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Republic of Korea (ROK) changed its spent nuclear fuel policy from the once-through usage and direct disposal to a total system approach that includes pyroprocessing, sodium-cooled fast reactors, and a two-tier geological repository to achieve a breakthrough for domestic deadlock situation and thus enable sustainable utilization of nuclear power, but caused disagreement in the bilateral negotiation with the United States (US) for the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement. Analysis has revealed that this shift is effective to make a breakthrough for domestic deadlock because it augments variety of technological options, with which more reversible decision-making process can be conducted to accommodate broad public needs. A trade-off has been explored first by deriving four engineering options from the ROK's system concept and then by comparing their performance from six viewpoints. The option including separation of high-heat emitting radionuclides by the electrolytic reduction process has been recommended. This option should be modified as exogenous and endogenous situations change in future. It is imperative for ROK to integrate a public-participatory decision-making process that works in concert with technology development. US can verify that ROK's motivation is not deviating from successful spent fuel management by checking if a transparent process with public participation is conducted. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Republic of Korea (ROK) changed its spent nuclear fuel policy from the once-through usage and direct disposal to a total system approach that includes pyroprocessing, sodium-cooled fast reactors, and a two-tier geological repository to achieve a breakthrough for domestic deadlock situation and thus enable sustainable utilization of nuclear power, but caused disagreement in the bilateral negotiation with the United States (US) for the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement. Analysis has revealed that this shift is effective to make a breakthrough for domestic deadlock because it augments variety of technological options, with which more reversible decision-making process can be conducted to accommodate broad public needs. A trade-off has been explored first by deriving four engineering options from the ROK's system concept and then by comparing their performance from six viewpoints. The option including separation of high-heat emitting radionuclides by the electrolytic reduction process has been recommended. This option should be modified as exogenous and endogenous situations change in future. It is imperative for ROK to integrate a public-participatory decision-making process that works in concert with technology development. US can verify that ROK's motivation is not deviating from successful spent fuel management by checking if a transparent process with public participation is conducted. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

E-government has been touted by many as a technological answer to improve citizen participation, government accountability, and transparency by facilitating a greater level of communication and flow of public information between citizens and the government. This article examines how political environment, government structure, and the nature of individual e-government applications influence the likelihood of adoption. Using data obtained from multiple sources, logistic regressions are conducted on a sample of six e-government applications that possess varying degrees of communicative and organizational impacts on the government to observe how different factors influence their adoption. Findings include a general disinclination for adopting e-government applications with high communicative impact; however, such disinclination dissipated when there was a high level of political competition in the area and perceived demand for online communication; active traditional channels of political communication, such as political parties and accessibility to local council members, reduced the likelihood of adoption; the preferences of the elected mayors coincided with the perceptions of nonelected officials who favor e-government applications that would reduce the workload while disfavoring applications that would increase it.

The availability of open, relevant, and up-to-date public data is becoming an increasingly important dimension of national competitiveness and sustainable development. It serves as a foundation for novel technologies, such as big data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, to take root and flourish, and it can help improve the quality and efficiency of government decision making and render governments more transparent and accessible to the public. Often referred as Open Government Data, or OGD, governments around the world have committed resources to constructing various OGD platforms. However, building a robust and effective OGD system has proved difficult, as the promise of OGD has not been realized fully around the world. At this important juncture, this study aims to explore the relationship between national technological and organizational capacities and environmental factor and the quality of OGD systems. In addition, national innovativeness and the degree of "globalization" in a country and their moderating effects between the predictors and OGD performance are examined. Our findings indicate strong positive effects of national technological capacity, government organization capacity, and globalization on OGD quality and a positive moderating effect of national innovativeness.

