Elina Ramsell

Emerging forms of inter-organizational and cross-sector collaborations in e-government initiatives : Implications for participative development of information systems

Purpose – This study aims to explore recent public sector trends, inter-organizational and cross-sectorcollaborations, and analyzes these in terms of implications for participative development of i ...

Governing Technical Information Systems in Local Crisis Management

There are increased demands to prepare for and coordinate of crisis management in public administrative bodies. Governmental organizations and authorities have responsibility for providing systems and structures of coordination before, during, and after crises. Among these are the technical information systems which create the structuring arena for coordination and integration that is analyzed here. There are several technical information systems to choose from for municipalities, which are responsible for local crisis management in Sweden. One technical information system, known as web-based information system (WIS), was a national initiative, but due to the local autonomy mandated in the Swedish constitution it was complicated to get municipalities to choose the national system and alternative local technical information systems were developed. The study builds on a bottom-up analysis of how municipalities choose technical information systems within crisis management. The main conclusion points out the importance of organizational structure in governance and the demand of flexibility in technology.

Fourth Generation of User-centered Design : eveloping for E-government and Cross-sector Collaborations.

This study explores the need for user-centered design (UCD) approaches to adapt to recent societal trends of cross-sector collaborations, civil citizen involvement and e-government initiatives affecting the public sector. This is achieved by studying three cases involving such trends, taking place in the Swedish Emergency Response System. Using results from the cases, information systems development related challenges are identified and related to adaption needs for current UCD approaches. Suggestions of such adaption are provided and a number of inherent challenges for the fourth generation of UCD are discussed, including challenges concerning (a) balancing ideological versus practical needs; (b) resources; (c) lack of know-how; and (d) design techniques and tool challenges.