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Part 5: Smart Cities; International audience; This study is developed in the context of the Strengthening Governance Capacity for Smart Sustainable Cities (CAP4CITY) Project, part of the Erasmus + Programme. The study aims to support the design of teaching materials to address the human-capacity related needs for the governance of Smart Sustainable Cities (SSC) in South America. This article identifies the competencies and instructional design for the design of smart sustainable cities courses adapted to the South American context. Applying a scenario-building approach and the CAP4CITY roadmap for smart sustainable city initiatives, we conducted two workshops in Chile and two in Argentina attended by representatives from academia, NGOs, government agencies, and private companies. Using the data about competencies and teaching models gathered during these events, the study clustered the data and identified the major areas of competences and instructional methods. Lastly, we compared the results from both countries.

Part 4: User Perspectives; International audience; Most of the research that has been conducted in the area of legal informatics concerns its ‘supply side’, dealing with the development of effective systems for legal information provision. However, limited research has been conducted on the ‘demand side’ of legal information provision, though it is absolutely necessary to gain a good understanding of it, in order to design effective and useful systems for the provision of legal information; furthermore, this limited research is dealing with the legal information needs of the lawyers, and neglects the ones of other important groups. This paper contributes to filling this research gap. It analyses legal information requirements of a highly important for the society group: the designers of public policies. Initially we investigate current legal information sources and systems used by public policy makers, as well as their relevant search practices. Then we investigate their business needs for additional capabilities/functionalities for a better support of their policymaking activities using advanced legal analytics tools and services. Finally, we discuss the information, processing and technical requirements for the development of a legal information system providing the above advanced functionalities and services. For the above purposes, we have collected data through semi-structured interviews form 13 Greek and 7 Austrian public administrators dealing with the design of public policies, which lead to interesting and useful insights, as well as a novel set of additional advanced capabilities and functionalities that can give rise to a new generation of legal informatics.

Part 3: Open Government and Transparency; International audience; This paper explores the connection between membership in the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and digital transformation. It employs a qualitative research approach and document analysis to examine OGP Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Reports and government self-assessment reports, to get a sense of the nature of digital transformation commitments made within OGP national action plans. This includes a look at what the commitments are, why they are made, and their results. Ultimately, it is found that while few OGP members focus on achieving digital transformation results, most are not leveraging their membership to advance digital transformation. Moreover, those that do are not doing so in a way that addresses a clear policy or governance issue, rendering it difficult to comment on whether the commitments are effectively advancing open government. The mandatory assessment of OGP action plans helps, to some degree, to drive members to complete their commitments, and serves as a useful tool for advancing policies as they relate to open government.

International audience; Book Front Matter of LNCS 12220

International audience; Book Front Matter of LNCS 12219

Part 1: eParticipation Developments; International audience; In order to motivate diverse user groups to participate in e-participation, platform designers are keen to offer attractive communication formats in combination with modern tools and suitable forms of online identification. This does not come without difficulties, as individual users prefer different solutions. Research on tools and electronic identification in this context has investigated the appropriateness of different e-IDs for different stages of e-participation. In this respect, this paper offers three contributions to questions of technology application and acceptance in e-participation: Firstly, it showcases two scenarios from a platform simulation on different levels of e-participation. Secondly, the authors present results on the acceptance of these scenarios and tools based on questionnaires and usability tests. Thirdly, viewpoints from interviews with key stakeholders for e-participation in governance and politics are included. Results shall be useful for the future design and implementation of e-participation platforms.

Part 4: AI, Data Analytics and Automated Decision Making; International audience; Over the past years, a number of new technologies have emerged with a potential to disrupt many spheres of the society. While public sector traditionally lacks behind business in innovation, significant changes are anticipated with the use of disruptive technologies. The implementation of the new technologies for the government service provision, along with possible benefits, need to be well thought through and challenges need to be carefully discussed, analysed and evaluated. This paper uses scenario-technique to identify research and training needs for the implementation of disruptive technologies in government services. Using the input of 58 experts from three workshops, research and training needs for the internet of things, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, as well as big data technologies have been identified. The identified needs can serve as a starting point for a broader and more informed discussion about the knowledge and skills that the researchers and practitioners of digital government need to obtain for the broad use of such new (disruptive) technologies.

Part 4: User Perspectives; International audience; This article seeks to understand how eParticipation can boost individual capabilities in an ICT4D context. The analysis has regard eParticipation as a mechanism for expanding capabilities since it increases the democratic and participatory involvement of individuals in society. To this end, we examined the eParticipation field according to Sæbø et al. [18] and Medaglia [11], combining the capability approach from Sen’s [21] and Nussbaum’s [15] perspectives. Although the literature recognized that the capability approach is particularly difficult to operationalize in practice, we discovered some mechanisms in the eParticipation literature to support our analysis. However, despite its apparent benefits, eParticipation can indirectly contribute toward increasing inequalities among people since it is not available to all. We believe that recognition of the inequalities generated by the digital divide and the subsequent decrease in eParticipation could lead to a better understanding of the ICT4D context and assist in public policy-making.

Part 11: Multi Agent - IoT; International audience; A large number of research and industrial projects could benefit from a module-based development. However, these modules and the communication between them may vary from project to project. Therefore, a general middleware instead of several specialized middlewares for each domain is desired. This paper presents the ACONA Framework (Agent-based Complex Network Architecture). It is an agent-based middleware with a lightweight and flexible infrastructure. Also, it offers the possibility of evolutionary programming. Its performance is demonstrated in three applications: (i) A cognitive architecture with around 40 interconnected modules; (ii) a stock market simulator with elements of evolutionary programming; and (iii) an industry 4.0 application of a conveyor belt.

