E-government Interoperability Research Articles

Promoting Interoperability in Europe's E-Government

To address a fragmented European ­e-government landscape, the Interoperability Solutions for Public Administrations (ISA) program has created a model for implementing interoperability solutions across technical, semantic, organizational, and legal levels, to the benefit of EU member states. The Web extra at http://youtu.be/O5myBgxxSfQ is a video showing how ISA fosters interoperability in various layers. This includes a number of initiatives for promoting semantic interoperability in Europe. Using a common metadata vocabulary or Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS), relevant assets can be searched and exchanged through the Federation on Joinup.

IFPortal

The search for better and more adequate levels of government information systems interoperability led many governments all over the world to develop, adopt and publish what is known as e-government interoperability frameworks – documents that specify a set of common elements such as vocabularies, concepts, principles, policies, guidelines, recommendations, standards, and practices for agencies that wish to work together, towards the joint delivery of public services. The central purpose of this paper is to present a detailed description of a portal — IFPortal — that could provide a simple and appropriate way to aggregate, analyze, compare, and display information about e-government interoperability frameworks. Such a portal will enable the registration, search, visualization, analysis, and comparison of interoperability frameworks' content, structure and scope, thus allowing for the identification of similarities and differences among them. An IFPortal prototype, already developed, is also presented and may be accessed in order to exemplify the IFPortal concept.

Developing E-Government Interoperability Driven Methodology

Developing e-Government interoperability in the government context is a complex task. As interoperability in government context is associated and hindered by many challenges and barriers connected to government nature of complexity. Interoperability is generally defined as the ability for two (or more) systems to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged. In this paper, we focus on computing systems interoperability across government ministries to achieve interoperable e-Government IT based solutions. In order to achieve e-Government interoperability in an organised and efficient way, this paper establishes a step-by-step e-Government Interoperability Driven Methodology. This contribution is motivated by the limitations of the traditional software engineering methodologies in terms of analysis, design and development frameworks to a point that they can hardly cope with the growing issues of e-Government services interoperability.

E-government Interoperability Frameworks: A Worldwide Inventory

An e-government Interoperability Framework (IF) is a document or group of documents that specify a set of common elements such as vocabularies, concepts, principles, policies, guidelines, recommendations, standards, and practices for agencies that wish to work together, towards the joint delivery of public services. IFs are seen by governments as promising instruments to boost the interoperability of their services and systems. Henceforth, many countries have created and published their IFs along the last years. To the best of our knowledge no study has been carried out so far in order to identify the comprehensive list of countries that already have an IF. We argue that the existence of such a list would be very useful and valuable for both practitioners and researchers communities. Hence, this study addresses the question which is the worldwide comprehensive list of countries that currently have an e-government Interoperability Framework? To answer this question a worldwide survey that combined a web survey and a web questionnaire was conducted. The aim of this paper is to describe the effort and procedure done in order to conduct the worldwide survey and to present the results achieved with it.

Preconditions for public sector e-infrastructure development

Interoperability in e-government has been recognized as a key factor in the quest of administrations at national, local and international level to achieve the provision of one-stop services to citizens and businesses. Interoperability in e-government should enable efficient information exchange between applications from different agencies with the help of IT-services. Interoperability in networked IT-service delivery is accomplished by e-infrastructures. However, knowledge of how to develop e-infrastructures in the public sector is still limited. In this paper we report a design science case study of the initial stage of the design of a public sector e-infrastructure in the social welfare sector, especially addressing the bootstrap problem, i.e. the initial problem of starting-up the development of an e-infrastructure. Six types of preconditions for the development of the e-infrastructure are examined and explained: legal, economical, organizational and the installed base of the as-is e-infrastructure consisting of technical, informational and contractual preconditions. From a design and action oriented perspective we claim that a basic understanding of the design context, within which the six types of preconditions have to be analyzed and understood, are essential for e-infrastructure development in an e-government context. The paper highlights the fundamental role of regulations as a precondition for the design, and the fundamental role of lawyers as designers of e-infrastructures in the public sector.

