Technology in government: How organizational culture mediates information and communication technology outcomes

The adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in public organizations promises to better connect managers with citizens, increase public participation in government decision making, improve the efficiency of service delivery, decrease uncertainty, and improve information dissemination. While each of these outcomes is important for both public managers and citizens, we know little about how organizational culture mediates the effectiveness of ICTs on producing these outcomes. This research, using data from two points in time, investigates the relationships between ICTs and managerial outcomes (e.g. improved decision making and public participation) and how they are mediated by organizational culture such as centralization and routineness. Technology variables include technology use and capacity. Models will control for other organizational and technological factors such as size, structure, task and department to investigate the mediating effects of organizational culture on ICT outcomes for local governments. The data come from two national surveys of 2500 local government managers in the United States in 2010 and 2012. The results are important for understanding how organizational mechanisms, in particular organization culture, mobilize ICTs in ways that affect managerial outcomes.     

Assessing eGovernment systems success: A validation of the DeLone and McLean model of information systems success

With the proliferation of the Internet and World Wide Web applications, people are increasingly interacting with government to citizen (G2C) eGovernment systems. It is therefore important to measure the success of G2C eGovernment systems from the citizen's perspective. While general information systems (IS) success models have received much attention from researchers, few studies have been conducted to assess the success of eGovernment systems. The extent to which traditional IS success models can be extended to investigating eGovernment systems success remains unclear. This study provides the first empirical test of an adaptation of DeLone and McLean's IS success model in the context of G2C eGovernment. The model consists of six dimensions: information quality, system quality, service quality, use, user satisfaction, and perceived net benefit. Structural equation modeling techniques are applied to data collected by questionnaire from 119 users of G2C eGovernment systems in Taiwan. Except for the link from system quality to use, the hypothesized relationships between the six success variables are significantly or marginally supported by the data. The findings provide several important implications for eGovernment research and practice. This paper concludes by discussing limitations of the study which should be addressed in future research.     

Information Resource Managers and E-government Effectiveness: A Survey of Texas State Agencies

This study examines the views of information resource managers (IRMs) in Texas state agencies on e-government. The existing empirical research has focused on what local governments provide in terms of e-government information and services and less on the perspectives of key e-government decision makers. This study fills this void by examining how e-government had an impact on management of state agencies. Theories and expectations are provided on what the literature argues are the most important impacts of e-government on management. Specifically, these are the reinventing government movement, external environmental pressures, resource capacity, and demographic factors. A survey of Texas state agency IRMs was administered in the late spring of 2005 and the results are reported in this study. The findings revealed that the reinventing government movement, external environmental pressures, and resource capacity were the most important factors that had an impact on e-government management capacity. In this study, the size of state agency was not found to be as important. Future research should focus more on state e-government management, an often-neglected area of research.     

Information governance,records management,and freedom of information: A study of local government authorities in England

In many democratic states political rhetoric gives weight to increasing public participation in and understanding of the political process; (re)-establishing public trust in government decision making; increasing transparency, openness, and accountability of public authorities; and, ultimately, improving government decision-making on behalf of citizens. Access to the public record and freedom of information (FOI) are mechanisms which help to facilitate the accountability of public authorities. Many jurisdictions have introduced legislation related to these mechanisms, and the UK government is no exception with its enactment of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 2000. University College London (UCL) ran a research project over 12 months in 2008–2009, funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. The research project examined what the impact of the UK FOIA had been on records management services in public authorities, especially local government. This article reports on some of the findings of the study. It considers how FOI compliance and records management functions are organized in local government and the role of information governance which is emerging as an umbrella for such functions. It draws some conclusions about the contributions that records management services make to the ability of local authorities to comply with the FOIA and identifies some ways in which user experience may be affected by the management of records.     

