and life events. It is anticipated that both public organizations and consumers of public services (citizens, businesses and other public organizations) would benefit from such a common information structure. Public authorities will be able to better manage (i.e., create, modify, store, etc.), exchange and reuse their information. Citizens and businesses will enjoy better services when searching for information regarding public services and life events. From amore technical perspective, GovML data vocabularies are proposed XML patterns, validated against an appropriate XML schema. Interoperability among public authorities is ensured as the rules that dominate the document syntax are common. Moreover, GovML-compliant information exploitsXMLpotential; thus it can be displayed in multiple formats and devices, such as Web browsers, PDAs and mobile phones. © 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved