Information Polity

2023 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/ip-239013

Firmino, Rodrigo; Evangelista, Rafael

2023 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/ip-211514

Brazil has been standing out as one of the worst places on Earth to be during a global health crisis, especially for those whose struggle for basic humanitarian rights is already routine. How do the political environment and historical inequalities in countries like Brazil affect the ways in which public policy and technologies are framed as responses for the pandemic crisis? In this paper we aim to present the sequence of actions and omissions in the fight against sars-cov2 in Brazil, concentrating on measures based on the use of digital technologies and the sociotechnical arrangements unfolding in materialities that give shape to such measures. We will also discuss possible repercussions of the widespread adoption of surveillance technologies as a quick fix to the effects of the pandemic. Our focus is to explain how the materiality of the virus and its political as well as territorial effects are combined with digital technologies as responses (or lack of them) in the fields of healthcare, education, communication and labour in the context of the Global South.

Faber, Bram

2023 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/ip-220016

Given the various benefits of social media for governments, municipalities are increasingly attempting to institutionalize their use of social media. This article looks at the use of middleware that is observed on municipal Twitter accounts in Dutch municipalities in 2018 and 2021 (N= 724), which provide a set of APIs that specify input and output modalities. It is observed that the use of subscription-based customer relationship management (CRM) tools, developed mostly in a corporate context, has grown considerably, with an uptake of 89.0% of Dutch municipalities in 2021, whereas the use of free CRM tools appears to be declining. Middleware were studied and linked to three models of social media institutionalization (informal experimentation, centralization, and distribution). Municipalities in the informal experimentation model were observed to have smaller population sizes and generally had fewer IT professionals in their constituencies. Larger municipalities with more IT professionals were mostly observed to have a centralized model of institutionalization. Although municipalities with a distributed institutionalization model were larger, they were generally less urbanized. Finally, more technologically advanced municipalities were only observed to make more use of the distributed model.

Allgood, Michelle; Frandell, Ashlee

2023 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/ip-220045

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the inaccessibility of government information and communication technologies (ICTs) for members of the disability community. Organizational learning around ICT accessibility can be impacted by factors influencing strategies and assumptions or values and norms. Using data collected over two time periods in 2021, we study how the accessibility of US state health agencies COVID-19 information and vaccine websites improve over time. We examine how time, state policies, and partisanship influence organizational learning around website accessibility. Our analysis determines that the longer a COVID-19 related website exists on the Internet, the less accessible the website. We also find that more extensive internal state accessibility policies are more correlated with websites that meet fundamental accessibility requirements. Additionally, we find that partisanship plays an unexpected role in meeting fundamental accessibility demands, although both state policies and politics do not influence if an ICT meets the best practices standards of accessibility. Our paper initiates a discussion around the factors that influence organizational learning about government website accessibility and points to future research questions where the primary ICT function is not influenced by a rapidly evolving pandemic.

Karlström, David; Lidén, Gustav; Sundberg, Leif

2023 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/ip-220033

E-petitions constitute a promising method of increasing public participation and engagement in government processes. However, there is a lack of knowledge of why some government entities implement e-petitions, while others do not. Moreover, it is unknown why some organizations may receive many e-petitions while others receive relatively few. Thus, in this paper, we aim to fill these gaps by investigating the implementation and use patterns of e-petitions based on data from Swedish local governments. Through statistical analysis of data related to demography, economy, technology, and democracy, our findings unveil variations in municipalities’ implementation of e-petitions and citizens’ use of them. The results reveal that municipalities with a relatively large population and established modes of local democracy are more inclined to implement e-petitions than smaller jurisdictions. However, we also found that the number of incoming e-petitions per capita is negatively correlated with population size. Thus, the presence of institutionalized work structures related to local democracy is an important precursor for the implementation of e-petitions, while previous experience with communication technologies had a positive effect on the number of incoming petitions. In addition to these findings, the novelty of our study lies in the use of several official data sources to seek explanations for the implementation and use of e-petitions in local government. By doing so, this study has paved the way for similar research in other contexts. The paper concludes with implications for both research and practice as well as suggestions for future studies.

Heidlund, Marcus; Sundberg, Leif

2023 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/ip-220063

The intensified use of digital technologies in the public sector, which is commonly referred to as “digitalization,” is associated with the pursuit of a range of values. Values reflect notions of desirability, and they are expressed in strategic government documents. In this paper, we argue that the study of narratives in policies is important since they constitute starting points for the operationalization of strategic intent. The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of the narratives of the digitalization strategies that have been articulated by Swedish local government. We applied a theoretical framework that consists of four value ideals (professionalism, efficiency, service, and engagement), and we combined it with directed content analysis to analyze the strategies in question. Most of the statements in the strategies anticipate beneficial outcomes of digitalization and articulate few risks. The most common value proposal refers to the congruence between values of improved service and increased efficiency, while engagement values are less common. Moreover, the strategies draw on a repository of general and identical optimistic statements, which we refer to as the “parrot syndrome.” In addition, the methods that are used to evaluate values lack specificity. These findings contribute to the literature on the discursive landscape of digitalization by a comprehensive analysis of the value positions that are articulated in local government strategies. The paper concludes with three proposals for further research, namely to perform similar studies in other contexts, to study the enactment of digitalization strategies, and to investigate the aforementioned “parrot syndrome.”

Tan, Evrim

2023 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/ip-220020

AI solutions can significantly leverage open government data (OGD) ecosystems in public governance. For that, it is important to design effective and transparent governance mechanisms that create value in an OGD ecosystem through AI solutions. This article develops a conceptual model for a systematic design of an OGD governance model, which adopts a platform governance approach and integrates the governance needs derived from the use of AI. The purpose of the conceptual model is to systematically identify and analyze the interrelationships among multiple change factors on OGD governance design and to project available AI-based solutions for the OGD ecosystem by assessing the managerial, organizational, legal, technological, moral, and institutional variances. The proposed ‘6-step model’ suggests that an AI-compatible OGD ecosystem design requires (i) identifying contingencies, (ii) identifying data prosumers, (iii) assigning data governance roles, (iv) identifying design values, (v) designing the governance of AI, and (vi) designing the governance by AI. Through the recursive and reflexive analysis of each step, policymakers and system designers can develop reliable strategies in leveraging AI solutions for the use of OGD in public governance.

Fussey, Pate; Webster, C. William R.

2023 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/ip-239012