公共图书馆与政府信息公开

《政府信息公开条例》实施给公共图书馆带来了挑战和机遇。国外公共图书馆政府信息服务有多样化的形式和良好的效果。目前我国公共图书馆政府信息服务的主要内容,应是对政府信息进行科学组织、加工整合、深度揭示,以方便利用;创新服务方式方法;积极介入当地政府信息公开目录、指南、索引、摘要的编制工作。急需建立政府信息及时、完整进入公共图书馆的制度保障;落实各级政府为公共图书馆开展政府信息服务提供必要保障的规定。参考文献24。     

Providing access to local government information: The nature of public library activity

This article focuses on the problems associated with providing access to local government information. The research on which it is based is from a 1986 survey conducted by the author of 265 public libraries in six library systems in northern Illinois, the largest comparative study of public library providers of local government information conducted to date. Fifty-five active providers of local government information (those that received requests for this information at least every two weeks) were identified: the findings are based on telephone and group interviews with key staff of those libraries. The article examines a variety of methods that might be used to increase access to local government information. It analyzes the nature of requests received and the types of responses given by these libraries. It examines the major problems associated with providing access to local government information and discusses the reasons given by librarians for providing access to local government information sources. The article concludes that a serious local government information gap exists and that librarians who seek to over-come it must articulate a role that addresses the serious barriers that must be overcome before a library can provide meaningful access to local government information.     

To explore managerial issues and their implications on e-Government deployment in the public sector: Lessons from Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign Trade

The objective of this article is to explore the experience of reconciling the strategic information system (IS) management with the radical transition of the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure in Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) between 1998 and 2003. This investigation will be beneficial for the implementation of IT projects, as well as the comprehension of the organizational and managerial issues related to the discontinuity of IT development in office automation. This paper conducts an interpretative approach by means of qualitative methods – namely through participatory observation and in-depth interviews with fourteen informants – to reveal the managerial issues and their implications on the adoption of electronic government (e-Government). Through the method of content analysis, this study reviews the process of decision making, implementation, and other issues emerging as a result of the adoption of new technologies in public authorities, such as the cognition of the employee toward the benefits and effectiveness of IS in public authorities.     

关于政府信息工厂的若干思考

政府信息化建设的一个基础性内容就是构建政府信息系统。当前政府信息系统大多是由各个政府机构根据局部的信息需求构建起来。它们存在诸如数据转换成本高、缺乏稳定性等问题。建立政府信息工厂(GIF)能够解决这些问题。GIF包括3个主要构件:操作型构件、数据仓库和用于支持决策的多维构件。它有以下优势:在整个政府层面构建了一致性框架,增加了各系统之间的互通性;能够根据需求自主地定义信息生产活动;低成本地保存和处理历史数据;保证政府信息安全;增加信息产品生产的灵活性和可控性;降低使用成本等。表1。图4。参考文献9。     

图书馆为政府提供信息服务的思考

图书馆为政府提供信息服务,既延伸信息服务链,提高信息资源利用率,扩大图书馆的社会影响力,又有助于政府全面掌握信息,提高立法、决策和管理的科学性。应确立面向政府的信息服务的业务地位,创新服务方式,深化服务内容,参与政府信息化建设,形成图书馆信息服务特色,使面向政府的信息服务可持续发展。
     

Factors affecting openness of local government websites: Examining the differences across planning,finance and police departments

The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in public organizations increasingly holds the potential to improve transparency, accountability, and public participation, by providing a more effective and efficient disclosure of information to the citizens and organizations and by providing channels for interaction with the government. While transparency and interactivity features of government websites constitute two critical elements for public participation and democracy facilitated by web-based technologies, little research has been done to explain why some public organizations choose to deploy website technology more openly with these features. This paper aims to examine the managerial, organizational, and environmental factors that are related to variation in transparency and interactivity features of local government websites, which we believe are key dimensions to governmental website openness. The paper first develops a literature informed conceptual model of governmental website openness and then tests this model using data from a national survey of 850 government managers in 500 cities. The model results are compared across three different departments: community development, finance, and police department. Overall findings indicate that higher website openness is positively related to increased frequency of public participation in agency decision making and civil society influence, increased technical capacity, lower organizational control, and higher perceived usefulness of website technology. In addition, due to differences in the operating contexts of the departments, the effects of organizational control, technical capacity, environmental influences, and perceived usefulness of website technology on governmental website openness tend to differ by the type of department.     

