The Örebro City Citizen-Oriented E-Government Strategy

This chapter discusses practices, opportunities, and challenges in local e-government project management by means of a case study involving interviews, document studies, and an element of action research, over eight months. The analysis against e-government success factors finds seven “critical issues”; political timing, resource allocation, political mandate, distinction between administrative and political responsibilities, coordination of departments, dependence on providers, and use of standards. We found these issues open for local choice, influences of strong individuals and groups, and chance. This is a consequence of the prevailing strategic model for the public sector, New Public Management, which leaves these issues to be filled by negotiations among many actors with different roles, goals, and action space. The general lesson is that there is a need for practical ways of acting strategically to reduce the risk level and increase the ability to implement policy.

Public Libraries and Local E-Government

Many residents and local communities rely on public libraries for access to and training to use e-government. Many local governments direct citizens to the public library for help in using e-government, while citizens seek help from the public library in using local e-government when they have no other means of connecting or when they want help using e-government. As a result, public libraries now serve not only as instrumentalities of local government, but as a primary location for access to local e-government and a very successful link between citizens to e-government. As residents, communities, and governments rely on public libraries as a main access point to e-government, it essential to better understand the connection and education roles of public libraries to improve the delivery of local e-government.

E-Governance and the Information Society in Periphery

Finland is among the leading information societies. The national information society strategy aims to make the information society accessible by every person in the country from anywhere, regardless of gender, age, or social status. The aim of this welfare-based task is to provide a good life for everyone facilitated by e-governance. At the same time, the strategy aims to enhance the innovativeness and economic competitiveness of the country. The cases of the Oulu urban area and the Kainuu region indicate that despite national strategies, in practice the information society is built locally. Its organization seems not to wither the development differences. The implementation of welfare centered e-governance has challenges. Providing a good life in the information society in Finland by combining social welfare and economic competitiveness is mainly found in the rhetoric of national strategies and not in local practice.

The Functionality of Website-Based Services of Metropolitan Municipalities in Turkey

This chapter aims to evaluate the e-government practices in metropolitan municipalities in Turkey by determining functionality levels of metropolitan municipalities’ Web site-based services. In this context, it firstly explains the concept of e-government briefly. Secondly, it summarizes the concept of local e-government and evaluates the potential of e-government to help local governments. This chapter examines the situation of e-government practices in local governments in Turkey. Finally, the chapter analyzes the e-government practices in respect of functionality of Web site services in metropolitan municipalities by using a comparative functionality analysis. According to this analysis, they are inadequate in the provision of Web site-based e-government services. Furthermore, the authors aim to present an original and functional method that will make it possible to comparatively analyze the Web site-based services offered by the metropolitan municipalities.

An Overview of Local E-Government Adoption and Implementation in Turkey

This chapter presents an analysis of local e-government adoption and implementation in Turkey. To this end, academic articles, various laws, and parts of the newly-adopted Turkish Information Society Strategic Plan that pertains to local e-government, reports of local e-government implementation are reviewed. The chapter also examines the integration of local e-government applications in a portal and the efforts to link this portal to a Web-based performance management system for local governments. Overall, it can be said that there is a lack of consistency with regard to local e-government mandates and implementation. The chapter concludes with the evaluation of the current state of and future research areas about local e-government in Turkey.

A Comparative Study of Municipal Adoption of Internet-Based Citizen Participation

A Comparative Study of Municipal Adoption of Internet-Based Citizen Participation

E-Government in Slovene Municipalities

In this chapter, 3 main aspects of municipal e-government in Slovenia are investigated thoroughly: supply, demand, and the view of municipal officials. After the review of studies in the field, the results of 3 empirical studies are presented. While the supply-side aspect of municipal e-government has been investigated within several studies, the view of external (citizens) and internal (municipal officials) users of municipal e-government have been rather neglected in the past, and the same is true for effects measured in this field. This chapter fills these gaps. The results revealed that municipal Web supply is poor, which is reflected in citizens’ satisfaction as well. Surprisingly, municipal officials are not well aware of possibilities e-government offers to them and to their customers. In addition, they believe that positive effects brought about the introduction of e-government are not significant, while among negative effects larger range of tasks, heavier workload, and increased complexity of tasks are stressed. At the end of the chapter key findings are summarized.

Towards Digital Governance in UK Local Public Services?

In the United Kingdom, major investments have been made in e-government in order to modernize government and improve the efficiency and quality of public services. It has been claimed that these changes herald a “new era of digital governance”. The management of the vast majority of public services in the United Kingdom takes place at local and regional levels and provision at this level has a key role in “joining-up services” through greater information sharing and multi-agency working. This chapter examines these developments with reference to a study of the procurement of a software system by a city council, an experiment in multi-agency working to provide services to children, and the introduction of a regional smart card. It is argued that if such innovations are to have outcomes consistent with the claims of the digital governance thesis, then the relationship between technological and organizational change will need to be re-thought.

Local E-Government Partnerships

In the United Kingdom and throughout the world there is increasing emphasis on public sector organizations working together in local partnerships. Partnerships can potentially encourage the delivery of joined-up services to citizens, promote democracy, and improve public policy making, but partnership working is not always easy and can be challenging for the individuals and organisations involved. This chapter will report on recent research into how English local authorities and their partners work together on electronic government. The research is based on a systematic literature review and a case study of a sub-regional e-government partnership, using a mixed methods approach combining social network analysis with qualitative interviews. The research identifies the importance of network structure to e-government partnerships and explores a number of other significant themes including leadership, accountability, embeddedness, and size of organization.

From Conception to Demise

This chapter explores the issues of the interface between Information Systems (IS) and society. We investigate IS and users of these systems at a local parastatal educational institution in South Africa. Local governments have had many IS developed and implemented for the use of customers. The problem is that the impact of IS on social communities have not been taken into account, especially in e-governance in the South African context, when systems are being designed or implemented; as a result may lead to IS failures. Details regarding certain social aspects of IS are discussed. This chapter finally proposes a set of guidelines to help ensure that the social aspects of local government IS are taken into account in the design and implementation of these systems, thereby increasing the chance of success of those systems.