Abstract
This article explores the current ‘place’ of e-government in realizing public value in the context of what seems to be an emerging platform urbanism. It highlights a complex platform-based urban ecosystem encompassing private and public organisations and citizens. This ‘mainstreaming’ of e-government practices puts demands on cities and governments to reconsider their own role in ‘city making’ so as to achieve meaningful public oversight. The point of departure is the operationalization of this ‘place’ by conceptualizing participation and (multi-sided) platformisation as a framework to draw attention to the dynamic domain of e-governance where shifts can be seen in market structures, infrastructures, and changing forms of governance, and which may challenge the public interest. This is illustrated by an exploration of the social traffic and navigation application Waze.
Highlights
With the omnipresence of pervasive and always-on computing technologies and absence of ethernet cables and dial-up modems, ‘the Internet is everywhere, all the time.’ Since people no longer need to consciously connect to the Internet, the idea of the Internet as an infrastructure has receded into the background of everyday life (Driscoll, 2016)
As platforms develop and algorithms increase in power and complexity—in their various manifestations deeply embedded into the systems and infrastructures that underpin the built environment and governance dynamics, new service models, new forms of reciprocity and public management are emerging to tap value from these growing assets
The point of departure is the operationalization of this ‘place’ by conceptualizing participation and platformisation as a framework to draw attention to the dynamic domain of e-governance where shifts can be seen in market structures, infrastructures, and changing forms of governance, and which may challenge the public interest
Summary
With the omnipresence of pervasive and always-on (mobile) computing technologies and absence of ethernet cables and dial-up modems, ‘the Internet is everywhere, all the time.’ Since people no longer need to consciously connect to the Internet (until it breaks down), the idea of the Internet as an infrastructure has receded into the background of everyday life (Driscoll, 2016). Cities seem to play catch-up, learning how to navigate, process, manage and negotiate the real-time (big) data flows and disruptive business models stemming from new digital infrastructure and services as major drivers of urban change (or, platform capitalism; Srnicek, 2017) by, in the West, platform companies Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft as well as ‘variants’ such as Uber and Airbnb Today, this significance of platforms (and data) in our everyday communication, social, and economic life fuels many questions such as Who owns platforms with what implications? The point of departure is the operationalization of this ‘place’ by conceptualizing participation and (multi-sided) platformisation as a framework to draw attention to the dynamic domain of e-governance where shifts can be seen in market structures, infrastructures, and changing forms of governance, and which may challenge the public interest This is further illustrated by an exploration of the systemic features of (social) traffic and navigation application Waze. Some concluding remarks stressing the need for further insights to develop an effective assessment approach are offered in the last section
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