The emergence of Web 2.0 introduced a new potential in e-government which empowers citizens to share information and mobilize spontaneously online, and enables citizens to communicate directly with the government and its elected officials while significantly lowering some of the traditional barriers of e-government adoption such as the lack of financial resources and technical expertise in government. This paper examined the pattern of Web 2.0 adoption on state web portals to identify key factors influencing its adoption. The results suggest that while the potential of the new technology is immense, its adoption is constrained by a number of political factors. In particular, the authors find that there is disinclination toward adopting Web 2.0 by incumbent governors while the technology was favored by governors who are newly elected into their office. Moreover, there was disinclination toward the new technology by governors with high approval rating while those with low approval rating sought to adopt them. Our findings point to a perception by governors about Web 2.0 as a powerful and effective instrument of communication but, at the same time, politically risky, creating disincentive to adopt the technology by governors with established political support. There is a "more to lose" mentality about Web 2.0 by political actors with high level of political support while "less to lose" by those with thin political support. This research sketches a picture of Web 2.0 adoption in government where political instability and newcomers facilitates the use of Web 2.0 increasing dialogue and communication with citizens while higher levels of political stability and support reduces the use of Web 2.0, diminishing the channel of communication created by the new technology.

This case study reports an innovative e‐government experiment by a local government in Seoul, South Korea—Gangnam‐gu. A new local political leadership in Gangnam made strategic use of e‐government applications to exert greater political control over the local civil service bureaucracy. The authors find that e‐government applications possess political properties that can be applied effectively by the political leadership as instruments to improve control over the government bureaucracy as well as to enhance essential government accountability and transparency. The political circumstances underlying e‐government development as well as its impact on local government are reported, along with key variables associated with this innovation and directions for future research.

The promises and opportunities of information technology in government / Yu-Che Chen and Michael Ahn -- Transforming government services over time : meanings, impacts, and implications for citizen-government relationships / Miriam Lips -- Information policies : value-oriented, instrumental and managerial choices for governing an information society / Sharon Dawes -- An integrative framework for effective use of information and communication technologies (ICTS) for collaborative public service networks / Yu-Che Chen -- Using system dynamics for the analysis of complex social problems and public policy alternatives : fundamentals and recommendations / Luis F. Luna-Reyes, J. Ramon Gil-Garcia, Eliot Rich, and David F. Andersen -- Big data and local performance management : the experience of Kansas City, Missouri / Alfred Ho, Kate Bender, Julie Steenson, and Eric Roche -- Mobile location based service (LBS) apps for public sector : prospects and challenges / Sukumar Ganapati -- Internet of things for public service : innovative practice in China / Jian-Chuan Zhang, Xiao Zhang, and Zhicheng Wang -- Big data analysis on public opinion : a case study on the policy formation of free economic pilot zones in Taiwan / Hsien-Lee Tseng, Pin-Yu Chu, Tong-Yi Huang -- Citizen trust in government as a two-way process : the role of government performance, E-government and citizen attributes / Seung-Hwan Myeong and Michael Ahn -- Social media communication modes in government / Ines Mergel -- Resident-government engagement via new technologies / Georgette Dumont -- Hacking : citizens creating new digital government interfaces / Lora Frecks -- Catching on and catching up : developments and challenges in E-participation in major U.S. cities / Karen Mossberger, Yonghong Wu, Benedict Jimenez -- Navigating the open government comfort zone for the effective use of open data / Younhee Kim -- Technology, transparency, and local government : assessing the opportunities and challenges / Greg Porumbescu, Peter Schaak, Erica Ceka -- Protection of personally identifiable information in government : a survey of US regulatory framework and emerging technological challenges / Anna Ya Ni -- An exploratory study of E-participation technology adoption by citizens / Jooho Lee -- Providing critical emergency communications via social media platforms : multiple case study / DeeDee Bennett -- An analysis of main attributes for governance in smart cities / Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar -- Cyberinfrastructure for collaborative scientific networks : institutional design and management strategies / Yu-Che Chen and Rich Knepper -- E-government in China / Nan Zhang and Zuejiao Zhao -- E-government innovations in South Korea : lessons from the leading E-government nation / Michael Ahn -- Conclusion -- Conclusion : the future of information technology and government / Michael Ahn and Yu-Che Chen

section I. Theories of information technology (IT) innovations in government -- section II. Emerging technologies and their applications for government -- section III. Technology-enabled cross-boundary collaboration and governance -- section IV. Advancement of democratic accountability and public values -- section V. Advancement of public service through technological innovations