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Recent debate and associated initiatives dealing with public sector innovation have mainly aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the delivery of public services and improved transparency and user friendliness. Beyond typical administrative reforms, innovation is expected to help address societal challenges such as the aging population, inclusion, health care, education, public safety, environment and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. The public sector consists of a complex open system of organizations with various tasks. Therefore, decision-making can be slower than in the private sector because of large chains of command. Innovations here will often have an impact across this complex organizational structure, and thus must be supported by a robust strategy. To strengthen democracy, promote government efficiency and effectiveness, discourage wastes and misuses of government resources, public administrations have to promote a new stronger level of openness in government. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe an innovative approach for the governance of public systems and services, currently applied in the Italian public administration domain, which could be easily replicated in other countries as well. Two initiatives, to collect and provide relevant public information gathered from different and heterogeneous public organizations, to improve government processes and increase quality of services for citizens and companies, are described. The cases adopted have been validated through a case analysis approach involving the Italian Agency for the public administration digitalization to understand new e-government scenarios within the context of governmental reforms heavily influenced by the principles of Open Government Model.

Digital forensic investigators experience a need for support in their everyday struggle to overcome boundary problems associated with cyber crime inves-tigations. Traditional methods are socio-culturally and physically localised and dependent on strict and historically prescriptive political management. The new internet-worked cyber-world creates unprecedented difficulties for digital forensic investigations. This is directly linked with the inherently complex uncertainties and ambiguities related to a constant need for framing and re-framing of problem spaces under investigation. As such, in this paper we propose the recruitment of the discipline of Informing Systems in the context of digital discovery. Early findings of such an exercise indicate that informing systems approaches can assist the investigation process by offering means for structuring uncertainty. As it is accepted that uncertainty is an inherent element in a crime scene, not least in a cyber crime scene, we consider the contribution of Informing Systems vital for the effectiveness of digital forensic investigation practices.

As organisations are further developing ways to extract value from big data, the amount of personal data being stored in centralised systems is rising. These large data sets are becoming prime targets for hackers as well as raising concerns about end user privacy with how the data is handled. Virtual Personal Assistants (VPA) that use the Little Data approach of keeping data within the control of the end user have the potential to mitigate these risks due to its decentralised nature. Within this article the authors discuss the potential security benefits from the Socio-Technical Perspective of utilising a VPA as a supporting technology for controlling an individual's personal data.

This article considers the challenges faced by digital evidence specialists when collaborating with other specialists and agencies in other jurisdictions when investigating cyber crime. The opportunities, operational environment and modus operandi of a cyber criminal are considered, with a view to developing the skills and procedural support that investigators might usefully consider in order to respond more effectively to the investigation of cyber crimes across State boundaries.

Nowadays, organizations pursue their aims in a context of distributed collaboration, creating a need not only for supporting work systems, but for a human-centred focus in which individual and group sense-making and learning are supported by appropriate toolsets. The authors argue that development of such toolsets requires an open systems approach. This paper discusses examples of such approaches, including non-competitive benchmarking (NCB), as a vehicle for knowledge transfer, leading to process improvement and potential for enhanced organizational performance. The paper goes on to discuss tools and techniques that may be used to support desire to reflect upon 'best practice' in socio-technical design, without losing contextual relevance in design. The authors use these examples to explore ways in which engaged actors may be supported to create and share their contextually-dependent tacit knowledge. The foundation of open systems approaches is discussed, showing how socio-technical approaches continue to have relevance today.