Conceptual Framework for Context-Based E-Government Interoperability Development

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to analyse the development aspects of e-government interoperability as dynamic, multidimensional and context-based organisational capability and to propose a conceptual framework for contextualisation of e-government interoperability development research and practice. Design/methodology/approach – Methods of systemic analysis along with the comparative analysis and generalisation were used to define the concept of e-government interoperability, classify the leading methods applied in its development and determine the contextual factors that might impact e-government interoperability research and practice. Findings – To meet the requirements of the implementation processes of contemporary e-government solutions, interoperability is understood and examined as the mix of dynamic, multidimensional and context-dependant dynamic capabilities of diverse public sector organisations to reach common goals through alliance and integration of their business processes and technological systems. The conceptual framework for context-based e-government interoperability development is proposed in this paper. It integrates three contextual layers important for dynamic capabilities such as processes, asset position and path-dependency with the main contextual factors that has been indicated as highly important in the recent e-government research. Research limitations/implications – This paper is a theoretical study of the essential e-government interoperability aspect – its context-dependability – that determines not only the adaptability level of various related political, managerial and technological methods, but also the rigour of research in the field. However, the presented conceptual framework for context-based e-government interoperability development is of the high abstraction level and integrates only the main perspectives, principles and elements of interoperability contextualisation. It should be further supplemented with concrete operationalisational context factors extracted from the empirical research in the domain. Practical implications – The proposed conceptual framework for context-based e-government interoperability development suggests policy makers, public managers and related private sector organisations to assess technical and evolutionary fitness of dynamic organisational capabilities for interoperability before starting any cross-organisational e-government initiative or adopting any leading method for interoperability enforcement taken from different than its deployment context. It should be done through the analysis of related processes, asset position and path-dependency factors of all participating parties. It is also recommended to incorporate these principles of context analysis in the research of e-government interoperability phenomena and its enforcement methods. Originality/Value – This research addresses a complex issue of e-government interoperability contextualization and offers a conceptual framework which not only embraces the main context factors identified in the previous e-government research, but also integrates the contextualization approach from the theory of dynamic organizational capabilities that are the core of contemporary e-government interoperability concept. Research type: viewpoint, literature review.

Elaborations of Grounded Theory in Information Research: Arenas/Social Worlds Theory, Discourse and Situational Analysis

This paper explores elaborations of Grounded Theory in relation to Arenas/Social Worlds Theory. The notions of arenas and social worlds were present in early applications of Grounded Theory but have not been as much used or recognised as the general Grounded Theory approach, particularly in the information studies field. The studies discussed here are therefore very unusual in information research. The empirical contexts of these studies are those of (1) the role of discourse in the organisational adaptation in information systems, (2) discourses on Organizational Interoperability in eGovernment and (3) situational analysis and discourses on coping with long term illness. Despite having a common focus on discourse and combining Grounded Theory with the Arenas/Social Worlds Theory, these three studies represent different elaborations of Grounded Theory. The structure of the analytical processes adopted range from a looser application of the constant comparative method to a much more structured analytical approach informed by Situational Analysis. The theoretical implications of the studies are explored. It is concluded that the Arenas/Social Worlds theoretical approach and the use of discourse and situational analysis are particularly appropriate for library and information research and provide a flexible and adaptable research approach for explaining and mapping complex and dynamic domains.

Technological e-Government Interoperability. An Analysis of IberoAmerican Countries

This work is the result of the consultation, carried out by the authors in 2010, as a result of the exploratory field work that was conducted in order to shape the so-called Iberoamerican Interoperability Framework (Marco Iberoamericano de Interoperabilidad - MII), promoted by the Latin American Centre of Administration for Development (Centro Latinoamericano de Administracion para el Desarrollo - CLAD). In particular, the article presents several data related to technological issues and, therefore, to the technical and semantic dimensions of interoperability. It looks deeply into important themes such as data and information, semantics, open software, regulation, or security. Finally, it presents the authors' reflections on how to enhance technical interoperability in the region.

Architectures for Tinkering?: Contextual Strategies towards Interoperability in E-government

Research has revealed the entanglement of e-government strategy and information infrastructure and that the control of infrastructures often remains an illusion as actual development and implementation is challenged by a constant drift. However, guidelines for public sector CIOs how to deal with these challenges remain scarce: Are governments well advised using architectures and other conceptualizations as tools in a top-down implementation of an infrastructure based on a preset interoperability strategy? Or should governments rather develop contextual strategies that build on the understanding of the actual drift of infrastructures and employ selected architectures only as facilitators for stakeholder communication during the next phase of interoperability achievement? In view of nowadays available theoretical reflections, the case of Egypt is analyzed to examine the role of service-oriented architecture in the control and drift of the G2G infrastructure. Findings reveal that what at first seemed to be an immature vendor-driven technology-first approach with a clear absence of IT governance strategy, in retrospect can be considered as the appropriate choice of architecture because it has successfully impacted agendas of most local stakeholder to move into the direction of e-government interoperability. Attempting to generalize, it is suggested that strategies towards e-government interoperability should select architectures based on reflection of the specific implementation context: to embrace existing infrastructure components, to be comprehensible and acceptable by the stakeholders involved, to be suitable for designing and standardizing the next generation of component interfaces, and to provide a time-limited frame for tinkering, i.e. allowing stakeholders to find their own way of embracing and implementing the concepts in focus.

