Online Activities to Mobilize Smart Cities

A smart city is a dynamic living system that contains hard (unchanging) and soft (changing) parts that each involve the implementation of respective technologies. Prior research has focused on infrastructure, technology, and social components when discussing smart city structure. In this paper, we explore key elements within the soft aspects of smart city initiatives enabling the organization of a dynamic structure. To do so, we focus on human behavior, which we illustrate by analyzing online activities in two cases: one is related to a smart city while the other focuses on an online community. Based on the analysis, we identify key elements that reveal how people participate and become engaged in order to provide lessons to be taken into account within smart city initiatives. Within online activities, the key elements we note are related to knowledge generation, information sharing of common interests, and the creation of collective action

Models of E-Democracy

Several theories of E-Democracy have been presented, and implementations of and experiments in E-Democracy emerged. However, existing literature on the subject appears rather non-comprehensive, lacking an integrated basis, for gathering knowledge in the future. After an analysis of theories of E-Democracy versus implementations reported in related literature, we address the need for a model generally absent from contemporary theoretical literature: the Partisan model of E-Democracy. We aim to simplify the current jungle of E-Democracy models into four idealised models: the Liberal, the Deliberative, the Partisan, and the Direct. We aim to illustrate how current theories of E-Democracy, in addition to reported implementations, may be covered by these models. The explanatory potential of these four models is illustrated by analysing implementations of a communication technology for E-Democracy, the web-based discussion forum. We argue that, instead of viewing technology, such as the Internet, as a black box, any implementation of E-Democracy should be adapted to the specific democracy model(s) pursued by a particular initiative. In addition, E-Democracy researchers could be more specific about their standard of democracy, in order to avoid artificial comparisons or criticisms of contemporary E-Democracy without an explicit framework of criteria. Finally, we discuss the possibilities of unifying the ideals from different models on E-Democracy. We suggest that any context of E-Democracy may in fact require elements from all four models to stay dynamic over time

Exploring the Differences Between Students in IS and Other Disciplines in the Perceptions of Factors Influencing Study Program Choice: A Survey Study in Norway

In this study, we explored the differences between students in IS and other disciplines in their perceptions of factors influencing study program choice. A quantitative research approach was employed. We used an online survey for data collection. Data was collected in a Norwegian public university in the Fall semester of 2021. The findings from this study showed that the factors that most influence students\u27 choice of study program are career-related. The most influencing factor for students in choosing a study program was identified as job availability, followed by job security, career opportunities, and interesting work assignments. Significant differences were found between students in IS and other disciplines in the following five factors influencing study program choice: job security, opportunity to be innovative, personal skills, ease of study topics, and performance in high school subject matter courses

The role of digital technologies in global climate negotiations

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A Framework for Understanding the Link Between ICT and Development: How Affordances Influence Capabilities

Understanding the role of ICT in development is at the core of the ICT4D field. However, while most agree that ICT do contribute to development, the question of how is still not fully explored. In this research-in-progress, we propose a framework that combines two theoretical lenses, the choice framework (that is based on the capability approach) and affordances, to increase our understanding of ICTs role in the development process. The capability approach considers development as freedoms for people to live the lives they have a reason to value. The affordance theory describes action possibilities allowed by material properties, thereby allowing the examination of how individuals explore material properties of information systems with the objective of enhancing their capabilities. We argue that, by combining the choice framework with affordances we can better explain the role of ICT in the development process, and explain how individuals?agency and social structures influence their ability to perceive affordances in their interaction with the ICT

LEARNING FROM E-GOVERNMENT: AN AGENDA FOR SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH IN IS

As the body of Information Systems (IS) research on social media grows, it faces increasing challenges of staying relevant to real world contexts. In this research-in-progress paper, we analyze and contrast research on social media in the e-government field and in IS research, by reviewing and categorizing 63 studies published in key journal outlets, in order to identify and complement research foci and gaps. We find that in comparison with e-government social media research, IS studies tend to adopt an abstract view of the individual user, focus on a monetary view of value added by social media, and overlook the role of contextual factors. We thus propose an extended framework for mapping social media research, by including a focus on the role of context and environment, and identify a research agenda for future studies on social media-related phenomena relevant to real world contexts