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This article addresses some of the critical issues with respect to public procurement of information technology (IT). The article provides results from surveys of state public information managers and technology vendors who provide services to government to determine if IT procurements have improved in the ten years since the Kelman study on public procurements and suggests opportunities to improve public IT procurements.

Citizens are substantial stakeholders in every e-government system, thus their willingness to use and ability to access the system are critical. Unequal access and information and communication technology usage, which is known as digital divide, however has been identified as one of the major obstacles to the implementation of e-government system. As digital divide inhibits citizen’s acceptance to e-government, it should be overcome despite the lack of deep theoretical understanding on this issue. This research aimed to investigate the digital divide and its direct impact on e-government system success of local governments in Indonesia as well as indirect impact through the mediation role of trust. In order to get a comprehensive understanding of digital divide, this study introduced a new type of digital divide, the innovativeness divide.

The research problems were approached by applying two-stage sequential mixed method research approach comprising of both qualitative and quantitative studies. In the first phase, an initial research model was proposed based on a literature review. Semi-structured interview with 12 users of e-government systems was then conducted to explore and enhance this initial research model. Data collected in this phase were analyzed with a two-stage content analysis approach and the initial model was then amended based on the findings. As a result, a comprehensive research model with 16 hypotheses was proposed for examination in the second phase.

In the second phase, quantitative method was applied. A questionnaire was developed based on findings in the first phase. A pilot study was conducted to refine the questionnaire, which was then distributed in a national survey resulting in 237 useable responses. Data collected in this phase were analyzed using Partial Least Square based Structural Equation Modeling.

The results of quantitative analysis confirmed 13 hypotheses. All direct influences of the variables of digital divide on e-government system success were supported. The mediating effects of trust in e-government in the relationship between capability divide and e-government system success as well as in the relationship between innovativeness divide and e-government system success were supported, but was rejected in the relationship between access divide and e-government system success. Furthermore, the results supported the moderating effects of demographic variables of age, residential place, and education.

This research has both theoretical and practical contributions. The study contributes to the developments of literature on digital divide and e-government by providing a more comprehensive framework, and also to the implementation of e-government by local governments and the improvement of e-government Readiness Index of Indonesia.

The Australia Card policy proposal of 1985‐87 is used as a focus to review the growing emergence of information technology as a significant influence on policy formation and implementation in the commonwealth public service. The history of science and technology leading to information technology in the public service is discussed, particularly recent pressures to use information technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public sector management.

This paper aims to explore the socio-cultural factors that emerge in the implementation of integrated financial management information systems (IFMIS) in Ghana, a developing country.

A qualitative research approach was used with a case study design. The data were collected from archival documents and semi-structured face-to-face interviews with participants who played a significant role in the implementation of IFMIS in the Ghanaian public sector.

The findings show that although IFMIS was considered by the World Bank, Department for International Development (DFID), European Union and Danish International Development Agency to be rational, technical, universal and unproblematic, the use of the system in the Ghanaian public institutions was constrained by socio-cultural factors. These factors included power struggles between various technocrats; and negative attitudes such as opportunism and rent-seeking interest towards the IFMIS.

The research is grounded in a single case study, but the findings can be theoretically generalised to information technology (IT)-based financial management system exhibiting the same characteristics.

This study offers a practical implication for governments, consultants and donor agencies.

This study provides additional insight through the application of the sociology and duality of information technology theory to study a particular IT-based public financial management initiative.

This essay surveys and synthesizes the academic literature, archival sources and interviews with key policy makers regarding the emergence of community technology centers in the US. Community Technology Centers (CTCs) came to the fore in the late 1990s through an activist nonprofit sector combined with federal government and private sector funding. Federal data indicates that CTCs now represent the most important access points to information communications technology for the poor in the US. This essay reviews the latest arguments for and against continued investment in CTCs and public access in general. In addition to providing access, which is often used beneficially for employment and education related purposes, CTCs appear to contribute to social capital as they become social gathering points. This paper concludes, that both government and nonprofits play a vital role in ensuring public access for the poor and that continued investment in CTCs is warranted.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of technology development to public organizations and related management issues.

This paper reviews previous studies about technology development in the public sector and analyzes conceptual and managerial issues about their findings.

Three major lessons identified and analyzed are: the wide influence of technology to public management, the nature of public organizations and their environment, and the need for more research to test existing theories and develop new theories for future public management.

