Karin Axelsson

Position: Professor in Information Systems
Organization: Linköping University

Professor at the Linköping University. Research interests include: development and evaluation of public e-services, e-government and democracy, citizen perspective on e-government, e-services and trust, e-services' influence on back-office work tasks, information systems security, inter-organizational relationships, public and private partnerships. Founder and organizer of the Swedish Researchers Network in eGovernment, Scientific leader of the System Maintenance Knowledge Initiative, Member of the research group VITS.


Panel discussion: Innovations for Government eParticipation

The idea discussed in this panel is that if governments can make citizens interested in e-government issues and develop easily organized and attractive ways to contribute, a broader view of user needs, requirements and challenges will be gathered. The feeling of involvement and the ambition to participate are closely related to each other in this context. We cannot expect citizens to voluntarily participate if they do not apprehend a notion of this being meaningful to them and thus “makes a difference” for them. Involvement is a state of mind – the experience that e-government (i.e., the public e-service) is important and relevant to me as a citizen. The feeling of involvement can be seen as a way to legitimize the development process to citizens (as well as to other user groups). This feeling might be influenced by several aspects related to a particular e-service or its context; such as how important the e-service is to an individual, how relevant it seems to be considering, e.g., a life situation, in what way the solution is designed (regarding functions provided, user interface, etc.), how it is supposed to be used, what service content it offers, etc. Altogether this implies that citizen involvement cannot be seen as a separate challenge in e-government, but rather as an integrated part of the process of organizing, managing, and performing e-government projects. The panel aims to approach the government e-Participation issues taking the following questions into account: Practice of participation

  • How is participation practiced in e-government? Who participate and how? How often and how deep? What are the similarities and differences from a comparative perspective? What consequences can we expect from increased use of e.g. e-panels and social media regarding citizen engagement in e-government issues?
Incentives for participation
  • Which are the incentives for external and internal users to participate and/or be involved in e-government development? Which roles are taken and by whom when organizing or participating in development?
Organization of participation
  • How should citizen participation be organized in an e-government project in order to give substantial contributions to the outcome of the project? Does participation imply influence? What implications for research and practice are there based on the organization of participation regarding prerequisite, processes and outcomes?
After an introduction by the moderator, the panellists are to briefly (10 minutes) present their views and experience stemming from their respective perspectives. The remaining panel time will be devoted to comments and questions/issues raised by the audience.



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