The Next Generation Information Infrastructure for International Trade

Regulators and actors in international trade are facing a difficult challenge of increasing control and security while at the same time lowering the administrative burden for traders. As a tentative response, the European Commission has introduced the concept of traders: certified traders that are in control of their business. Trusted traders are entitled to trade facilitations, faster border crossing, and fewer physical inspections. To enable the use of trusted traders, changes are required to the information infrastructure (II) of international trade. This article complements existing works on e-Government interoperability by a theoretically driven approach with theoretical development of the II concept and how II can be modified as additional focus. Following the principles of IS design research, this paper presents a design proposition for the II of international trade. Using theories of II development and change as kernel theory, our proposition presents a redesign of IT, organizational, human, and change and collaboration elements. The design proposition was evaluated and verified with proof of concept installations and a stakeholder value assessment. The paper contributes to the domain of II and how they may be changed to meet new requirements.

Guest Editors' Introduction: E-government Interoperability, Infrastructure and Architecture: State-of-the-art and Challenges

Since the late nineties, most countries have released their e-government strategies and defined various approaches resulting in significant progress at all levels of public administration. Despite the progress, the level of ambition was higher which has resulted in disappointments. One of the causes of the limited progress is that many e-government efforts are confronted with a lack of interoperability and integration of systems and the need to develop or expand the infrastructure. Creating interoperability and integration is a complex endeavor [23], [28]. Service provisioning in networks is likely to fail if the systems of the public agencies are not properly integrated. The integration of systems and activities extends to greater collaboration and integration between agencies [14] and can provide substantial benefits [8]. Infrastructures provide a platform and functions as a vehicle for creating e-government [10]. Infrastructures provide not only the secure and reliable connectivity, but also more and more functions are embedded in the infrastructures which are shared by many organizations and can be used to build an online presence [10].

The IntelCities Community of Practice: The Capacity-Building, Co-Design, Evaluation, and Monitoring of E-Government Services

The paper examines the IntelCities Community of Practice (CoP) supporting the development of the organization's capacity-building, co-design, monitoring, and evaluation of e-government services. It begins by outlining the IntelCities CoP and goes on to set out the integrated model of electronically enhanced government (e-government) services developed by the CoP to build the capacity to co-design, monitor, and evaluate the IntelCities' e-Learning platform, knowledge-management system, and digital library. The paper goes on to examine the information technology (IT) underlying this set of semantically interoperable e-government services supporting the crime, safety, and security initiatives of socially-inclusive and participatory urban regeneration programs.

Interoperability and eGovernment

To achieve a significant level of interoperability in eGovernment, especially for political structures, such as federal states or the European Union, it is necessary to improve some rules concerning the eGovernment model and define a minimum standard for the different dimensions of interoperability. The legal dimension of interoperability consists of the rules concerning interoperability in a specific legal system and, so-called interoperability model. In this article, the author analyze the interoperability models of the European Communities and Spain. There are different legal models of interoperability according to four criteria of classification: volunteer or mandatory (binding), flexible or rigid, united or decentralized, and participatory or unilateral. In this article, the describe the characteristics of each of these criteria. The author defend the need to maintain mandatory frames of interoperability to the largest territorial level, whether united or decentralized. However, the ability to maintain these different mandatory frames faces several obstacles.

Interoperability Evaluation of Iranian Organizations through Proposed National E-government Interoperability Framework (Case Study of Tehran Municipality)

Interoperability is a property for connecting systems, information and work methods both inside and outside enterprises in national, regional and local levels. Interoperable enterprises can offer services with better quality and lower prices. In order to obtain interoperability in enterprises, it is necessary to use specific frameworks or models. The purpose of this article is providing an interoperability framework for enterprises through studying different interoperability frameworks and using countries' experiences. The proposed framework has different interoperability dimensions such as business, information, semantic and technical including different components. The framework is evaluated by expert’s opinions. Finally, the level of interoperability in Tehran municipality organizations is assessed with using the proposed framework.

