Anthony Meehan

Evaluative design of e‐government projects: A community development perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework supporting the design and evaluation of e‐government projects, especially those involving voluntary and community organisations.Design/methodology/approach – The research adapts a socio‐economic model of community sustainability, reinterpreting it in the context of e‐government. It documents the evolution of a conceptual framework for evaluative design through study of a project in London, UK. An interpretive approach was adopted, within which research was guided by the structured‐case method.Findings – The research provides an evaluative framework for e‐government projects featuring four forms of community capital: infrastructural, environmental, human and social. An ex post evaluation illustrates how the framework identifies design and management issues that are not considered by conventional evaluative frameworks.Research limitations/implications – The main sources of data reflect project management perspectives and information from monitori...

Executive attention, task selection and attention-based learning in a neurally controlled simulated robot

We describe the design and implementation of an integrated neural architecture, modelled on human executive attention, which is used to control both automatic (reactive) and willed action selection in a simulated robot. The model, based upon Norman and Shallices supervisory attention system, incorporates important features of human attentional control: selection of an intended task over a more salient automatic task; priming of future tasks that are anticipated; and appropriate levels of persistence of focus of attention. Recognising that attention-based learning, mediated by the limbic system, and the hippocampus in particular, plays an important role in adaptive learning, we extend the Norman and Shallice model, introducing an intrinsic, attention-based learning mechanism that enhances the automaticity of willed actions and reduces future need for attentional effort. These enhanced features support a new level of attentional autonomy in the operation of the simulated robot. Some properties of the model are explored using lesion studies, leading to the identification of a correspondence between the behavioural pathologies of the simulated robot and those seen in human patients suffering dysfunction of executive attention. We discuss briefly the question of how executive attention may have arisen due to selective pressure.

Social capital, community trust, and E-government services

This paper analyses data from two large-scale community surveys to explore the relationship between community trust relations, as an expression of social capital, and perceptions of the quality of locally available government services. The analysis leads to a model of trust propagation within communities. The factors which connect different forms of trust suggest information and communication technologies for the public sector have an important role to play in mediating trust relations in the community. We indicate some implications for designers, managers and developers of these technologies.

Direct Deliberative Governance Online: Consensual Problem Solving or Accommodated Pluralism?

Abstract This article describes and analyses patterns of “governance conversation” observed in interactions on e-mail lists that aim to support local, direct governance in a geographically co-located community in South Africa. It examines the extent to which governance conversations feature instrumental or expressive dialogue and how they subsequently support consensual or pluralist outcomes. Although each conversation pattern relates to governance, the making of consensual, “binding decisions,” which is usually seen as a key outcome of deliberative democratic processes, is almost entirely absent from the observed interactions. Nonetheless, the exchanges appear to be relevant and useful to the broader process of local direct deliberative governance. The results indicate that online interaction may be particularly suited to facilitating the pluralist deliberation required to manage complex local governance problems. The study points to the potential value of an infrequently investigated context of online deliberation—that of resident-to-resident deliberation on geographically local issues—and presents a broader conception of the role of online deliberation in local governance.

Managing Internet-Mediated Community Trust Relations

This paper advances a framework for analysing and managing community trust relations. The framework is based upon an analysis of the evidence for different forms of trust in community relations and of the experiential dimensions of community relations that promote trust levels. It features a community trust cycle, a trust compact and an experience management matrix which collectively support managers in addressing the relational dynamics of community trust relations. We show that this framework can be used to analyse relations that are mediated by ICT and that the framework supports the identification of opportunities to better promote ICT-mediated trust development and promulgation.

Designing for Social Inclusion: Computer Mediation of Trust Relations Between Citizens and Public Service Providers

Trust has a direct impact on the extent to which citizens engage with public and community services. This paper advances a framework which seeks to support HCI designers and managers in promoting ICT-mediated citizen engagement with public services through a strategy of trust promotion. The framework is based upon an analysis of evidence from large-scale community surveys which demonstrate a significant relationship between levels of user trust and users’ experience of public services and reveals experiential factors that promote users’ trust.

Measuring Behaviour-Based Trust between Negotiating Agents

We describe a metric to assess agent trustworthiness from the earliest stages of a dialogue between two web agents. There is no assumption of a transaction history between the agents nor is there a requirement for the agents to fully share the semantics of the set of alternatives over which negotiation occurs. The metric is designed to recognise a form of co-operative negotiation behaviour, so-called logrolling, which is known to induce trust between human negotiators. The metric requires an agent to be able to infer the issue priorities of the other party over a series of proposals and to correlate these with its own priorities. An example is used to illustrate how this may be achieved.

Direct democracy catalysed by resident-to-resident online deliberation

In the context of local civic governance, much of the interest in e-Participation concerns the extent to which online media might overcome the limitations of geography and scale, and so allow local interests to be better represented in institutionally driven participatory processes at national or regional level. In contrast, this study investigates the online deliberations of a local, geographically bounded community in a series of mailing lists that had originated from their own initiative and self-organisation. The interactions we observe challenges assumptions of democratic deliberation as mainly policy debate between citizens and government, or of lobbying administrative government. It also proposes a broader conception of the role of online deliberation in local governance, where instrumental decision-making and developing consensus is frequently over privileged in research.

A Web-Based Selling Agent That Maintains Customer Loyalty through Integrative Negotiation

In many transactions, the sellers objective includes promoting customer loyalty in order to increase the likelihood of further transactions. Integrative bargaining styles foster positive relationships between parties. This short paper describes a protocol for a web-based selling agent that adopts an integrative selling style to identify alternative sales contracts that match customer priorities and hence promote customer satisfaction.

Direct Deliberative Governance and the Web: The Collaborative Work of Democratic Decision-Making Mediated by an Online Social Environment

Direct deliberative democracy presents a conceptually attractive model of civic governance – particularly relevant at local scale. We outline the ‘work’ of direct deliberative democracy by considering its underlying principles and objectives, and discuss four fundamental challenges that are commonly proposed: the difficulty of coordinating direct participation, the expertise required of participants, the often underestimated dynamics of power in direct action, and that deliberation is not necessarily the sole, ideal mode of participation. At hand of a case study of an online “community of interest”, the paper investigates the potential role of social media to facilitate this work, and to mitigate the challenges cited.