DGOnline Newsletter

Volume 23: December 2008

Welcome to dgOnline, the electronic newsletter of the Digital Government Society of North America. dgOnline is a monthly summary of news and events of interest to the DG community.  To submit material for inclusion in future issues, please send email to Meelis Kitsing at newsletter@dgsociety.org .

In this Issue:

• 2009 EGOV Conference
• Conferences and Calls for Papers
• Grant Opportunities and Announcements

2009 EGOV Conference

The Eighth International EGOV Conference will take place within the DEXA conference cluster (www.dexa.org) in Linz, Austria, on August 30 - September 2, 2009. The international EGOV conference annually presents the state of eGovernment and eGovernance research and practice. Thereby, the conference provides important guidance in this fast-moving domain of study.

The EGOV conference brings together leading researchers and professionals from all over the globe and from many disciplines. The call for papers for EGOV and further information about the conference is available online at www.egov-conference.org/egov-2009.

Conferences and Calls for Papers

2009 iGov Research Institute

The 2009 iGov Research Institute  will take place in Seattle, WA, on June 21-28, 2009. Doctoral students from all countries are invited to apply for this week-long, intensive residential program on the impact of information and communication technologies on government and governance. The 3rd annual iGov Institute is focused on ways to advance, study, and understand digital government research in an international context. The Institute includes both academic sessions and practical field work and is organized around the experiences of a major city known for using advanced information policies and technologies for economic, cultural, and social benefits. The faculty team comprises internationally known researchers as well as senior government officials.  The 2009 venue is the University of Washington. The iGov Research Institute is a program of the Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany/SUNY and is supported by the US National Science Foundation. For more details about the program design, read the highlights of iGov2008 held in Manchester, UK at http://www.ctg.albany.edu/news/onlinenews_oct_2008_igovinstitute The 2009 iGov application submission deadline is March 2, 2009. To learn more and to apply, visit http://www.ctg.albany.edu/institute

NEW DATES: "YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States"
The conference will take place on April 16 & 17, 2009, at University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The keynote speakers are Richard Rogers, Professor in New Media & Digital Culture at the

University of Amsterdam and Director of govcom.org and Noshir Contractor, Northwestern

University, the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences in the School of

Engineering, School of Communication and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern

University. Authors are invited to prepare and submit to JITP a manuscript following one of the

six submission formats by January 7, 2009. These formats include research papers,

policy viewpoints, workbench notes, review essays, book reviews, and papers on teaching innovation. The social network and call for papers of the conference is available at

http://youtube08election.crowdvine.com/

eSeminar: Agency collaboration and the role of Enterprise Architecture

Col. Walt Okon, senior architecture engineer at the Defense Department, will discuss cross-agency collaboration in an eSeminar at 2 p.m Eastern on Thursday, December, 18. Okon will discuss how agencies are making progress to share information; obstacles to data exchange and strategies to navigate around them; the role of EA in providing a coordinated means to address requirements for using federated, multi-mission information; examples of successful interagency programs from the civilian and Department of Defense sectors; how to implement access management, levels of trust and control, and shared space; and how agencies are participating in the Federal Information Sharing Environment (ISE). Registration is available at: http://www.gcn.com/GCNEA121808_EB2A

Call for Chapters: Citizens and E-Government: Evaluating Policy and Management

E-government research has blossomed since the popularization of the Internet starting in the mid-1990s as a way of disseminating information and providing services to citizens. However, much of the existing research focuses on what currently exists in e-government offerings. There is much less research that critical evaluates the effectiveness of e-government. This research focuses on the impact of e-government and how it has changed citizen contacts with government. This edited book will have a collection of chapters that examines digital technologies and their impact on citizens. It will take a global perspective, with important contributions from leading scholars and practitioners from around the world. Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before January 15, 2009, a 250 word chapter proposal abstract clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter and how their chapter relates to citizens and e-government. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by January 31, 2009 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter organizational guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by March 31, 2009. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind peer review basis. Contributors are also requested to serve as reviewers for this project. For more information, please contact Dr. Christopher G. Reddick at Department of Public Administration of the University of Texas at San Antonio at chris.reddick@utsa.edu

Call for Papers: Advancing the Study of Innovation and Globalization in Organizations

