The International Conference on E-Democracy and Open Government Asia 2018 (CeDEM Asia 2016) follows the success of eleven previous conferences in Europe and three in Asia, and was hosted this year in Yokohama, Japan, from July 12th to 13th.

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.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference on Electronic Participation, ePart 2015, held in Thessaloniki, Greece, in August/September 2015. The 12 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 19 submissions. The papers have been organized in the following topical sections: eParticipation and social media, delibration and consultation, evaluation, and policy formulation and modelling.

Social media are now widely used for political protests, campaigns, and communication in developed and developing nations, but available research has not yet paid sufficient attention to experiences beyond the US and UK. This collection tackles this imbalance head-on, compiling cutting-edge research across six continents to provide a comprehensive, global, up-to-date review of recent political uses of social media. Drawing together empirical analyses of the use of social media by political movements and in national and regional elections and referenda, The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics presents studies ranging from Anonymous and the Arab Spring to the Greek Aganaktismenoi, and from South Korean presidential elections to the Scottish independence referendum. The book is framed by a selection of keystone theoretical contributions, evaluating and updating existing frameworks for the social media age.

This Handbook provides the most comprehensive overview of the role of electoral advertising on television and new forms of advertising in countries from all parts of the world currently available. Thematic chapters address advertising effects, negative ads, the perspective of practitioners and gender role. Country chapters summarize research on issues including political and electoral systems; history of ads; the content of ads; reception and effects of ads; regulation of political advertising on television and the Internet; financing political advertising; and prospects for the future. The Handbook confirms that candidates spend the major part of their campaign budget on television advertising. The US enjoys a special situation with almost no restrictions on electoral advertising whereas other countries have regulation for the time, amount and sometimes even the content of electoral advertising or they do not allow television advertising at all. The role that television advertising plays in elections is dependent on the political, the electoral and the media context and can generally be regarded as a reflection of the political culture of a country. The Internet is relatively unregulated and is the channel of the future for political advertising in many countries

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.