Part 8: Collaborative Government and Social Policies; International audience; Digital government refers to the transformation of government organizations and their relationships with citizens, business and each other through digital technology. It entails digital innovation in processes, services, organizations, policies, etc. which are increasingly developed and tested in one country and transferred, after adaptation, to other countries. The process of innovation transfer and the underlying information and knowledge sharing increasing take place through networks. The aim of this study is to identify various forms of such networks, their structures, membership criteria and modes of operation. The study relies on the analysis of literature on innovation transfer, collaborative networks and inter-governmental collaboration, and a survey of existing inter-governmental networks for digital government innovation transfer. The key finding is that such networks are a growing form of international collaboration and an instrument in global economy.

Part 3: Open Data: Social and Technical Aspects; International audience; Data market initiatives have, by assigning monetary value to data, and connecting the various actors responsible for its efficient production and consumption, far reaching consequences for national economies. The Data Market Austria (DMA) project represents a unique opportunity for Austria to leverage the enormous potential socio-economic benefits accruing from increased trade of data. At the same time, however, a number of key challenges to the successful uptake of the project needs to be considered, and new problems emerging from this new form of digital commercial infrastructure need to be anticipated and addressed. This study aims to examine how the benefits accruing to increased participation in a data-driven ecosystem can be applied to tackle the long-standing socio-cultural challenges and the possible societal and cultural impediments to the successful unfolding out of a data market. Theoretical discussions framed from arguments obtained through a systematic review of academic and scholarly literature are juxtaposed with empirical data obtained from data science experts and DMA project personnel to test whether they stand up to real-world practicalities and to narrow the focus onto the Austria-specific context. Our findings reveal that data is a dual-purpose commodity that has both commercial value and social application. To amplify the benefits accruing from increased data trading, it is vital that a country establishes a sound open data strategy and a balanced regulatory framework for data trading.

Part 2: Digital Transformations; International audience; It is estimated that during the period 2020–2025, about 30% of the employees at the Austrian Ministry of Defence will retire. This raises the question of how to encourage employees to share informal knowledge in order to successfully embrace organisational change in increasingly digitised environments with a view to retaining them long-term. Through the development of a three-part empirical study, this research paper investigates the role played by informal knowledge sharing networks and social media in expediting digital transformation within a public sector organisation. Our findings show that the public sector stands to benefit from informal knowledge sharing, and that both a permissive organisational culture and the provision of clearly demarcated ‘knowledge sharing spaces’ are fundamental in this respect.

Part 2: Open Data, Linked Data, and Semantic Web; International audience; This research paper explores the impact that the access to, and free usage of, stored (mainly public sector) data has on society, the economy and on good governance, together with the implications of this new paradigm for modern-day governments. Although a number of recent research studies attempt to identify the benefits and drawbacks of open data, or to demonstrate its role in governance processes, there exists to-date no systematic attempt to both rigorously survey current literature to enumerate the areas in which open data has had an impact and to discuss its potential as a significant tool for policymaking. To address this research gap, and to highlight its intrinsic value to different actors, we examine the current state-of-the-art on the impacts of open data research and practice through a systematic survey of extant scholarly and practitioner literature. The first part of our study will present a comprehensive overview of the societal, economic, and political impacts of open data. We will then evaluate the new possibilities afforded by open data to policymaking, and conclude with a discussion of its role in open governance.

International audience; Book Front Matter of LNCS 11021

International audience; Book Front Matter of LNCS 11020

International audience; Book Front Matter of LNCS 10429

International audience; Book Front Matter of LNCS 9820

Part 3: Evaluation; International audience; E-participation projects have to consider a low participation threshold while maintaining security and data quality standards. While users often perceive complex regulations and logins as hurdles for participation, providers of solutions want to avoid misuse and in some cases have identified the participants uniquely. Not all levels of e-participation require the same quality of identification and authentication to produce reliable outcomes. Based on the first results of an Austrian e-participation project, the paper presents a model that tries to match these complex relations and examines which identification methods are seen as appropriate on which levels of e-participation based on the dimensions of quality of identification data and low participation threshold.

International audience; Book Front Matter of LNCS 9248

Part 4: Software Platforms and Evaluation; International audience; In the area of large-scale e-participation projects on a cross-national level, the project we present is based on the idea that the active involvement of young people in the process of socio-political decision-making plays an important societal role. OurSpace is a multi-national project supporting a closer relationship between European decision makers, and Europe’s younger generation. OurSpace tried to combine ICT usage, young peoples’ readiness and motivation to participate, and their assumed lack of information regarding European politics. We present the evaluation framework and methodology applied for OurSpace, the major results of the project evaluation, and the lessons learned from a comparative perspective.

Part 1: Information & Communication Technology-EurAsia Conference 2014, ICT-EurAsia 2014; International audience; The effect of Open Educational Resources (OER) on Higher Education is still disappointing. (Re)use of materials, which can be accessed and employed freely, has not developed in such a way that it has changed the attitudes and behavior of teachers. After analyzing several aspects of the problem the article will focus on educational reasons to improve this situation. It is argued that to strive for context free learning objects is heading in the wrong direction. The author proposes to link OER not only with an educational taxonomy of learning outcomes but also with typical patterns of educational scenarios.