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Part 1: Foundations ; International audience ; eGovernment rankings are increasingly important as they guide countries' focus of their efforts. Hence indexes must not just measure features of web sites but also accurately indicate underlying government processes. eGovernment rankings are in a process of maturation in that direction, moving from purely measuring web sites to assessing use and government qualities. One such measurement is the UN eParticipation index, intended to measure how well governments connect to their citizens. This paper analyzes the quality of the index by validating it against other indexes of government-citizen relations qualities, democracy, internet filtering, and transparency. Results: The relation between the index and democracy and participation is non-existent. Countries which are authoritarian or obstruct citizen internet use by filtering can score high on eParticipation by window-dressing their webs. We suggest that the eParticipation index includes an element of reality check and propose ways to do that.

International audience ; This paper argues that although there is no lack of eGovernment "frameworks", both governments and research are both in need of better guiding models in order to address contemporary and future challenges. This argument is pursued by reviewing a decade of eGovernment development and research in terms of the guiding values as expressed by influential maturity models and relating them to the eGovernment domain, as defined by formal definitions and practice in combination. We find that development so far has overall been too narrowly guided by a technical focus and economic and administrative values and too little informed by public sector values. While there is no lack of broad frameworks there is scarcity as concerns structured research and evaluation models that encompass such values.

AbstractThe field of e‐democracy has approached the problem of improving democratic decision making by emphasizing encouraging broad participation. This is due to a perceived lack of credibility on part of politicians, indicated by decline in both turnout in elections and recruitment to political parties. Experiences so far show that while in local contexts use of electronic tools in combination with redesigned democratic processes have indeed affected participation positively, both scaling and quality requires more sophisticated technical tools of at least two kinds. One kind, recognized by the e‐democracy community, are tools supporting cooperative work for facilitating communication among humans. Another kind, this paper argues, is tools for more formal problem modelling. The e‐democracy field has so far almost exclusively been concerned with encouraging and—at best—modelling, moderating, and reviewing discussions. Experiences from e.g. citizen juries point to the importance of expert participation. Decision Support Systems could provide—mediated—expert participation in virtual groups and in communication with the public. To achieve this, there is a need to carefully consider both the usability of Decision Support Systems and their role in the overall democratic system. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Public computer systems (PCS) are systems designed for use at the interface between organizations and their clients. PCS intervene in client-organization relations; the questions discussed in this thesis are what role they play in the client-organization encounter, what role they could and should play, and what theories might be available to guide the development of such systems. While the fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCl) and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) focus on (one) man - (one) machine interaction and computer-mediated interaction in small groups respectively, this study focuses on computer-mediated or computer supported interaction between organizations and individual clients. This focus is chosen because the emerging electronic markets make social dimensions not covered by HCl and CSCW relevant to information systems design. While PCS and electronic markets have so far been studied mainly from technical and economic perspectives, this study takes a communications perspective. The nature of actual PCS implementations is studied with respect to changes in the communicational style of the client-organization encounter. The relations between organizations and clients concern not only the actors directly involved. They also affect the general social climate, the societal dialogue, particularly so when public agencies are concerned. What does it mean to change the arenas for the societal dialogue? One candidate theory pertinent to PCS impact on the societal dialogue, participatory theory as of Rousseau, J. S. Mill and Cole, is investigated. Based on this theory, a model for participatory information systems (PARTIS) is developed. This model is proposed as a base for PCS design. The Feedback Learning Strategy (FLS) is then outlined as a method for the design and redesign of the computerized parts of a PARTIS. The strategy is based on built-in functions aimed at encouraging and facilitating participation. An example of a FLS prototype system, the LiveBetter, is introduced and discussed. Conclusions are in short: • PCS are important ingredients in societal information systems, and must therefore be designed to support communication according to democratic principles. • To be effective, PCS must be well integrated with organizational structures. • Participatory information systems must include a redesign forum that supports discovery, fair interest articulation, multiple descriptions, equality, and conflict resolution. • The specific design of those facilities must be done in each case. This is a challenge for systems design which I call conversation management; it is more an organizational challenge than a technical one. • Computerized tools may be used to enhance the participatoriness of the systems. ; Diss. Umeå : Univ. ; digitalisering@umu

Governments have been using computers since the early 1950s and academics have been writing about government's use of computers for almost as long. This paper explores this literature and examines the evolution of research into and thinking about the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in government and public administration over the past 50 years. Questions asked include to what extent the technology of the time influenced this research, how themes and topic of interest have changed over this period and what lessons for future research can be drawn from a better knowledge of the past.

Numerous scholars have concluded that there is a correlation between use of social network sites (SNS), particularly for news and information acquisition or community building, and the likelihood for e-Participation. This paper examines how the use of Facebook affects the participative behaviours of individuals active in political and interest organizations and those not active in organized politics. Through focus group discussions involving 56 Ugandans, we conclude that in low internet use, authoritarian contexts, the Civic Voluntarism Model and the benefits Facebook brings to participation in Western democracies are turned on their head. Besides overwhelming detachment from politics, even for politically-inclined citizens, low belief in citizens' online actions influencing change and fear of reprisals for criticizing an authoritarian president in power for 29 years, severely dulled the appetite for e-Participation. This high cost of participation means Facebook is growing citizens' civic skills but it is hardly increasing online participation even for politically interested citizens.

By subsidizing the costs of civic participation, the use of the Internet is believed to stimulate participation but there are fears that intensive Internet use causes withdrawal from public life. This paper investigates the connection between the way individuals participate online and offline in authoritarian, low-income regimes, and the nature of eParticipation among citizens in authoritarian regimes such as Uganda. Based on personal interviews with 116 Internet users, the study found that common drivers of eParticipation, such as low cost, security and anonymity are hard to transplant into the offline world for citizens of authoritarian states such as Uganda. Perceived risks of retribution and intimidation for expressing a particular opinion or supporting a political cause mean that citizen-to-citizen participation is the predominant form but still at low levels, while citizen-to-government participation is negligible.

Part 3: Evaluation ; International audience ; The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is growing globally, as is interest in the use of digital technologies to improve citizens' participation in governance. In African countries, where ICT use remains low and where there is a democratic deficit, the nature and extent of citizens' participation via ICT is unknown. Based on a print questionnaire with 322 internet users in Uganda, this paper compares citizen-to-citizen (C2C) participation and citizen-to-government (C2G) participation, examines the factors that hinder greater C2C and C2G online participation, and explores the implications for greater eParticipation in future. For effective eParticipation, the majority of Ugandan internet users need to become more active as creators of online content, as well as conversationalists and critics. Results show that regardless of whether it is engagements among citizens or between citizens and leaders, most citizens are spectators.