Asim Balci

COBRA framework to evaluate e-government services: A citizen-centric perspective

PIAP-GA-2008-230658) from the European Union Framework Program and another grant (NPRP 09-1023-5-158) from the Qatar National Research Fund (amember of Qatar Foundation)

Proposing a Knowledge Amphora Model for Transition towards Mobile Government

As an important project for Turkey to achieve Information/Knowledge Society Strategic Goals, the e-Government Gateway currently focuses on the delivery of public services via a single portal on the Internet. In later stages, other channels such as mobile devices will be available for use, underlying a transition towards mobile and ubiquitous government services. In order to provide a supportive base for this transition, the authors develop a modeling of knowledge amphora (@), and link this conceptual model with the e-government gateway. Based on Knowledge Science concepts such as ubiquity, ba (physical, virtual, mental place for relationship-building and knowledge-creation), ma (time-space in-between-ness), reflection and refraction, the modeling of Knowledge Amphora incorporates the interactions @ the Internet and mobile devices that contribute to cross-cultural information transfer and knowledge creation. The paper presents recent electronic and mobile government developments of E-Government Gateway Project in Turkey as an application example of this philosophical and theoretical modeling. The contributed Ubiquitous Participation Platform for Policy Making (UbiPOL) project aims to develop a ubiquitous platform allowing citizens to be involved in policy making processes (PMPs). The resulting work is a practical case study as that develops new m-government operations.

Initial analysis and evaluation of citizen usage of E-Government Gateway in Turkey

This paper presents the initial results of a survey conducted in Turkey that aims to measure the effectiveness of the E-Government Gateway and satisfaction of citizens from the usage of the gateway system. Data has been collected from 1.500 qualitative responses to an open-ended question that requests (if there is) any other additional comment at the end of a quantitative survey. Collected data is categorized and analyzed with respect to subjective and practical criteria by the developers and operators of the gateway. Based on a maturity model classification for e-Government services from literature, selected examples of specific services are also provided. While the initial results reflect a positive perception of citizen users for the system, various suggestions and requests useful for development and improvement are especially noteworthy. For instance, citizen demand for more personalized information and service provision can be underlined. Findings from these initial survey outcomes are hoped to be not only incorporated into the e-Government service development in Turkey, but considered as useful for other ongoing practical and academic works on e-Government and ICT system evaluation in general, as well.