research-article

Enhancing the design of e-government: identifying structures and modelling concepts in contemporary platforms

Authors:

Vassilis Meneklis,

Christos DouligerisAuthors Info & Claims

ICEGOV '07: Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Theory and practice of electronic governance

Pages 108 - 116

https://doi.org/10.1145/1328057.1328082

Published: 10 December 2007 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper we argue that attentive observation of the evolution of e-Government can result in the identification of patterns that affect this process in a deep, subconscious and recursive way. These patterns can be used to enhance the contemporary modelling methodologies of information systems which play a crucial role in their overall efficiency. In this respect, we analyze this evolution from a structurational perspective focusing on the structuring through services and on the structuring through technologies. Through our analysis we discover modelling concepts that pervade design attempts for e-Government systems to date. Finally, we suggest an extension to an existing modelling framework (the ISO Reference Model for Distributed Processing Systems - ISO RM-ODP) which is established on the identified concepts and their corresponding structuring rules that we have defined based on our experiences. These conceptual extensions are put to use in the modelling phase of a European e-Government project (SWEB).

References

[1]

Allison, I. and Merali, Y. Software process improvement as emergent change: A structurational analysis. Information and Software Technology, 49, Elsevier (2007), 668--681.

Digital Library

[2]

Ayres, J. M. From the Streets to the Internet: The Cyber-Diffusion of Contention. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 566, The Social Diffusion of Ideas and Things, Sage (Nov. 1999), 132--143.

[3]

Barley, S. R. Technology as an Occasion for structuring: Evidence from Observations of CT Scanners and the Social Order of Radiology Departments. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Mar. 1986), 78--108.

[4]

Beringer, A. J., Fletcher, M. E., Taket, A. R. Rules and resources: a structuration approach to understanding the coordination of children's inpatient health care. Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol. 56, No. 3, Blackwell (Nov. 2006), 325--335.

[5]

Boland, R. J. Jr. and Greenberg, R. H. Method and metaphor in organizational analysis. Accounting, Management and Information Technology, Vol. 2, No. 2, ScienceDirect (1992), 117--141.

[6]

Chen, Y. and Gant, J. Transforming local e-government services: the use of application service providers. Government Information Quarterly, 18, Pergamon (2001), 343--355.

[7]

Conrad, L. A structuration analysis of accounting systems and systems of accountability in the privatised gas industry. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 16, Elsevier (2005), 1--26.

[8]

DeSanctis, G. and Poole, M. S. Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory. Organization Science, Vol. 5, No. 2, Informs (May, 1994) 121--147.

[9]

E.C. Electronic and secure municipal administration for European citizens - eMayor, IST-2004-507217, 6th Framework Programme (2004) Available at: www.emayor.org (August 2007)

[10]

E.C. Secure, interoperable, cross border m-services contributing towards a trustful European cooperation with the non-EU member Western Balkan countries - SWEB, IST-2006-2.6.5, 6th Framework Programme, Priority 2, Information Society Technologies (2007) Available at: www.sweb-project.org/ (August 2007)

[11]

Evans, J. and Brooks, L. Collaborative working in a large pharmaceutical company: Developing better practices through a structurational schema. International Journal of Information Management, 25, Elsevier (2005), 551--564.

Digital Library

[12]

Falkenberg, E., Verrijn-Stuart, A., Voss, K., Hesse, W., Lindgreen, P., Nilsson, B., Oei, J., Rolland, C., and Stamper, R. a., editors. A Framework of Information Systems Concepts. IFIP WG 8.1 Task Group FRISCO. ISBN 3-901-88201-4 (1998).

[13]

Falkheimer, J. Anthony Giddens and public relations: A third way perspective. Public Relations Review. (Article in press)

[14]

Giddens, A. A contemporary critique of Historical Materialism. Volume 1: Power, Property and the State. London: Macmillan, 1981.

[15]

Giddens, A. The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1984.

