DGOnline Newsletter

Volume 27: August 2009

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:

• Politics of Open Source
• Conferences and Calls for Papers
• Grant Opportunities and Announcements

Politics of Open Source

The conference will take place on May 6-7, 2010, in Amherst, Massachusetts and features Clay Johnson (Sunlight Labs) as one of the daily keynote speakers. Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FOSS) has made significant advances, both technically and organizationally, since its emergence in the mid-1980s. Over the last decade, it has moved from a software development approach involving mostly volunteers to a more complex ecology where firms, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and volunteers may be involved. Moreover, the production paradigm continues to expand to other areas of digital content (e.g., Creative Commons, Wikipedia, Connexions, etc.). In this conference we use the phrase “open source” to capture this broader phenomenon. The Program Committee encourages disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of open source, broadly defined.

"Politics" in the conference title, can have many interpretations. Political issues closely tied to the free and open source software movement(s) include: national government policies related to the adoption of open source technologies or questions related to interoperability and open standards, software patents, vendor lock-in, and copyright. These are central themes we expect may be discussed in this forum. In this context, we welcome international submissions since differences in the political perspective appear in international contexts. However, topics related to how the concept of openness has led to various interpretations, adaptations, and applications of “open source” in other domains, and political issues that surround these broader innovations, are also welcome. More information is available at the conference website at http://www.umass.edu/jitp/

Conferences and Calls for Papers

The sixth eGovernment workshop in the UK

The workshop will take place in the autumn on Tuesday 10 November at Brunel University. Paper submission deadline is September 14 and we are aiming for a quick review turn round with camera ready copy by November 2. Details of the conference and paper submission can be obtained from the web site: http://www.iseing.org/egov/eGOV09. This year the conference title is "Better Government" and we would welcome papers in the eParticipation or eDemocracy areas as well as those dealing with public services. We would also like volunteers to review papers between September 14 and October 7. If you are willing to assist, please email us and let us know if you can cope with one or two papers.

Call for Papers: International Conference on e-Government in Turkey

The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TÝKA) together with the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) and the eGovernment Centre of the Public Administration Institute for Turkey and the Middle East (TODAÝE eDEM) co-organise the "International Conference on e-Government: Sharing Experiences-eGOVSharE2009" which will take place on December 8-11, 2009 in Antalya, Turkey.  The purpose of the conference is to bring together senior government officials and academicians from various countries to discuss the e- Government policies and implementations. Additionally, the conference is intending to establish a common platform to enable the e-Government implementing senior policy makers and executives, and academicians to share their knowledge and experience. The Conference Organisation Committee cordially invites you attend eGOVSharE2009 Conference. You are requested to fill in the application form placed at  http://edem.todaie.gov.tr and send it back to the contact address provided below, by 31 October 2009. If you are willing to present a paper you can submit via https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/EGOV2009/. 

Call for Papers: The 7^th Annual Conference in Citizenship Studies: /Networks/
The conference will take place at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI on April 8-10, 2010 Citizenship requires networks and networks can confer citizenship. The  theme of the 2010 conference of the Center for the Study of Citizenship explores the similarities and the tensions between networks and citizenship in the past, present, and future. It also considers how  networks have shaped citizenship and how citizenship has influenced the development of networks. Noted scholar Yochai Benkler (Harvard University and author of /The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom/) will give the keynote speech. We welcome proposals from any time period or geographic area and across the widest range of disciplines from faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars. Proposals should be submitted online at http://141.217.132.114/csc/csc_request.htm no later than Friday, October 23, 2009.  Both panel proposals and individual submissions are welcome. Those interested in submitting panel proposals can use H-Citizenship (http://www.h-net.org/~citizen) to locate scholars with compatible interests. Questions should be directed to Marc W. Kruman at  aa1277@wayne.edu.

Call for Papers: special issue Scope, Objective, and Achievement of E-government:
E-government to   E-governance

It is our pleasure to seek article proposals for a special issue of International Journal of Electronic Government Research (IJEGR) whose focus is on "Scope, Objective, and Achievement of E-government: E-government to   E-governance". IJEGR is a peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary international journal that publishes high-quality, original research about electronic government. Electronic government is broadly defined within topics such as but not limited to the hardware and software technology, e-government adoption and diffusion, e-government policy, e-government planning and management, e-government applications and e-government impacts. The journal also serves as a forum for scholars and practitioners

to present theoretical and philosophical discussions on current issues relating to the practice of electronic

government. Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit papers for this onor before January 1,

2010. All submissions must be original and may not be under review by another publication. More information is available at http://www.igi-global.com/development/author_info/guidelinessubmission.pdf. 

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

Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics

PoliticsOnline and the World eDemocracy Forum proud to announce the list
for nominations of the Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics. For the tenth
year in a row, PoliticsOnline subscribers and visitors from around the world are invited to help select the top 10 individuals, organizations and companies having the greatest impact on the way the Internet is changing politics.

