Two decades of e-government diffusion among local governments in the United States

This study is the first to evaluate e-government diffusion among local governments in the United States over time. The diffusion rates of various types of e-government services are measured and analyzed over two decades. E-government surveys conducted by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) from 2000 to 2011 provide an early trendline of e-government services offered, and an original two-wave panel survey was conducted in 2014 and 2019 collecting data, which extends this timeline and offers new ways to measure adoption in this later period. The panel survey includes the same 83 cities randomly selected from all cities with populations over 50,000, representing over 10% of medium and large size cities in the U.S.The findings of this study provide a clear picture that cities across the nation have increasingly adopted a wide set of e-gov services, with some reaching near complete diffusion. A total of 45 different e-government services are evaluated, with similar e-government services organized together into informational, interactive, multimedia, financial, and social media scaled variables for further analysis. Adoption and diffusion of e-government services have been neither steady nor uniform. However, from 2014 to 2019 the trend was clear: more cities offered more e-government services more consistently.The findings also offer insights into the characteristics of cities that have adopted e-government innovations earlier than others. Both greater population size and percent of residents with broadband access contribute in a statistically significant way to the number of e-gov services adopted, while other expected independent variables like economic measures of wealth do not. These findings contribute to a broader conversation about how the diffusion of e-government service adoption has changed over time and the extent to which that has affected the relationship between residents and their local governments throughout the first two decades of the 21st Century.     

Challenges in e-government development: Lessons from two information kiosk projects

This article discusses the challenges of implementing e-government services through an examination of the development of information kiosks. The article explains the significance of kiosk development in the context of e-government policies through two case studies. The findings demonstrate the importance of having a sound business plan, a reasonable expectation of revenue streams, incremental logics in technology decisions, and effective management of the expectations and power balance of multiple external partners and granters. Based on the lessons learned, we make specific recommendations for policymakers and public IT managers on future kiosk development and similar e-government projects.     

The regulation of diffusion of public sector information via electronic means: Lessons from the Spanish regulation

Transparency is one of the main challenges for public administrations in the information society to bring the public administrations closer to citizens and finally, to improve their democratic legitimacy. The article focuses on new tools to regulate the diffusion of public sector information and it also contributes some elements which will improve it. This analysis will be done, firstly by examining the various regulations approved in Spain on the diffusion of public sector information through electronic means. In particular, the scope of the Spanish e-Government Act will be analyzed in relation to the diffusion of public sector information through electronic means. Finally, some landmarks will be proposed which can serve to guide the formulation of new regulations on the use of electronic means for diffusing public sector information not only by Spanish public authorities but also by other authorities who intend to pass a regulation in this field to improve transparency.     

Interoperability frameworks and enterprise architectures in e-government initiatives in Europe and the United States

Public administrations have been very much concerned since the 1980s about the need of avoiding vendor lock-in when procuring themselves with information technology (IT) infrastructure. The boost of e-government that has taken place in recent years has put this concern again in the agenda of public administrations. Interoperability has shown up as a principle in the conception and deployment of the e-government initiatives, and the interoperability frameworks have been the tool for implementing the principle. In this paper, the use of the interoperability frameworks and of the enterprise architectures within the e-government initiatives is surveyed. The scope of the survey is Europe and the United States. As far as the author is aware, all trends in interoperability policy fall within the scope of the survey. The survey is focused on the methodological tools that e-government agencies have devised for achieving the interoperability at the public administrations. The tools are interoperability frameworks and enterprise architectures.     

Implications of harmonizing the future of the federal depository library program within e-government principles and policies

For more than 150 years, the United States Government Printing Office (GPO), along with its Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), has supported an informed citizenry and democracy by ensuring access and preservation to a broad swath of federal government information. This collaborative national public information program between local libraries and the national government, if it is to survive beyond its second century of service, must overcome profound challenges within a rapidly evolving complex of e-government policies and principles. The FDLP can (and must) find a way to serve its traditional values – permanent and public access to government information – that allows for growth and change within the demands of a dynamic electronic environment between the governors and the governed.     

