GIS

The advent of the GIS technology has revolutionized the traditional field of information and cartographic production. The GIS, indeed, enables the management of much more numerous and more complex data and it is able to overcome the static and the traditional two-dimensional cartography. The Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which is used in various fields and disciplines, also represents a valuable tool for investigation in the university research. In criminology in particular, it has facilitated, regarding the city of Bologna, a kind of crime mapping on the nature of the so called “petty crimes” within the jurisdiction of the criminal Justice of the Peace, and the creation of a city’s map on which have been identified support centers for victims operating in them. The use of GIS software is the basis in order to realize and put into practice not only operational measures designed to combat and to prevent crime, but it is also of help to social control measures, to public policy and to security. To the end of ensuring public safety, nowadays, it is essential to have a clear, spatial, and graphic representation of the high concentrations of crime areas and of the degraded ones, in which there is a greater likelihood that some type of crime is committed.

A Citizen-Centric Platform to Support Networking in the Area of E-Democracy

This chapter describes experiences acquired during the research work conducted as part of the European Project Tell Me (www.tellmeproject.eu). The project envisaged to support the pan-European creation of Living Labs as new forms of cooperation between government, enterprises, citizens and academia for a successful transfer of e-Government, e-Democracy, and e-Services state-of-the art applications, solutions, know-how, and best practices. In this chapter, authors explore the potential of providing an existing system (DEMOS) allowing moderated and goal-oriented discourses between the citizens and the policy makers to become parts of open-ended ventures to allow the creation of collaborative networks for Electronic Democracy. This work also recommends that this form of support network elevates e-Democracy of a country and thus improves e-governance systems at the grass roots.

Capacity Development Initiatives for Grass Roots Communities

The world has seen the unprecedented development of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and adoption of their diversified methods in elevating all forms of human endeavors. Even a few years back, it was fashionable to speak about the global village. In recent years, many countries have taken leading role in implementing innovative ICT products to accelerate their national developments, enhance their livelihoods, strengthened their national economies, and improve their governance systems. This has been observed that those countries could reap the most benefits out of ICT strategies, which could penetrate at the lowest tier of their governance system. In this context, human development is an element of importance. This research emphasizes that cumulative human development through community approach would be the next level of knowledge dynamics across the world. It also argues that as much the country provides thrust on capacity development initiatives at the grass roots, it has more opportunity to reach at greater context of governance system. This chapter would like to focus on two cases, which penetrated the grass roots reaching out to the community level, act as catalyst to strengthen their national economy and government. Some features and perspectives of e-Sri Lanka and e-Korea are being discussed here to provide insight into these cases, so that researchers in developing and transitional economies could gain knowledge.

The Egyptian National Post Organization Past, Present and Future

Over the last 20 years, the international postal sector has changed drastically due to several forces, including globalization, changing technology, greater demands for efficient services and market liberalization. For Egypt, keeping up with the changing atmosphere in the global market meant investing in information and communication technology. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (ICT), as part of its efforts to transforming government performance using ICT, chose the Egyptian National Post Organization (ENPO) as a model for ICT integrated government portal. The selection was due to ENPO’s extensive network, the public’s confidence and its trust in the organization. The case of ENPO, capitalizing on public-private partnership models, proved successful when reflecting ICT deployment for organizational transformation within the context of an emerging economy. In addition to its importance in providing e-Government services to citizens, ENPO is evolving as a critical medium for effectively developing Egypt’s e-Commerce. This case study takes an in-depth look at how ICT has improved the quality and range of services offered by ENPO, while asserting the magnitude of its impact on the country’s emergence as a competitor in today’s global postal market.

Paradigms, Science, and Technology

This chapter explores the concept of paradigms, science, and technology in the context of information technology (IT). Therefore, the linear model of Francis Bacon and Thomas Kuhn’s notion of scientific paradigms are reviewed. This review reveals that the linear model has to be advanced, and supports the adoption of Kuhnian ideas from science to technology. As IT paradigms transform business processes, a five-level concept is introduced for deriving managerial implications and guidelines. Within the case of e-customs, a European-funded project tries to ease border security and control by adopting a common standardized e-customs solution across the public sector in Europe. The rise of the IT paradigm within customs and its effect on business operations will be explained. This chapter contributes to the research in diffusion and adoption of innovation using science progress and the interplay of science and technology as dominant concepts.

