Economic solutions to improve cybersecurity of governments and smart cities via vulnerability markets

Cities are becoming smarter and smarter. While the rapid progress in smart city technologies is changing cities and the lifestyle of the people, it creates also huge attack surfaces for potential cyber attacks. The potential vulnerabilities of smart city products and imminent attacks on smart city infrastructure and services will have significant consequences that can cause substantial economic and noneconomic losses, even chaos, to the cities and the people. In this paper we study alternative economic solutions ranging from incentive mechanisms to market-based solutions to motivate governments, smart product vendors, and vulnerability researchers and finders to improve the cybersecurity of smart cities and e-government. These solutions can be integrated into policy instruments in defending smart cities and e-governments against cyber attacks.     

Being smart: Emerging technologies and innovation in the public sector

Smart government is used to characterize activities that creatively invest in emergent technologies coupled with innovative strategies to achieve more agile and resilient government structures and governance infrastructures. However, there is no consensus in terms of what this term includes and how it is related to emergent technologies and innovation in the public sector. This introductory paper provides readers with ways to think about smart government and summarizes findings from twelve articles included in this special issue. These articles, which are the best papers of the 6th International Conference on the Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV2012), contribute to emerging understanding of being smart in government settings. The articles span a great diversity of related topics such as smart cities, open government, and participation mechanisms. Collectively, the articles provide perspectives on the nature of smart governments and illustrate exemplar practices and initiatives on how governments are opening up and transforming service delivery to become smarter. The special issue in its entirety contributes to understanding governance structures, technical infrastructures, and other requirements geared toward supporting the operations of smarter governments around the world.     

Managing federal information technology: Conflicting policies and competing philosophies

Despite congressional initiatives and the Clinton administration's increased attention to information technology (IT) management policy, as part of its reinventing government and National Information Infrastructure (NII) initiatives, it is not evident that current IT policy initiatives will effectively address IT management problems. Nor is it evident that these efforts will result in the IT management improvements required to improve significantly Federal agency performance. This may be true because the government fails to recognize fundamental conflicts in the conceptualization of Federal IT management—conflicts perhaps best exemplified by the National Performance Review's (NPR) simultaneous call for reductions in bureaucratic red tape, reductions in the Federal workforce, limited support for IT education and training, and improved integration and oversight of IT management. After identifying some representative issues related to these program initiatives, the authors offer recommendations to improve Federal management of IT.     

An emerging typology of IT governance structural mechanisms in smart cities

The institutionalisation of Smart City Functions (SCF) within local authorities creates significant IT Governance (ITG) challenges, including the need to foster a triadic alignment between the overall organization, the IT function and the SCF. Building on existing literature on ITG, smart cities, and the emerging conversation on Adaptive Governance in the public sector, the following exploratory question has been formulated for this study: How are ITG structural mechanisms implemented in city authorities to oversee and govern smart cities? To address this question, a qualitative multiple case study was carried out across three city authorities in Ireland characterised by diversity in their ITG structural arrangements to govern portfolios of smart city initiatives. From this analysis three types of ITG structural implementation are proposed named: Detached, Integrated, and Traditional. These are compared and discussed in relation to: (1) orientation of each approach; (2) decision-making authority; (3) alignment with the IT function and the overall municipal organization; and (4) the challenge perceived by the SCFs under each ITG arrangement. This research contributes to the academic conversation on adaptive governance, smart cities as well as to the broader ongoing debate on ITG in the public sector.     

Big data analytics,resource orchestration,and digital sustainability: A case study of smart city development

Smart cities are expected to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of urban management, including public services, public security, and environmental protection, and to ultimately achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 for making cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Big data have been identified as a key enabler in the development of smart cities. However, our understanding of how different data sources should be managed and integrated remains limited. By analyzing data applications in the development of a sustainable smart city, this case study identified three phases of development, each requiring a different approach to orchestrating diverse data sources. A framework identifying the phases, data-related issues, data orchestration and its interaction with other resources, focal capabilities, and development approaches is developed. This study benefits both researchers and practitioners by making theoretical contributions and by offering practical insights in the fields of smart cities and big data.     

