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Muhlberger, Peter ; Stromer-Galley, Jennifer ; Webb, Nick
2011 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0235
Cyber-optimists anticipate that electronic media will serve as an extensive public space, a virtual agora, that will re-engage the public with politics and the policies that affect everyday life. For three years we were involved in a U.S. National Science Foundation funded project designed to enhance the participation of citizens in government agency rulemaking processes using online public deliberation and Natural Language Processing technologies. Despite a promising approach in an important arena for direct and regular public engagement, the project was met with serious obstacles in trying to secure a partnership with a government agency or interest groups. This led us to consider the policy process literature for insights regarding the obstacles we faced. That literature, a mainstay in the public policy and public administration curriculum in the U.S. and an attempt to capture how policy makers actually make decisions, heavily focuses on institutional actors and their adversarial relationships. Yet, it provides for hardly any role for the public to participate in what ideally should be a democratic process. Important components of the literature imply that institutional actors should discourage direct public engagement. The analysis seeks to clarify leverage points and contexts that could be used to promote online public engagement as a regular component of government processes.
Muhlberger, Peter ; Stromer-Galley, Jennifer ; Webb, Nick
2011 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0235
Cyber-optimists anticipate that electronic media will serve as an extensive public space, a virtual agora, that will re-engage the public with politics and the policies that affect everyday life. For three years we were involved in a U.S. National Science Foundation funded project designed to enhance the participation of citizens in government agency rulemaking processes using online public deliberation and Natural Language Processing technologies. Despite a promising approach in an important arena for direct and regular public engagement, the project was met with serious obstacles in trying to secure a partnership with a government agency or interest groups. This led us to consider the policy process literature for insights regarding the obstacles we faced. That literature, a mainstay in the public policy and public administration curriculum in the U.S. and an attempt to capture how policy makers actually make decisions, heavily focuses on institutional actors and their adversarial relationships. Yet, it provides for hardly any role for the public to participate in what ideally should be a democratic process. Important components of the literature imply that institutional actors should discourage direct public engagement. The analysis seeks to clarify leverage points and contexts that could be used to promote online public engagement as a regular component of government processes.
Deckert, Mark ; Stern, Abram ; Sack, Warren
2011 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0239
The Obama Administration has outlined a set of principles and practices to support Open Government in which citizens can collaborate with the government to solve problems. The Administration is using technology, especially web-based technology, to support Open Government in practice. Many of the government's websites include video. We examine the website built to support the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST). We critique it and argue that a number of important design decisions made for the current site should be changed to better support Open Government. Key to our argument is what has come to be known as Open Video, an application of the ideals of Open Source Software to video. Our critique is followed by a discussion of a prototype system we have built to demonstrate an alternative to the current PCAST site. Our prototype is called Peer-to-PCAST to call attention to the similarities between our proposals and Peer-to-Patent, the first Open Government system built for a different context, the US Patent and Trademark Office (34).
2011 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0241
Purpose: This study examines why and how U.S. government agencies andofficial sadopt Twitter to expand organizational boundaries and extendcommunication reach. Design/methodology approach: The author uses a mixed methods strategy to explain the adoption of Twitter ingovernment. First, Diffusion of Innovations theory provides a foundation toexplain the variables that impact adoption. Then a literature review, anexamination of secondary survey data of U. S. governments' use of andattitudes toward Twitter, and a website analysis of Twitter initiatives areused to describe the uptake of Twitter by government and citizens. Findings: Increased use of Twitter by citizens, private sector and nonprofitor ganizations and an emphasis on providing transparent, participatory, andcollaborative government are primary reasons for Twitter adoption. Federaland local governments are adopting Twitter faster than states. Uses vary bygovernment level, but the main use is for extending communication reach.Effective use, as demonstrated by key initiatives, is related to two-waycommunication and incorporating it within daily workflow. Security,controlling content and developing policies are main challenges for adoption. Practical implications: By examining the deployment of Twitter in government, this study provides a guide for agencies and government officials to explore adopting this new information and communication technology. Originality/value: This paper focuses on the use of Twitter to expand public sectororganizational boundaries by extending the communication reach to engage citizens.
