Olivier Glassey

Developing a one-stop government data model

In previous research work we defined a conceptual model of a one-stop public administration and we created a prototype to illustrate it. In parallel we participate in a European research project that is developing an integrated e-government platform. In order to do so the project consortium created a governmental markup language (GovML) that describes public services and life events in XML format. It also defined metadata schemas in RDF for searching, locating and retrieving governmental digital resources. We decided to integrate our personal research and the results of the consortium work in order to develop a data model for One-Stop Government. In this paper we explain how we extended our conceptual model to support GovML and RDF, and how we were able to model administrative services at the data and meta-data levels.

Studying the Effects of Peer-to-Peer Sharing Economy Platforms on Society

Peer-to-peer sharing economy platforms potentially have big effects on values in society. Policymakers need to develop governance arrangements to benefit from the positive effects, while simultaneously mitigate the negative effects. This requires having a structured overview of the effects of these platforms on the diversity of values that are involved. Currently no theoretical overview of these effects on values is available. The objective of this article is to structure the research into the effects of sharing economy platforms. We use a theoretical mapping that was developed by using a Grounded Theory approach. By positioning the literature onto the map, we derived an overview of the extend in which each effected value has been studied so far. Based on this mapping, we propose five research themes into specific effects of peer-to-peer sharing economy platforms: social values, consumer and societal risks, working conditions and labor market dynamics, environmental sustainability and innovation.

From e-Government to e-Governance: A Survey of the Federal and Cantonal e-Policies in Switzerland

In this paper we discuss the eGovernment strategies and the eGovernance policies of the Federal Government, of the Cantons and of the largest cities in Switzerland. While some of the cantons have already developed strategic documents that serve as a basis for the implementation of eGovernment, others are currently defining their policies and some do not have their own approach as they follow the recommendations of the Swiss federal government. This paper compares the existing strategies and policies in order to try to identify the overall directions of the Swiss ePolicies.

The Acceptance and Use of Open Data infrastructures - Drawing upon UTAUT and ECT

While governments and researchers often focus on the opening of data through open data infrastructures, the adoption and use of open data infrastructures has received less attention, despite the fact that this use should result in the envisioned benefits. This study aims to examine to which extent and by which factors the acceptance and use of open data infrastructures by researchers can be influenced. For this purpose we use an integrated model of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and the two-stage Expectation Confirmation Theory of Information Systems continuance (ECT). Our research confirms the hypothesis that Perceived Usefulness (PU), Effort Expectancy (EE), Social Influence (SI) and Trust (T) in the pre-usage stage can be used to predict PU, EE, SI and T in the post-usage stage, which may subsequently influence the acceptance and use of open data infrastructures. Nevertheless, not all of our findings show support for applying the combined UTAUT-ECT model, and the findings suggest that the model needs to be specified and adapted for the domain of open data. We recommend future research to develop models for the acceptance and use of technologies that are more specific to the context of open data.

Measuring Computerization and Centralization: An Approach Derived from the Management of Public Registers

Many researchers having commented on the links between information technology and organizational change have reached conflicting conclusions about the causal relationship linking these two dimensions. In this article, we approach this relationship from a new angle by developing a scorecard allowing measurement of more specific dimensions of Computerization and Centralization. To develop this management tool called CSS (Computerization and Centralization Scorecard), we relied on research conducted within the Swiss public administrations, especially regarding the digitization of registers of persons. The development of this tool followed a first descriptive analysis model developed to treat semi-structured interviews we conducted with various stakeholders in our research.

A Three-Dimensional Framework to Analyse the Governance of Population Registers

In June 2006, the Swiss Parliament made two important decisions with regards to public registers’ governance and individuals’ identification. It adopted a new law on the harmonisation of population registers in order to simplify statistical data collection and data exchange from around 4’000 decentralized registers, and it also approved the introduction of a Unique Person Identifier (UPI). The law is rather vague about the implementation of this harmonisation and even though many projects are currently being undertaken in this domain, most of them are quite technical. We believe there is a need for analysis tools and therefore we propose a conceptual framework based on three pillars (Privacy, Identity and Governance) to analyse the requirements in terms of data management for population registers.

A case study on taxpayer segmentation

In this paper, we describe a reorganization project that took place between 2004 and 2007 in a Swiss Cantonal tax administration. The information system was built from scratch by adding a new module each year and the organization was transformed accordingly. We will present the initial objectives of the project and discuss how these objectives evolved with time. We will also describe the lessons learned, particularly regarding the automation and semi-automation of tax declaration assessment and more generally in terms of governance.