[16]

Goguen, J. The dry and the wet. In IS Concepts, Proceedings of the IFIP Working Group 8.1 Conference (Alexandria, Egypt, 1992); also, Programming research Group, Technical Monograph PRG-100, Oxford, March 1992.

[17]

Hardcastle, M. R., Usher, K. J., Holmes, C. A. An overview of structuration theory and its usefulness for nursing research. Nursing Philosophy, 6, Blackwell Publishing, (2005), 223--234.

[18]

Hargadon, A. and Fanelli, A. Action and Possibility: Reconciling Dual Perspectives of Knowledge in Organizations. Organization Science, Vol. 13, No. 3, Knowledge, Knowing, and Organizations. (May -- Jun. 2002). 290--302.

Digital Library

[19]

Herman, I. W3C's Technologies and e-Government. Workshop on e-Government: Barriers and Opportunities, 15^th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2006) (Edinburgh, Scotland, May 23, 2006). Available at: www.w3.org/2006/Talks/0523-Edinburgh-IH/ (August 2007)

[20]

Ho, A. T. Reinventing Local Governments and the E-Government Initiative. Public Administration Review, Vol. 62, No. 4, Blackwell (Jul. - Aug. 2002), 434--444.

[21]

ISO/IEC. Reference Model for Open Distributed Processing - Part 1: Overview, Part 2: Foundations, Part 3: Architecture, Part 4: Architectural Semantics. ITU-T Rec. X.901 | ISO/IEC 10746-1, 2, 3, 4:1998(E). Available at: http://www.iso.org

[22]

Kaliontzoglou, A., Meneklis, V., Polemi, D., Douligeris, C. A formalized design method for building e-government architectures. Secure E-Government Web Services, IGI Global, 2007.

Digital Library

[23]

Layne, K. and Lee, Jungwoo. Developing fully functional E-government: A four stage model. Government Information Quarterly, 18, Elsevier (2001), 122--136.

[24]

Lee, O. Structuration, Emancipation and Democracy. In Proceedings of the 39^th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06) (Koloa, Kauai, January 4-7, 2006), IEEE.

Digital Library

[25]

Limayem, M., Banerjee, P., Ma, L. Impact of GDSS: Opening the black box. Decision Support Systems, 42, Elsevier (2006), 945--957.

Digital Library

[26]

Manning, S. and Sydow, J. Transforming Creative Potential in Project Networks: How TV Movies Are Produced under Network-Based Control. Critical Sociology 33, Brill (2007), 19--42.

[27]

Meneklis, V., Kaliontzoglou, A., Douligeris, C., and Polemi, D. Engineering and technology aspects of an e-government architecture based on Web services. In Proceedings of Third IEEE European Conference on Web Services (ECOWS2005) (Vajxo, Sweden, Nov. 14--16, 2005), 118--129.

Digital Library

[28]

Meneklis, V., Kaliontzoglou, A., Polemi, D., and Douligeris, C. Applying the ISO RM-ODP standard in egovernment. E - government: Towards Electronic Democracy: International Conference Proceedings (TCGOV 2005) (Bolzano, Italy, March 2--4, 2005) LNCS 3416/2005 Springer-Verlag GmbH, 213--224.

Digital Library

[29]

Meneklis, V., Papastergiou, S., Douligeris, C., Polemi, D. Towards advanced e/m-Government platforms. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Society (i-Society 2007) (Indiana, USA, October 7--11, 2007).

[30]

Moon, M. J. The Evolution of E-Government among Municipalities: Rhetoric or Reality? Public Administration Review, Vol. 62, No. 4, Blackwell (Jul. -- Aug. 2002), 424--433.

[31]

Orlikowski, W. Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations. Organization Science, Vol. 11, No. 4, Informs (Jul. - Aug. 2000), 404--428.

Digital Library

[32]

Orlikowski, W. and Robey, D. Information technology and the structuring of organizations. Information Systems Research, Vol. 2, No. 2, Informs (1991), 143--169.

