Impact of Local Self-Government Institutions on Creating a Business-Friendly Environment

The chapter objective is to demonstrate application possibilities of Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) in the specific local economic development problem in Serbia that refers to assessment of Local Self-Government (LSG) institutions' capabilities to act in order to create business-friendly environments and increase entrepreneurial activities. The primary aim of the chapter is to formulate an adequate multi-criteria model for evaluation of institutional cooperation between business councils, as representatives of local authorities and the business community in observed LSG units. Results indicate inadequate quality and functionality of the business councils, although cooperation has been established between the business councils, as a local government institution, and representatives of business community. Data analysis is conducted using relevant statistical methods. For multi-criteria analysis of subjective preferences of Local Economic Development (LED) offices has been applied Analitic Hierarchy Process (AHP).

Early Warning System and Adaptation Advice to Reduce Human Health Consequences of Extreme Weather Conditions and Air Pollution

The authors developed a multi-site Internet service to provide the public with real time information about local weather and air quality, how they may affect health, and how general population and different sensitive population groups can protect their health during periods of extreme weather conditions or increased air pollution levels. The information service is based on data obtained from the Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia and Serbian Environment Protection Agency. Health warnings and recommendations are given separately for each AIQ and heat index or wind chill index value, for each sensitive population group, as well as for the general population. The project is currently implemented on the website of the Institute of Occupational Health Niš and will be offered to other healthcare institutions in Serbia. Evaluation of the system should enable redefinition of heat and wind chill indices and air pollution threshold values if necessary. This chapter explores the service.

Privacy-Friendly Management of Electronic Health Records in the eHealth Context

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are becoming the ubiquitous technology for managing patients' records in many countries. They allow for easier transfer and analysis of patient data on a large scale. However, privacy concerns linked to this technology are emerging. Namely, patients rarely fully understand how EHRs are managed. Additionally, the records are not necessarily stored within the organization where the patient is receiving her healthcare. This service may be delegated to a remote provider, and it is not always clear which health-provisioning entities have access to this data. Therefore, in this chapter the authors propose an alternative where users can keep and manage their records in their existing eHealth systems. The approach is user-centric and enables the patients to have better control over their data while still allowing for special measures to be taken in case of emergency situations with the goal of providing the required care to the patient.

Semantic Framework for an Efficient Information Retrieval in the E-Government Repositories

An enormous quantity of heterogeneous and distributed information is stored in e-government repositories. Access to these collections poses a serious challenge, however, because present search techniques based on manually annotated metadata and linear replay of material selected by the user do not scale effectively or efficiently to large collections. The artificial intelligence and Semantic Web provide a common framework that allows knowledge to be shared and reused in an efficient way. This chapter proposes a comprehensive approach for discovering information objects in large digital collections based on analysis of recorded semantic metadata in those objects and the application of expert system technologies. The authors suggest a conceptual architecture for a semantic search engine. They use case-based reasoning methodology to develop a prototype. OntoloGov is a collaborative effort that proposes a new form of interaction between citizens and e-government repositories, where the latter are adapted to users and their surroundings.

Towards the Integration of E-Government Process in the University of Murcia

Several countries are adopting e-government strategies for adapting the administrative procedures to automated process with the aim of obtaining efficient and agile processes. In this sense, the European Union has published some directives which indicate the need for European countries to adopt e-government in the public administration. Additionally, the Spanish government has published laws and documents for supporting the adoption of e-government in the different public administration. Concretely, the University of Murcia has developed a strategy for the adoption of e-government using a service-oriented platform. Indeed, this strategy has evolved for the adoption of BPM for its administrative processes. The aim of this chapter is explaining the strategy for the adoption of business processes in the University of Murcia.

Raising Citizen-Government Communication with Business Process Models

This chapter draws out the challenge of how to provide information to citizens with respect to organizational business processes, particularly public service processes. The aim is to discuss the issues concerning organizations' disclosure to citizens, particularly in describing how services are performed in these organizations. It relies on the idea that an urgent step to improve citizen participation in public matters, especially in public service delivery, is to provide citizens with ways to understand how and why internal processes must be conducted. The chapter reports on how business process models can be used for organizational communication and describes proposals to extend this communication to external actors. The conclusion presents remarks on challenges and future work.

Telecentres as a Medium for Good Governance in Rural India

It has been established in literature that “good governance” has major implications for poverty reduction, equity, empowerment, and quality of life. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is seen as potentially very influential for the cause of good governance. E-governance is seen as means to achieve tenets of “good governance”. E-governance addresses core components of good governance by seeking to improve efficiency and effectiveness of government, relationships with communities, businesses, citizens, and NGO/civil societies for better provision of services, accountability, transparency, and social development. In the beginning sections of the chapter, ideologies behind good governance are discussed because e-government initiatives are presumably embedded in the “good governance” thinking in development. The chapter also focuses on the relevance of e-governance as a means to achieve “good governance.” In rural areas e-governance services are mostly provided through telecentres; hence, the chapter also discusses the role and issues related to telecentres for e-governance service delivery.

Big Data and Innovation in the Delivery of Public Services

This chapter aims to discuss the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)—especially of the so-called Big Data—in the innovation of public service delivery. After reviewing the relevant literature on innovation and innovation diffusion in the public sector and the rise of Big Data, the chapter presents a narrative of the case of the adoption and implementation of predictive policing in Kent County Police, UK, as an instance of (early) application of Big Data in public sector organizations. On the whole, the analysis of the case suggests that past conditions and adoption strategies play an important role in the introduction and acceptance of innovative work practices that exploit the potential of contemporary ICTs.

Smart Government

The advent of Smart Cities is one of the greatest challenges and field of opportunities in the goal to achieve sustainable, comfortable, and socially responsible living environments. A large number of factors, spanning from government/administration/citizen interaction models, heterogeneous communication network, interoperability, or security determine the capabilities and functionalities that can be deployed. In this chapter, different factors in the implementation and adoption of E-Government within Smart City scenarios are described. The authors include the Interoperability Principle as a part of the Open Government concept and link this concept with the Smart Cities view. Then, they describe a new model of public organization that they call “Intelligent,” characterized by the “Smart Government,” and they propose a matrix with the elements of this model. Then, the authors analyze the technical and infrastructure dimensions of the matrix.

Sentiment Analysis, Social Media, and Public Administration

This chapter describes how sentiment analysis, based on texts taken from social media, can be an instrument for measuring popular opinion about government services and can contribute to evaluating and developing public administration. This is an applied, interdisciplinary, qualitative, exploratory, and technological study. Throughout the chapter, the main theoretical and conceptual formulations about the subject are reviewed, and practical demonstrations are made using opinion-mining tools that provide high accuracy in data processing. For demonstration purposes, topics that triggered the popular protests of June 2013 in Brazil were selected, involving million people across the country. A total of 51,857 messages posted on social media about these topics were collected, processed, and analyzed. Through that analysis, it can be observed that even after six months, the factors that motivated the protests continued generating citizen dissatisfaction.