Isabelle Boydens

Practical Studies in E-Government: Best Practices from Around the World

Information and communication technology (ICT) is permeating all aspects of service management; in the public sector, ICT is improving the capacity of government agencies to provide a wide array of innovative services that benefit citizens. E-Government is emerging as a multidisciplinary field of research based initially on empirical insights from practice. Efforts to theoretically anchor the field have opened perspectives from multiple research domains, as demonstrated in Practical Studies in E-Government. In this volume, the editors and contributors consider the evolution of the e-government field from both practical and research perspectives. Featuring in-depth case studies of initiatives in eight countries, the book deals with such technology-oriented issues as interoperability, prototyping, data quality, and advanced interfaces, and management-oriented issues as e-procurement, e-identification, election results verification, and information privacy. The book features best practices, tools for measuring and improving performance, and analytical methods for researchers.

Back to Practice, a Decade of Research in E-Government

E-government is a multidisciplinary field of resear ch based initially on empirical insights from practice. Efforts to theoretically fo und the field have opened perspectives from multiple research domains. The go al of this chapter is to review evolution of the e-government field from an institu tional and an academic point of view. Each chapter of the book is briefly presented and is positioned according to a vision of the e-government domain of research.

Hermeneutics applied to the quality of empirical databases

Purpose – This paper seeks to present a conceptual framework to analyze and improve the quality of empirical databases throughout time – with operational results which are measurable in terms of cost‐benefit.Design/methodology/approach – Basing themselves on the general approach of hermeneutics and, more specifically, on Fernand Braudels concept of “temporalites etagees” and Norbert Eliass “evolutive continuum”, the authors develop a temporal framework consisting of three stratified time levels in order to interpret shifts in the quality of databases. The soundness of the framework and its capability of delivering operational results are demonstrated by the development of a case study focusing on social security databases. A second case study in the context of digital cultural heritage is also developed to illustrate the general applicability of this interdisciplinary approach in the context of empirical information systems.Findings – Contrary to the assertions of common theories that postulate a perman...

Between commodification and engagement: On the double-edged impact of user-generated metadata within the cultural heritage sector

This article challenges common assumptions and opinions regarding the use of the social web by cultural heritage institutions by framing the phenomenon of user-generated metadata within the larger context of the commodification and the engagement process of our cultural heritage. Theoretical reflections on both the negative and positive long-term outcomes of the social web for libraries, archives, and museums are presented and confronted with empirical observations regarding the use of social tagging and user comments. This combination of a theoretical and an empirical approach will provide original insights into the long-term implications of user-generated metadata for cultural heritage institutions.

Strategic Issues Relating to Data Quality for E-Government: Learning from an Approach Adopted in Belgium

Data quality is a strategic matter in the context of e-government as the integration of services requires authentic, coherent, and reliable data. However, establishing databases that are devoid of duplication, redundancy, or ambiguity isn’t simple either in theory or in practice. In the context of e-government, this problem has been neglected for too long, particularly because administrative databases have often been wrongly regarded as “simple.” We demonstrate in this chapter that this is not the case at all, in particular because of the questions of interpretation that they raise. This chapter is based on case studies stemming from the Belgian federal administration (social security, business directories, federal authentic sources, etc.). Contrary to the assertions of common theories postulating a permanent bijective relationship between data and the corresponding reality, we argue that an empirical information system evolves over time along with the interpretation of the values that it allows one to determine. To address data quality, we propose a temporal framework that provides new operational strategies to improve administrative data quality (mainly, new ways to define quality indicators for continuous monitoring and re-engineering strategies). We finally demonstrate how our approach is generally applicable in the context of empirical information systems.

Déploiement coopératif d'un dictionnaire électronique de données administratives

L’interpretation de l’information administrative est un processus complexe : en effet, la signification des concepts representes est empirique et evolutive. Les incidences sociales de ce processus sont toutefois cruciales : ainsi, les montants traites via les bases de donnees de la securite sociale belge s’elevent annuellement a environ 35 milliards d’euros. Cet article propose un ensemble de recommandations conceptuelles issues du deploiement cooperatif d’un dictionnaire electronique destine a faciliter l’interpretation et la gestion de ces bases de donnees dans un environnement multilingue : traitement de l’information structuree, non structuree et semi-structuree, mise en place de procedures d’heritage partiel, de tables de parametres homogenes, de mecanismes de gestion des versions et, enfin, d’un systeme de workflow en vue de la validation des definitions.