Tunc D. Medeni

COBRA framework to evaluate e-government services: A citizen-centric perspective

PIAP-GA-2008-230658) from the European Union Framework Program and another grant (NPRP 09-1023-5-158) from the Qatar National Research Fund (amember of Qatar Foundation)

Supporting Public Policy Making Processes with Workflow Technology: Lessons Learned From Cases in Four European Countries

Workflow technology has been proven as an enabler for numerous benefits for private and public organizations. Including: cost reduction, efficiency savings in terms of time and cost, increased capability, faster processing, reductions in errors, and work iterations, service quality and customer satisfaction. Public sector has endorsed these benefits by adopting workflow management systems to support administrative processes, such as human resources management or claims processing. This technology is yet to be utilized to support the formulation of policy making processes to facilitate the participation of citizens in the policy making processes and increase their awareness on political issues. This paper Investigates the feasibility of adopting workflow tools for the support of decision making processes that lead to development of public policies, despite the variant institutional settings. To do so, public policy making processes from four countries were examined and analyzed. The results are explored further in the article.

Proposing a Knowledge Amphora Model for Transition towards Mobile Government

As an important project for Turkey to achieve Information/Knowledge Society Strategic Goals, the e-Government Gateway currently focuses on the delivery of public services via a single portal on the Internet. In later stages, other channels such as mobile devices will be available for use, underlying a transition towards mobile and ubiquitous government services. In order to provide a supportive base for this transition, the authors develop a modeling of knowledge amphora (@), and link this conceptual model with the e-government gateway. Based on Knowledge Science concepts such as ubiquity, ba (physical, virtual, mental place for relationship-building and knowledge-creation), ma (time-space in-between-ness), reflection and refraction, the modeling of Knowledge Amphora incorporates the interactions @ the Internet and mobile devices that contribute to cross-cultural information transfer and knowledge creation. The paper presents recent electronic and mobile government developments of E-Government Gateway Project in Turkey as an application example of this philosophical and theoretical modeling. The contributed Ubiquitous Participation Platform for Policy Making (UbiPOL) project aims to develop a ubiquitous platform allowing citizens to be involved in policy making processes (PMPs). The resulting work is a practical case study as that develops new m-government operations.

Industry-University Collaboration for ICT and E-Government Service Development: Learning from Practice of Innovative Türksat-University Case

The chapter provides a general account of industry-university collaboration with successful results in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and e-Government area in Turkey. Presented mostly from the perspective of the industrial institution this successful case hopes to provide certain insights and suggestions for improving the strength and effectiveness of industry-university collaboration. A complementary cross-cultural knowledge management model is also proposed to contribute to the conceptual discussions on collaboration models and interface designs. Accordingly, the paper provides firstly information of the industrial institution and related electronic services and project work on the practice side, then the suggested conceptual framework, and finally gained insights and suggestions for the practice.

Learning, Knowledge and Impact Assessment from the Perspective of Complexity and Chaos

The paper benefits from information on selected (public-transformation) project works, mostly carried out by Stratek R&D Ltd, a private company in Turkey, linking with existing body of academic and practical knowledge on public value and system evaluation. The construction of this link will then lead to new directions for academic and practical research, including the adaptation of a reflective (& refractive) function to satisfy the principles & dynamics of a self-organizing and self-referential complex and chaotic system. Possible practical implications for ongoing project work will also be discussed before the conclusion.

Turkish Case of E-Government Strategy Development and Policy-Formulation Process: Recent Developments on Evaluations of E-Government Rankings

Use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) by governments all over the world has opened new avenues in terms of redesigning the relationship between the state and not only the society but also the businesses, creating new forms of relationships with wider meanings especially for the society as a whole, and ideas and practices regarding policy making process. While enjoying centralist tendencies and a strict hierarchical bureaucratic model intrinsic to the inner cycles of the organizational levels, the Turkish administrative system has been trying new forms of governance models exemplified in e-government policies. This paper tries to analyze and discuss the main tenets, actors, coordinating and partnership mechanisms, undertakings, evaluation techniques and prospects of e-government policies as a newly emerging policy area with specific reference to Turkish e-transformation efforts, policies and initiatives. Firstly, the paper would underline the “formation” and “participation” (formulation) dimension and stage of the ICT policy process. Presenting up-to-date information and analyses regarding the developments in recent and current stage of evolution, guidelines and suggestions for future are also provided. The discussion will also be furthered by an analysis of country (Turkey) rankings in international (United Nations) e-government reports as an up-to-date case of strategy development, policy formulation and implementation.

Initial analysis and evaluation of citizen usage of E-Government Gateway in Turkey

This paper presents the initial results of a survey conducted in Turkey that aims to measure the effectiveness of the E-Government Gateway and satisfaction of citizens from the usage of the gateway system. Data has been collected from 1.500 qualitative responses to an open-ended question that requests (if there is) any other additional comment at the end of a quantitative survey. Collected data is categorized and analyzed with respect to subjective and practical criteria by the developers and operators of the gateway. Based on a maturity model classification for e-Government services from literature, selected examples of specific services are also provided. While the initial results reflect a positive perception of citizen users for the system, various suggestions and requests useful for development and improvement are especially noteworthy. For instance, citizen demand for more personalized information and service provision can be underlined. Findings from these initial survey outcomes are hoped to be not only incorporated into the e-Government service development in Turkey, but considered as useful for other ongoing practical and academic works on e-Government and ICT system evaluation in general, as well.