Matthias Stürmer

Open Smart City: Good Governance für smarte Städte

Am Institut fur Wirtschaftsinformatik der Universitat Bern (IWI) wird zurzeit das Konzept Open Smart City entwickelt. Es steht fur Tools, Projekte, Initiativen und Strategien, die dem erhohten Informations- und Kommunikationsbedarf der Smart City im Bereich stadtischer Governance Rechnung tragen, indem sie systematisch Gesichtspunkte aus dem Bereich Open Governance und Open Government Data integrieren. Insbesondere geht es um die Entwicklung geeigneter Mechanismen der Kommunikation und Interaktion zwischen der Stadt beziehungsweise stadtnahen Institutionen und den Stakeholdern. Es werden exemplarisch bestehende Projekte geschildert, darunter auch Code for Bern, eine Initiative des Instituts fur Wirtschaftsinformatik an der Universitat Bern, die im Zuge der Entwicklungsarbeit von Open Smart City entstanden ist.

Characteristics of digital sustainability

The concept of digital sustainability is mentioned in research on digital preservation as well as on openness topics. Both streams of literature point out the necessary discussion how to create, use, and regulate digital resources in order to maximize their value for our society today and in the future. This paper therefore reviews current work on digital sustainability, presents a list of six characteristics how to define digitally sustainable goods, and draws the link to aspects of e-government.

Digital Citizen Co-Production and the Role of Public Service Motivation

In recent times, a growing involvement of public organizations in the process of digitalization can be observed (Mergel, Rethemeyer & Isett, 2016). In this context, one area of particular importance is the increasing use of information and telecommunications technology (ICT) as a tool to facilitate citizen-government interaction. This development holds substantial opportunities for government to have more people engage in the co-production of public services. Simultaneously, government can improve its relationship with citizens through intensified exchange, greater openness, and more transparency (Harrison et al., 2012). Furthermore, ICT-based co-production can help improve the quality and effectiveness of public services (Chun et al., 2010; Fang, 2002). Consequently, a research question of paramount importance is what motivates individuals to engage in co-production with government. While this question has received a fair amount of scholarly attention in the past (e.g. Jakobsen, 2013; Thomsen, 2015; Van Eijk & Steen, 2015), to our knowledge, no studies exist on what the motivational drivers of co-production are when carried out though the intensifying digital links between government and citizens. This study seeks to fill this void by investigating the motivational specificities of digital co-production. To this end, we have collected data from over 800 users of an online tool run by the city of Zurich in Switzerland which allows users to digitally report damages in the city’s infrastructure via their smartphones. In this survey, we asked participants about their motivations to use the app, particularly focusing on the concept of public service motivation (PSM) (Perry & Wise, 1990). We now plan to link the survey data to a dataset containing the actual number of reports each user has filed and analyze how this measure of a behavioral outcome relates to the various motivations. Thus, as the response variable is count data, we will rely on poisson regression as an analytical method.

The Relevance of the Knowledge Commons within Sustainable Development Goals

The paper analyzes, from the perspective of information systems research, whether or not Knowledge Commons contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. This is of interest as Knowledge Commons have several advantages compared to other institutional arrangements: Most importantly, the unrestricted access to knowledge allows ease of use. Other advantages include its contextual relevance due to higher density of knowledge relevant for specific local areas and the complementarity of Knowledge Commons with each other, which further leverages the effects. We found that a huge proportion (around three quarters) supports the Sustainable Development Goals and therefore support the international public policy of the United Nations and its 193 member states. The study strengthens the argument of the importance of Knowledge Commons within public policy as an enabler to leverage positive impacts, from an organizational to a structural level.

Mehr Geld im Portemonnaie und weniger Sorgen im Gepäck

Der Einsatz von Open Source Software kann das IT-Budget schonen, wenn man richtig vorgeht. Viel wichtiger sind aber strategische Vorteile wie die digitale Nachhaltigkeit oder die Unabhangigkeit von Herstellern, die sich durch den konsequenten Einsatz von Open Source ergeben.