Sociopolitical Aspects of Interoperability and Enterprise Architecture in E-Government

Enterprise architecture (EA) has been embraced by governments as an instrument to advance their e-government efforts, create coherence, and improve interoperability. EA is often viewed as a codified understanding covering elements ranging from organization till infrastructure. It is aimed at closing the gap between high-level policies of organizations and low-level implementations of information systems. Important elements of EA are a framework, tools, principles, patterns, basic facilities, and shared services. EA is influenced by the social interdependencies and interactions among stakeholders in which it is embedded. The survey among public organizations shows that current EAs are primarily product oriented, whereas sociopolitical aspects are often neglected. Architecture implementation also involves learning effects and requires effective communication among participants. The author argue that the architecture concept should be reconceptualized and can only be effective if they incorporate relational capabilities, clear responsibilities, and sound governance mechanisms.

E-Government Interoperability

E-Government continues to be recognized as a key strategy for improving government services and the effectiveness of public policies and programs. A key component of e-government initiatives is the ability of multiple government and nongovernment organizations to share and integrate information across their traditional organizational boundaries. E-Government interoperability represents a set of multidimensional, complementary, and dynamic capabilities needed among these networks of organizations in order to achieve successful information sharing. However, this view is complex and provides both researchers and practitioners with the challenge of understanding and developing multiple and very diverse interoperability capabilities. Researchers and practitioners alike are investing in efforts to build that understanding and to create new capability for coordinated action. Drawing on theories and research in the fields of enterprise architecture, capability maturity, information sharing, and system interoperability, the framework presented here provides unique value in both regards.

A framework for analysing interoperability in electronic government

E-government interoperability has been recognised to have a potentially great impact on productivity and user satisfaction. Based on the stage hypothesis model of growth in e-government interoperability, a framework to analyse and predict interoperability is suggested. Lessons learned from the experiences of the government sector in Norway are useful in analysing the number of stages, dominant problems at each stage, evolutionary path, and the economies of interoperability. Using the organisational, semantic and technical parameters of the framework, benchmarks applicable to each stage are applied to the case studies. Findings indicate that governments face different issues, expectations and benefits, depending on their maturity level.

Approaching E-Government Interoperability

E-government interoperability is not something new. However, this term has grown in importance as a result of the need to design and offer more sophisticated and complex e-government services that, many times, require the collaboration of two or more public institutions. Meaningful research on this topic could therefore be helpful in providing a basis for more clarity, insight, and understanding of this important topic. This is what this special issue is aimed at: to generate new and relevant scholarly contributions on interoperability that gather the diverse interests of an experienced set of authors, geographically distributed and with different perspectives on this issue.

Investigating the Landscape in National Interoperability Frameworks

Openness, accountability, and transparency have attracted researchers’ and practitioners’ interest as open data and citizen engagement initiatives try to capitalize the wisdom of crowds for better governance, policy making, or even service provision. In this context, interoperability between public organizations, citizens, and enterprises seems to remain the center of interest in the public sector and national interoperability frameworks are continually revised and expanded across the globe in an effort to support the increasing need for seamless exchange of information. This paper outlines the current landscape in eGovernment interoperability, analyzing and comparing frameworks that have reached a certain degree of maturity. Their strengths and weaknesses at conceptual and implementation level are discussed together with directions for reaching consensus and aligning interoperability guidelines at a country and cross-country level.

The Modeling Process for Stage Models

The purpose of this paper is to present and test a modeling procedure because researchers have struggled for decades to develop stages-of-growth models that are both theoretically founded and empirically validated. This article presents the concept and hypothesis of stages, the history of stage models, and a procedure that may serve as a useful tool in modeling stages of growth. Based on previous research and lessons learned from case study experience of the government sector in Norway, a procedure for the stages of growth modeling process is suggested and demonstrated. The procedure is used for developing a stage model for e-government interoperability. This article provides new insight into issues and challenges faced when engaging in stages of growth research. The paper proposes a new approach to stages of growth modeling. The utility of the suggested procedure is to improve theory building and empirical validation. The contribution to academia is the modeling process that can be applied in future developments of stages of growth. The contribution to practice lies in the stage hypothesis of organizational development over time.