Channel choice and public service delivery in Canada: Comparing e-government to traditional service delivery

This study examines channel choice and public service delivery in Canada, comparing e-government to traditional service delivery channels such as the phone or visiting a government office. Factors studied include the digital divide, the nature of the citizen interaction with government, public service values, and satisfaction with services received by citizens. These factors are used to determine whether they impacted choice of channel and satisfaction with that channel. This study, through logistic regression of a public opinion survey of Canadian residents, found indications suggesting a digital divide in accessing e-government; found that government websites were most commonly used for information purposes, while the phone was most commonly used to solve problems. In regards to citizens' satisfaction, the apparent digital divide was bridged when females and older Canadians were more satisfied with their contact with a government website. In addition, a positive experience with service delivery and positive public service values lead to greater website satisfaction. The results of this study imply that the phone is a more effective service channel for solving problems, and the website is more effective for getting information. Therefore, governments need to provide multiple contact channels for citizens, depending upon their task at hand, while ensuring consistency of information and service response across channels. Creating a positive experience for citizens when they received a service translates into a more satisfied experience with e-government.     

Suggesting frameworks of citizen-sourcing via Government 2.0

Through various platforms enabled by Web 2.0 technologies, citizens can collectively create public information, provide service, and take part in policy processes. Pushed by the Open Government Directive of the Obama administration, citizen-sourcing may be a new mode of government operations in the U.S. This paper suggests two frameworks to examine the emerging mechanism. The first framework provides three dimensions of citizen-sourcing initiatives: purpose (image-making or ideation), collective intelligence type (professional knowledge or innovative ideas), and strategy (contest, wiki, social networking, or social voting). Second, the paper presents a framework for assessing current citizen-sourcing initiatives. Its categories include design evaluation, process evaluation, and outcome evaluation. The performance of citizen-sourcing primarily depends on the appropriateness of the platform design. The effectiveness of the process needs to be evaluated in terms of the Open Government Directive's three pillar goals of transparency, participation, and collaboration. Evaluating the impact of citizen-sourcing will reveal whether citizen-sourcing is rhetorical or if it actually exerts significant effects on society.     

Author-team diversity and the impact of scientific publications: Evidence from physics research at a national science lab

In the second half of the 20th century, scientific research in physics, chemistry, and engineering began to focus on the use of large government-funded laboratories. This shift toward so-called big science also brought about a concomitant change in scientific work itself, with a sustained trend toward the use of highly specialized scientific teams, elevating the role of team characteristics on scientific outputs. The actual impact of scientific knowledge is commonly measured by how often peer-reviewed publications are, in turn, cited by other researchers. Therefore, how characteristics such as author team seniority, affiliation diversity, and size affect the overall impact of team publications was examined. Citation information and author demographics were reviewed for 123 articles published in Physical Review Letters from 2004 to 2006 and written by 476 scientists who used the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory's facilities. Correlation analysis indicated that author teams that were more multi-institutional and had homogeneous seniority tended to have more senior scientists. In addition, the analysis suggests that more mixed seniority author teams were likely to be less institutionally dispersed. Quantile regression was used to examine the relationships between author-team characteristics and publication impact. The analysis indicated that both weighted average seniority and average seniority had a negative relationship with the number of citations the publication received. Furthermore, the analysis also showed a positive relationship between first-author seniority and the number of citations, and a negative relationship between the number of authors and the number of citations.     

Capturing business intelligence required for targeted marketing,demonstrating value,and driving process improvement

The University of Wollongong (UOW) in New South Wales, Australia, has undertaken an innovative and collaborative research project to demonstrate the value that can be provided by academic libraries through a tool called the “library cube”. The library cube consists of two major components: a backend system containing a multidimensional data warehouse linking student borrowing and use of electronic resources to students' academic marks (grades); and a frontend system that allows users to quickly and easily create cross tabulated data views, such as average student marks by frequency of library resource usage and gender. The project is different from the efforts of other institutions to link usage to student outcomes, in that the library cube is not an isolated research project, but is now an ongoing part of UOW's systems and performance reporting. The library cube represents a fundamental shift in evaluating the student experience through the integration of discrete systems and datasets. It has revealed a very strong relationship between student library usage and academic performance. This information will improve UOW library's ability to demonstrate value to clients and stakeholders. The library cube has also delivered some anticipated and unexpected findings on the relationship between social variables, such as gender, age, and citizenship, and library usage behaviors; and in doing so has also identified potential target audiences for library promotions and engagement strategies.     

Exploring information flows at Nottingham City Homes

This article presents the results of an information audit carried out in a public sector organisation in the UK. The value of the exercise in raising otherwise hidden issues for action is confirmed. The lack of responsibility for information and the importance of context in conferring meaning were significant findings. The process was a catalyst for new thinking about the importance of information in cross-functional working. Some limitations of the information audit process are considered, with emphasis on the need to be sensitive to context. The necessity of relating such tools to the broader literature on organisational politics is suggested, especially in the context of responsibilities for classifications.     

Public libraries and Nigerian cultural development

This paper has identified the ingredients of culture, especially as found in an African society such as Nigeria. It has shown the cultural missions of public libraries as enunciated in the 1995 UNESCO Public Library Manifesto. It shows the role culture in the development of a society. It has discussed some of the ways the cultures of different Nigerian ethnic groups have been negatively influenced; and the problems hindering public libraries in the country from performing their cultural functions creditably. It emphasizes that this category of libraries should be adequately supported for them to uphold, and project the good image of Nigerians through their cherished cultural activities.     

Museums, plasticity, temporality

Throughout the 28th century, numerous philosophers of history and time have questioned the most ingrained of all our beliefs: does time progress in a linear way and is the future simply the next chapter in this narrative?² This essay proposes to rethink the future of museums outside of this narrative structure, one for which the future is reduced to words such as projection, prediction and prophecy. It asks: in an age of globalisation, can the museum still think of the future as the outcome of a chronological narrative? This essay takes one recent attempt (by the philosopher Catherine Malabou) to destabilise—again—this belief, and proposes to reveal the impact that this attempt could have on the museum's understanding of time and its place within it.     

Neutrinos from the Sun: The 2003 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics presented to John Bahcall, Raymond Davis, Jr., and Masatoshi Koshiba

This award recognizes years of research by the laureates using elusive neutrinos to probe the internal workings of the sun. Bahcall and Davis identified an apparently fundamental problem: the fusion reactions that generate the sun's power deep in its core appeared to generate fewer neutrinos than expected. The number of neutrinos detected by Davis was only about a third the number calculated by Bahcall. Koshiba developed a new type of detector that not only confirmed the deficit but also showed that the neutrinos counted by Davis actually come from the Sun. Together the work of these three scientists prepared the way for the resolution of the puzzle, the discovery of a new property of neutrinos called “neutrino oscillations”. On the way from the sun, some neutrinos change identity and become nearly invisible in the detectors. This insight promises to open up new vistas in the fundamental physics of elementary particles.     

The 2001 Bower Award for business leadership presented to Irwin Mark Jacobs

Irwin Mark Jacobs, Founder and CEO of QUALCOMM, Winner of the 2001 Bower Award for Business Leadership.Irwin Mark Jacobs is that rare individual who combines scientific and technical ingenuity with entrepreneurial spirit, strong business leadership, and philanthropic spirit to become a leader in intersecting arenas. Jacobs has combined these qualities to position his company, QUALCOMM, into the world's leader in cellular telephony.