Deckert, Mark ; Stern, Abram ; Sack, Warren
2011 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0239
The Obama Administration has outlined a set of principles and practices to support Open Government in which citizens can collaborate with the government to solve problems. The Administration is using technology, especially web-based technology, to support Open Government in practice. Many of the government's websites include video. We examine the website built to support the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST). We critique it and argue that a number of important design decisions made for the current site should be changed to better support Open Government. Key to our argument is what has come to be known as Open Video, an application of the ideals of Open Source Software to video. Our critique is followed by a discussion of a prototype system we have built to demonstrate an alternative to the current PCAST site. Our prototype is called Peer-to-PCAST to call attention to the similarities between our proposals and Peer-to-Patent, the first Open Government system built for a different context, the US Patent and Trademark Office (34).
Ojo, Adegboyega ; Janowski, Tomasz ; Estevez, Elsa
2011 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0237
The Whole of Government (WG) approach is increasingly seen as an imperative for delivering coherent and integrated policies, joined up and seamless services, and integrated program management in government. Although no generic WG framework currently exists, there are reported cases of WG initiatives by different governments. Grounded in existing theories, frameworks and cases related to inter-organizational collaboration, collaborative Electronic Government (EGOV) and joined-up government, this article describes how to build a collaborative IT Strategy Management (ITSM) environment based on the WG approach. The article first develops a WG model to identify the enabling elements for the WG approach. Next, it identifies the necessary conditions for creating a collaborative ITSM environment in government, applies the WG model to synthesize a set of generic requirements for implementing the WG approach, and presents a WG ITSM toolset to support the implementation. Finally, the generic WG-ITSM requirements are used to analyze a case study involving the WG-ITSM development in a city government. Based on the case study, the validity of the WG model and generic WG-ITSM requirements as well as the usefulness of the toolset are discussed. The article closes with the recommendations for the WG-ITSM practice and for further development of the WG framework.
Ojo, Adegboyega ; Janowski, Tomasz ; Estevez, Elsa
2011 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0237
The Whole of Government (WG) approach is increasingly seen as an imperative for delivering coherent and integrated policies, joined up and seamless services, and integrated program management in government. Although no generic WG framework currently exists, there are reported cases of WG initiatives by different governments. Grounded in existing theories, frameworks and cases related to inter-organizational collaboration, collaborative Electronic Government (EGOV) and joined-up government, this article describes how to build a collaborative IT Strategy Management (ITSM) environment based on the WG approach. The article first develops a WG model to identify the enabling elements for the WG approach. Next, it identifies the necessary conditions for creating a collaborative ITSM environment in government, applies the WG model to synthesize a set of generic requirements for implementing the WG approach, and presents a WG ITSM toolset to support the implementation. Finally, the generic WG-ITSM requirements are used to analyze a case study involving the WG-ITSM development in a city government. Based on the case study, the validity of the WG model and generic WG-ITSM requirements as well as the usefulness of the toolset are discussed. The article closes with the recommendations for the WG-ITSM practice and for further development of the WG framework.
2011 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-2011-0236
Information about public safety has become critical for government organizations, non-government organizations and citizens in general. It enables informed decisions to be made by individuals, as well as guides the creation of public policies. As with many domains, information on public safety is usually spread across different organizations, described in different formats and published at different levels of granularity and richness. In this paper, we present work done on a web-based portal that aggregates and displays public safety information for the city of Troy, New York. This portal shows how the use of semantic technologies facilitates the integration of multiple data sources with disparate characteristics. The portal demonstrates two types of functionality: First, it shows different examples of integration of public safety information through a variety of examples and visualizations. Second, it acts as a source of semantified data that third-party developers can use in their own applications.
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