[33]

Parvez, Z. Examining e-democracy through a double structuration loop. Electronic Government, an International Journal, Vol. 3, No. 3, Inderscience (2006), 329--346.

[34]

Parvez, Z. and Ahmed, P. Towards building an integrated perspective on e-democracy. Information, Communications & Society, Vol. 9, No. 5, Routledge (2006), 612--632.

[35]

Peters, L. D. Conceptualising computer-mediated communication technology and its use in organisations. International Journal of Information Management, 26, Elsevier (2006), 142--152.

Digital Library

[36]

Phipps, A. G. Empirical Applications of Structuration Theory. Geografiska Annaler, Series B, Human Geography, Vol. 83, No. 4 (2001), 189--204.

[37]

Pozzebon, M. and Pinsonneault, A. Challenges in Conducting Empirical Work Using Structuration Theory: Learning from IT Research. Organization Studies, Vol. 26, No. 9, Sage (2005), 1353--1376.

[38]

Proper, H. A., Verrijn-Stuart, A. A. and Hoppenbrouwers, S. J. B. A. On Utility-based Selection of Architecture-Modelling Concepts. In Proceedings of the Second Asia-Pacific Conference on Conceptual Modelling (APCCM2005). Volume 43 of CRPIT, Australian Computer Society (2005), 25--34.

Digital Library

[39]

Rethemeyer, R. K. The Empires Strike Back: Is the Internet Corporatizing Rather than Democratizing Policy Processes? Public Administration Review, Vol. 67, No. 2, Blackwell (Mar. - Apr. 2007), 199--215.

[40]

Rose, J. and Hackney, R. Towards a Structurational Theory of Information Systems: a Substantive Case Analysis. In Proceedings of the 36^th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'03) (Waikoloa Village, Island of Hawaii, January 6-9, 2003). IEEE Computer Society.

Digital Library

[41]

Sewell, W. H. Jr. A theory of structure: Duality, Agency and Transformation. The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 98, No. 1. (July 1992), 1--29.

[42]

Silcock, R. What is e-Government? Parliamentary Affairs, 54, Oxford Journals (2001), 88--101.

[43]

Smolander, K. Four metaphors of Architecture in Software Organizations: Finding out The Meaning of Architecture in Practice. In Proceedings of the 2002 International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering (ISESE'02) (Nara, Japan, October 3 - 4, 2002). IEEE Computer Society, 211--221.

Digital Library

[44]

Tolbert, C. J. and McNeal, R. S. Unravelling the Effects of the Internet on Political Patricipation? Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 56, No. 2, Sage (Jun. 2003) 175--185.

[45]

W3C. Extensible Markup Language (XML). Available at: http://www.w3.org/XML/ (August 2007)

[46]

W3C. Web Services Choreography (WS-Choreography). Available at: http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/chor/ (August 2007)

[47]

West, D. M. E-Government and the Transformation of Service Delivery and Citizen Attitudes. Public Administration Review, Vol. 64, No.1 Blackwell (Jan. - Feb. 2004), 15--27

Cited By

Popescu MBarbu ACostea-Marcu IDumitriu D(2024)Conceptual Framework for Unified E-Government Web PlatformProceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence10.2478/picbe-2024-028418:1(3503-3514)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.2478/picbe-2024-0284
Iyamu T(2013)Underpinning theories: order‐of‐use in information systems researchJournal of Systems and Information Technology10.1108/JSIT-11-2012-006415:3(224-238)Online publication date: 9-Aug-2013
https://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-11-2012-0064
Kassahun AMolla ASarkar P(2012)Government Process ReengineeringStrategic Enterprise Resource Planning Models for E-Government10.4018/978-1-60960-863-7.ch001(1-24)Online publication date: 2012
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60960-863-7.ch001
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Enhancing the design of e-government: identifying structures and modelling concepts in contemporary platforms
1. Mathematics of computing
  1. Information theory
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems
      1. Project and people management
        Systems analysis and design