Using government websites to enhance democratic E-governance: A conceptual model for evaluation

The last few decades have witnessed unprecedented transformations in every sector of society, resulting from the explosive advancement of information and communication technologies. This drastic development has raised the hopes of citizens for better lives, in both developing and advanced countries, urging innovation in government to make it more competent. Due to e-business revolutions, governments around the world have applied similar principles and technologies to government by opening their websites for more efficient publication of information and more effective delivery of public services. While a government website is an important venue for citizens to participate in public affairs and decision-making processes, early e-government practices tended to overlook democratic purposes by focusing on the features of e-business and information systems. There have been increasing criticisms that e-government system design has focused mainly on the provider's perspectives. Reflecting on the theoretical implications of this, we argue that a government website should facilitate democratic processes involving not only information sharing and delivery of better public services, but also deliberation and coproduction. The purpose of this study is to probe into multidimensional features that enable government websites to fulfill their promises. Developing an integrative model for evaluating a government website, namely the Democratic E-governance Website Evaluation Model, we conducted a qualitative meta-analysis of four strands of literature: information systems, business, public administration, and democratic theory. Our study contributes to the literature by extending the purview of e-government website analysis beyond the question of citizens' acceptance and towards the issue of their engagement, bringing a stimulating view of citizens as active agents in governance, and it provides a holistic model for public authorities to improve their websites to facilitate democratic e-governance that helps to create more effective public outcomes.     

(Hyper) local news aggregation: Designing for social affordances

Being able to debate, reflect, form opinions, consider counter evidence and make informed decisions is a foundation of civic life in democratic societies. Government benefits from broad participation in collective decision making in terms of sustainable outcomes (e.g., greater consensus) and quality of life in our cities and communities. These collective decision making capabilities are undermined by a strange combination of diminishing (or extinct) local print media, especially local newspapers, and by its obverse, a plethora of information and communication opportunities that are scattered across numerous disparate and decentralized websites and resources (e.g., webpages, RSS feeds, social network software, email, listservs, podcasts, tweets). To address this problem, a number of news aggregators have emerged that capture local content from dispersed sites. To facilitate civic engagement, these sites also need to support social interaction and information exchange. In this paper we review the state of the art in local news aggregation in the U.S. and their support for social affordances (social trust, networks and interaction) that are essential to civic participation. We present a system we call the Virtual Town Square (VTS) that we have developed for local news aggregation that supports social affordances. We summarize briefly the design strategies and techniques (e.g., algorithms) we used to cluster topics and user generated content derived from existing local sources. This system should lead to a replicable model for other U.S. communities.     

公共图书馆总分馆建设的法律保障：法定建设主体及相关问题

总分馆建设是近年来我国公共图书馆领域的重要趋势。由于总分馆建设可能最终触及我国长期以来实施的"一级政府建一座图书馆,谁建设谁管理"的图书馆建设体制,因此它给"十一五"期间有望出台的图书馆法提出了前所未遇的难题：图书馆法是否要赋予新体制以合法化？在新体制下如何界定公共图书馆的法定建设主体？对这些问题的思考有可能从根本上颠覆已有的公共图书馆立法思路。回顾我国公共图书馆从"各自为政"到"总分馆式联合"的过程,分析这一转变对公共图书馆立法提出的挑战。     

Understanding the evolution of e-government: The influence of systems of rules on public sector dynamics

Electronic government has been defined as the use of information and communication technologies in government settings. However, it is neither a homogeneous nor a static phenomenon. Recent empirical studies have identified two important dynamics in e-government evolution. First, e-government in general has evolved from its initial presence on the Internet to more transactional and integrated applications. Second, at the aggregate level and as a general trend, national governments have started adding technological and organizational sophistication and state and local governments have followed. Based on the study of systems of rules, this paper argues that these two dynamics in the evolution of e-government are, at least in part, the result of pressures from public managers attempting to solve problems and from citizens, businesses, and other stakeholders, attempting to control the actions of public managers. Both forces, related to performance and accountability, respectively, have promoted change in the systems of rules governing the design, implementation, and use of e-government initiatives. Specifically, they have generated a cycle that continually increases technological and organizational sophistication in e-government initiatives and have also promoted the episodic and evolving adoption of similar features across levels of government. These two related evolutionary dynamics and the characterization of e-government as systems of rules and standards have some important policy implications, which are briefly discussed at the end of the paper.     

