Broadband Deployment as Technological Innovation: Assessing the Needs of Anchor Institutions

High-speed broadband facilitates a vast number of beneficial applications such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP), streaming media, gaming, online government and business services, and other interactive services that require high data transmission rates. While high speed broadband is purported to lead ultimately to social and economic development, a coherent proactive national policy regarding the development and use of broadband infrastructure in rural and underserved areas has been slow to appear in the U.S. The FCC???s recent mandate to develop a National Broadband Plan and the $7.2 billion in funds specified in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for broadband deployment and build-out indicates a significant shift in federal government policy to supporting broadband deployment. As the federal funding increases, local community anchor institutions such as public libraries, schools, and medical facilities will be looked to as drivers of successful deployment and adoption of broadband to local communities. The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss issues associated with large-scale technological innovations with emphasis on the widespread adoption of high-speed broadband by community anchor institutions. This will include the evaluation of and planning for broadband expansion and implementation. A case study of public libraries in Florida serves to highlight the means used to assess broadband adoption and implementation issues in community anchor institutions. By examining the factors that assist anchor institutions in deploying large-scale broadband projects, this paper also seeks to identify issues and opportunities for iSchools to play a role in assisting anchor institutions with successful deployment of broadband projects

Nonprofit Organizations as Inter-regional Actors: Lessons from Southern Growth

Nonprofit organizations involved in improving a region's economic, political, and social situations must deal with a unique set of circumstances. The "collective good" aspect of regional economic development necessitates that nonprofit organizations such as the Southern Growth Policies Board include actors from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Regional actors from these three sectors occupy important positions in the Southern Growth Policies Board's organizational structure and play important roles in guiding and supporting the organization's regional development initiatives. While the actions of individual states and political actors sometime undermine the collective development of the South, the Southern Growth Policies Board serves as a nexus that facilitates a regional discourse on economic development. Copyright 1995 by The Policy Studies Organization.

Virtual Scientific Teams: Life-Cycle Formation and Long- Term Scientific Collaboration

Researchers will model the lifecycles of virtual multidisciplinary scientific teams using the facilities of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, an interdisciplinary scientific center with distributed facilities in Tallahassee, Florida; Gainesville, Florida; and Los Alamos, New Mexico. The model will be built from data collected through descriptive multiple-case studies, grounded in an analysis of social and organizational factors related to the concepts of the theory of information worlds: social norms, social types, information values, and information behaviors (Burnett & Jaeger, 2008; Jaeger & Burnett, in press). The researchers hypothesize that when the norms and practices of multiple external worlds represented by team members are integrated into the internal norms and practices of the team itself, the outcomes of the project will more likely be successful, and team members will be more likely to work together virtually again

Internet Use, Transparency, and Interactivity Effects on Trust in Government

This paper asks how internet use, citizen satisfaction with e-government and citizen trust in government are interrelated. Prior research has found that agencies stress information and service provision on the Web (oneway e-government strategy), but have generally ignore applications that would enhance citizen-government interaction (two-way e-government strategy). Based on a review of the literature, we develop hypotheses about how two facets of e-democracy -- transparency and interactivity -- may affect citizen trust in government. Using data obtained from the Council on Excellence in Government, we apply a two stage multiple equation model. Findings indicate that internet use is positively associated with transparency satisfaction but negatively associated with interactivity satisfaction, and that both interactivity and transparency are positively associated with citizen trust in government. We conclude that the one-way e-transparency strategy may be insufficient, and that in the future agencies should make and effort to enhance e-interactivity

Managerial Perceptions of E-Government Adoption by State Agencies by

Managerial Perceptions of E-Government Adoption by State Agencies This paper examines social and technical factors that influence the acceptance of E-government technologies by public organizations. In regards to public organizations, IT acceptance is defined as “the belief that the organization will integrate a specific IT innovation into its service production processes and the potential for the organization to routinely rely on the innovation in order to achieve its primary goals. ” A conceptual model of IT acceptance is proposed which includes factors from the organizations task environment, structural characteristics, technical capacity, and the technology development process. Data from a national study of state program managers is employed to test four hypotheses regarding these dimensions. Regression analysis is employed to estimate the effects of these dimensions on the acceptance of Internet-based technologies. Results provide evidence that the specific type of Internettechnology should be congruent with the organization’s task environment. In addition, stakeholder involvement in the application development process seems to increase the acceptance of Internet-based technologies. Finally, there is evidence that different Internet-based technologies may stem from different motivations. More basic forms on online technologies may be used primarily for informatio

Electronic Government Strategies and Research in the U.S.

Since the mid-1990s, adoption of wide-area computer networks, such as the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW), by the public, educational institutions and private sector organizations has helped spur an interes

Panel: Blockchain applications in government

In the past fewyears, researchers and practitioners have highlighted the potential of Blockchain (BC) and distributed ledger technology to revolutionize government processes. Blockchain technology enables distributed power and embedded security. As such, Blockchain is regarded as an innovative, general purpose technology, offering new ways of organization in many domains, including e-government for transactions and information exchange. However, due to its very characteristics of peer to peer information exchange, its distributed nature, the still developing technology, the involvement of new actors, roles, etc., the implementation of blockchain applications raise issues that need governance attention. BC initiatives have implications for citizen trust, privacy, inclusion and participation. Governmental organizations need a thorough understanding of the BC design principles, the possible applications in the domain of e-government and the exploration of governance mechanisms to deal with the limitations and challenges of the BC technology when used in a myriad of sectors, ranging from the financial and business sector to the social domains of healthcare and education. In this panel we explore the impact of block chain technology on all levels of government and create an awareness of effects or applications in society that raise governance issues.</p