Multi-channel provisioning of public services - Department of ...

Introduction
domain, suggesting a broad approach not limited to the use of technology in a restricted
context. It implies that a suggested solution is not limited to the engineering of a
technical artefact, but that the artefact requirements fit the government context and
current concerns related to the provisioning of government services. Accordingly, the
problem domain is in the intersection of public policy, government operations,
government services, citizen engagement, and technology. The technology viewpoint
for this research work is information systems.
Figure 1 Relationships between key variables in e-government and select disciplinary interests (Scholl, 2007)
A clarification of some terms in the multi-disciplinary context of this study is needed. In
the following section, the terms information infrastructure, transformational
government, multi-channel provisioning, and e-services are introduced together with the
multi-role view of the citizen. This is followed by a discussion of selected constraints
related to public service provisioning based on an interpretation of the introduced terms.
1.3.1 Infrastructure
Different coexisting perceptions of infrastructure are used for e-government purposes
depending on the perspective, including platform (product), foundation, system,
relation, and portfolio (Klischewski, 2011). The understanding of infrastructure used as
a basis for the suggestion of the design artefact in this research study is inspired by the
information infrastructure concept, complex adaptive systems theory, by cyber
infrastructures as envisioned by the roadmapping eGovernment research
(eGovRTD2020) project (Wimmer et al., 2008), and current development towards a
infrastructure of shared services in Norway. Each concept is briefly discussed below.
Information Infrastructure (II) is a central concept in the US High Performance
Computing and Communication Act of 1991 through the definition of National
Information Infrastructure (NII). It was used in referring to integrated solutions based
on the ongoing fusion of information and communication technologies, and was later
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