This conference will take place in Nurnberg, Germany, on May 29-30 and bring together experts who can help build a national and international infrastructure for the scientific study of innovation in organizations. A particular focus will be on novel approaches to the collection, analysis and dissemination of data on in-novation and globalization. Discussants will include representatives from businesses, social science and computer science researchers and policy makers . Papers are expected from researchers collecting and studying data on innova-tion and globalization in organizations, business and policy analysts, data collection experts, including statistical agencies and computer and information scientists and data protection experts, including statisticians and computer and information scientists. The papers will be refereed and the conference pro-ceedings published. More information is available at www.asigo.de

Chinese Internet Conference

The conference titled "The Chinese Internet and Civil Society: Civic Engagement, Deliberation and Culture" will take place at Annenberg  School for Communication, University  of Pennsylvania on May 27-28, 2009. The theme of the 7th Chinese Internet Research Conference is designed to bring together scholars and professionals to examine the Chinese Internet from socioeconomic, political and cultural perspectives and explore uncharted areas in innovative ways. While much of the research so far has focused on the political implications of the Internet in China, we have yet to understand the changes the Internet is fostering in civil society, the intersection between the market and the state, and the Internet's cultural implications for identity formation, emergent cultural phenomena and social networking. A proposal of approximately 1000 words is due by Jan. 15, 2009. Submissions should be sent to Dr. Hongmei Li and Sylvie Beauvais at penncirc2009@asc.upenn.edu.  Accepted papers will be announced on February 15, 2009. Completed papers should be submitted by April 24, 2009.

Call for Papers: AMCIS Mini-track: Worldwide Advances in eGovernment Interoperability

The 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) will take place in San Francisco, California on August 6 - 9, 2009. The eGovernment interoperability mini-track is targeting novel approaches, methods, practices and tools for achieving interoperability in the provision of Digital Public Services, resulting into a significant increase of service quality for citizens and businesses. Specific importance is to be placed in multidisciplinary approaches, combining organizational, legal, semantic, technical and participative elements of interoperability, providing relative support by advanced information systems. The mini-track will also provide a stand for real-life application examples, showing adoption by public administration, citizens and enterprises at international, national or local level. One page abstracts with full title and author information may be submitted via e-mail to the mini-track corresponding chair Yannis Charalabidis of National Technical University of Athens at yannisx@epu.ntua.gr  by 20th January 2009.

CHI 09 workshop: Call for Participation
The workshop titled "Social Mediating Technologies: Developing the Research Agenda" will take place in Boston, MA, USA on April 4, 2009. The popularity of social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, and online communities like Wikipedia and Flickr, has launched a debate about the social impact of these technologies. This workshop will review the current state of the art in social networking technologies and develop a deeper, theory-based understanding of these socio-technical phenomena. For more details see workshop website at http://social-mediating-technologies.org/

Web Science Conference in Athens, Greece

This is a chance to join the Web Science movement and to do so in Athens, Greece in March of 2009. Web Science focuses on understanding, designing and developing the technologies and applications that make up the World Wide Web. But the WWW does not exist without the participation of people and organizations. Now that a significant proportion of everyday life is spent on-line in many countries, it makes sense for the first Web Science conference organised by the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI)<http://webscience.org/> and the Foundation of the Hellenic World (FHW)<http://www.fhw.gr/> to be dedicated to the presentation of research into society on the Web.

TURKSAT eGovernment Conference

The First International Conference on eGovernment and eGovernance" of  TURKSAT (Turksat Satellite Communication Cable TV and Operation  Inc.) organized by SoSReS (Social Sciences Research Society).  This  major international event is going to be held in  Ankara, Turkey  between 12-13 March 2009. Please visit for more information:http://www.icegov.info/

Call for Papers: dg.o 2009 Conference

The 10th International Digital Government Research Conference (dg.o 2009) titled "Social Networks: Making Connections between Citizens, Data & Government"  will take place in Puebla, Mexico on May 17-20, 2009. The conference website and the call for papers are available at: http://www.dgo2009.or The dg.o 2009 social networking space at Crowdvine is http://dgo2009.crowdvine.com/ . The site is allows uploading a picture, telling about your projects, linking to your website, invite others to join and review the call for papers.

