This book provides user studies and theories related to user-centered technology design processes for e-government projects. The book mainly discusses inherent issues of technology design implications, user experiences, and guidelines for technology appropriation. Ethnographic studies focusing on real life examples will enable readers to understand the problems in an effective way. Furthermore, the theories and results will help researchers and practitioners to handle these challenges in an efficient way. E-Government is about harnessing the information revolution to improve the efficiency of government processes and the lives of citizens. It aims at a citizen centered approach to governance through effective use of the Internet and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). E-Government promotes transparency and effectiveness of a government’s processes as well as citizens’ participation (e-participation) in the affairs of the government. Whereas E-government projects are huge undertakings for government departments, a user-centric approach requires citizens’ participation in the design and delivery of e government services. In both these respects, there are huge challenges and governments require long term commitment as well as correct planning and availability of financial resources to address them. System design for e-governmental applications is inherently a complex process. In successful e-government projects, appropriately designed technology infrastructure plays a pivotal rule. The technology appropriation process requires that e-government technologies should be in line with the work practices of end users, so that successful usage of these technologies can be realized. E-governmental systems which fail to take into account such human factors result in failure and wasting huge amounts of public money as well as a loss of confidence of the public in such technological infrastructures. It is highly important that citizens are enabled to have access to the appropriate information technology, have knowledge and skills to use the available technology, and have the positive commitment to affect the governments’ strategies. So, enabling citizens to effectively participate is much more difficult. This book addresses these inherent challenges and available opportunities with respect to user-centric e-government.

The report gives a broad description of the shift in governments' focus on e-government development – from a government-centric to a user-centric approach. It gives a comprehensive overview of challenges to user take-up of e-government services in OECD countries and ways of improving them.

This open access book attends to the co-creation of digital public services for ageing societies. Increasingly public services are provided in digital form; their uptake however remains well below expectations. In particular, amongst older adults the need for public services is high, while at the same time the uptake of digital services is lower than the population average. One of the reasons is that many digital public services (or e-services) do not respond well to the life worlds, use contexts and use practices of its target audiences. This book argues that when older adults are involved in the process of identifying, conceptualising, and designing digital public services, these services become more relevant and meaningful. The book describes and compares three co-creation projects that were conducted in two European cities, Bremen and Zaragoza, as part of a larger EU-funded innovation project. The first part of the book traces the origins of co-creation to three distinct domains, in which co-creation has become an equally important approach with different understandings of what it is and entails: (1) the co-production of public services, (2) the co-design of information systems and (3) the civic use of open data. The second part of the book analyses how decisions about a co-creation project’s governance structure, its scope of action, its choice of methods, its alignment with strategic policies and its embedding in existing public information infrastructures impact on the process and its results. The final part of the book identifies key challenges to co-creation and provides a more general assessment of what co-creation may achieve, where the most promising areas of application may be and where it probably does not match with the contingent requirements of digital public services. Contributing to current discourses on digital citizenship in ageing societies and user-centric design, this book is useful for researchers and practitioners interested in co-creation, public sector innovation, open government, ageing and digital technologies, citizen engagement and civic participation in socio-technical innovation.

"This book provides special attention to the most successful practices for implementing e-government technologies, highlighting the benefits of well designed systems in this field, while investigating the implications of poor practices and designs"--

Over the past few years, e-government has been rapidly changing the way governmental services are provided to citizens and businesses. These services improve business and government exchange capability, provide a new way to discover and share information, and play a part in the evolution of future technologies. The Handbook of Research on Democratic Strategies and Citizen-Centered E-Government Services seeks to address which services in e-government should be provided to users and how. This premier reference work gives an overview of the latest achievements in the field of e-government services, provides in-depth analysis of and research on the development and deployment of cutting-edge applications, and provides insight into future trends for researchers, teachers, students, government workers, and IT professionals.

"This book provides examinations of the adoption and impact of e-government"--Provided by publisher.

Electronic Government is continually advancing in topics such as hardware and software technology, e-government adoption and diffusion, e-government policy, e-government planning, management, e-government applications, and e-government impacts. Technology Enabled Transformation of the Public Sector: Advances in E-Government is filled with original research about electronic government and supplies academicians, practitioners, and professionals with quality applied research results in the field of electronic/digital government, its applications, and impacts on governmental organizations around the world. This title effectively and positively provides organizational and managerial directions with greater use and management of electronic/digital government technologies in organizations. It also epitomizes the research available within e-government while exponentially emphasizing the expansiveness of this field.