Online service delivery models : an international comparison in the public sector

Governments around the world are facing the challenge of responding to increased expectations by their customers with regard to public service delivery. Citizens, for example, expect governments to provide better and more efficient electronic services on the Web in an integrated way. Online portals have become the approach of choice in online service delivery to meet these requirements and become more customer-focussed. This study describes and analyses existing variants of online service delivery models based upon an empirical study and provides valuable insights for researchers and practitioners in government. For this study, we have conducted interviews with senior management representatives from five international governments. Based on our findings, we distinguish three different classes of service delivery models. We describe and characterise each of these models in detail and provide an in-depth discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches

Tracing sources and fate of zinc in a mining-impacted river catchment: insights from flow measurements, synoptic sampling, and zinc isotopes

This paper reports on the comprehensive monitoring of the Rookhope Burn catchment in the Weardale valley, northern Pennines (Uk), which has been subject to lead, zinc, and fluorspar mining for over two centuries. Zinc is the major contaminant in surface waters, exceeding the Environmental Quality standard value for salmonid fish. synoptic flow monitoring and water sampling have been carried out, including both inflow and instream sampling points along the Rookhope Burn, with the purpose of tracing both point and diffuse sources of Zn throughout the catchment. The Zn load profile suggests an important role for Zn-rich groundwater contributions to the stream bed and has also established the existence of Zn sinks. Evidence from hyporheic zone sampling suggests Zn reaction or surface complexation with Mn oxide surfaces forming on stream bed sediments as a potential mechanism responsible for the observed metal attenuation. Current work is focused on testing the potential of Zn isotopes to fingerprint sources and pathways of Zn in the aquatic system. Preliminary results show significant variation in the stream water Zn isotopic signature from the headwaters to the base of the catchment

AN INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING ORGANIZATIONAL RESPONSES TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ARCHITECTUAL TRANSFORMATION

The need for constant transformation of enterprises is omnipresent. A discipline that has been proposed to support the coordination of enterprise transformation is Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) which has grown to a mature discipline in academia and practice. However, it can be observed in practice that it still is a challenge to introduce such an architectural coordination approach for supporting enterprise transformation. This may be due to the reason that the institutional context of EAM is only little understood, that is, the interplay between the pressures EAM exerts on the organisation and the response strategies of this organisation. The paper reviews existing work on institutional theory and confirms by means of a case study that the institutional factors of cause, constituents, content, control, and context are not only relevant for EAM but may be consistently linked to response strategies of acquiesce, compromise, avoid, defy, and manipulate. Moreover the case study implies to add additional institutional factors for EAM, namely trust and participation

Sensing as a Service: An Exploration into the Practical Implementations of DSA

The cognitive radio literature generally assumes that the functions required for non-cooperative secondary DSA are integrated into a single radio system. It need not be so. In this paper, we model cognitive radio functions as a value chain and explore the implications of different forms of organization of this value chain. We initially explore the consequences of separating the sensing function from other cognitive radio functions

Debate 2016: To Tpp or Not Tpp? Should the U.S. Join the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Other Trade Agreements

Panel discussion given at Debate 2016 Symposium conducted at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law, Hempstead, New York. Transcribed by Haley Trust, Journal of International Business and Law. The TPP is an international trade agreement between twelve Pacific Rim nations including the United States. The other nations that'll join the TPP are Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Chile, and Peru. Combined, the economies of these countries in the TPP have a combined population of eight hundred million people and comprise of about forty percent of the world's economy. Negotiations for the TPP have been going on in bits and parts, largely over the last seven years and have been a priority of the Obama administration for most of its two terms. Negotiations went on culminating in a final agreement signed on February fourth of this 2016. This panel discusses the pros and cons of the Trans-Pacifici Partnership as well as many other such trade partnerships