Recommendations

Open government and e-government: democratic challenges from a public value perspective
dg.o '11: Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Digital Government Research Conference: Digital Government Innovation in Challenging Times

We consider open government (OG) within the context of e-government and its broader implications for the future of public administration. We argue that the current US Administration's Open Government Initiative blurs traditional distinctions between e-...
Open government and e-government: democratic challenges from a public value perspective
Special issue on Open Government and Public Participation: Issues and Challenges in Creating Public Value

We argue that the Obama Administration's Open Government Initiative blurs distinctions between e-democracy and e-government by incorporating historically democratic practices. now enabled by emerging technology. within administrative agencies. We ...
What Shapes Global Diffusion of e-Government: Comparing the Influence of National Governance Institutions

Prior research has established the existence of a differential between industrialized and other countries for e-Government diffusion. It attempts to explain this divide by identifying economic and technical variables. At the same time, the role of ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

ICEGOV '07: Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Theory and practice of electronic governance

December 2007

471 pages

ISBN:9781595938220

DOI:10.1145/1328057

Editors:
Tomasz Janowski
United Nations University
,
Theresa A. Pardo
Center for Technology in Government

Copyright © 2007 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 10 December 2007

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Funding Sources

Sixth Framework Programme

Conference

ICEGOV '07

ICEGOV '07: International conference on theory and practice in electronic governance

December 10 - 13, 2007

Macao, China

Acceptance Rates

ICEGOV '07 Paper Acceptance Rate 33 of 130 submissions, 25%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 350 of 865 submissions, 40%

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

9
Total Citations
View Citations
701
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)3
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0

Reflects downloads up to 08 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Popescu MBarbu ACostea-Marcu IDumitriu D(2024)Conceptual Framework for Unified E-Government Web PlatformProceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence10.2478/picbe-2024-028418:1(3503-3514)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.2478/picbe-2024-0284
Iyamu T(2013)Underpinning theories: order‐of‐use in information systems researchJournal of Systems and Information Technology10.1108/JSIT-11-2012-006415:3(224-238)Online publication date: 9-Aug-2013
https://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-11-2012-0064
Kassahun AMolla ASarkar P(2012)Government Process ReengineeringStrategic Enterprise Resource Planning Models for E-Government10.4018/978-1-60960-863-7.ch001(1-24)Online publication date: 2012
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60960-863-7.ch001
Kassahun AMolla ASarkar P(2012)Government Process ReengineeringDigital Democracy10.4018/978-1-4666-1740-7.ch086(1730-1752)Online publication date: 2012
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-1740-7.ch086
Meneklis VDouligeris C(2010)Bridging theory and practice in e-government: A set of guidelines for architectural designGovernment Information Quarterly10.1016/j.giq.2009.08.00527:1(70-81)Online publication date: Jan-2010
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2009.08.005
Meneklis VDouligeris C(2010)Studying the Interaction of the Epistemology in e-Government, Organization Studies and Information SystemsNext Generation Society. Technological and Legal Issues10.1007/978-3-642-11631-5_7(79-86)Online publication date: 2010
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11631-5_7
Papastergiou SPolemi DDouligeris C(2010)SWEB: An Advanced Mobile Residence Certificate ServiceNext Generation Society. Technological and Legal Issues10.1007/978-3-642-11631-5_38(421-430)Online publication date: 2010
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11631-5_38
Meneklis VDouligeris C(2008)Technological integrationProceedings of the 2nd international conference on Theory and practice of electronic governance10.1145/1509096.1509103(16-23)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1509096.1509103
Pardo TJiang Y(2007)Electronic governance and organizational transformationProceedings of the 1st international conference on Theory and practice of electronic governance10.1145/1328057.1328081(99-107)Online publication date: 10-Dec-2007
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1328057.1328081

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Figures

Tables

Media

View Table of Conten