M. Malkia – Encyclopedia of Digital Government

Автор: M. Malkia
Название книги: Encyclopedia of Digital Government
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Политология и Социология
Страницы: 1712
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

The Encyclopedia of Digital Government offers the most comprehensive coverage of the issues, concepts, trends, and technologies of digital government (or electronic government). The challenges and future prospects faced by governments at different institutional levels and in different parts of the world are described in explicit detail in this commanding encyclopedia. With over 250 detailed articles, this three-volume set provides a broad basis for understanding the issues, theories, and applications faced by public administrations and public organizations as they strive for more effective government through the use of emerging technologies. This comprehensive, research-based publication is an essential reference tool for academic, public, and private libraries. It is an authoritative source for comprehensive information on an expanding field. It includes in-depth definitions for over 1,900 key terms. More than 5,500 comprehensive references to existing literature and research on digital government are included. It is organized by topic and indexed, making it a convenient method of reference for all IT/IS scholars and professionals. It contains cross-referencing of key terms, figures, and information pertinent to digital government.

The information technology revolution that has swept across the world has changed the way the governments work
and interact with their stakeholders. This explains why digital government or electronic government (e-government)
has become one of the most important topics in the public sector reform agenda. Such an e-transformation in government
and public governance has its roots in the 1950s when some few professionals and academics started to speak about
the computerization of public organizations. For several decades the discussion was meek, concerning mainly the use
of computers in internal operations of public administrations, such as accounting and recordkeeping. Wider perspectives
started to gain ground as late as 1980s in the wake of the introduction of personal computers and the merge of
computers and telecommunications. Yet, the most fundamental recent turn in the information technology revolution
was the Great Internet Explosion of 1993-1994 and the increased popularity of World Wide Web (WWW) in particular.
Since then the transformative power of e-government has been generally recognized. The Encyclopedia of Digital
Government discusses topics that are at the core of this ongoing transformation.
When Dr. Mehdi Khosrow-Pour of Idea Group Inc. in late 2003 invited us to edit a new encyclopedia on electronic
government or digital government, we were eager to grab the opportunity. We had, together with our colleague Professor
Reijo Savolainen, just edited a book titled eTransformation in Governance: New Directions in Government and Politics
(IGP, 2004) and were keen to continue our ongoing intellectual journey towards the better understanding of etransformation
in government. With the continuously increasing interest in this topic all over the world, we felt that
the time was ripe for such an endeavor. This is how the project got started.
Let us remind here that in spite of the slight differences in their connotations, we use the terms “digital government”
and “electronic government” (e-government) synonymously. Our starting point has been to avoid one-dimensional or too
narrow conceptions of digital government. This has allowed us to provide an open forum for academics and experts to
present their views of digital government and related topics, which in turn has made it possible to create a collection of
articles that reflects the richness of topics, concepts, approaches, and contexts in this new interdisciplinary research field.
Another reason for applying fairly broad conception of digital government was the paradigm shift in the political
and administrative sciences themselves, sometimes expressed by the phrase “from government to governance.” This
refers to a general transition from hierarchical, command-and-control-oriented government toward citizen- and
stakeholder-oriented, initiate-and-coordinate practices of public organizations. Such new orientations and practices
have had their direct implications to digital government discourse. Thus, digital government is used here as a flexible
umbrella concept that depicts the dynamic relationship between new trends in public governance and constant
technological development.
The concept of digital government may be further divided into various subcategories, including such internallyoriented
categories as e-administration, e-management, and e-organization and more externally-oriented areas such as
e-service, e-governance, and e-democracy. It includes also more recent technology-driven conceptions, like ugovernment
(ubiquitous government), m-government (mobile government), and g-government (GIS and GPS applications
in government). E-government-related terminology is strongly interrelated, which has led to blurring of conceptual
boundaries and caused occasional conceptual confusion. A good example is an occasional confusion between concepts
of e-government and e-governance. In order to bring clarity to this field and to provide a coherent structure of the
publication, we have paid special attention to the systemization of the conceptual field of digital government. The list
