Social Media and Public Administration in Spain

The chapter investigates the employment of digital social media by Spanish regional administrations: its presence, the factors that determine that presence, as well as the self-perception of those responsible for its management. This study raises the following questions: What are the key factors that explain the use of social media in public administrations? What is the self-perception of those responsible for the management of digital social media about its current level of development within their organisations? What are the main inhibitors-facilitators for the development of digital social media in public administrations? What are the next steps to promote digital social media in the sphere of public organisations? This chapter is based on a questionnaire that was responded to by those responsible for the management of digital social media in the Spanish regional administrations. This research shows that Web 2.0 tools are more oriented to explore potential changes in the relations between the public administrations and citizens, than to innovate the functioning of public sector organisations. In sum, this chapter offers a relevant analysis, although it is of an exploratory character because of the almost total absence of systematic studies about the diffusion of digital social media within Spanish public administrations.

Enhancing Information Services through Public-Private Partnerships

What are e-government success factors for using public-private partnerships to enhance learning and capacity development? To examine this question, the authors developed a comparative case analysis of the development of the Business Reference Model (BRM), a national-level e-government initiative to promote shared information services, in the U.S. federal government and the Korean central government. The results indicate institutional arrangements deeply affect the outcomes of knowledge transfer. The study shows that private sector partners in both countries played various roles as “brokers” of information technology (IT) knowledge between government and the private sector by: raising awareness of the necessity of the BRM; providing best practices; developing pilot projects; and developing implementation strategies. However, the study finds that the two countries took entirely different approaches to working with non-governmental organizations in BRM development with implications for project success and lessons for e-government success. The study is meant to deepen understanding of the embeddedness of public-private partnerships in institutional contexts and the implications of such institutional arrangements for knowledge sharing on e-government success. The study examines knowledge transfer in the context of similarities and differences in partnership structures across two advanced industrialized countries with leading roles in e-governance.

How do French Municipalities Communicate on Citizen Involvement?

The chapter updates a former study on digital communication at local level in France in 2006. The goal is to analyse the explanatory factors which influence the digital communication of municipalities on participatory democracy. Why are there municipalities which communicate more on these resources than others? It is important to compare the situation of these municipalities in 2006 and in 2012 because there was a power shift after the last municipal election in 2008. The focus will be on municipalities of more than 30.000 inhabitants as they have the possible resources to support a digital strategy. A quantitative method was used to select the variables which affect the communication on participatory tools. In other words, the article deals with the way politicians promote citizen engagement at local level through updated websites.

A Country Level Evaluation of the Impact of E-Government

Despite considerable investments made worldwide in e-government initiatives in the past years, whether e-government succeeded in achieving the expected benefits in terms of increased efficiency, effectiveness and quality in the delivery of services is still under discussion. This chapter proposes an evaluation of the outcomes of the National Action Plan (NAP) for the diffusion of e-government at the local level in Italy. The evaluation considers whether the implementation of the projects funded under the action plan determined positive effects at the country level in terms of an increase in the value generated for different stakeholders. The discussion of data from both national and international secondary sources shows that during the period in which the benefits of the NAP should have become apparent no positive effects have emerged with evidence. The chapter argues that this depends on some of the principles the NAP has been based on that limited its capability of achieving the expected results.

E-Government in Australia

The research indicates that e-government in Australia is in its early stages and there is scope for further improvement and growth. The high incidence of web presence indicates that government entities, such as city councils are pursuing cyber strategies. Although the majority of government entities utilise websites to disseminate information to the public, optimal use of ICT in the public sector is ad hoc and in infancy albeit growing rapidly. This chapter provides a concise and holistic understanding of issues that can be encountered when exploiting the Internet and ICT for providing e-government services.

E-Government in Singapore

This chapter is significant as it will provide better insights for further research in e-Government, given the high demand for good governance and better delivery of public services. The lessons drawn from Singapore’s e-Government, in terms of how to achieve a balance between technology adoption, citizen engagement and effective public administration, can be further developed into an e-Government model applicable to other neighbouring countries.

E-Government Success in Public Libraries

For much of their history in the United States, public libraries made services for immigrants a key part of their mission by offering them many long-term services, such as developing job searching skills and learning English as a second language. Internet-enabled services, such as navigating the citizenship process, establishing residency, and delivering other key functions through e-government, are a recent addition. This chapter reports the findings of a multi-method study that provides insight into the development of e-government partnerships in various realms (including immigration), highlighting the extent to which these partnerships enhance the ability of libraries to overcome the various challenges that arise in connection with providing e-government services to different populations.

eParticipation in Europe

During the past few years, information and communication technologies and especially the internet are increasingly used in a vast range of human activities, including citizens’ interaction with government. In this context, advanced technologies are also being used to more actively engage citizens in democratic processes, which are termed as electronic participation (eParticipation). eParticipation has attracted considerable attention worldwide. In Europe, a large number of initiatives have been funded providing valuable lessons. The aim of this chapter is to map the current state of eParticipation in Europe and provide practical recommendations. More specifically, the authors first present the results of a review of policy documents in the European Union in order to understand how eParticipation fits into European policies. They then present an analytical framework to aid theoretical understanding of eParticipation, followed by the results of a European study on eParticipation initiatives. Based on all these, the authors propose a number of recommendations on eParticipation for policy makers, practitioners, evaluators and research funders.

Critical Success Factors for E-Government Infrastructure Implementation

Effective digital government infrastructures are needed to support the policy and strategy of governments. ICT Infrastructures provide generic functionalities that are shared and used by large numbers of users. Typically, many stakeholders are involved in the implementation of the infrastructure and the infrastructure is shaped by the interactions among stakeholders. The management of the development of such infrastructures is complicated. Multiple competing agendas and needs have to be reconciled. One approach for managing and guiding its development is based on critical success factors (CSFs). CSFs are those areas that need to be given attention and are perceived to be most important to the success of the infrastructure development. The aim of the research described in this chapter is to identify CSFs for guiding shared infrastructure implementation. This research is conducted by identifying CSFs for Surfnet - which is a public organization providing a digital infrastructure for researchers, teachers and students. This infrastructure enables them to collaborate with each other. The framework of Borman and Janssen (2012) was used which classified CSF in outcome, process and operating environment characteristic categories. The CSFs suggest a need to have a well-developed infrastructure implementation strategy. It is argued that taking a CSF-based approach is suitable for guiding complex projects, but they should be revisited regularly as they might change over time.

Developing E-government Readiness Factors

E-government readiness is critical and fundamental to e-government success. This paper reviews and differentiates the definitions of e-readiness, e-government readiness and e-government maturity, and examines the literatures on current assessment practices to identify issues, controversies and problems. The chapter then proposes a bottom-up approach to develop a field-based E-government readiness assessment method and factors that could be usable and applicable for a specific local government with its own unique e-government priorities and goals, and then tests the approach in a city government in China and receives positive feedbacks. As a result of this new approach and methods, a set of specific readiness assessment factors, rather than predefined all-size-fits-all criteria, are derived. The method takes both qualitative and quantitative approaches, and collects both primary and secondary data.