Involvement in e-government

1
Involvement in e-government trick or trade?

• Kim Viborg Andersen
• Department of Informatics, Copenhagen Business
  School
• andersen_at_cbs.dk

Presented at Workshop on user involvement and
representation in e-Government projects The
Fourth Nordic Conference on Human Computer
Interaction Octobre 14-18, Oslo, Norway
2
Abstract / key points

• E-government has the potential to transform
  interaction patterns, but from end-user point of
  view few results
• Involvement in design and implementing IT
  projects lost the Scandinavian touch?
• Leading to succesfull projects (?) and less
  resistance to implementation
• Balance participation objectives on
  rationel-technocratic motives versus (?)
  democractic motives
• Involvement fading out? Replaced by new
  mechanisms fueled by NPM?

3
From the Danish menu (summer 2006)1

• When you have found the form needed, you can
  complete the form at the computer or print it and
  complete the form by pen. NB. It is very
  important that you sign the form by pen
  otherwise the form is not valid

4
From the Danish menu (summer 2006)2

• We...do not use e-mail to respond to inquiries
  from the citizens. An answer will therefore be
  mailed by ordinary mail. Therefore it is
  important that you state your full name and
  postal address when you send e-mails to the
  agency

5
From the Danish menu (summer 2006)3

• If you have questions regarding the progress of
  your case/ inquiry, please call the staff in the
  office hours
• Monday, Tuesday, Wednes, and Friday 930 AM till
  1230 PM
• Thursday 1000 AM till 1230 PM

6
Institutional top-down participation versus
bottom-up driven participation
7
Participation issues

• Multiple technical channels for participation
  fewer institutionalized?
• Willingness to pay split from finance of the
  services
• Normative views on involvement
• Limits to participation (professional ethics,
  time, etc. )

8
Participation in government

• Positive og negative regulation
• The citizen role
• Voter
• The user and the target of regulation
• The company
• Politicians
• The employee

9
Maturity models of e-government
10
Maturity models CapGemini, Economist, Accenture
11
Maturing eGovernment The challenge digital
services
Maturing eGovernment
12
Process rebuilding
13
The case of teaching evaluation
14
Teaching at universities

• Free of charge for students
• Income for universities generated by number
  students that pass the examns
• Quality standards for teaching performance
• Mandatory to evaluate teaching performance

15
Teaching evaluation

• Students feedback
• Process and ex post
• Formalized evaluations
• Major challenges
• Low participation rate
• Legitimacy problems
• Lack of transparency

16
The conventional teaching evaluation process
17
The online teaching evaluation at the ITU
18
Online evaluation

• Quantitative and qualitative results displayed
• Teachers response to comments published
• Students and teachers prompted for response
• Teachers obliged to response to all individual
  comments

19
Concerns

• Decrease the academic level/ ambitions
• More focused on (good) feedback than learning
  cycles
• Hyper-efficiency rather than building acacemic
  sound institutions
• Evaluation favors easy courses
• Replaces dialogue on teaching performance

20
Outcome

• Increased and more accurate bottom-up information
  AND more top-down control
• Lack of experimental/ rich media
• Higher participation rate
• Students choose NOT to be anonymous
• Formal evaluation culture established (no
  complaints)
• Improvement of current teaching
• Highlight management of teaching
• To be replicated by other universities?

21
Conclusion perspectives
22
Digitalization of government
City hall Institutions/ street level bureaucrats
Support activitites
Core activities
23
Point of departure (normative statements)

• New IT applications are to be initiated and
  oriented towards the end-users primarily
• IT-capabilities among staff is acute need of
  updating
• Politics, values, people, and attitudes towards
  technology is the key to better design and
  implementation
• The added value (not cost) of each public servant
  should be in focus
• The core activities, not the support/ flow of
  document should be in the periscope designing the
  new government

24
Thank you for your attention!

• Questions ??
• Contact at andersen_at_cbs.dk