A Synopsis of Information Communication Technologies Applications in Agro-Based Livelihoods in Nigeria

This chapter examines the applications of information communication technologies in agro-based livelihoods in Nigeria. A multipurpose community information access point was established at a pilot level in Ago-Are, Oyo State, Nigeria. The center equipped with basic ICT infrastructures including Internet connectivity made available through a VSAT, provided timely solutions to the basic problems of farmers’ lack of information on agriculture, lack of access to inputs and output markets, and lack of access to some basic but relatively expensive equipment. The services include the Answering Farmer’s Needs-a private-public collaborative project involving several organizations. There is also the Fantsuam Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that works with farmers in rural communities in Northern Nigeria with an on-going micro-credit project aimed at alleviating poverty among rural women. This chapter highlights the synergistic use and challenges for each of these projects and proffers suggestions for the adoption and adaptation in different parts of the world.

Citizen-Centric Service Dimensions of Indian Rural E-Governance Systems

E-governance systems in India have witnessed prolific advancement over the years. India has strategically adopted e-governance as a part of its policy. In recent times each state has its own e-governance plan to deliver services as planned. National policy also aims to provide formalized services across the nation while recognizing the importance of state specific services. This approach includes various mission mode projects under national e-governance plan (NeGP). Manifestation of such approach has resulted in 100,000 common service centers (CSC) in rural areas. It is expected that rural citizens would find them useful and it may contribute for effective governance. In this chapter it is argued that such an initiative would be successful if rural citizens find these CSCs useful for their livelihood security. Various dimensions of this phenomenon are also examined through some cases in this chapter to understand their contributions to successful CSCs in India.

The Evolution of ICT Institutions in Thailand and Malaysia

A country’s national technology strategies can be an important contributor to economic development through its support of technology adoption and by advancing the national technology capacity. The development of a domestic information and communications technology (ICT) sector within a developing country requires the creation of specialized institutions that carefully coordinate their initiatives with the private sector. This case study research of Thai and Malaysian science and technology (S&T) institutions shows that this institutional and policy reform process is directly influenced by regional activities, as countries seek to match their regional peers for technology development. This effort to support ICT utilization requires governments to rapidly alter their policy goals and initiatives in response to shifts in technologies, global market demand, international investment, and local workforce capabilities.

Vision Impairment and Electronic Government

Visually impaired people are in a distinctive disadvantage when using computer screens based on visual presentation of data. Their situation becomes increasingly critical, as most society services, including issues such as e-Commerce, e-Business, e-Health, and e-Government go online. Yet modern technologies can also offer solutions to their problems, both at hardware and software level, and often with reasonable cost. Effective ICT can open up new communication channels and functionalities for say totally blind people, which would not have been available for them otherwise. General sensitivity for this issue, and especially sensitivity among designers of governmental e-services, must be developed. E-Government is an especially demanding activity area as it comes to all sorts of imparities (not just vision impairment), as governmental services are often in a monopoly service delivery situation: citizen have to use them, and there is often no other alternative. The issue binds it to the wider discussion on digital divide, where vision impairment is one cause for digital divide, and often very devastating, especially if still combined with other sources of digital divide.

Towards a Customer Centric E-Government Application

Information Communication Technology (ICT) has played an important role in today’s global economy. Many countries have gained successful growth due to the implementation of ICT. In Malaysia, increased utilization of ICT has contributed significantly to the total factor productivity. One of the main contributing factors is the e-commerce and Internet based services. Therefore, this case study aims to examine the contribution of the newly introduced E-government application namely E-filing system. E-filing system is a newly developed online tax submission services offered by the government to the tax payers in the country where they are able to easily, quickly and safely file their tax returns. The primary discussion in this case study concerns on the Malaysian’s ICT revolution, followed by the introduction of E-Filing system, the challenges and barriers faced by the government, concluding with the future trends in the implementation of this system.