Electronic participation through social media

It is widely acknowledge that many of e-Participation initiatives often attract wider audience and face serious limited citizens’ involvement. The use of social media has been seen as a hope to remedy such limitation. However, despite the recently adoption of social media the lack of citizens’ involvement in e-Participation initiatives still remains. This ongoing research paper aims at producing a general overview of e-Participation through social media. So far, the latest research works on such topic have been predominantly focused on a political context of e-Participation, where politicians-citizens interactions and activities are the central interest of the studies. Little existing studies investigate e-Participation in its own right in government context. The findings also reveal that the majority of e-Participation through social media initiatives are more informative than interactive, since few initiatives have been found that aim to considerably enhance citizen participation in policy decision making.This work has been supported by Portuguese FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology within the Project Scope UID /CEC / 00319/2013info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Literature on website evaluation in health sector

A critical element in the evolution of health sector services provided through the internet is the development of appropriate websites that adequately serve the patients' needs. Hospitals, in order to deliver superior online services must first understand and then satisfy users’ expectations. Health sector website assessment is built on identifying underlying dimensions, and conceptualizing relative metrics. Research and practitioner interest in health sector website assessment has considerably risen in recent years. In this article aspects of relative academic studies in health sector website assessment are reviewed and a holistic health sector websites’ assessment framework is proposed, defining criteria and their relative indicators.This paper is a result of the project “SmartEGOV: Harnessing EGOV for Smart Governance (Foundations, methods, Tools) / NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000037”, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (EFDR).This paper is a result of the project “SmartEGOV: Harnessing EGOV for Smart Governance (Foundations, methods, Tools) / NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000037”, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (EFDR).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A catalog of information systems outsourcing risks

Information systems outsourcing risks are a vital component in the decision and management process associated to the provision of information systems and technology services by a provider to a customer. Although there is a rich literature on information systems outsourcing risks, the accumulated knowledge on this area is fragmented. In view of this situation, an argument is put forward on the usefulness of having a theory that integrates the various constructs related to information systems outsourcing risks. This study aims to contribute towards the synthesis of that theory, by proposing a conceptual framework for interpreting the literature and presenting a catalog of information systems outsourcing risks. The conceptual framework articulates together six key risk elements, namely dangers, negative outcomes, undesirable consequences, factors and mitigation actions. The catalog condenses and categorizes the information systems outsourcing risk elements found on the literature reviewed, both from the perspective of the outsourcing customer and from the perspective of the outsourcing provider. Proposals for subsequent work towards the generation of the theory of information systems outsourcing risk are suggested

Planeamento de sistemas de informação: estudo das variáveis que condicionam a sua estratégia de execução

O papel crucial que a informação desempenha na sociedade actual, os grandes investimentos efectuados em Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TIC) e o impacto crescente dos Sistemas de Informação (SI) no funcionamento e nas capacidades competitivas das organizações justificam e realçam a necessidade de realizar, convenientemente, a actividade de Planeamento de Sistemas de Informação (PSI). Com o intuito de obter auxílio para a condução desta actividade, deve recorrer-se à adopção e à utilização de métodos desenvolvidos para esse fim. Apesar da diversidade de métodos existentes e dos benefícios que podem ser obtidos pela sua aplicação, o PSI continua hoje a ser uma actividade problemática devido às dificuldades associadas à selecção, adaptação e utilização desses métodos. Embora seja notória a realização de esforços na tentativa de colmatar esses problemas, quer pela melhoria dos métodos existentes, quer pela apresentação de novos métodos, quer ainda pela reformulação do processo da sua escolha, grande parte dos métodos propostos e descritos na literatura têm vindo a revelar-se pouco flexíveis e difíceis de adaptar às características particulares de cada organização. Esta última constatação justificou a realização do presente trabalho. Neste sentido, considerou-se que seria aconselhável conhecer as circunstâncias em que decorrerá a actividade de PSI, defendendo-se que tal conhecimento pode ser obtido através da identificação de um conjunto de variáveis que permita caracterizar essas circunstâncias. Da reflexão efectuada derivou-se um conjunto de variáveis que condicionam a estratégia de execução a adoptar para a realização da actividade de PSI, que foram agrupadas e organizadas num esquema classificativo. Este esquema reúne todas as variáveis propostas e classifica-as, em função da sua proveniência, em quatro categorias distintas, designadas por contexto ambiental, contexto organizacional, contexto da função SI/TI e contexto do processo de PSI

Reflections on the concept of interoperability in information systems

Information systems interoperability is one of the main concerns and challenges of information systems managers and researchers, most of whom perceive and approach it on a pure or predominantly technological perspective. In this paper, we argue that a sociotechnical perspective of information systems interoperability should be adopted and we set out seven assertions that, if taken into consideration, may improve the understanding, management, and study of the information systems interoperability phenomenon.(undefined

Information systems interoperability in Public Administration : identifying the major acting forces through a Delphi study

Information Systems (IS) interoperability in Public Administration (PA) is a main goal and a major challenge for PA professionals. Achieving interoperability among IS that are technologically disparate and that exist in different organizational contexts is a complex task, being affected by multiple aspects, not yet satisfactorily known and characterized. The aim of this paper is to unveil the forces that influence IS interoperability initiatives in PA. The inquiry was inspired by Lewin’s Field Theory. The data generation process was based on a Delphi study involving 55 experts from PA, IS/IT industry, and academy. A set of 31 forces were identified and ranked based on the level of importance they assume in IS interoperability initiatives. Thirty eight propositions describing restraining and driving influences were also formulated, as well as 24 propositions about forces’ configuration in the current context of Portuguese PA that represent the specific constellation of forces acting in IS interoperability initiatives in that country. The results of this study provide an understanding of the complex of forces acting in IS interoperability, contributing to improve the study, management, and implementation of these initiatives and, consequently, to the establishment of a PA with more adequate, sustained, and sustainable levels of interoperability

Electronic governance for context-specific public service delivery: a survey of the literature

Based on the latest trends of government digitization efforts, this paper presents a survey of the literature illustrating how governments are using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to deliver public services pursuing concrete development goals and taking into account specific needs of the local context. Based on the survey, we illustrate examples of context-specific public service delivery and propose a research framework to guide future research on the area. The relevance of this work relies on the latest commitment of governments to pursue the 2030 development agenda, since the framework provides a roadmap to further investigate how to locally design public services to achieve sustainable development goals leveraging on ICT.This research received support from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Government of Portugal (Grant n.º PEst-OE/CJP/UI0758/2013). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

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

Hit the bull's-eye: electronic participation through social media

This paper presents research findings of reviewing 42 studies concerning electronic participation (e-Participation) through social media. Overall, such initiatives have reflected the prevalence of a one-way communication strategy, what do not considerably foster citizen involvement in policy decision making process.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

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