A path-dependence perspective on the adoption of Internet of Things: Evidence from early adopters of smart and connected sensors in the United States

As an integral part of the Internet of Things (IoT), smart and connected sensors are emerging information and communication technologies that collect and transmit real-time data from various urban domains to inform decision-making. While smart sensors and IoT technologies have great potential to transform public service provision, their adoption in the public sector seems to be slow and incremental. Using cross-sectional data of 65 large and mid-sized cities in the United States, we examine what affects local governments' adoption of smart and connected sensors. We propose a path-dependence explanation for the incremental adoption and test if a local government's sensor adoption behavior is shaped by its existing policy priorities and managerial practices in related fields. Our results show that local governments' early adoption of smart sensors is likely to stem from their needs in specific policy domains. We also find that a local government's historical paths on urban sustainability and data-driven decision-making practices can predict its trajectory of sensor deployment, in terms of the scope and the integration of smart sensors across different urban domains. Surprisingly, a local government's e-government progressiveness is not a significant predictor. Our results confirm the incremental change in smart sensor adoption and provide implications for local governments' IoT planning.     

Public value creation in digital government

Public value theory offers innovative ways to plan, design, and implement digital government initiatives. The theory has gained the attention of researchers due to its powerful proposition that shifts the focus of public sector management from internal efficiency to value creation processes that occur outside the organization. While public value creation has become the expectation that digital government initiatives have to fulfil, there is lack of theoretical clarity on what public value means and on how digital technologies can contribute to its creation. The special issue presents a collection of six papers that provide new insights on how digital technologies support public value creation. Building on their contributions, the editorial note conceptualizes the realm of public value creation by highlighting: (1) the integrated nature of public value creation supported by digital government implementations rather than enhancing the values provided by individual technologies or innovations, (2) how the outcome of public value creation is reflected in the combined consumption of the various services enabled by technologies and (3) how public value creation is enabled by organizational capabilities and configurations.     

New directions in health sciences libraries in China

This article briefly describes the services provided by Chinese health science libraries and the factors which influence service provision. Driven by new technologies and national initiatives, the key services delivered by Chinese health libraries in the last 10 years have been research support services (such as research impact assessment, support for data management), evidence‐based medicine, systematic reviews, the promotion of health information literacy, and the development of institutional repositories. J.M.     

Counterpoints about predatory open access and knowledge publishing in Africa

The promise of open access (OA) as a replacement for existing scientific information dissemination ethos and practice has been contentious, with the interests of different stakeholders – countries, publishers, and OA activists, among others – clashing on an unprecedented scale. This paper examines some of the challenges that have been triggered by the OA movement, particularly at the Africa regional level. Basically, OA is technology heavy and its economic arrangements benefit mainly the developed world. There is evidence of OA initiatives in Africa, but these initiatives are mainly individually based, defragmented, and largely underdeveloped, and sometimes predatory. This author argues that policy‐makers in Africa need to embrace OA and establish useful policies – for regional journals and regional repositories and for academic reward, and support this with technical investment to enable quality online publishing.     

Does citizen coproduction lead to better urban services in smart cities projects? An empirical study on e-participation in a mobile big data platform

With contemporary development of digital technology and smart cities initiatives, citizen co-production has created a new government-citizen interface. However, it remains inconclusive whether such citizen-government collaboration has achieved the fundamental goal of improving service quality for citizens. In this research, we tested the relationship between e-participation as a form of co-production and service performance, using multiple large longitudinal datasets from a smart city mobile platform. The results of the analysis show that citizen e-participation, in providing service feedback, is positively associated with the clearance rate of urban service requests in subdistrict service units, after controlling for various factors. We also found that the effect size of e-participation on service performance varies between different types of city services. E-participation has a stronger relative influence on complex problems that may involve multiple agencies, than with simple routine services.     

