Historically, technological change has had significant effect on the locus of administrative activity, cost of carrying out administrative tasks, the skill sets needed by officials to effectively function, rules and regulations, and the types of interactions citizens have with their public authorities. Next generation Public Sector Innovation will be “Government 3.0” powered by innovations related to Open and big data, administrative and business process management, Internet-of-Things and blockchains for public sector innovation to drive improvements in service delivery, decision and policy making and resource management. This book provides fresh insights into this transformation while also examining possible negative side effects of the increasing ope nness of governments through the adoption of these new innovations. The goal is for technology policy makers to engage with the visions of Government 3.0 . Researchers should be able to critically examine some of the innovations described in the book as the basis for developing research agendas related to challenges associated with the adoption and use of some of the associated technologies. The book serves as a rich source of materials from leading experts in the field that enables Public administration practitioners to better understand how these new technologies impact traditional public administration paradigms. The book is suitable for graduate courses in Public Sector Innovation, Innovation in Public Administration, E-Government and Information Systems. Public sector technology policy makers, e-government, information systems and public administration researchers and practitioners should all benefit from reading this book.

The European Conference on e-Government has been running now for 18 years. This event has been held in Italy, Ireland, Belgium, UK, Slovenia, to mention a few of the countries who have hosted it. This year we are refocusing the conference to look more broadly at the area of Digital Government. The conference is generally attended by participants from more than 40 countries and attracts an interesting combination of academic scholars, public sector workers and individuals who are engaged in various aspects of Digital Government research and application.

The Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government Asia 2016 presents papers that cover the latest developments in digital governance and politics. The integration of digital information and communication technologies in citizens' everyday lives sustainably changes the interaction with governments. Politics already embraces digital and mobile technologies and government follows the example. These conference proceedings reflect on the impact of a permanently connected society on forms of governance and political communication. The CeDEM Asia 2016 brings together experts from academia and practitioners as well as representatives of business and policy makers. The conference provides a forum for transcontinental exchange and inspires the audience to consciously change and broaden their perspectives on their research.

ICT, e-government and electronic participation have become increasingly important in the public sector and the social sphere in recent years. This book presents 53 of the papers accepted for the dual IFIP EGOV-ePart conference 2016, which took place in Guimarães, Portugal, in September 2016. This conference, which consisted of five partially intersecting tracks, presented advances in the socio technological domain of the public sphere demonstrating cutting edge concepts, methods, and styles of investigation by multiple disciplines. The conference has been a premier academic forum for over 15 years and has a worldwide reputation as one of the top two conferences in the research domains of electronic, open and smart government, policy and electronic participation. The papers in this joint proceedings of the 2016 IFIP EGOV-ePart conference comprise accepted submissions from all categories and all tracks (with the exception of some 38 papers which are published separately). The book is divided into 9 sections: eParticipation, e-Government Evaluation, Open Data and Open Government, Governance, Smart Cities, e-Government Implementation and Adoption, Ph.D. Colloquium Papers, Posters, and Workshops. Offering a comprehensive overview of research and practice on electronic government and electronic participation, this book will be of interest to all those involved in the socio-technological domain of the public sphere.

In the online world, people argue about anything and everything - religion is no exception. Stephen Pihlaja investigates how several prominent social media figures present views about religion in an environment where their positions are challenged. The analysis shows how conflict creates a space for users to share, explain, and develop their opinions and beliefs, by making appeals to both a core audience of like-minded viewers and a broader audience of viewers who are potentially interested in the claims, ambivalent, or openly hostile. The book argues that in the back-and-forth of these arguments, the positions that users take in response to the arguments of others have consequences for how religious talk develops, and potentially for how people understand and practice their beliefs in the twenty-first century. Based on original empirical research, it addresses long-debated questions in sociolinguistics and discourse analysis regarding the role of language in building solidarity, defining identity and establishing genres and registers of interaction.