Anders Avdic

Democracy functions of information technology

Information technology, IT, may play an important part in any community as a supporting tool in the democratic process. The conditions for that to happen are primarily a genuine wish of the community members to take democratic action, having access to the technology and the skills to use it. The purpose of this paper is to establish the democratic functions of IT in what we call the Swedish democratic model. The model describes democracy, in its perfect state, as a political governing based on citizen control, state governed by law and ability to carry out political decisions. In order to achieve this purpose we first identify the concepts of democracy referring to literature on democracy applying to the Swedish democracy model. With these concepts in mind, we then identify the concepts of democracy of information technology by referring to literature describing various aspects of IT. The inventory of concepts had to be extensive in order to avoid a bias of perspective. We have thus made a thorough survey of the concepts of democracy and information technology to find the necessary number of aspects. The democracy functions of IT have been defined as the various ways of how IT may support the individual and the various social communities in the Swedish democracy model. By the individual we mean the citizen as a private person acting on his own or in different social networks. We define social communities as organisations and public administrations at a local or central level. Seven functions have been identified: support for communication, support for human networks, support for efficiency, support for political decisions, support for authority decisions, support for community service, and support for public insight. Our conclusion is that an IT system containing these functions has a great potential to support the democratic process in any community, regardless the political course of its government.

Knowledge management practices in e-government: a developing country perspective

Why did Bangladesh emerge as number one in the current e-government ranking among the least developed countries (LDCs), but only ranks in the 23rd position for knowledge management? Efficient ways of sharing and managing knowledge is imperative for the effectiveness of e-government initiatives in any country. Thus, e-government and knowledge management initiatives should not be managed separately. This paper, based on an interpretative research approach discusses the theoretical and practical aspects of knowledge management and e-government initiatives in the context of developing countries. For the purpose of analysis, online research papers and reports were investigated and Bangladesh was considered as representative of a typical developing country. The case for Bangladesh shows that while the government can easily present online a number of its services, these may not be effective for the targeted users as those services have failed to address some critical implementation factors. Furthermore, the paper discusses critical factors for e-government initiatives that are important for policy makers to enable them efficiently participate in the knowledge sharing process using the appropriate methods and technologies.

Information technology and knowledge acquisition in manufacturing companies: a Scandinavian perspective

Information technology and knowledge acquisition in manufacturing companies : a Scandinavian perspective

Users as developers: conditions and effects of user systems development

This chapter presents conditions and effects of User Systems Development using a Spreadsheet Program. It argues that User Systems Development using a Spreadsheet Program is characterized by integration, interactivity and capacity of questioning, which make it possible to control continuous changes in the environment of an organization. Three empirical studies have been carried out using a Grounded Theory influenced approach. The results are presented with the use of the model of generic practice (the ToP model), in order to systemize empirical findings and related theory. The model is used to specify the conditions and results of a specific practice, e.g., a controller practice or an information technology (IT) specialist practice.