Information production, transfer, and delivery: Mass information work and television Journalists’ dilemma in Nigeria

Nigeria developed a national policy for information technology (IT), which is a general policy for the development of IT (or more broadly, information and communication technologies (ICTs)) in Nigeria. It was formulated by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and published in March 2001. The policy represents the perceptions of the Federal Government of Nigeria of what ICTs are, what they do and can do, how they can be developed and applied, and the time frame within which to achieve ICT capability in Nigeria. This paper analyzes the Nigerian national information policy for IT and the process of its formulation within this context. It concludes that many of the specific questions raised in the discussion were not considered in the policy formulation process under discussion. The questions, or at least most of them, raised in this discussion remain valid and continue to beg for answers, irrespective of any success or failure that may be attributed to the existence or operation of the policy.     

From policy implementation to business process management: Principles for creating flexibility and agility

Organizations are required to comply with changes in legislation and policy. Yet the implementation of new legislation is often expensive, can have long lead times and is prone to failure. The existing situation significantly constrains policy-making. To improve this, policy makers and policy executors are searching for ways to achieve higher levels of flexibility and agility in their business process management systems. Flexibility is the ability to react to changes and agility is the speed in responding to variety and change. Both flexibility and agility are multi-dimensional concepts.This paper presents principles for creating flexibility and agility when implementing new or revised policies into business processes. These principles include: 1) defining and using business services, 2) integrating and orchestrating business services through the use of events, 3) separating process, knowledge and resources and 4) implementing policy in an integrated manner. Business services are components encapsulating business functions and having clear responsibilities and accountabilities. The case study shows that these forms of flexibility and agility can help to implement policies more quickly and cost effectively. An organization's resources and level of flexibility and agility determines what laws can be implemented within a certain time. The improvement of flexibility and agility requires innovations on all levels: infrastructure, business process and organization. The level of flexibility and agility should always be measured by a combination of measures. We make plea for instruments assessing the impact of policies on organizations prior to implementation.     

Information technology policy formulation in Nigeria: Answers without questions

Nigeria developed a national policy for information technology (IT), which is a general policy for the development of IT (or more broadly, information and communication technologies (ICTs)) in Nigeria. It was formulated by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and published in March 2001. The policy represents the perceptions of the Federal Government of Nigeria of what ICTs are, what they do and can do, how they can be developed and applied, and the time frame within which to achieve ICT capability in Nigeria. This paper analyzes the Nigerian national information policy for IT and the process of its formulation within this context. It concludes that many of the specific questions raised in the discussion were not considered in the policy formulation process under discussion. The questions, or at least most of them, raised in this discussion remain valid and continue to beg for answers, irrespective of any success or failure that may be attributed to the existence or operation of the policy.     

Managing information technology in the federal government: Assessing the development and application of agency-wide policies

Growing interest in Federal agencies' management of information technology (IT) has prompted an examination of possible causes for problems in managing information technology. Members of both the Executive and Legislative Branches believe the problems result from ineffective OMB policies. Recent research shows, though, that agency management problems have resulted, in part, from the ineffectual application of OMB policy by agencies. This article examines what factors support or impede agency application and enforcement of IT management policy.     

Dynamic capabilities of a smart city: An innovative approach to discovering urban problems and solutions

With the recent increase in urban population worldwide, and the emergence of big data analytics, there is a growing interest in research on how cities are actively reconstructing themselves into a smart and sustainable city. Research studies have shown that the smart city system primarily focuses on integrating three components: economic, environmental, and social. The social component includes participatory democracy with citizen engagement. In many cases, smart cities focus on discovering answers for various urban problems through the adoption of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) designed to collect citizen feedback, or provide knowledge resources that can improve the quality of urban life. However, there are very few studies that attempt to close the information loop and link problems to solutions in one, unified framework. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate such a unified approach. Using the theoretical lens of dynamic capabilities, we expand the definition of a smart city to include the notion of an urban organization with dynamic capabilities, which operates within cycles of ‘sense’, ‘seize’, ‘align’, and ‘transform’ functions. Our case study focuses on the ‘sense’ and ‘seize’ steps, describing a medium-size city in Texas, where an open-ended survey is used as a collection instrument for citizen input and concept-based analytics are employed to convert such input into actionable insights. Our approach has the potential to assist policy makers in designing a comprehensive strategy toward the goal of the smart city.     

