Framework for expanding e- government: the eGov+ project - VBN

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Copenhagen,4-5February2008 Asfor now,theoverallstrategicparadigmof e-governmentisaservice discourse,motivatedintheneedtosaveresourcesbymovingactivityfrom physicalservicecentersandtelephonetotheweb,therebysavingpersonal. Becauseofthehardeconomiclogicbehindpresente-govinitiatives,user experience, on the side of the office clerks as well as on the side of the citizens, is rarely tested for, while customer management approaches and other re-engineering approaches are promoted (for example Andersen and Henriksen(2006)andhttp://www.pprgovernment.com/method.htm).Weare goingtobenchmarkactuale-govuserexperiencewithupagainstthesenseof identity,belonging,andcareexperienced ininteractionwithsocialweb2.0 communitysites. In eGov+ we are going to adress the competencies going into accomplishing transactions between citizens and municipality, such as signing up for child day care, being referred to elder-care, filling out tax information, and aquiring real estate information. Through action research involving observation, interviews and workshops with service staff and citizens wewill map out profiles of experience, goals, and competencies involvedinaccomplishingthesetransactionasfornowbywayoftelephone, physical desk- interaction and web-communication. Our findings will be communicatedintothedesignprocessintheformofscenariosandpersonadescriptions. 4 Methods Havingoutlinedtheseideasandresearchquestionsseparately,weemphasize thatitisnottheareasapart,butthefocusonuse,design,andmanagement together,thatmakeseGov+unique.Topracticallyhandlethecomplexityof this interplay, we have separated out four research strands: A. Community technologyandserviceinfrastructure,B.Workflowinteractionandadaptive documents; C. Design methods and tailorability; and D. Public IT service modellingandmanagement.Thestrandsareoverlappingwiththethemesof fourPhD-projects.Ourresearchapproachisgroundedintheaction-oriented researchtraditionthatiswellestablishedamongprojectmembersaswellas internationally(Bødker&Christiansen,1997,Bødker,1999,Bødker,2006). It consists of empirical, exploratory design cases that intervene into the currentpractices ofuseontheonehand,whilebeingbased oninterpretive qualitativemethodsontheother.Thesecasestudiesarebasedonhypotheses and will lead to new insight to be conceptualized in these strands. Accordingly,itisamajorprincipleofstructuringof theproject tobalance betweengeneraldevelopmentofhypotheses,conceptsandideasinthefour strands,andtargeted,empiricalexplorationoftheseideasinthetime-limited design cases. The exploratory design cannot stand alone, and will be complemented with qualitative interviews and observational studies of procurement,designandmanagementprocessesinthemunicipalusesettings in general, and among selected companies providing technological 59
5 th ScandinavianWorkshoponE-Government infrastructures and services. Through design we undertake a collaborative exploration of future use of and beyond Web 2.0 between researchers, designersandusers.Whenviewingdesignanduseascloselyinterlinked,in linewithWeb2.0andparticipatorydesignprinciples,itisnecessarytomake use-like situations and hands-on experience part of design, and design experimentspartofresearch.Thisapproachtounderstandingthepracticesof design and useof computer applicationsjoinsawide and growing attempt unitingstudiesofhumanpracticewithactivitytheoryandrelatedtheoretical approaches (Star and Ruhleder, 1994). According to (Latour, 1990) the development of scientific instruments, it is very important for the developmentofnewinsightas such. It isexactlyinthefieldoftensionof research-design-usethatweplacethisprojectproposal. 5 Summingupandperspectives In this paper we have presented the eGov+ project and its background in maturity of e-government, which indicates a need to further explore the readinessfor e-government notonlyinthegovernmental bodybutalsoin society.TheoverallgoalofeGov+istostrengthentheadministrativeworkat municipality level by turning it away from classical service providing towardsit-basedcollabtorationbetweenadminsitrationandcitizens. Socialtechnologiesarefarfrominnocent.Asopposedtothedoctrineof WirededitorKevinKelly,whomaintainsthat‘theonlysideanetworkhasis theoutside’(Kelly1998)wefindthatwww-basedsocialnetworksarequite facetted:‘Social’isnotthesameas‘good’inamoralsense,anddefinitely not‘commongood’aswhatissupposedtobethe cruxofgovernance,and furthermoreinthewordsofElinorMillsfromCnetnews.com,commenting on Microsoft acquiring a $240 million stake: ‘the amount of personal informationthatpeoplespewoutontotheirFacebookprofilescouldcreate anadvertiser'sparadise’(Mills2007). TheissuehereisnotwhetherFacebookhasthepotentialtobecomebig business,butthefactthatFacebookisdeterminedbymarketlogic.Thelogic for e-government is in the Danish context stated in the the government’s strategyplan2008-,followingupontheStrategyIIplanformodernizingthe public sector, according to which resourcer will be freed to create public service‘closetothecitizens’inmunicipalitiesandregions. Wewouldliketoaddtothisstrategyplanthegoalsof lettingcitizensas wellaspublicserviceworkersexperienceeaseaswellasnewopportunities, feelresonsibleandincharge,andincludedinsociety.TheeGov+projectaim toresearchpotentialandproblemsalongtheselines. 60
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