Identifying the value of data analytics in the context of government supervision: Insights from the customs domain

eCommerce, Brexit, new safety and security concerns are only a few examples of the challenges that government organisations, in particular customs administrations, face today when controlling goods crossing borders. To deal with the enormous volumes of trade customs administrations rely more and more on information technology (IT) and risk assessment, and are starting to explore the possibilities that data analytics (DA) can offer to support their supervision tasks. Driven by customs as our empirical domain, we explore the use of DA to support the supervision role of government. Although data analytics is considered to be a technological breakthrough, there is so far only a limited understanding of how governments can translate this potential into actual value and what are barriers and trade-offs that need to be overcome to lead to value realisation. The main question that we explore in this paper is: How to identify the value of DA in a government supervision context, and what are barriers and trade-offs to be considered and overcome in order to realise this value? Building on leading models from the information system (IS) literature, and by using case studies from the customs domain, we developed the Value of Data Analytics in Government Supervision (VDAGS) framework. The framework can help managers and policy-makers to gain a better understanding of the benefits and trade-offs of using DA when developing DA strategies or when embarking on new DA projects. Future research can examine the applicability of the VDAGS framework in other domains of government supervision.     

Business Informatics and the Information Systems Perspective: Implementing the IS 2010 Curriculum

This article describes how the Business Informatics program at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) has evolved and, in so doing, has addressed the call from the IS 2010 Curriculum Design Committee listed below. The article initiates this discussion with a discussion of the basic systems perspective that underlies the information systems discipline. The next section presents a review of the creation of a College of Informatics (COI) at NKU that included the strategic decision of structurally moving the Information Systems Department from the College of Business. The authors then document the perceptual shift this decision created as the Information Systems Department changed its name to Business Informatics and took on the goal of expanding the discipline beyond the business domain with partnerships across campus. A short discussion on the progress made in implementing this vision is detailed. The article closes with a discussion of problems and opportunities generated.     

Electronic government: information management capacity,organizational capabilities,and the sourcing mix

The information systems-related sourcing literature currently emphasizes a portfolio approach combining homegrown, hybrid, and outsourced (contracted) systems. This study found similar approaches in the sourcing for electronic government (e-Government, e-Gov). E-Gov-related sourcing mixes potentially create high switching costs and path dependency. They may also severely impact governments' information management capacity and organizational capabilities. Further, e-Government leads to business process change, all of which necessitates an increased understanding of e-Gov-related sourcing and its integration with traditional public management information systems (PMIS). In the absence of an e-Gov-specific sourcing theory, this study explores current sourcing practices and uncovers overlaps in sourcing concepts and also significant differences between private and public sourcing practices. E-Gov sourcing portfolios were found not systematically managed potentially compromising the public information management capacity. To help public managers design and manage e-Gov sourcing mixes, the article proposes framework for e-Government sourcing for further testing.     

我国企业IT投资成长模式及中美比较研究

为全面探索我国企业IT投资成长模式及中美差异,为我国政府制定信息化政策提供参考依据。以IT产品价格变化为技术进步的替代变量,结合技术扩散模型,分析我国294家企业1982-2008年IS建设历史数据。结果表明：我国企业IT投资受到技术进步的显著影响,与美国相比其年增长率较高,“S”型曲线极值出现得较晚,后发优势、信息技术进步和经济的高速增长是造成中美差异的主要原因。     

(3) Scandinavia

The lack of an understanding of the characteristics, skills, and searching abilities of a specific user group in computer-based information systems hinders library and information science professionals in making the best decisions when designing, acquiring, and managing information systems. The objective of this study was to provide information on the characteristics of a specific group of international college students from a developing country, in order to assist system managers in the selection of OPACs.

The major conclusions of this study are: (1) academic level of study and age of the students affect the preference for the type of OPAC system selected, but the academic major of the students does not affect the preference; (2) system designers should prepare more specific instructions regarding searching methods; (3) system designers should focus on the design of the system menu, since the most common method of learning about OPAC systems was the instructions in the menu; and (4) menu-driven systems should be the first selection of OPAC systems for Korean students.

Recommendations are proposed when designing, adopting, or managing a new OPAC system. Topics for further studies on the characteristics of OPAC systems and their use are also suggested.