Meelis Kitsing

Applying Elinor Ostrom’s Rule Classification Framework to the Analysis of Open Source Software Commons

Abstract This research investigates the utility of Ostrom and Crawfords rule classification framework (elaborated in Understanding Institutional Diversity) in the systematic study of rule systems in a set of relatively complex open source projects and their overarching non-profit foundation. Using this framework, Rule configurations are described for the overall Open Source Geospatial Foundation and for each of seven associated geospatial projects.

Success Without Strategy: E-Government Development in Estonia

This paper gives an overview of e-government development in Estonia. The analysis incorporates both public sector initiatives and private sector developments which have contributed to the evolution of e-government. Private sector agents are seen as endogenous, not exogenous, in explaining e-government performance. Ultimately, the development of Internet banking by the private sector was fundamental in enabling the government to launch interactive online services. The findings reveal that the implementation of Estonian e-government is considerably more heterogeneous than previous studies have indicated. Basic service delivery and platforms for participation vary significantly across functional areas. Some ministries have provided innovative online services for the last ten years while others still struggle in making basic information available online. The availability of innovative platforms for online political participation has delivered remarkable outcomes in the last elections, while they have consistently failed to engage the public in the legislative process.

Network neutrality in Europe

During the last years network neutrality has become an important regulatory policy issue in Europe and the United States. The 2009 EU telecom reform was in the center of attempts by content providers to introduce net neutrality regulations. However, these efforts were not fruitful as minimalist approach for tackling a wide range of issues related to network neutrality prevailed in the final version of telecom package. This outcome is result of interaction of interests, ideas, institutions and uncertainty which created unfriendly environment for potential network neutrality legislation. As a result perceived interests of network operators prevailed over the interests of content providers in this new emerged regulatory regime.

Online participation in Estonia: active voting, low engagement

This paper discusses online participation in Estonia. Even though Estonias e-government initiatives are often presented as examples for other countries to be followed, this analysis finds high degree of variation in the outcomes. The availability of innovative platforms for online political participation has led to increasing use of internet voting in the last five elections, while they have consistently failed to engage public in the legislative process. Furthermore, the internet voting can be seen as transactional. It has not made substantial contribution to online democratic participation other than making voting more convenient for certain segments of society. The government portal for encouraging citizens to express their views about new laws suffers from both unwillingness of citizens to participate and most ministries to make new laws available.

The Janus-Faced Approach to Governance: A Mismatch Between Public Sector Reforms and Digital Government in Estonia

While the Estonian digital government has received considerable attention in research and policy circles, there has been a lack of broader understanding of digital government initiatives in the context of public sector governance. By relying on literature on digital governance as well as on public sector governance and using various qualitative methods, this on-going research focuses on the public sector reforms and digital government efforts in Estonia. It reveals that the relationships between technology and public sector reforms have been broadly unintentional. Most importantly, policy communities pushing for advancement of digital government and public sector reforms are different and there is a considerable mismatch in policy-making. One hand, this divide stems from emphasis on different ideas. Some policy-makers are highly technology-centric while other assign primary role to institutions. On the other hand, considerable barriers for interagency cooperation exist as well as cooperation between public and private sector. The latter is particularly challenging as the bottom-up cooperation between private and public sector has been a particular strength in the development of digital governance in Estonia. Furthermore, relative de-centralization of online public sector services has been a source of innovation. At the same time, public sector governance has been highly centralized. These mismatches between digital governance and overall public sector governance has contributed to institutional complexity and lead to bottlenecks in advancing public sector governance and digitalization of governance.