Information for social and economic participation: A review of related research on the information needs and acquisition of rural Chinese

This paper provides an analytical overview of related literature published during the past decade on rural population's information needs and acquisition in China, with a view to informing the world research community and policy makers of what has been found about the information needs of the world's largest rural population and to promoting dialogue between interested researchers within and outside China. Results from related studies are summarized; major methodological features of these studies are noted; practical and theoretical implications of major findings are critically analyzed. Although the results from related studies are not directly comparable due to their differences in research methods and contexts, it is nevertheless possible to draw some common conclusions regarding the rural population's information needs and information source preferences. Related research has overwhelmingly showed that rural residents have an extensive range of information needs, with agricultural technological information, market information, income generation information and policy information being the most needed; and that they rely very much on interpersonal relationships for acquiring both general information and information for agriculture production. The primary objectives of most studies are pragmatic rather than theoretical.     

A framework for Internet of Things-enabled smart government: A case of IoT cybersecurity policies and use cases in U.S. federal government

Internet of Things (IoT) is ubiquitous in society. IoT-enabled dynamic capabilities in real-time sensing and responding can spur digital transformation in unlocking the potential of digital government into data-driven smart government capable of delivering policies and services of public interest and public value. However, the literature indicates challenges in IoT cybersecurity and systemic use across the government. There is the urgent need for IoT research on policy and use. This paper developed a framework for IoT-enabled smart government performance. We applied this framework to conduct case study analyses of digital technology policy, IoT cybersecurity policy, and IoT use in major application domains at the U.S. federal government level. The results show that some agencies were strategic and forward-thinking in funding and partnering with sub-national governments in promoting the IoT use. However, there remains a critical need for national IoT policies to promote systemic IoT use across the application domains.     

Information for social and economic participation: A review of related research on the information needs and acquisition of rural Chinese

This paper provides an analytical overview of related literature published during the past decade on rural population's information needs and acquisition in China, with a view to informing the world research community and policy makers of what has been found about the information needs of the world's largest rural population and to promoting dialogue between interested researchers within and outside China. Results from related studies are summarized; major methodological features of these studies are noted; practical and theoretical implications of major findings are critically analyzed. Although the results from related studies are not directly comparable due to their differences in research methods and contexts, it is nevertheless possible to draw some common conclusions regarding the rural population's information needs and information source preferences. Related research has overwhelmingly showed that rural residents have an extensive range of information needs, with agricultural technological information, market information, income generation information and policy information being the most needed; and that they rely very much on interpersonal relationships for acquiring both general information and information for agriculture production. The primary objectives of most studies are pragmatic rather than theoretical.     

Open Access and the Developing World

Till about 15 years ago, almost all information exchange among scientists and scholars was mediated by print and even then researchers in the developing countries were at a great disadvantage as their libraries did not have the resources to subscribe in comparison with even a small fraction of journals libraries in advanced countries. But the Internet and the World Wide Web initially exacerbated the gap between the rich and the poor countries, as many poor countries were slow to acquire these technologies and the infrastructure (especially bandwidth). Soon it became clear that thanks to these technologies we now have the unprecedented opportunity of having a level playing field in the matter of accessing scientific and scholarly information. Transforming this opportunity into reality is entirely in the hands of the researchers themselves. Imagine a world where every scientist places his/ her research papers, which (s)he wants to give away so others can read and make use of, in a public archive. Anyone anywhere in the world, of course having an Internet connection, can access, download, and read those papers. This is a win-win situation for all: the reader gets to read what he wants to read at very little cost; the author gains greater visibility for his work and the work reported is likely to have greater impact than if it were to be made available only through a toll-access journal. Although the logic is so simple, in reality such archives were not coming up for a very long time. In spite of the fact that computer scientists and physicists had shown about 15 years ago the great advantages of such archives. Recent studies by Alma Swan and others have shown that a very large proportion of scientists are not aware of open access and therefore what we need is focused advocacy. Even among those who know of OA, many are not depositing their papers in archives but say they would if they are asked by their bosses or their funding agencies. Clearly the ball is in the court of scientists and policy makers. OA is especially advantageous to the developing countries as the current access to literatures is poorest in these countries.