Beyond Section 508: The spectrum of legal requirements for accessible e-government Web sites in the United States

In the United States, a number of federal laws establish requirements that electronic government (e-government) information and services be accessible to individuals with disabilities. These laws affect e-government Web sites at the federal, state, and local levels. To this point, research about the accessibility of e-government Web sites has tended to focus on compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Though Section 508 has the most specific guidelines regarding Web site accessibility, it is hardly the only law establishing accessibility requirements for e-government Web sites, and Section 508 does not apply to many sites that may be required to be accessible by other laws. Until assessment of the accessibility of e-government Web sites accounts for all of the relevant laws, the understanding of levels of accessibility and compliance will be incomplete. This article examines the entire spectrum of federal laws that create legal requirements for accessible e-government Web sites, analyzing the accessibility requirements that the laws establish and the ways in which each of the laws applies to an e-government Web site. This article also suggests research areas that should be included in future assessments to address the entire range of laws related to the accessibility of e-government Web sites. The issues raised in this article have significant relevance to the design and development of e-government, to the assessment of e-government information and services, and to the inclusion in e-government of the 54 million individuals in the United States with disabilities.     

Business perceptions and satisfaction with e-government: Findings from a Canadian survey

This paper examines business perceptions and satisfaction with e-government. Survey data is analyzed from businesses across Canada to determine their use of e-government and their perceived satisfaction with this technology for public service delivery. There are three research questions of this paper: 1) Are there significant differences for businesses that use the internet to contact government compared to those that do not? 2) Is there is a relationship between having a more positive perception overall by business of government and e-government satisfaction? and 3) Is there a relationship between businesses having input into regulatory changes, essentially being inclusive of business in the regulatory process, and e-government satisfaction? The results from the statistical models indicated that all three questions were confirmed. The findings of this study imply that governments should try to understand the business environment. A more positive attitude by business towards government, and being more inclusive of business in regulatory changes, leads to greater e-government satisfaction.     

Understanding the e-government paradox: Learning from literature and practice on barriers to adoption

We have identified a paradox in the still low adoption of e-government after more than two decades of policy efforts and public investments for the deployment of online public services. Using as evidence the focus and evolution of this focus over the period 1994–2013 in a vast body of literature produced by academia, international organisations and practitioners, we show that: a) the deployment of e-government was for a long time concentrated on more technological and operational matters and that only more recently attention switched to broadly defined institutional and political issues (hypothesis 1a); and b) institutional and political barriers are one of the main factors explaining lack of e-government adoption (hypothesis 1b). A decision making process that is still unstructured, untrustworthy, and not fully leveraging the available evidence hinder the perception of public value and citizens' trust in government, which contribute to low level of e-government adoption. We conclude suggesting that a smart government producing public value is grounded in a triangle of good decision defined by politics, values, and evidence and that to achieve it public sector should go beyond the traditional concept of service innovation. It should rather introduce conceptual and systemic innovation pertaining to a new way of thinking and of interacting with stakeholders and citizens as sources of both legitimacy and evidence.     

Democratic transition and transparency reform: An fsQCA analysis of access to information laws in twenty-three countries

The connection between democracy and transparency would appear to be strong. Democratic countries have been among the earliest adopters of new legislation in transparency reforms such as access to information (ATI) laws. However, research has not yet tested the connection in the context of democratic reform where transitioning countries have the option to adopt ATI laws, and yet may, nevertheless, neglect or delay passage of such laws. To address this question, this paper uses Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) with 23 countries that are in democratic transition in the fourth wave of democratic transition in the 21st century. The results show that low political competition in conjunction with strong civil society, regional pressure and recognition of international norms is favourable to ATI adoption. In contrast, the non-ATI adopters have encountered high political competition coupled with low regional pressure, weak international norms, and weak press freedoms.     