This prestigious award seeks to recognize the innovators and pioneers, the dreamers and doers who bring democracy online. This year marked the toughest year ever in choosing the 25 finalists. The integration of politics and the Internet are reflected in this year's diverse, international nominees.

The winners, those top 10 nominees who receive the most votes, will be invited as honored guests to the world eDemocracy Forum October 8-9, in Issy-les-Moulineaux, (Paris, France), where they'll take part in an awards ceremony and other special programs throughout the two-day forum.

Please review the 26 finalists below and then select one who has had the greatest influence on the world of ePolitics in 2009. The information is available at

http://www.politicsonline.com/content/main/specialreports/2009/top10_2009/vote.asp

NSF Programs

The programs can be a good fit with certain types of digital government research:
Innovation and Organizational Sciences  (IOS)
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5378&org=SES&from=home

Law and Social Sciences

http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5422&govDel=USNSF_39

Sociology

http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5369&govDel=USNSF_39

Political Science

http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5418&govDel=USNSF_39

Creative IT

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/nsf09572/nsf09572.htm?govDel=USNSF_25
Decision, Risk and Management Sciences  (DRMS)

http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5423&org=SES&from=home 

Science, Technology and Society

http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5324&govDel=USNSF_39

Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry  (GOALI)
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13706

SBE Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants

http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13453&govDel=USNSF_50
The full list of Social and Economic Science programs at NSF can be
found at http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=SES

The NSF Regional Grants Conference will take place in Jackson, MS on October 5 and 6.

More information is available at http://www.nsf.gov/events/event_summ.jsp?cntn_id=114599&govDel=USNSF_13

APSA Short Course on Coding and Blog Analysis

American Political Science Association Annual Meeting in Toronto, Canada, will host a short course "Coding the Blogosphere: Introducing the Coding and Blog Analysis Toolkits" at 1-5 pm on September 2, 2009. The course is hosted by Dr. Stuart Shulman who is the founder of the Qualitative Data Analysis Program (QDAP), which is a fee-for-service coding lab co-located at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. QDAP and QDAP-UMass staff and coders work on coding projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other U.S. funding agencies. He has been the Principal Investigator and Project Director on related National Science Foundation-funded research projects focusing on electronic rulemaking, human language technologies, manual annotation, digital citizenship, and service-learning efforts in the United States.

At the APSA 2009 Short Course, Dr. Shulman will lead a hands-on (your laptop) training introducing to the Coding Analysis Toolkit (CAT), a free, web-based service designed to facilitate the measurement and reporting the reliability and validity of work completed by multiple coders. He will also introduce the Blog Analysis Toolkit (BAT), which is also a free system designed to capture blog posts and archive them for analysis in CAT. For more information, please visit the following website :http://www.apsanet.org/media/Short%20Course%203.pdf

DGSNA Conferences in 2009-2010

The Board of DGSNA, the Digital Government Society of North America,  has decided that the dg.o 2009 conference, originally scheduled to be held in Puebla, Mexico, on May 18-20, will not be held this year, due to fears raised by the swine flu epidemic. Although there will be no physical meeting this year, the conference proceedings will be published, and will be noted as an official publication of the DG Society, so that papers can be formally referenced in citations.  Anyone already registered for the conference will receive the CD of the proceedings, and the proceedings will be published as usual in the ACM Digital Library. The local organizer team in Puebla has unanimously agreed to host dg.o 2010, our next conference, in Puebla next May.  It is a great city, and we still want to enjoy it! In addition, a smaller event will be held in Washington DC in November or December 2009, focusing on the interests of members of  the US government, and will include some events originally planned for the dg.o 2009 conference.  You will receive information about this event later in the year. 

Young Researchers Workshop

With ‘Young Researchers Workshops (YRW)’ the Standing Group of International Relations (SGIR) of theECPR offers an opportunity for young scholars (advanced doctoral students and recent post-docs) tofamiliarize themselves with academic conferencing. The workshop scheme seeks to advance networking,publication and academic discussion among young researchers. Towards that end, the SGIR offers anaward of up to 7.500 EURO per workshop (approx. 10-12 participants) which should cover travel of all theparticipants and accommodation for some. The workshops either precede or follow the seventh PanEuropean Conference on International Relations in Stockholm on 9-11 September 2010. Besidessubstantial criteria, preference will be given to applications which seek a relatively balanced participationfrom all parts of Europe. SGIR welcomes workshop proposals on any topic of relevance to currentresearch in International Relations. A workshop proposal includes: 1. a 800 word summary which outlines the scientific relevance of the topic; and 2. a list of some potential participants and paper titles (up to 8 ) beyond the workshop convener(s). The YRW committee consisting of Élise Féron, Stefano Guzzini, Helena Rytövuori-Apunen, Antje Wiener, and Bernhard Zangl will accept full proposals until September 15, 2009.Successful workshop convenor(s) will be notified so that they can prepare a call for papers with a deadline of 31 January 2010. All proposal should be submitted on: http://www.sgir.eu/conference/.

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 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).  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).

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

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

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