WG2: E-government
WG coordinators:
- Robert Krimmer, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia; Robert.Krimmer@ttu.ee
Robert Krimmer is Full Professor of e-Governance within Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance at the School of Business and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. Robert’s research is focused on the transformation of the public sector, electronic participation and democracy, as well as e-voting, and all issues contributing to developing a digital society. Robert is Associate Editor of the international scientific journal Government Information Quarterly (GIQ), where he is in charge of participation issues. Further, Robert coordinates TOOP, the EU H2020 large-scale pilot on exploring and demonstrating the feasibility of the once-only principle involving 50+ partners from 21 countries inside and outside the European Union. He was member of the group of experts to the Council of Europe Ad-Hoc Committee on Electronic Voting (CAHVE) which had the task to update the CoE's recommendation on legal, technical and operational standards for Electronic Voting. Also, he was one of the lead experts for the Council of Europe Ad-Hoc Committee on Electronic Democracy and drafted Annex 1 of the CoE Recommendation (2009) on e-Democracy. Before returning to academia, Robert was OSCE/ODIHR's first senior adviser on new voting technologies. In the past he advised CoE, OSCE/ODIHR, UNDP, WHO, ITU, the European Commission and AWEB on various matters.
- Nicolae Urs, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; urs@fspac.ro
Nicolae Urs, a vice-dean of the college, is interested in everything related to technology. More specifically, he has been studying and researching the way in which public institutions employ new technologies, the changes that the new social networks brought about in communication, the opportunities provided by "big data" and the way in which visualising statistical data can help decelerate social trends. He has a PhD in online communication, to which he added an internship in the United States. He teaches courses related to e-Government, to the use of new technologies, and to online communication. He is actively involved in public institutions' digitization projects, both at the level of the city of Cluj-Napoca, as well as at a national level.
Call for papers:
Main focus and working aims:
The E-government Working Group invites innovative papers on the influence of information communication technologies (ICT) on government, public administration, public policy and the public sector at large. The main focus and differentiation of NISPAcee regarding this topic is discovering some of the special challenges originating from the CEE region, and also contributing to the general discourses on digital transformation of citizens, institutions and governance.
Concrete specific goals / Invited topics:
Linked with the Main Conference Theme "Governance and citizens' rights in the era of Europeanisation, globalisation and digitalisation”, we welcome papers that touch on the challenges created by the gradually expanding data collection and data use by public institutions. Some CEE countries are moving fast in this area, and in others, even if they are not at the forefront of these transformations, the first signs are evident, particularly in fast-growing cities.
1.Topics related to digital data: how it is collected, how it is used and what changes (if any) an increasing amount of data brings to public institutions.
2.Topics related to the implementation of digital transformation projects: moving from the planning phase into the real world. We are especially interested in case studies describing how projects are put into practice, what the main obstacles are and how they can be avoided.
3.Topics related to security and privacy; how citizens’ rights are protected and how governments, both national and local, aim to strike the correct balance between increased internal connectedness (essential for more and more sophisticated online services) and the need to safeguard the privacy and security of the collected information (essential for trust between citizens and governments). Within this stream of research we are especially looking for case studies or empirical findings on these topics.
4.Topics related to digital tools that foster citizens’ involvement: bespoke tools or commercial ones (social media, forums, etc.). We encourage authors to submit papers related to the innovative use of such tools in local or central government that help citizens, companies or NGOs to be involved in policy-making processes or project implementation.
Beyond these invited topics, the working group is also open to presentations of other evergreen aspects of e-governance research, such as the concepts of open data, online service design and delivery, transparency, and new dilemmas of multilevel governance. The contributed articles can take the form of a case study, a report of cross-country or cross-sectorial survey, comparative analysis of showcases or policies, even policy proposals or policy analysis. We encourage and advise authors to bravely use interesting new theories applied to e-governance and also the application of innovative qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.
Selection criteria / Guidelines for contributors:
a) Addressing a relevant and practically embedded topic of ICT application in public services or administration.
b) Elaborating and thoroughly introducing new, innovative theories which enhance our knowledge of ICT in government and public administration, and which enlighten the challenges differently, leading to a deeper understanding of their nature or of their potential creative solution.
c) Enhancing the methodological rigour of e-government research, by presenting papers with systematically and properly executed quantitative or qualitative enquires in the overlapping domain of ICT, governance, participation, communication or any other relevant topic which might be relevant, not only for NISPAcee, but also to a broader international audience.
d) We would also encourage contributors to amend their abstracts and full papers with a short separate sub-section of practical points for practitioners. These sections should clearly highlight the practical value of the presented research and its results, listing a couple of concrete recommendations for practitioners, typically politicians, as well as public administration employees and leaders.