The level of awareness and understanding of copyright laws and policies among academic librarians in Ghana

Awareness and understanding of copyright laws are critical in the proper administration of copyright in academic libraries. Data from 38 library staff and 4 head librarians was used in a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach to assess the level of awareness and understanding of copyright laws among library staff with regards to balancing user rights with rightsholder rights in academic libraries in Ghana. The data was collected using questionnaires and qualitative interviews. Though awareness of all the copyright laws, which was not influenced by the educational status of staff was high, the level of understanding was lower. Work experience, schedule of work and current position of staff significantly influenced the level of understanding. The generally moderate level of understanding of copyright laws for library staff; particularly for fair use and creative commons licensing, is a worrying development for copyright administration in academic libraries in Ghana.     

Assessing e-government capacity to increase voter participation: Evidence from the U.S.

One of the great promises of e-democracy is the potential it holds for increasing citizen participation. Much of the research related to this topic has focused on inputs, identifying the tools and technologies of e-democracy, or factors associated with adoption and/or diffusion of these technologies across units of governments or public organizations. By contrast there has been less research examining how these inputs translate into outcomes, or impacts that e-democracy has on changes in civic behavior or citizen engagement. Our study helps fill this knowledge gap by examining the impact that a specific set of information communication technologies (ICTs) have on a common form of civic engagement: voting. This research creates and tests two unique measures, the online election information index (OEII) and the e-registration service index (ERSI) to examine the extent to which local governments offer online information and utilities that help to educate voters and promote turnout. The index is tested on a sample of 396 county governments in the US to examine the extent to which governments' use of voting ICTs impacts voter participation, while accounting for other institutional and demographic factors that are known to shape voter turnout. We find that voter turnout is indeed higher in communities where local governments offer more voting ICTs, and the availability of these online resources may be particularly influential in boosting turnout in places where state policies serve to constrain or limit turnout.     

英、美、澳、挪网络信息保存政策的经验与借鉴

文章对英、美、澳、挪的网络信息保存政策进行研究,发现这些国家网络信息保存政策的优缺点,从中总结归纳了网络信息保存的最佳实践模式,并提出了我国网络信息保存政策制定的六点建议.     

Comparison of personal information de-identification policies and laws within the EU,the US,Japan, and South Korea

In the era of big data, data creates new added value by collecting, analyzing, and transforming the thoughts and actions of economic members and creating insights that can predict the future. This means that in the near future, data-driven decisions based on data, rather than subjectivity or experience, will be the driving force behind society.However, since valuable and useful data is bound to be generated from personal information, how to safely utilize personal information is becoming an important topic in the big data era. To protect personal information in this environment, data services and database providers have increased their focus on the implementation of de-identification, a technique that can protect personal information while maintaining the usefulness of the data. Moreover, many countries have introduced new policies and laws focusing on the de-identification of personal information.Accordingly, this paper compares and analyzes how the European Union, the United States, Japan, and South Korea have recently adopted the concept of de-identification in their own personal information protection laws, and presents common trends and implications. As a comparative framework, each country's conceptual classification system related to de-identification, legal treatment, data controller obligations, and de-identification procedures was included.This study identifies the shifts made in each country's regulatory system following the introduction of the concept of de-identification. These include a shift from a binary approach to an approach that considers the identifiability spectrum, from a belief in anonymization to regulation from a risk management perspective, and from a focus on de-identification methods, to responsibility for follow-up management.This study contributes to the establishment of specialized knowledge of de-identification practices by empirically examining the current status of de-identification information-related legal systems adopted by major countries/regions. Also, the study proved the actualization of theory by confirming that the de-identification policy approach from the perspective of risk management is actually applied to the laws of each country. In addition, the attempt to present a framework for systematic comparison of de-identification systems by country provides a new perspective that can trace the trend of future de-identification system changes on a consistent basis. In addition, this study brings the gradual expansion of data policy research by expanding the research on de-identified information, which has been studied mainly in Europe and the United States, to case studies in Japan and South Korea.     