of contents of this encyclopedia reflects this endeavor. It is our conceptual roadmap of the field in question and serves
in placing articles in the most appropriate sections within a comprehensive structure. It goes without saying that many
of the topics are closely interrelated, and similarly, many contributions fall into several categories. However, we believe
that the structure we have used here— as seen in Contents by Section and Category—serves this publication well
enough and possibly also contributes to a better understanding of the conceptual field of and discourses on digital
government. This encyclopedia is divided into 12 sections and over 50 categories. Key topics include: The concept of digital
government; e-transformation in government and public governance; e-government policy and regulation; international
e-government; state and local e-government; public e-management; IT management and planning in public
organizations; e-administration; office systems; work processes; e-human resource management; knowledge and
information management; e-government project management; e-commerce in government; evaluation of e-government;
electronic service delivery; management of e-services; access solutions; user interfaces; various types of e-services
(e-health, e-social welfare, e-school and e-learning, e-law, etc.); e-citizenship; public e-governance; e-democracy; eparticipation;
e-politics; e-rulemaking; e-voting; technological solutions in digital government; and social issues and
dilemmas of digital government (e.g., digital divide, e-inclusion, e-development, access to information, digital rights
management, privacy, cyber warfare and terrorism, and ethics of digital government). This is not an exhaustive list, but
serves our purposes well enough. Having digital government in focus, generic aspects of information and communication
technologies were given a minor role, not least because there are a range of encyclopedias and handbooks
available on this topic, such as Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Vol. I-V (Idea Group Reference,
2005), edited by Mehdi Khosrow-Pour.
To ensure that this publication provides the best possible coverage and in-depth knowledge of digital government,
we invited experts, practitioners, and scholars from all over the world to contribute to the encyclopedia. They represent
various academic disciplines (e.g., information science, computer science, management science, administrative science,
political science, sociology, economics, communications studies, and business studies), national and regional cultures,
and scholarly and practical traditions and approaches. Of hundreds of proposals some 250 articles, written by more than
400 authors, were finally accepted to be published in the encyclopedia. The quality control followed conventional
academic review procedure, in which each submission was forwarded to two to four reviewers on a double-blind, peer
review basis. Most of the authors of this encyclopedia as well as most of the members of our International Advisory
Board contributed to the review process. In addition, more than 100 external reviewers were involved.
All entries are written by knowledgeable, distinguished scholars from many prominent universities, research
institutions and expert organizations around the world. What we particularly strived for was a wide geographical
coverage of the global scientific and practitioner community involved in the project. We did this to show what are both
the development phases and the current understandings of digital government in different parts of the world. This has
made it possible to paint an authentic picture of the cultural differences in understanding and approaching digital
government and in dealing with the current and emerging context-specific issues of digital government. This also widens
the topics discussed in the Encyclopedia, thus making the Encyclopedia a useful publication that will appeal to a wide
international readership. What our editorial policy implies is that the final selection of articles reflects not only the most
up-to-date academic and practical knowledge in the field, but also the ways in which the various topics are currently
discussed and understood around the world.
The Encyclopedia of Digital Government is presently the most comprehensive academic publication available in
the field of digital government. With more than 500 people involved, the encyclopedia project has been, if not the
biggest, at least one of the biggest international collaborative projects ever in the field of digital government.
The Encyclopedia of Digital Government offers a broad picture of the issues, concepts, trends, and technologies
of digital government. The challenges and future prospects faced by governments at different institutional levels and
in different parts of the world are also described in many articles. With some 250 articles, this three-volume set provides
a broad basis for understanding the challenges and issues faced by public organizations as they strive for more efficient,
responsive and transparent government through the use of emerging technologies. In all, we believe that the
Encyclopedia of Digital Government contributes to a better understanding of theory and practice of the e-transformation
in government and public governance. It is our hope that this publication and its vast amount of information
will assist academics, students, experts, developers, managers, decision-makers, and civic actors all over the world in
enhancing their understanding of digital government and even in making the world better place for us all.