Call for Papers: Transforming Government

The journal publishes leading scholarly and practitioner research on the subject of transforming

government through its people, processes and policy. Unique and progressive in its approach,

the journal seeks to recognise both the multidisciplinary and the interdisciplinary perspectives

of e-Government, and encourages both pure and applied research that impacts central and local

Government, with international perspectives also welcome. It will also be interested in exploring

how research carried out in the private sector can be applied to the public sector as a means of

improving efficiency and effectiveness. Coverage is international and focused on original research

in e-Government ICT, service chain issues, public sector management, policy implications of

developing environments, and organizational and human resource issues. To submit an article,

please go to the journal homepage at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/tg.htm, or contact:

The Editor, Professor Zahir Irani, Brunel University, UK E-mail: Zahir.Irani@Brunel.ac.uk,

or the publisher, Kelly Pycroft, E-mail: kpycroft@emeraldinsight.com 

Call for Papers: International Journal of Electronic Governance

International Journal of Electronic Governance (IJEG) is an academic journal focusing on interdisciplinary issues of electronic governance and digital collaboration in the domains of administrative, political and social interaction world-wide. IJEG is published in english by Inderscience Publishers and all submitted manuscripts are subject to a double-blind review process. Full text of the IJEG inaugural and the second issues available from http://www.inderscience.com/ijeg

Information Polity: Call for Papers

Authors who wish to write articles for future editions of Information Polity are requested to submit their manuscripts electronically to the Editorial Assistant: Dr Alasdair Marshall, email: amar2@gcal.ac.uk. For more detailed instructions please refer to the Authors Corner on the IOS Press website: www.iospress.nl
 

Grant Opportunities and Announcements

NSF Regional Grants Conference

The second National Science Foundation Regional Grants Conference of fiscal year 2009 will be held in Tempe, AZ, and hosted by Arizona State University on March 30-31, 2009. Key representatives from the National Science Foundation as well as your colleagues - faculty, researchers and grant administrators - representing colleges and universities from around the US will participate. This two-day conference is a must, especially for new faculty, researchers and administrators who want to gain key insight into a wide range of current issues at NSF including the state of current funding; new and current policies and procedures; and pertinent administrative issues. NSF program officers representing each NSF directorate will be on hand to provide up-to-date information about specific funding opportunities and answer your questions. More information is available at

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/rgcamarch09.pdf?govDel=USNSF_80

NSF Call for Proposals: IGERT

The Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program has been developed to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers who will pursue careers in research and education, with the interdisciplinary backgrounds, deep knowledge in chosen disciplines, and technical, professional, and personal skills to become, in their own careers, leaders and creative agents for change. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education, for students, faculty, and institutions, by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. It is also intended to facilitate diversity in student participation and preparation, and to contribute to a world-class, broadly inclusive, and globally engaged science and engineering workforce. More information is available at

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/nsf09519/nsf09519.htm?govDel=USNSF_25

Massachusetts Government Report

The Massachusetts online government transparency report is now available online. The ability to see how government uses the public purse is fundamental to democracy.  Budget transparency checks corruption, bolsters public confidence in government, and promotes fiscal responsibility. Massachusetts has only barely begun to take full advantage of the benefits of online transparency for government expenditures. Transparency 2.0 is Comprehensive, One-Stop, One-Click Budget Accountability and Accessibility. Link to report can be found at: http://www.masspirg.org/tax-budget/budget-transparency

Guide for Evaluation of Online Engagement

Michelle Lyons at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills of the UK Government has developed a draft guide for officials to use when evaluating engagement activity. Ideally, this guide will complement existing evaluation frameworks for offline engagement initiatives. In the spirit of open collaboration she would like to invite you to contribute to the development of this guide. Scholars and experts can edit and comment on the content. The guide is available at http://interactive.dius.gov.uk/diuswiki/wiki/Evaluation_of_Online_Engagement

The European Union's Draft ICT Policy Support Programme 2009

The programme has been agreed by the Programme Committee on 21 November 2008. The draft Work Programme remains subject to formal approval by the EU Commission. Budget amounts foreseen are under the conditions that the appropriations foreseen in the preliminary draft budget for 2009 are adopted without modifications by the budgetary authority.  The Work Programme 2009 is expected to be formally approved in January 2009. For downloading the draft ICT PSP work programme 2009 information please visit the following website http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/ict_psp/index_en.htm

The EU Report on e-Government and e-Participation

European Commission, Information Society and Media Directorate General issued a report on e-Government and e-Participation on 10 December 2008. The EU is investing heavily in e-government to help boost growth while delivering on the benefits of the information society, including greater cross border collaboration, less fragmented research effort, and access to ICT anywhere, any time and by anyone. This report examines how ICT is revolutionising the way citizens, businesses and public administrations interact. The report is available at
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/docs/pdf/policy-report_e-gov.pdf