The Korean government's electronic record management reform: The promise and perils of digital democratization

Recently, the Korean government instituted a reform in its archives with the goal of increasing transparency in government and meeting the challenges of the new digital environment in records management. President Roh's administration focused on a “process and system” reform through a shift from paper-based records management to electronic records management. The E-jiwon task management system of the Office of the President, invented by President Roh himself, served as the archetype for the reform. This study explores and critiques the administration's choice of a “process and system” reform over institutional reform, examines the legal framework used to enact the reform and its shortcomings, and analyzes the benefits and deficiencies of the E-jiwon as a tool for democracy in the archives. It concludes that while the new digital environment can assist in promoting government transparency, technological change by itself is inadequate; ultimately, institutional change is necessary for true reform.     

The emergent genre of campaign e-mail in the 2008 presidential nomination campaign

This study describes e-mail use in the 2008 U.S. presidential nomination campaigns. A content analysis and rhetorical analysis of over 1,400 e-mails from the primary season of that campaign reveal evidence of typification. Consistent practices and shared purposes are evident in the campaign e-mails, along with shared and individual variations indicating an emergent communicative form. In-group identification pairs with interactive, supporter behaviors to make up the dominant constellations-of-practice within this corpus.     

医保改革中电子病案的利用问题初探

关注民生是时代赋予我们国家的重任。健全的医疗保障体系成为实现人民当家作主,保障公民民主权利的重要举措。随着医保改革的推进、公民民主意识的增强以及信息技术的发展,电子病案作为一种新兴的病案形式,作为医疗保险理赔与报销的重要原始凭证,在医疗保障体制改革中日益显示出优越性。本文试从电子病案的角色定位、利用的有利因素以及存在的发展瓶颈三方面进行阐述,以期达到对医保改革中电子病案的利用问题较为充分的了解。     

Examination of the Nexus Between Academic Libraries and Accreditation: Lessons from Nigeria

The article investigated the nexus between academic libraries and accreditation in the higher institutions with special focus on the Nigerian experience. It showed that all accreditation agencies place a high premium on library provisions as a major component of requisite benchmarks in determining the status of the program or institutions being assessed. Academic libraries help to enrich formal classroom curricular and act as a broadening influence on lecturers and students as well as nurture in them the virtue of independent inquiry. State-of-the-art academic libraries confer prestige on the institutions and have tremendous impact on student retention, rankings, and high profiling of parent institution during accreditation. The article noted that there exists strong intrinsic and sometimes imperceptible relationship between academic libraries and higher education. It recommended institutionalization of global and regional ranking of academic libraries, among others.     

Upstream supply chain management in e-government: The case of Slovenia

The paper highlights the importance of the holistic treatment of e-government. The main challenges and benefits of renovating both upstream and downstream e-government supply chains are reviewed. A new definition of e-government that includes the whole supply chain of the public administration is proposed. Several limitations of current approaches and rankings, that often neglect upstream SC and their detrimental consequences, are highlighted. The case study of the somewhat unsuccessful informatization of Slovenian public procurement illustrates the main problems posed by ignorance of supply chain management principles. It shows that the main challenges are not on the technological side but are instead connected with business process renovation, project management, unclear goals and responsibilities and difficult coordination among various ministerial and governmental bodies.     

The forgotten promise of e-government maturity: Assessing responsiveness in the digital public sector

Assessing e-government responsiveness is one of the major gaps in the currently dominant e-government maturity models. While we have a relatively large pool of models focusing on technological and organizational integration from a supply side perspective, measures of responsiveness of e-government systems from a user perspective are still lacking. Replicating a study from New Zealand and Australia, this study explores the response time and quality of e-mail response in Danish local and central governments (N = 175). Despite that Denmark is high ranking in international benchmark studies, we find that one third of central government agencies did not respond at all, and close to 80% of the ministries provided none or incomplete answers. Local government responds faster and provides answers that are more complete and accurate than those provided by central government. Implications for e-government are discussed.