Center For Technology In Government Research Articles

Editorial: Forthcoming Issues

Special IssuesNext year, 2014, it will be 30 years since the first Business-to-Customer online shopping occurred (i.e., Michael Aldrich teleshopping; Gateshead SIS/Tesco as merchant and Mrs. Snowball as the first online home shopper; (Site 1), and 20 years since the first web-based online ordering service was launched. In the same year, 1984, CompuServe introduced the Electronic Mall in the USA and Canada (Site 2), the first comprehensive electronic commerce service. Ten years later (i.e., 1994), once the World Wide Web was created, Pizza hut started offering online ordering through its webpage. The same year, the first online banking service was offered.Therefore, we have a good reason to call for papers for a special issue to discuss and share the state-of-the-art in electronic commerce. This special issue of Electronic Commerce aims to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art in the field of electronic commerce discussing research contributions that have helped to develop the various fields of Electronic Commerce over the last 20 to 30 years, and outlining the challenges for future research. We invite high quality submissions focusing on all aspects of electronic commerce, including both business and technology issues.Areas of interest include, but are not restricted to different topics in: Business-to-Business; Business-to-Consumer; Business-to-Government; Consumer-to-Consumer; and Mobile Commerce. However, all submissions should consider the presentation of the state-of-the-art through different review methods such as systematic literature review, meta-analysis, network approach towards review, etc., aiming to present and discuss the level of knowledge and development in electronic commerce achieved in the last 30 years, and to propose a well-motivated agenda with the most important challenges for future research.This issue will be edited by Dr. Narciso Cerpa and Dr. Harry Bouwman. Full paper submission deadline: 1st of November 2013. Please see the Call for Papers for more information.To respond to suggestions of our readers and to needs of current society, we have planned another important special issue on a current topic, Innovation through Open Data, which will be guest edited by Prof. Dr. Marijn Janssen (Delft University of Technology), Assoc. Prof. Dr. J. Ramon Gil-Garcia (CIDE), Dr. Natalie Helbig (Center for Technology in Government / SUNY Albany) and Anneke Zuiderwijk (Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice). Publication: April 2014.The December 2013 issue will be dedicated to Cloud Computing and Electronic Commerce and will be edited by Dr. …

Creating Open Government Ecosystems: A Research and Development Agenda

In this paper, we propose to view the concept of open government from the perspective of an ecosystem, a metaphor often used by policy makers, scholars, and technology gurus to convey a sense of the interdependent social systems of actors, organizations, material infrastructures, and symbolic resources that can be created in technology-enabled, information-intensive social systems. We use the concept of an ecosystem to provide a framework for considering the outcomes of a workshop organized to generate a research and development agenda for open government. The agenda was produced in discussions among participants from the government (at the federal, state, and local levels), academic and civil sector communities at the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the University at Albany, SUNY in April 2011. The paper begins by discussing concepts central to understanding what is meant by an ecosystem and some principles that characterize its functioning. We then apply this metaphor more directly to government, proposing that policymakers engage in strategic ecosystems thinking, which means being guided by the goal of explicitly and purposefully constructing open government ecosystems. From there, we present the research agenda questions essential to the development of this new view of government's interaction with users and organizations. Our goal is to call attention to some of the fundamental ways in which government must change in order to evolve from outdated industrial bureaucratic forms to information age networked and interdependent systems.

From “Need to Know” to “Need to Share”: Tangled Problems, Information Boundaries, and the Building of Public Sector Knowledge Networks

Sharon S. Dawes is a senior fellow at the Center for Technology in Government, professor emerita of public administration and policy, and affi liate faculty member in informatics at the University at Albany, State University of New York. As founding director from 1993 to 2007, she led the Center for Technology in Government to international prominence in applied digital government research. A fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, she was elected the fi rst president of the Digital Government Society of North America in 2006. She serves on advisory committees for the U.S. National Science Foundation, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the United Nations University. Her main re- search interests are government information strategy and management, international research collaboration, and cross-boundary information sharing and integration.

Information Sharing and Public Sector Knowledge Networks

As pressures to engage in cross‐agency and cross‐sectoral partnerships become more widespread, information sharing becomes an ever more critical and daunting aspect of public administration. In this edition's exchange among scholars and practitioners, Sharon S. Dawes, Anthony M. Cresswell, and Theresa A. Pardo of the Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany, State University of New York, offer a “baker's dozen” of lessons they have culled from research and their own action research agenda studying the building of public sector knowledge networks in New York over the past 15 years. Grounded in a multidisciplinary, experientially based, and street‐level view of the obstacles to and tactics for building successful public sector knowledge networks, the authors' warning to conceive collaborative information‐sharing efforts as governance rather than information technology challenges is advice that practitioners ignore at their peril. Readers will find a more extensive eversion of this article on the PAR Web site (go to aspanet.org, click on PAR, then on the Theory to Practice icon). They also will find expert e‐commentary on the article (plus the authors' response) from Lisa Bingham, Indiana University‐Bloomington; Sharon Caudle, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University; Louise K. Comfort, University of Pittsburgh; and Costis Toregas, American University.

Interorganizational collaboration and community building for the preservation of state government digital information: Lessons from NDIIPP state partnership initiative

As a part of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), the Library of Congress (LC), partnering with the Center for Technology in Government (CTG), launched an effort in 2005 to integrate state governmental entities into the national network to preserve born-digital information that is both significant and at risk of loss. The main theme that emerged from the efforts of LC, CTG, and the state and federal digital preservation community was the importance of partnership efforts and collaborative strategies for the preservation of state government digital information. Based on the findings of the initiative, this paper discusses challenges and opportunities regarding interorganizational collaboration and community building for digital preservation of state government information. Following the community of practice framework, it is recommended that a “state government digital information preservation community” be developed to facilitate collaboration across agencies and knowledge professionals in state governments.

Knowledge sharing and trust in collaborative requirements analysis

AbstractMany information technology projects fail due to problems in requirements definition. Possible leverage points in improving requirements analysis lie in collaborative processes crossing functional and organizational boundaries, in which stakeholders learn about the problem and together identify possible solution requirements. Establishing trust among parties is critical to collaborative work, particularly in the early stages of information systems projects. However, there are few guidelines on how to establish trust among project participants. This paper draws on empirical work from the Center for Technology in Government facilitating interagency groups and system dynamics to generate a simple model of the role of knowledge sharing in building trust during the requirements analysis phase of a complex information systems project. Analysis of the model suggests that trust can depend on the pace of knowledge sharing among participants. More broadly, this examination offers a closer look at some of the “soft” variable dynamics that play critical roles in project progress. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Crossing the threshold: Practical foundations for government services on the World Wide Web

Government leaders at every level are calling for bold, imaginative use of the World Wide Web (Web) to help achieve the goal of a National Information Infrastructure (NII). The Web promises service quality, efficiency, and convenience, but it also presents significant implementation challenges to public agencies. During 1996, the Internet Testbeds conducted at the New York State Center for Technology in Government explored the potential and the practical problems of creating Web-based government services. The Internet Services Testbed explored the organizational resources, processes, policies, and technologies that agencies need in order to develop and deliver specific information-based public services over the Web. The Internet Technologies Testbed examined the technical feasibility of using the Web as a universal platform for the delivery of services to citizens. The two testbeds identified five threshold factors that shape a government agency's ability to initiate Web-based services: The agency's own technical infrastructure, user capabilities, the management of information content, realistic cost estimates, and recognition and management of security risks. The public nature of most government Web sites gives these considerations special characteristics that set them apart from similar concerns in the private sector.