Eleni Panopoulou

A framework for evaluating web sites of public authorities

Purpose – In this paper, the aim is to develop a framework for evaluating the web sites of public authorities. The proposed framework consists of four axes: two for assessing the general characteristics and content of the web sites (namely general characteristics and e‐content); and two for assessing specific functionalities addressing their governmental character (namely e‐services and e‐participation).Design/methodology/approach – The proposed framework is gradually built through a critical analysis of the two relevant domains, web site evaluation and e‐government. The methodology used in the case study includes the construction of an appropriate questionnaire for assessing the framework metrics. The practical use of the framework is demonstrated by means of a case study, namely evaluating the web sites of Greek public authorities at local and regional level.Findings – The proposed framework presents a more holistic approach to e‐government web site evaluation, while the case study provides some interes...

Understanding eParticipation State of Play in Europe

In this article, we develop a three-layered analytical framework for investigating the development of eParticipation in Europe, which incorporates the outputs, outcomes, and impacts of eParticipation, and also accounts for the action of external factors. This analytical framework was used as a basis of a questionnaire survey among eParticipation initiatives at the European, national, regional, and local levels. It has been concluded that, in most cases, eParticipation simply provided a suitable alternative channel for participatory activities and did not challenge institutionalized centers of power.

Linked2Safety: A secure linked data medical information space for semantically-interconnecting EHRs advancing patients' safety in medical research

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) contain an increasing wealth of medical information. They have the potential to help significantly in advancing medical research, as well as improve health policies, providing society with additional benefits. However, the European healthcare information space is fragmented due to the lack of legal and technical standards, cost effective platforms, and sustainable business models. The vision of Linked2Safety is to advance clinical practice and accelerate medical research, by providing pharmaceutical companies, healthcare professionals and patients with an innovative secure semantic interoperability framework facilitating the efficient and homogenized access to anonymised distributed EHRs in an aggregate form that enables merging multiple data sources into a single analyses. In this paper a first public introduction to the project is provided along with a clear definition of the problems, and proposed architecture. Three usage scenarios are used to demonstrate the potential impact of the outcomes of the project.

A Comparative Analysis of Tools and Technologies for Policy Making

Latest advancements in information and communication technologies offer great opportunities for modernising policy making, i.e. increasing its efficiency, bringing it closer to all relevant actors, and enhancing its transparency and acceptance levels. In this context, this chapter aims to present, analyse, and discuss emerging information and communication technologies (ICT) tools and technologies presenting the potential to enhance policy making. The methodological approach includes the searching and identification of relevant tools and technologies, their systematic analysis and categorisation, and finally a discussion of potential usage and recommendations for enhancing policy making.

Learning from eParticipation initiatives of regional and local level authorities in Greece and Spain

In this paper, we examine the eParticipation progress of public authorities in two EU Member States, Greece and Spain. We do this in two steps: At the regional level (Regions and Provinces/Prefectures) we employ a published evaluation framework for evaluating the eParticipation sophistication of regional authorities‟ websites. At the local level we examine one good practice case from each country analysing the lessons learnt from them. Overall, although eParticipation is a political priority at the EU level, the results indicate that it is not yet adequately advanced in the two countries under examination. Spain scores good in information provision and average in consultation, while Greece scores average in both; however, active participation measures are really low in both countries.

A Framework for Data-Driven Public Service Co-production

Governments are creating and maintaining increasing amounts of data, and, recently, releasing data as open government data. As the amount of data available increases, so too should the exploitation of this data. However, this potential currently seems to be unexploited. Since exploiting open government data has the potential to create new public value, the absence of this exploitation is something that should be explored. It is therefore timely to investigate how the potential of existing datasets could be unleashed to provide services that create public value. For this purpose, we conducted a literature study and an empirical survey of the relevant drivers, barriers and gaps. Based on the results, we propose a framework that addresses some of the key challenges and puts forward an agile co-production process to support effective data-driven service creation. The proposed framework incorporates elements from agile development, lean startups, co-creation, and open government data literature and aims to increase our understanding on how open government data may be able to drive public service co-creation.

Evaluation of an argument visualisation platform by experts and policy makers

Argument visualisation (AV) tools enable structured debates around issues, positions and arguments. These tools have the potential to substantially improve transparency e.g. by enabling understanding complex legislation and debating. In this paper we present the results of the evaluation of an AV platform by experts and policy makers. The results suggest the potential of such tools is large particularly for understanding complex legislation and debates. The results indicate an AV tool can be also potentially used for massive deliberations when however usability is further improved. They further suggest an AV tool seems particularly relevant to the analysis and policy formation stages of policy making, where identification, elaboration and presentation of complex topics are needed. In this paper we employed a mature AV tool and concentrate on evaluating general aspects of such platforms hence we believe the results can also apply to other AV platforms.

A domain model for online community building and collaboration in eGovernment and policy modelling

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a domain model for online community building and collaboration in e‐government and policy modelling.Design/methodology/approach – The authors followed a structured approach including five distinct steps: define the domain to be investigated; collect domain knowledge from both existing online community building and collaboration platforms and domain experts; analyse the gathered knowledge; develop and evaluate the domain model.Findings – A domain model was developed for community building and collaboration in eGovernment and policy modelling, including the domain definition, the domain lexicon and the conceptual models modelling its basic entities and functions of the domain. In particular, the UML class diagram was used for modelling the domain entities and the UML use cases diagram for modelling the domain functions.Originality/value – A literature search revealed a lack of domain models for online community building and collaboration, not only in e‐gover...

Engaging Citizens in Policy Issues: Multidimensional Approach, Evidence and Lessons Learned

E-participation offers individuals, groups and non-governmental institutions the opportunity to learn about and discuss policy so they can make more informed choices in their personal lives as citizens, and to contribute to policy drafting as an instrument to strengthen the quality of decision-makers’ actions. Although a growing body of literature has been devoted to the main benefits and opportunities that ICT can offer in e-participation, little is known about the driving forces that foster public participation and citizens’ active engagement. This paper describes a multidimensional engagement approach, supported by an inform-consult-empower framework, to strengthen the foundation for participatory policy-making. This approach addresses the following key issues: public participation, public involvement, deliberative democracy, and collaborative governance. This approach has been designed, investigated and applied in the context of the European Commission project “Puzzled by Policy: Helping you be part of the EU”. The findings suggest that the use of a multidimensional engagement approach with a user-centric focus from the outset is essential to foster social participation, raise trust between citizens and government, and promote constructive narratives to put into the policy-making process.

Citizens’ Evaluation of an Online Argument Visualisation Platform for eParticipation

Argument visualisation (AV) tools facilitate structured debates utilising elements such as issues, positions and arguments. In this way, AV tools seem promising for improving eParticipation e.g. by avoiding repetition and enhancing clarity in debates. In this paper we present and discuss citizens’ opinion on utilising an AV platform for eParticipation, specifically for discussing the emerging topic of environment and climate change. Results have been interesting; most users found the platform and topic interesting and understandable stating that they would use the platform again in the future and recommend it to other people. However, negative feedback has also been received, mostly in relation to things that frustrated users (e.g. the logic behind AV) and suggestions for improvement. As our evaluation is based on a mature AV tool and focuses on general aspects of such tools, we believe that results may be applicable to other AV platforms as well.