For several years, the focus of the NISPAcee e-government working group has been on building a learning platform of exemplary showcases of using information and communication technology in the public sector in the countries in the NISPAcee region. The studies performed and showcases presented during this period confirm the fact that minor, but relevant, undeniable changes have taken place in various public sector domains due to the spread, development, and use of ICT. However, a deeper analysis of ICT solutions shows that they do not fulfil the expectations of a large positive impact of e-government on governance practices, citizens´ satisfaction with the availability of public services, and their readiness to adopt and use them.

Therefore, the main challenge of all levels of public administration for the coming years is not so much on development of technology and new solutions, but procedural changes in public administration, which technology (including social media and their omnipresence in all spheres of life) requires. The emphasis should move rather to non-technical aspects of changes. One of the central research questions and discussion points for our working group should be changes in expectations and attitudes of all parties and stakeholders– politicians, officials, and citizens–and their motivation to use the technology.

These tendencies show that in many countries of the regions there is a need to move from e-administration (offering of different e-services in the central, regional, or local level of administration) towards e-participation practices. Although the same challenges are also still present in the developed EU countries, there is still a big gap between EU and transitional countries in this respect. Thus, we should continue with collecting showcases with shifting our focus towards highlighting true innovative approaches that do not only involve innovative ICT solutions, but also (and primarily) show the change of the usual governance practices. Move from e-administration (mainly one-way communication or offering of different e-services in central, regional or local level of administration, etc.) towards e-governance in a broader sense (real participation of citizen). In this way, articles to be presented by the working group members can further contribute to the exchange of best practices between NISPAcee countries and provide valuable materials for education at a higher vocational and academic level.

The situation summarised above reveals the next important topics for e-government research in Central and Eastern Europe that the workgroup would like to emphasise in the next year. This non-exhaustive list of research topics includes:

1) As local government is still the closest link between citizens and state, we expect to have papers researching e-governance at local administration level. As mentioned above, we expect to have papers, not so much focusing on websites of local governments or basic e-services, but more on changes in procedures of local government. This includes, for example, use of social media platforms or other kinds of new technologies including also open-source software and platforms. Example questions can be: How do we evaluate new e-tools before starting to use them? What type of regulation is needed for the use of social media? A reference may be fixmystreet.com in the UK etc.

Also, implementation of the Open Data Initiative and related questions about procedures for having and distributing open government data are very real in local governments. Example questions: Who is using the data? Questions related to quality of this data – issue of user-friendliness, machine readability and comprehensibility. Questions about content and timing allowing access to data – at what stage is it made public?

However, you may also present a paper on more general issues regarding local e-governance, for instance about designing and implementing information society policies and strategies in local governments etc.

2) Another sub-topic is more general and applicable to all levels of administration. New (organisational, cultural, and other) requirements for governance, for public administration practices and routines for officials.

Example questions: What legal duties and responsibilities do public sector organisations have towards communicating/consulting/interacting with citizens? How have these been changed or should they be changed due to new technologies and due to changes in citizens´ expectations and everyday Internet practices (social media etc).

In a situation of extreme overload of information, what kind of ICT solutions is required (e.g. "visualisation” of data) to attract and motivate citizens for interaction? If required, what kinds of regulations/principles are needed or implemented or should be planned to regulate the e-engagement of different public sector target groups

3) Third topic, also affecting all levels of administration, could be assessment and evaluation of e-governance. Here we encourage presenting papers about existing or novel methodologies enabling the evaluation of e-government efforts, projects, policies, and strategies, not only quantitatively (in terms of the cost and resources efficiency, etc.) but also qualitatively, in terms of the changes in attitudes and behaviour caused by the implementation of ICT solutions.

Note finally that the working group is also open to presentations on other aspects of e-government research or research within neighbouring fields of m-government and similar. The contributed articles are expected to take the form of a case study, a report of cross-country or cross-sectorial survey or comparative analysis of showcases or policies, or a policy proposal or analysis (for example, regulation for use of social media for public sector organisations in a particular country and/or sector).