Friending and Funding Through Facebook

Social media may be leveraged as a cost-effective way for nonprofit organizations (1) to share information and (2) as a platform for fundraising. This is especially true for regional nonprofit organizations which may have less dedicated resources for marketing and fundraising. This chapter has two main objectives. First, the impacts of regional nonprofit organizations' leadership and strategic emphasis on the use of social media for information transmission is examined. Insights are gained from leadership at 121 nonprofits and through analysis of 377 days of Facebook data for seven nonprofit organizations. The second objective of this work is to examine regional nonprofit organizations' use of social media for crowdfunding or raising donations through a network of social media followers. The Facebook pages of 647 regional nonprofits are examined, and insights are gained from key staff members at 10 organizations.

How to Migrate Citizens Online and Reduce Traffic on Traditional Channels Through Multichannel Management

E-government channels are a key to achieving economic savings from public digitization. Citizens tend to use multiple channels in a service encounter and often use e-government channels as a supplement instead of replacing traditional channels. There is a lack of knowledge regarding how government organizations apply findings from user studies to migrate citizens online while reducing traffic through traditional channels. The authors present a case study on how public authorities collaborate to create a multichannel strategy for an online application for single parents. After the multichannel strategy was implemented, there was an increase in the use of the application and a reduction in telephone calls. The authors wrote this chapter to contribute to channel choice and multichannel management literature.

States' Budget Investments in Technology and Improving Criminal Justice Outcomes

Investments in criminal justice have been expanding over the decades especially as specific outcomes have been sought to address the issues surrounding crime and public safety. Reducing crime and the rate of imprisonment can both significantly impact public safety and cost savings, as well as address outcomes for the justice-involved population in reducing the rate of return to imprisonment, or recidivism. Lessening sentences for non-violent crimes and expanding drug courts as an alternative to incarceration, along with other major criminal justice reform, have led some states to experience a reduction in crime and prison population. New Jersey, Hawaii, and California have made significant strides to reduce its crime and prison populations and are leaders in achieving major criminal justice reform. This chapter seeks to examine corrections spending for these three leading states that have implemented evidence-based policies and adapted information technology to improve criminal justice outcomes. It will also outline states spending on corrections over the past five years.

The eXtensible Business Reporting Language

This chapter offers a theoretical analysis related to the eXtensible business reporting language (XBRL), a freely available computer language that has become the de facto standard for digital financial reporting. The aim is to deepen the role that XBRL could play within the public sector, which is partially different from its role in corporate reporting. Literature about that topic is lacking, and this research topic seems to be particularly relevant: considering the strong need for information transparency in government, strengthened by the financial crisis, XBRL could be a useful digital tool to push and improve governments' accountability and transparency. Finally, the authors briefly present the Italian case: after the experimental period conducted by the Court of Auditors from 2013 to 2015, and since the end of 2016, XBRL has been the mandatory format for submitting the financial statements of all public entities to the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance.

E-Government of Occupational Safety and Health

Electronic government (e-gov) has not been implemented as extensively in many developing countries as in developed countries, especially in certain fields, such as occupational safety and health (OSH). This chapter considers e-gov that is effected through the websites of leading OSH bodies in a developing country, Trinidad and Tobago, and two developed nations, the USA and UK. Using a content analysis and comparison exercise, OSH e-gov shortcomings and opportunities in T&T are noted. Improvement recommendations include development of a strategy and strategy execution plan to boost stakeholder recognition of the value of the OSH agency and OSH e-gov in T&T; partnership-building to make resources available for OSH e-gov enhancement; enhanced accessibility and utility via a wider range of media formats to users; better stakeholder responsiveness via engagement with social media and better online support; and increased data collection and analysis in order to drive continual improvement.

Foundations' Civic Engagement With Stakeholders

Nonprofit organizations often adopt social media such as Facebook to encourage stakeholders to engage in the organizational mission. Calls to action via social media tend to reach subscribers who “like” or follow the organization via one-way communication. Researching effective approaches to dialogic communication, which asks followers to engage rather than observe, the authors focus on relationship management theory (RMT). RMT stresses organizational-stakeholder dynamic interactions. Using a quantitative modeling approach, the authors examine Facebook posts made by three different types of foundations (community, corporate, and independent) to determine how foundations call for stakeholder engagement. To date, few studies focus directly on types of posts and the response, or lack of response, to organizational messages via social media. Civic engagement requires action on the part of the stakeholder to address social problems. Defining participation and engagement varies by field and types of interaction. This research contributes to literature examining the “digital citizen.”

A Central Asian View of E-Government Services Adoption

Results of survey from a snowball convenient sample of Kyrgyz respondents (N = 216) showed that employees of private sector are more likely to use government websites than those of government employees themselves and level of knowledge about security issues directly related to intention to use of Kyrgyz government websites. Specifically, higher level of knowledge about security issues leads less likely to use government websites. Factors such as ease of use and usefulness, relative advantage of using web sites, and compatibility with respondents' lifestyle have also great impact on intention to use government web sites. Image, given by using internet technologies to communicate with government also has a direct relation on people's intention. The findings also suggest about the gender role in if and under circumstances men and women tend to use government websites. The findings are explained via the investigation of diffusion of innovation model and technology acceptance model in relation to use of government websites in the context of Kyrgyz Republic.

The Impact of Digital Health on Traditional Healthcare Systems and Doctor-Patient Relationships

This chapter uses a historical perspective to examine the development trajectory of digital health in Singapore since 1980 and the impact of digital health on the current health care system and doctor-patient relationship. It shows that digital health is able to transform a fragmented and provider-centric health care system into a more integrated and patient-centric health care system. Besides, it improves the operational efficiency of health care providers, reduces administrative costs and turnaround time, and empowers patients to contribute in treatment decisions. It shows that the development of digital health requires the government to have strong political will and long-term commitment to support and promote the use of digital health to its full potential and engage stakeholders in the policy making process so that such policy can suit the special needs of stakeholders.

Embodiment and Gameplay

Distributed decision making with several stakeholders has various facets. On one hand, it enables significant opportunities for fast and efficient information provision, in particular when various structuring frameworks are provided. On the other hand, there are several problems regarding the reliability and consistency of the data produced in social media contexts as well as with the frameworks themselves. Online collaborative data production systems where crowd feedbacks are aggregated and mediated are easily affected by group biases. There are also several credibility and verification issues as the representativeness of the participants normally is difficult or impossible to determine. This chapter discusses the handling of user data in tools for crowd sourced data production and suggests a framework for describing the socio-technical setting for the production of data, and thereby the detectability of bias patterns in collaborative information production.

Mobile Governance for Affordability and Profitability/Feasibility

The chapter expresses the extent of the application of “e” and mobile mode for governance along with the extent to which, this application can be uplifted through building up the case around the healthcare system and changing market scenario in rural areas because of the researches which the authors/proponents of this chapter have been conducting. The premise that emerges in the chapter has evolved through the primary interaction with the concerned population. The findings suggest that the rural people of India opine and desire for better healthcare services and market scenario through alternative means, they are willing to pay for the services, they have opined positively and they wish to be involved in the market development scenario wherein E-governance and m-governance has emerged to be an important mode.