Analyzing of the Evolution of the Field of E-Government and Trending Research Topics

e-Government is a research topic that arouses the interest of many researchers all around the world. So, we can find a large number of studies and research projects published about this topic. Given the large number of articles that exist in the literature, it is not possible to get an idea of the evolution shown by the field of study and see the topics that are not receiving attention from researchers. The objective of this chapter is an analysis of the academic literature on e-government and the evolution of this field of knowledge. These findings allow us to have a clear idea of the evolution of e-government field, the disappeared research topics, and those that are currently in a lively debate. This analysis could be of interest to identify the trend in research of the e-government field of knowledge, as well as to examine the specialization of certain research topics.

Explaining Government Crowdsourcing Decisions

Crowdsourcing online has been popularly utilized especially among business organizations to achieve efficiency and effectiveness goals and to obtain a competitive advantage in the market. With the governments' increasing interest in using information and communication technologies for a variety of purposes, including generation of public value(s) and innovative practices, online crowdsourcing has also entered into the public administration domain. Accordingly, studies have investigated critical success factors for governmental crowdsourcing, or explored citizen participation in crowdsourcing activities in case studies. However, governmental decision to adopt online crowdsourcing as innovation has not been sufficiently examined in the extant literature. The objective of this chapter is to propose a theoretical model that explains the government adoption of crowdsourcing. Based on the review of case studies on governmental crowdsourcing, an integrated theoretical model of factors affecting government crowdsourcing decisions is developed.

Civic Technology and Data for Good

Governments have long dealt with the issue of engaging their constituents in the process of governance, and e-participation efforts have been a part of this effort. Almost all of these efforts have been controlled by government. Civic technology and data4good, fueled by the movement toward open government and open civic data, represent a sea change in this relationship. A similar movement is data for good, which uses volunteer data scientists to address social problems using advanced analytics and large datasets. Working through a variety of organizations, they apply the power of data to problems. This chapter will explore these possibilities and outline a set of scenarios that might be possible. The chapter has four parts. The first part looks at citizen participation in broad brush, with special attention to e-participation. The next two sections look at civic technology and data4good. The final section looks at the possible changes that these two embryonic movements can have on the structure of participation in government and to the nature of public management.

Diffusion of Innovations Among Mexico

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the technological adoption by state governments, based on a longitudinal study of technology in Mexico for which the authors analyzed data from all the local governments from 2010 to 2018. With this data, they proposed a ranking to classify adoption technology, using the diffusion of the innovation theory. They included in the analysis other variables such as the percentage of households with a computer, internet, and other communication technology equipment. The results show that Mexico City is the innovator; Baja California, Sonora, and Nuevo Leon are early adopters, while Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Guerrero are laggards. The most influential variable in the adoption of information technologies is illiteracy, and there is an inverse relationship between technology and illiteracy. Future research will open several paths to understand different adoption behaviors between specific technologies in each state, such as big data, artificial intelligence, internet of things, and smart cities.

Human Factor and ICT Use in the Context of Modern Governance

The chapter presents the development of the e-government in the case of Slovenia, taking in the consideration the human factor as main obstacle. On the side of the citizens as well as on the level of public administration, there is misconception of the purposes of the ICT, and thus, it appears that both partners in this context communicate past one another. In this manner, it exposes the question of the motivation, which is further supplemented by the survey results from Slovenia, showing general lack of motivation measured through the ignorance of the technology potentials as well as of existing threats. The main argument of the chapter is that lack of motivation will block any reform attempt by creating negative human environment, as well as wrong motivation to use ICT in administrative communication will result in sub-optimal or abusive use of the technological potential.

Electronic Participation in a Comparative Perspective

Electronic participation can play a crucial role in building broader public involvement in decision-making and public policy to bring about more inclusive societies. Prior empirical analyses have neglected the fact that political institutions are not only affecting the expansion of digital government, but also often interact with more structural conditions to constrain or incentivize the adoption and expansion of e-participation. This research analyses the role of institutional factors in encouraging or constraining e-participation across countries. Fractional regression models are employed to analyze panel data (2008-2018) from the United Nations Member States scores in the E-Participation Index (EPI) developed by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). The results indicate that the quality of democratic institutions, freedom of the press, and government effectiveness are all relevant predictors of a higher performance in e-participation. Policy implications are drawn in line with the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.

Mudamos

Brazil's Constitution established a few means of direct democracy including the possibility of any citizen to propose a draft bill at a legislative house given the support of a minimum of citizens expressed by their signature. Until today, citizens' initiative bills' signatures are paper based, which is not only costly, but also poses transparency and safety issues. Considering these challenges, the Institute for Technology and Society developed a mobile app called “Mudamos” (“We Change”) to prove it is possible to sign such bills electronically. However, despite its potential for changing citizen participation, technology by itself does not promote political and cultural changes. Thus, Mudamos became an integrated engagement framework, including the free application and also an offline legal draft-a-thon and advocacy for institutional change. In this chapter, the authors present this framework, connecting cutting-edge digital innovation on electronic signatures with social innovative methodologies, highlighting the importance of adopting a holistic approach to institutional change.

Determinants of the Citizen Engagement Level of Mayors on Twitter

Today, politicians like other political actors use social media to interact with their audiences. In the relevant literature, studies on the use of social media by politicians focus more on how politicians use social media for political communication during the election periods and its impact on the election results. Furthermore, these studies mainly focus on national politicians. Few studies focus on the use of social media during a non-election period by the local politicians, and these studies analyse the purpose of using social media. Therefore, in the relevant literature, there is a need for empirical studies to measure the citizen engagement level of local politicians during the non-election period and analyse its determinants beyond the purpose of using social media. In this context, this study aims to analyse the relationship between some factors and the level of citizen engagement of the mayors on Twitter in Turkey. The findings of the analysis show that there is a relationship between the status of municipalities and the engagement level of mayors.

Strategies for Managing E-Records for Good Governance

Management of e-records has become an exponential factor that requires adequate consideration and planning in this era of digital technology. The use of e-records becomes significant such that e-government must implement its management for good governance in the public sector. As government of Eswatini is pursuing strategies to implement e-government, strategies to enhance the effectiveness of e-government programmes and operation becomes essential. This would help promote transparency, accountability, and good governance using information and communication technologies. The objective of this chapter is to determine infrastructure and strategies for managing e-records in an e-government context, to determine the risks of managing e-records as a strategic resource, and lastly, to look at prospects of e-records management in Eswatini. The chapter reviews the situation in Eswatini, drawing from other cases in the world.

Smart Place Making Through Digital Communication and Citizen Engagement

The disruptive growth of new information technologies is transforming the dynamics of citizen communication and engagement in the urban context. In order to create new, smart, inclusive, and transparent urban environments, the city governments of London and Madrid have implemented a series of innovative digital applications and citizen communication channels. Through a case study approach, this research assesses the best practices in the field of digital communication and citizen engagement implemented by London and Madrid, with a particular focus on the profile, content, and functions of these new channels. The results of this research are intended to identify relevant new dynamics of interaction and value co-creation for cities and their residents.