Reinhard Riedl

Swiss Executive Authorities on Open Government Data -- Policy Making beyond Transparency and Participation

When it comes to e-government topics and the implementation of Open Government Data (OGD), Switzerland has been much more a follower than a first-mover. OGD pioneers stress the encouragement of transparency, collaboration and participation. The Swiss political and administrative entities live up to these principles quite well offline. In this setting, the paper examines value expectations of executive authorities towards OGD initiatives. It consolidates perceived prerequisites and risks as well as expected long-term impacts. The paper presents theoretical considerations and international surveys in order to discuss the results based on a quantitative survey of the Cantonal State Chancelleries and on a qualitative case study, eZürich. Showing that Swiss executive authorities value improvements of their core business and the potential for economic development, the paper finally addresses open issues to be solved in the future.

Interoperability and information brokers in public safety: an approach toward seamless emergency communications

When a disaster occurs, the rapid gathering and sharing of crucial information among public safety agencies, emergency response units, and the public can save lives and reduce the scope of the problem; yet, this is seldom achieved. The lack of interoperability hinders effective collaboration across organizational and jurisdictional boundaries. In this article, we propose a general architecture for emergency communications that incorporates (1) an information broker, (2) events and event-driven processes, and (3) interoperability. This general architecture addresses the question of how an information broker can overcome obstacles, breach boundaries for seamless communication, and empower the public to become active participants in emergency communications. Our research is based on qualitative case studies on emergency communications, workshops with public safety agencies, and a comparative analysis of interoperability issues in the European public sector. This article features a conceptual approach toward proposing a way in which public safety agencies can achieve optimal interoperability and thereby enable seamless communication and crowdsourcing in emergency prevention and response.

Organizational Requirements for Building Up National E-Government Infrastructures in Federal Settings

The present paper focuses on the interplay between the organizational dimension of e-government and the development of national e-government infrastructures. The discussion is aimed at clarifying whether and how a decentralized vs. central development of re-usable basic services raises different requirements with regard to establishing inter-organizational arrangements and coordination. Current challenges in the development of decentralized, federal Switzerland are compared to other federal and non-federal countries, based on document analysis and interviews with e-government experts in Switzerland, selected European countries and Canada. Against this background, an organizational framework is developed that is aimed at overcoming common obstacles for developing an integrated e-government approach across national tiers in Switzerland. The cross-country comparison reveals considerable similarity regarding pressing challenges. The framework may therefore be suited as a theoretical model for further analyses on the guidance, design and governance of e-government infrastructures. Practitioners might apply it as an analytical tool.

Bringing Representativeness into Social Media Monitoring and Analysis

The opinions, expectations and behavior of citizens are increasingly reflected online - therefore, mining the Internet for such data can enhance decision-making in public policy, communications, marketing, finance and other fields. However, to come closer to the representativeness of classic opinion surveys there is a lack of knowledge about the socio-demographic characteristics of those voicing opinions on the internet. This paper proposes to calibrate online opinions aggregated from multiple and heterogeneous data sources with traditional surveys enhanced with rich socio-demographic information to enable insights into which opinions are expressed on the Internet by specific segments of society. The goal of this research is to provide professionals in citizen- and consumer-centered domains with more concise near real-time intelligence on online opinions. To become effective, the methodologies presented in this paper must be integrated into a coherent decision support system.

Tracing Opinion-Formation on Political Issues on the Internet: A Model and Methodology for Qualitative Analysis and Results

Linked social information on blogs and online social networks provides a rich source of policy feedback for citizens, journalists, politicians and researchers, yet the qualitative value hidden in this information is rarely exploited. In order to address the problem, this article presents a systematic methodology for retrieving targeted information on a political issue from prominent online sources. Using news services for triangulation, the methodology enables qualitative analysis regarding the spread of political opinions on an issue across a relevant sample of linked social information on the internet. The resulting pattern informs not only about the structure and information flows across linked social information but also about sentiments and opinion adoption over time. A model of opinion formation is presented and used to apply the methodology.

Inter-organizational cooperation in Swiss egovernment

In Switzerland inter-organizational cooperation is a cornerstone of the national e-government strategy. Based on existing frameworks, the authors examine different stakeholders perspectives towards cooperative e-government within the Swiss federal system. The discussion of pronounced barriers and enablers is based on various sets of data: A document analysis and interviews with the program office on the national level, data from surveys among egovernment officers across federal levels and a case study conducted at the concrete operative level. The analysis aims at reflecting the relevance of different aspects of cooperation for the development of e-government, contributes to validating existing analytical approaches and provides suggestions for further research.

Beziehung zwischen IT-Erfolgsfaktoren und IT-Risikomanagement im eGovernment

ZusammenfassungIT-Erfolgsfaktoren beschreiben Bedingungen, die maβgeblich zur erfolgreichen Umsetzung von IT-Projekten beitragen. Über das IT-Risikomanagement wird dabei präventiv versucht, kritischen Erfolgsfaktoren Rechnung zu tragen, was u.a. durch den Einsatz von IT-Governance-Methoden unterstützt und geprüft werden kann. Der vorliegende Beitrag setzt sich mit der Beziehung zwischen IT-Risikomanagement und IT-Erfolgsfaktoren im eGovernment und deren Zusammenhang auseinander. Dazu werden Erfolgsfaktoren aus acht Studien ausgewertet und konsolidiert. Es wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwieweit die identifizierten Erfolgsfaktoren in den in der schweizerischen Bundesverwaltung eingesetzten IT-Governance-Methoden im IT-Risikomanagement berücksichtigt werden. Aus der theoretischen Gegenüberstellung wird zusätzlicher Handlungsbedarf in der Methodenunterstützung für das Risikomanagement ersichtlich, um Risiken im eGovernment effektiv antizipieren zu können.

Current Barriers to Open Government Data Use and Visualization by Political Intermediaries

This paper explores the effective use and practical potential of open government data visualizations by media, political parties, associations and NGOs. Furthermore, it analyses the main barriers to the use of open government data by these user groups. The paper summarizes the state of research and broadens the current perspective based on empirical data from Switzerland. Finally, the paper suggests actions in order to foster the use of OGD and improve the capabilities of these user groups.

Policy Cycle-Based E-Government Architecture for Policy-Making Organisations of Public Administrations

This article outlines a business and application architecture for policy-making organisations of public administrations. The focus was placed on the derivation of processes and their IT support on the basis of the policy-cycle concept. The derivation of various (modular) process areas allows for the discussion of generic application support in order to achieve the modular structure of e-government architectures for policy-making organisations of public administrations, as opposed to architectures for operational administration processes by administrations. In addition, further issues and spheres of interest to be addressed in the field of architecture management for policy-making organisations of public administrations will be specified. Different architecture variants are evaluated in the context of a potential application of the architecture design for policy-making organisations of public administrations. This raises questions such as how the issue of interoperability between information systems of independent national, state, and municipal administrations is to be tackled. Further research is needed to establish, for example, the level of enterprise architecture and the depth to which integration in this area must or may extend.

Sensor data meets social networks: reflecting on benefits in the case of a patient room

The poster illustrates the idea of integrating digital social media with sensor networks (SoSeMe). In order to achieve tangible, specific results, we concentrate on the scenario of a patient room.