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2018 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-170045
Open government data (OGD) can enable outbound open innovation (OI) that is beneficial to society. However, innovation barriers hinder OGD users from generating value. While previous studies have detailed a large number of such barriers, little is known of how different types of OGD users are affected, and when the barriers appear in their innovation processes. To this end, this paper describes a case study of distributed service development in the Swedish public transport sector. The contribution to extant research is twofold. Firstly, based on an inductive analysis, three OGD user archetypes are proposed: employees, entrepreneurs and hobbyists. Secondly, the study finds that the significance of distinct innovation barriers varies across phases of the services’ lifecycles and depending on the OGD users’ motivation, objective, pre-conditions and approach. Drawing on these insights, we propose that OGD initiatives aimed at facilitating outbound OI to a greater extent should address the barriers that appear during diffusion of innovations, the barriers that are not directly related to the OGD provision, and the barriers that are experienced by non-obvious OGD user groups.
Peeters, Rik; Schuilenburg, Marc
2018 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-180074
The use of algorithms to predict behaviour is becoming the gold standard in criminal justice in various countries. This article critically analyses the algorithm-driven risk assessment tools used in predictive policing and predictive justice. First, we propose to see algorithms as essentially bureaucratic instruments. They are the digital offspring of the classic bureaucratic procedure, creating classification through standardised and impersonal decision-making. Second, we argue that the application of algorithms in criminal justice expands the bureaucratic field to areas previously understood as bulwarks of professional judgement. Third, we analyse the shift in purpose of algorithmic decision-making: instead of determining a citizen’s status of beneficiary or obligate, we now see algorithmic anticipation of behaviour. This shifts the logic of decision-making over investigations, probations, and sentencing from individual judgement to bureaucratic classification based on the algorithms that are designed into risk assessments tools. This article is both a bureaucratic critique of algorithm-driven risk assessment tools in criminal justice and a call to rethink bureaucracy and bureaucratisation beyond the boundaries of public administration.
2018 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-170037
Local public administrations around the world are facing the challenge of introducing e-participation, but the cultural and institutional aspects of the e-participation innovation process have not been researched extensively. This dearth in research can inhibit our understanding of how and why e-participation succeeds, fails or develops in certain contexts. Thus, we apply two concepts from organizational institutionalism to determine how e-participation in local public administrations is influenced by and influences the organizational and institutional context. Institutional logics help us to describe and analyze the complex institutional context, and institutional work assists in focusing agency aimed at but also embedded in this institutional context. The research, which includes results of a multiple case study of three local German public administrations, finds that three role identities in regard to e-participation can be distinguished: entrepreneurs, pragmatists, and skeptics. These identities develop in relation to administrators’ positions in e-participation processes and evolve as actors engage strategically in the innovation process through institutional work on e-participation practices at the individual, project, and organizational level. We thereby generate insights into the specific perspective of central actors in the e-participation innovation process (i.e. administrators).
Bannister, Frank; Connolly, Regina
2018 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-180072
Western liberal capitalist democracy is in trouble. In many democratic countries, for the first time since the second world war, nationalism, populism and the strong leader who can sort out the problems have re-emerged in force. Some democracies seem to be reverting to forms of autocracy which many thought they had left behind.ICT is a contributory factor to this trend. Contrary to the techno-optimism of the 1990s and early 2000s which forecast the emergence of more and stronger democracy underpinned by technological developments, technology increasingly appears as more of a threat to, rather than a support of, democracy. Technology-enabled problems include fake news, hacking of e-mail servers, hate sites, Twitter storms and filter bubbles into which different political groups retreat to reinforce their prejudices.This paper proposes a rethink of how technology can be deployed in defence of democracy and democratic values. We argue that it has long been recognised that the administrative state and its deep bureaucratic structures provide a degree of democratic resilience and that this resilience can be enhanced by appropriate use of ICT. We propose that prioritising ICT interoperability rather than ICT integration in public administration can enhance the separation of powers in the modern state and strengthen the ability of a polity to resist authoritarianism. This is not proposed as a solution to all of the problems facing contemporary democracy, but it can nonetheless contribute towards countering the increasingly negative impact of technology on politics.We argue that there is an urgent need to move beyond what has often been wishful thinking about e-government and e-democracy as transformative tools and consider how technology might be used for conserving and protecting the best of what we have already have.
2018 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-170052
This article focuses on the relationship between network leadership and innovation in the public sector. Data from three case studies on digital-based municipal networks in Norway are presented, covering the period from 2006 to 2017. Although the networks share key characteristics, their capacity to accomplish technical and organizational integration varies considerably. Each network is thus analyzed according to four traditional leadership roles. A key finding is that there is a connection between innovation and network leadership. Networks facilitate entrepreneurship, but without an integrator and well functioning administrative superstructure, their ability to innovate could be compromised: the mix of leadership roles therefore matters. Second, given the lack of formal authority in networks, power arises when professional ICT experts with access to knowledge collaborate with Chief Executives Officers with access to decision-making structures. ‘Dyadic leadership’ and ‘Network conductors’ are terms introduced as contributions to this emerging insight. Third, informal networks and “ICT-clubs” struggle to innovate as integration advances beyond relatively loose digital collaborations. A key explanatory factor is the extent to which network leaders manage to mobilize political and administrative support towards formalizing the networks and thus driving innovation.
Sagarik, Danuvas; Chansukree, Pananda; Cho, Wonhyuk; Berman, Evan
2018 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-180006
This study discusses Thailand’s digital transformation efforts with a focus on the leadership roles of its central government agencies. Thailand has progressed through various e-government policy frameworks since the 1990s, and the current military government is implementing a version ‘4.0’ of digital transformation strategies, aiming to improve business competitiveness, citizen wellbeing, and public sector performance. Central government agencies were created or reorganized to deal with the ‘silo-ization’ or ‘pillarization’ of public organizations, as well as a need for hierarchical leadership and coordination. We discuss the challenges in maintaining reform leadership and accountability, legislation, interoperability, employee capabilities and performance management, and efforts by central agencies to address them.
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