Abstract
In the European academic and institutional debate, interoperability is predominantly seen as a means to enable public administrations to collaborate within Members State and across borders. The article presents a conceptual framework for ICT-enabled governance and analyses the role of interoperability in this regard. The article makes a specific reference to the exploratory research project carried out by the Information Society Unit of the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre on emerging ICT-enabled governance models in EU cities (EXPGOV). The aim of this project is to study the interplay between ICTs and governance processes at city level and formulate an interdisciplinary framework to assess the various dynamics emerging from the application of ICT-enabled service innovations in European cities. In this regard, the conceptual framework proposed in this article results from an action research perspective and investigation of e-governance experiences carried out in Europe. It aims to elicit the main value drivers that should orient how interoperable systems are implemented, considering the reciprocal influences that occur between these systems and different governance models in their specific context.
Highlights
Linking Interoperability and GovernanceIn the context of European policy and strategy for e-Government, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are seen as a means of improving public services, and a way of enabling multi-level governance
We discuss the motivation for proposing a conceptual model of interoperability contemplating a twofold level of analysis and based upon the theoretical framework and discussion developed within the exploratory research on emerging ICT-enabled governance models in EU cities (EXPGOV) [18] (Section 2.1)
We present the conceptual framework developed as part of the EXPGOV project and, with the purpose of providing the reference model to this article, we discuss the three main value drivers that constitute the basis of a theoretical framework for ICT-enabled governance, considered as an abstract construct which encompasses altogether the public value drivers identified
Summary
In the context of European policy and strategy for e-Government, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are seen as a means of improving public services, and a way of enabling multi-level governance. The design of an interoperability framework must deal with technical or organizational elements - such as the integration of different business processes or information systems - and with institutional and socio-economic issues For this reason, the different European cultural administrative traditions - that influence, for example, the level of horizontal coordination between government agencies – must be taken into consideration in the analysis and elaboration of an interoperability framework focused on the local governance level. The main topic of the article is the analysis of interoperability from a policy perspective, paying particular attention to the governance dimension, i.e. the complex network of relationships between all the actors and the public administration’s stakeholders involved in the implementation and utilization of interoperable systems at the local level For this reason, the article deals with structural elements, concepts and values that should orient how interoperable systems are implemented so that they can respond to requests in technical terms but, most of all, in the institutional and organizational field, as it is declared in the official statements quoted above.
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