Studying How E-Markets Evaluation Can Enhance Trust in Virtual Business Communities

One of the major drawbacks of conducting business online is the raised level of risk associated with business transactions. Potential business partners usually have limited information about each others reliability or product / service quality before an online transaction. In this paper, we focus on the problem of selecting a trustful electronic market (e-market), in order to perform business transactions with it. In particular, we examine how the decision of selecting an appropriate e-market can be facilitated by an e-market recommendation algorithm. For this purpose, a metadata model for collecting and storing e-market evaluations from the members of a virtual business community in a reusable and interoperable manner is introduced. Then, an e-market recommendation algorithm that can synthesize existing e-market evaluations stored using the metadata model, is designed. Finally, a scenario of how the presented e-market recommendation algorithm can support a virtual agribusiness community of the organic agriculture sector is discussed.E-market, metadata, recommender system, virtual community, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Marketing,

Developing a smartphone app for m-government in agriculture

The high penetration of smartphones and the advanced capabilities of the software that they can host, forces public agencies to rapidly transform their services in the mobile government environment for maximizing utility of services and minimizing costs. In this context, the aim of the paper is primarily to review the smartphone use and capabilities in agriculture. An overview of apps targeted to the agricultural business sector is provided. Secondly, the potential use of smartphones for mobile government is discussed and a transactional mobile government app for the Android operating system is proposed based on a case study for agriculture. The mobile government app is based on a previously developed electronic government system for farmers. Design and technical aspects for the implementation of the proposed app are presented and discussed. Such apps seem to be a promising solution for farmers enabling them to access government information and transact with public agencies at their convenience and at a location of their choice.</jats:p

A Survey of Greek Agricultural E-Markets

The role that information technology plays in today’s business activities has led to an increase in firms using and/or deploying e-markets online. This development undoubtedly affects the agri-food sector, since a large number of agricultural firms are demonstrating or are expected to demonstrate e-commerce activities. This paper aims to provide an overview of the current status of agricultural e-markets in Greece, by presenting results from an analysis of 100 cases. Results indicate that Greek e-markets may still have a rather low degree of sophistication, but they demonstrate a strong B2B orientation, as well as an outreach for international customer bases.Internet, e-commerce, e-markets, agriculture, agri-food sector, survey, Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing,

ICT and farmers : lessons learned and future developments

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) evolution is well advancing Moore?s Law prediction of geometric progression of computer performance indexes. Indeed, these technologies are not only fast developed but, in addition, are giving birth to newer ones nicely branching existing “old fashion” ICT systems and tools. These innovations of ICT are not only regenerating traditional sciences, like Agriculture, and practices, like farming, but also, awake well neglected human sensitiveness and indifference for poverty, environmental protection, climatic deterioration issues and the future of our planet as a whole. To refer to a few examples of these innovations affecting Agriculture and Environmental Sciences: Cloud Computing provides equality in resources management and exploitability to small budget farms against the big ones. Web2 browser allows, as a platform, effective runtime environment and considerably easy access to applications by farmers lacking proper education and training. Parallel Computing brings exponentially increased core processing to low-end computers facilitating the use of huge computer power by small agricultural research units. Never the less agricultural and farming communities, in their majority, do not adopt new ICT tools and systems to the degree required for substantial agricultural development. In this paper, experience gained over the years is used to evaluate and reason poor performance in the area of applicability of ICT innovations and tools by the vast majority of farmers throughout the world.</jats:p

Driving Web 2.0 Tool Adoption in Agricultural Education

The new opportunities for collaboration, participatory content creation and communication offered through the advancements of Web 2.0, such as social networking, blogs, wikis, video sharing and other, are creating new learning models. In turn, tutors cannot ignore this trend and have to bear the responsibility of incorporating Web 2.0 tools in formal, informal, work-based and vocational education and approach their students in a very familiar and favourable way. In this context, this paper tries to highlight the need for enhancing tutors’ skills and drive Web 2.0 tool adoption in educational practice. Thus, it draws upon the successful example of a European project regarding agricultural tutors’ training on Web 2.0 tools. The challenge for all agricultural tutors is how to integrate Web 2.0 tools into current curricula and education.</jats:p

Smart Cross-Border e-Gov Systems: An application to refugee mobility

Smart Cross-Border e-Government Systems for citizens and business have been recently proposed to further improve everyday lives, expand business fron-tiers, and facilitate the movement of citizens by reducing the constraints imposed by existing borders between federal states. Their main advantage is their ability to be used by governmental organizations, citizens, and business, in a cross border envi-ronment, thanks to the availability of recently developed electronic authentication, identification and signature platforms. These latest technological advances may con-tribute to solving the mobility issue of legitimate refugees in various European coun-tries. This problem has at the time of writing evolved into a major crisis due to the mass movement of hundreds of thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees across Europe and requires immediate attention. An implementation of Smart Cross-Border e-Government Systems appears to be a very good option in supporting the management of individuals and their movement in order to address this crisis

A review of e-governance models in the EU

This paper attempts to explore and test the validity of a geographical grouping of e- Government modelling across the European Union. In this work only the pre-2004 EU states are considered, as they have more mature and established governmental systems and procedures tested against time and having undergone a considerable review by their citizens. These states have been grouped in four main sectors depending on the geographical location, those of Northern Europe, Anglo-Irish, Central Europe, and Southern Europe. Comparing various national strategies the authors identified considerable diversity in the approaches to e-Government initiatives, varying levels of adoption and implementation, and key differences in e-governance policies. The study of strategic visions and strategic objectives revealed that the geographical groupings are not valid as far as strategic planning of e-Government adoption and implementation are concerne

Translating stakeholders needs to application requirements for e-government development projects

Most public organizations nowadays undertake implementations of e-government projects. Such projects are usually the organization’s response to its operational needs. Sometimes though, they are linked to a wider perspective or central planning initiative sponsored by a government and involving a large number of public service organizations. In their majority e-government projects aim at addressing citizens’ and businesses’ needs in their interaction with public authorities. Thus such projects directly reflect public administration’s mission as it is defined with reference to its external environment. In addition public administration stakeholder requirements are examined, with compatibilities and / or conflicts and their effects on the design of e-Government implementations identified. This can be used in resolving conflicting requirements at a higher level before the design and implementation of individual components of a system that correspond to tasks and procedures are affected

Mobile devices and services: bridging the digital divide in rural areas

The digital divide has been mostly affecting the world’s poorest primarily due to lack of internet connectivity. A number of e-government services especially built to serve low income citizens do not reach those in need. The rapid expansion of the use of the mobile phone raises hopes that the digital divide can be bridged faster by providing services to people living in rural and remote areas. The authors review successful implementations of secure and trusted e-services available on mobile networks. These could be utilised in addressing the needs of those living in rural areas and are currently digitally marginalised

MAPPING E-GOVERNMENT STAKEHOLDER REQUIREMENTS TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION OPERATIONAL NEEDS

This paper proposes a framework for e-government development projects aiming at the detection of inconsistencies, incompatibilities and mistakes during the early design stages. This is achieved by applying a Requirements Engineering methodology for the identification of stakeholder requirements and dependencies. Furthermore, a generic identification of public administration’s functions is being proposed making it possible to detect deficits in service provision. Using a Goal Oriented Requirements Engineering methodology and relevant tools, stakeholders’ and functional goals are mapped. An example of a knowledge management system, presenting the case of a Greek e-government application is discussed here in relation to the proposed framework