Information Polity

The disclosure of open government data is a complex activity that may create public value yet might also encounter risks, such as the misinterpretation and misuse of data. While politicians support data release and assume that the positive value of open data will dominate, many governmental organizations are reluctant to open their data, as they are afraid of the dark side. The objective of this paper is to provide a decision-making model that assists in trade-offs between the pros and cons of open data. Data disclosure is dependent on the type of data (e.g. its sensitivity, structure and quality) and the context (e.g. organizational policies, legislation and the political influences). Based on the literature and fifteen in-depth interviews with public sector officials and data archivists, this paper identifies contextual and dataset-related variables which influence a trade-off. A decision-making model is presented capturing trade-offs, and in this way providing guidance for weighing the creation of public value and the risks. The model can be used for decision-making to open or not to open data. It is likely that the decision regarding which data should be opened or closed will shift over time.

Publishing open government data and providing visualizations that favor the quick understanding and interpretation of the associated information is a task that requires systematization and the use of various technologies. Due to technical limitations (dependence on technological platforms, for example), this is not a standard practice among government system developers. In this work, we present a case study that involves the creation of a map to visualize information about the infestation ofAedes aegypti (dengue vector) in the municipality of Cuiabá, based on the selection and analysis of open data. This case study not only demonstrates that offering an easy way for presenting information on public health brings benefits to the community, but it also discusses a strategy for government agencies publishing open data and creating visualizations that combine information from various sources.

With the arrival of television, voters began to care not only about political candidates' stances on issues, but also about character, as demonstrated by Kennedy's and Nixon's 1960 debate. In the current qualitative study, we investigate how the technologically savvy Millennials form impressions of candidates when they obtain information through social or nonsocial media. We found that Millennials tend to stumble upon political information rather than seek it out, regardless of social media influence. We also found that social (versus nonsocial) media use did increase citizen expectations of candidates. Whereas both social and nonsocial groups appreciated candidate stance on issues and candidate character, those who were exposed to candidates via social media also sought candidate-to-community connection. Interestingly, the generation that has notoriously less physical community interaction, possibly due to social media, tends to emphasize community involvement when evaluating candidates through social media. This finding supports the view that with new media, public value is defined largely by interactions between senior politicians and the public.

The use of online forums to support civic discourses on local politics has gained momentum, but it is not clear whether such online conversations generate relevant outcomes for democratic decision-making. Empirical studies in online deliberation suggest that online forums often produce fragmented and unorganized public preferences when conversations occur naturally without facilitation. However, it remains unknown as to what degree an unfacilitated online forum can achieve desired quality. Here we report a detailed content analysis on local newspaper forums to reveal the patterns of progression towards the formation of public preferences in a local planning context. Towards this goal, we developed a new coding scheme that incorporates speech acts as indicators of deliberation quality and a progressive five-phase model of deliberative decision-making. Using this coding scheme, the selected newspaper forum was analyzed using a three-step procedure. Our results pinpoint portions of the observed dialogue where progress is not made towards advanced phases of deliberation due to failure to develop common ground and joint assessment of alternative courses of action.

Digital government has been a key component on government reform strategies during the last years. Unfortunately, few research exists reporting on the impacts of electronic government in terms of the final outcomes. By using a model that links digital governance characteristics to value creation, this paper explores the impacts of electronic governance on competitiveness, government efficiency, and number of electronic transactions. We used panel data analysis to test eighteen hypotheses. Results support only one of the 18 hypotheses, and four of the hypothesis resulted statistically significant in the opposite direction. Results suggest that citizens use digital government mainly to complete electronic transactions with government. Our results also suggest that, at least at the initial stages, having two delivery channels have a negative impact on government efficiency, and against common belief, they have no impact on the competitiveness of a region. Finally, our results show that most of the value is explained by contextual variables used for control purposes. We believe that these results challenge, at least partially, some of the current guiding principles and beliefs in conducting digital governance research, and suggest the need of better theories to explain public value creation through digital governance.

While there has been substantial interest in the idea of public value from an academic and theoretical perspective, governments often struggle with how to systematically incorporate public value thinking into their decision making practices. In this paper, we review the concept of public value and its use as an information technology (IT) management strategy by public managers. We then describe the steps in a public value analysis, and present a case study focusing on a substantial IT investment in which the approach was applied. We conclude that a public value analysis can add insight in planning and carrying out enterprise projects by generating a deeper understanding of stakeholder perspectives. Collectively identifying internal and external stakeholder values informs an agency's change management and communication strategies, both critical to the success of any enterprise investment.

Public administration is being pressured for innovation, driving service delivery towards a more personalized, outcome-driven, participative, efficient and collaborative model. In this regard, Web 2.0 technologies are potential powerful tools for supporting public engagement, intended to improve public services and to establish relationships between government and citizens based on information sharing and dialogue. This paper seeks to analyse the influence that political variables could have in the perception of policymakers regarding the use of Web 2.0 technologies for user participation, for knowledge sharing, and for technological innovation in public service delivery. Findings indicate that policymakers are prone to using Web 2.0 technologies to improve internal productivity of local governments and the engagement of citizens in the process of public services' delivery, but with the aim of making suggestions through consultations. In addition, political factors such as ideology, political competition or political stability could influence the perception of policymakers regarding the use of Web 2.0 technologies for citizen participation and knowledge sharing in public sector delivery.