Little research focuses on lurking in the online environment or considers lurking as a valid and important form of online behavior. This may be due to the fact that there are a number of definitions, ...and most of them focus on a lack of participation or contribution or see it as a problematic behavior that needs to be changed. Such definitions have given lurkers a negative connotation. They need to be considered as an important factor in online research, starting with a clearer and more positive definition of lurking. It is also necessary to understanding why users decide to lurk, what activities lurkers engage in, and whether the online environment is more valuable by turning lurkers into posters.
In the digital transformation of public administrations, objectives are no longer simply the implementation of new technology, but the involvement of all stakeholders into the process of ...digitalization. The Digital Roadmap of the Austrian government emphasizes the need of co-production of public services as a key element to public service delivery and, subsequently, innovation of the public sector. To understand how co-production in digital service delivery is implemented in Austria, we conducted interviews with 41 experts from public administrations in order to understand who is involved in such processes, how they are involved, and what outcomes are to be achieved.
Co-creation focuses on engagement with citizens and other stakeholders with public administrations to develop innovative processes or public services. The integration of resources and knowledge ...mediated by technology can lead to the emergence of novel outcomes (such as products, services, processes, and social practices), but it is necessary to understand the mechanisms that lead to sustainable co-created innovation and outcomes. The aim of this research article is to contribute a more nuanced understanding of the impact of sustainability on co-creation of digital public services. To study co-creation and sustainability in the context of the public administrations in depth, a qualitative research approach was used. The data were collected through moderated discussions conducted during a workshop held with 20 experts and practitioners in the field of public sector digital transformation, during which participants shared their views and experiences in a free-flowing conversation. A systematic two-cycle analysis approach based on Grounded Theory was used to code and analyse the data collected. Results from this study focus on developing a common understanding of sustainability within the context of co-created digital public services, an exploration of how sustainability in public administrations may be supported by co-creation and a critical examination of the elements that contribute to the sustainability of digital public services-all drawing on existing examples of co-creation initiatives from within the public sector.
There is extensive literature on stakeholder theory and knowledge management in the private sector, but less on the public sector, particularly in the context of public participation projects. Public ...participation initiatives are often designed using a case-by-case approach to identify relevant stakeholder groups, the engagement methods, and the tools to be used. In addition, public sector organizations (PSOs) often rely on participation experts and practitioners' professional knowledge to design successful participation projects. Given that public participation is to enable PSOs access to participants' knowledge, knowledge management is a central issue in public participation projects. In this multi-method, qualitative study we focus on the management of experts' and practitioners' knowledge, and we aim to show how their knowledge contributes to participatory processes and projects, and how the policy cycle can be used as a knowledge management framework to collect and structure their knowledge. We used sequential analysis to study the experiences of 84 practitioners from the public sector collected during a series of workshops. Our findings show the need to locate participation initiatives in the context of the government policy cycle, that the policy cycle can be used for knowledge management in public participation projects and to recognize that practitioners represent a key stakeholder group in public participation.
Digitalisation has changed society, and, as a result, public administrations are required to undergo significant changes to satisfy emergent societal needs. These changes impact all areas of the ...public sector, including the development and provision of digital services, the design of processes, and the development of policy. To implement the digital strategies and transformation requirements, public administrations must rethink the competences that their workforce as well as the external stakeholders may need. To understand how one nation implements its digital strategy and upskills its civil servants, we conducted a qualitative analysis of 41 Austrian expert interviews. The research shows that different stakeholders require a variety of competences to participate in the digital transformation of its processes and services. The results demonstrate the high level of diversity and the need for a holistic approach to tackle the complexity of the digital public sector, where leadership plays the most important role. In addition, the study shows that the use of competence frameworks for measurement and monitoring needs to be adapted to the local context.
Open access (OA) publications play an important role for academia, policy-makers, and practitioners. Universities and research institutions set up OA policies and provide authors different types of ...support for engaging in OA activities. This paper presents a case study on OA publishing in a scholarly community, drawing on qualitative and quantitative data gained from workshops and a survey. As the authors are the managing editors of the OA eJournal for eDemocracy and Open Government (JeDEM), the aim was to collect data and insights on the publication choices of authors interested in OA publishing and other crucial factors such as personal attitudes to publishing, institutional context, and digital literacy in order to improve the journal. In the first phase, two workshops with different stakeholders were held at the Conference for e-Democracy and Open Government (CeDEM) held in Austria and in South Korea in 2016. In the second phase, an online survey was sent to all the users of the e-journal JeDEM in October 2019. From the workshops, key differences regarding OA perception and strategies between the stakeholder groups were derived. Participants strongly perceived OA publishing as a highly individualist matter embedded within a publishing culture emphasizing reputation and rankings. The survey results, however, showed that institutional support differs considerably for authors. Factors such as visibility, reputation, and impact play the biggest role for the motivation to publish OA. The results from both inquiries provide a better understanding of OA publishing attitudes and the relevant digital literacies but also suggest the need to investigate further the enablers or difficulties of scholarship, particularly in a digital context. They clearly point to the potential of regularly addressing the users of the journal as well as communicating with them the more nuanced aspects of OA publishing, non-traditional metrics, or respective digital literacies, in order to reduce misconceptions about OA and to support critical stances.
Digital transformation approaches outside the public sector are changing citizens' expectations of governments' ability to deliver high-value, real-time digital services. In response to the changing ...expectations and triggered by supranational agreements, governments are changing their mode of operation to improve public service delivery, be more efficient and effective in their designs, and achieve objectives such as increased transparency, interoperability, or citizen satisfaction. However, beyond the availability of consultancy reports, there is little systematic insight into the way that public administrators themselves are currently defining digital transformation in their own day-to-day practices, how they are approaching digital transformation projects, and what their expected outcomes are. We provide an empirically-based definition of digital transformation derived from expert interviews and develop a conceptual framework with reasons for, processes to, and expected outcomes of digital transformation in the public sector.
•Empirically grounded definition of digital transformation focuses on holistic process to change products and culture.•Digital transformation goes beyond digitization and digitalization by including the whole organization.•Digital transformation changes bureaucratic and organizational culture and relationships to stakeholders.•Short-term output focus on measurable increases in new digital services.•Long-term impact and outcome focus on increases effectiveness and citizen satisfaction.
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