Special offer: reduced subscription to Journal of Information Technology and Politics
The publisher Taylor & Francis is pleased to offer members of the Digital Government Society of North America a steeply reduced rate on subscriptions of the Journal of Information Technology and Politics (JITP), edited by Prof. Stuart Shulman.  Instead of $92/year, DGSNA  members can obtain hardcopy issues of the journal for only $50/yr. This generous offer will begin in January 2009.  An announcement explaining how to subscribe will appear in dgOnline. The JITP website is available at http://www.jitp.net/

Special Deal for DGSNA Members: Discount on Information Polity
IOS Press, the publishers of the highly regarded journal Information Polity, has reached an agreement with the DGSNA Board. Individual members of DGSNA can obtain copies of the 2007 editions of the journal entirely free.  Starting with the 2008 editions, individual members can subscribe to the journal for a discounted rate of US$75 per year (print copy) and US$25 per year (online copy). Student members receive a discounted rate of US$15 per year (online copy).  This special deal starts with the 2008 issues and continues for 2009 and beyond. To subscribe, please send an email message to dg-subscribe@dgsna.org and give your name, address, and indicate desire to subscribe to Information Polity.  We will then be in touch with you. The journal's website is
http://www.iospress.nl/loadtop/load.php?isbn=15701255.

New E-Governance Book Series by IOS Press

IOS Press is specialized in advanced publications in the field of administrative sciences. Recently, the Press started a new series named Global E- Governance.  The publisher maintains longstanding collaborations with international organisations like IIAS and NATO and publishes a book series Innovation and the Public Sector, edited by Professor Victor Bekkers. In addition they publish 3 journals: Information Polity, edited by Prof. John Taylor, I-Ways, edited by Mr. Russel Pipe, and the International Journal of Regulation and Governance, published with TERI (New Delhi).

A New Version of the e-Gov EndNote library
The most recent version (3.2 - July 2008) of the popular master reference library of e-Government related literature (predominantly English-language, peer reviewed) is now available for downloading at http://tinyurl.com/ysglpg ( https://catalysttools.washington.edu/webq/survey/jscholl/22768 ) The references come as a zipped EndNote XML document for easy import into EndNote library versions capable of importing those documents. The current version contains 2,537 references. We are asking authors to check their entries and report on errors or omissions.

SSRC Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (DPDF)
The Social Science Research Council, with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is pleased to announce a call to faculty for interdisciplinary research field proposals for the 2009 Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (DPDF) program.  Established in 2006, the DPDF combines financial support and workshop experience for early-stage graduate students engaged in predissertation research and developing their dissertation proposals. The DPDF program is designed to intervene at a critical moment in the career development of graduate students in the humanities and social sciences by aiding their transition from students to researchers. It provides complementary interdisciplinary perspectives to students across the disciplines of the social sciences and humanities. Faculty applicants must be tenured at different doctoral degree-granting programs at US universities and apply in teams of two. DPDF Research Directors lead groups of 12 graduate student fellows in two four-day workshops Research directors receive a stipend of $10,000 each. More information about the program may be found at: http://programs.ssrc.org/dpdf

Ohio State Report on Building Democracy Through Online Consultation

A report entitled, "Building Democracy Through Online Citizen Consultation:  A Framework for Action," has emerged from an Ohio State University conference of the same name.  The document is intended as a brief practical guide to public officials who are wondering (a) what e-democracy is and (b) what sorts of issues need to be considered if an online consultation is to be staged successfully.  Helpful nuggets in the report include Alexandra Samuel's hints for keeping online discussions on track and a summary of a discussion she led of how to plan such an initiative, Lars Hasselblad Torres's ideas for attracting and sustaining participation, Jerry Kosicki's thoughts on achieving a representative sample of citizen opinion, and a review of the respective pluses and minuses of online versus face-to-face consultation (although doing one does not exclude doing the other!).  To get a copy of the report, go to http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/pldd/initiatives.php, and click the word "here" at the end of the paragraph entitled, "Building Democracy Through Online Citizen Consultation."

NSF Report on Cyberlearning

NSF Task Force on Cyberlearning has published its report titled "Fosterning Learning in the Networked World: The Cyberlearning Opportunity and Challenge". The report is available at the following website: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08204/nsf08204.pdf?govDel=USNSF_124

Contact Meelis Kitsing at newsletter@dgsociety.org for questions or to submit material for future newsletters.

Subscribe to our mailing list to receive future issues of dgOnline.