Discussions about theoretical and practical contributions and implications are suggested for future studies about technology application and public management.

The objective of this paper is to show how Internet technologies have the potential to facilitate the achievement of transparency within public sector organisations. This change will also have a major impact on the way in which public sector organisations interact with their environment and in particular with users of their products and services. The connectivity that automatically results from Internet technologies can exert a very powerful influence in encouraging a free flow of ideas around the organisation, permitting individuals and organisational units to converge and inter‐connect. It is shown how the “open” systems nature of Internet technologies can facilitate greater co‐operation and communication across organisation units both internally and externally. There are significant benefits to be accrued from employing Internet technologies at the interfaces between the public sector organisation and other agencies and suppliers. At the citizen interface, it is shown how a number of public sector organisations have adopted Internet technologies, which in turn has allowed them to be more responsive to the needs of citizens. In the future, the expectations of the individual will continue to rise with increasing demands for online accessibility to organisations. Although there are considerable barriers to the full implementation of Internet technologies, the connectivity of the Internet presents public sector organisations with an immense opportunity to enhance the way in which they fulfil the needs of users of their products and services. Public sector organisations that do not embrace the technology will continue to have major problems achieving efficiencies and delivering the value demanded by citizens, particularly in the light of shrinking public sector budgets.

This study is based on the hypothesis that in Turkey, at the beginning of 2000’s, the most important investment to be made for the future is to increase the functionality of the information network system and thereby, its subsystem, the public library system. This matter bears utmost importance and urgency for Turkey that has a young and dynamic population. The objective of the study is to outline a new public library system model integrated with information technology and to set out main conditions for its realisation. In the study, documentary analysis and systems design methods are employed. In Turkey, an insufficiency on a crisis level in all processes and levels of the public library system is observed, a fact which is caused by various factors. The three elements of the crisis are the “access” to public library system facilities, its “cost” and “quality”. The new public library system model presupposes a decrease in the state’s responsibility for public libraries by sharing this responsibility with the library users. Information society technology is suggested as the medium of the model because it will provide equal opportunities for and democratization of the public library system.

This paper aims to take an institutional approach to the analysis of organisational‐level challenges of information systems (IS) innovation in public organisations. It seeks to answer the question: how can the challenges of IS innovation in public organisations, presented by the interactions between IT and public bureaucracy, be explained and addressed?

The paper is an empirical study approached with an interpretive philosophy that influenced the gathering of qualitative evidence.

The analysis reveals the institutional tensions between the low‐entrepreneurial ethos of public organisations and the efficiency principle of information technology (IT).

Public bureaucracy should be adjusted by de‐institutionalising its variable characteristics such as standardised and centralised employee roles and information. Information technology should be adjusted by restraining commitments to and expectations in public organisations.

The paper argues that the primary principle of IS innovation should be institutional adjustments of public bureaucracy and information technology. It informs e‐government policy makers to think primarily about the institutional relations between IT and public bureaucracy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges and critical factors of interagency information sharing (IIS) from the perspectives of technology, organization, policy and public participation in a developing country.

This study conducted a case study encompassing documentation analysis and in-depth semi-structured interviews of 15 public managers and other public officials in the Regency of Bojonegoro, Indonesia.

The findings demonstrate that addressing factors residing in organizational and policy and regulations challenges are critical and should precede the needs of technology. The findings also identified three factors affecting IIS in a developing country. First, the embeddedness of agencies in rigid bureaucratic and autocratic structure complicates the collaboration in IIS, such as promoting jurisdiction conflicts. Second, this study identifies the crucial influence of top executives on every activity in IIS, including resolving conflicts. Finally, political instability augments the crucial function of creating public awareness and participation. Public awareness and participation become more critical because public support carries political precedent that eventually affects the continuity of ICTs initiatives.

Owing to the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability beyond Indonesia. Furthermore, this research design did not specify the interviewees to rank and prioritize the challenges and critical factors, nor that the authors ask for the strategy to alleviate the challenges.

The challenges of data management engender practical implication in which public managers should focus more on communicating and socializing, as well as providing training on the importance of data and the new technology not only early in the phase of the project but also during the implementation. Furthermore, in the effort to ensure the continuity of the project, public managers could continuously nurture public participation and spark public interest through the use of social media.

Many studies on the challenges of implementing IIS focusing in developed countries might overlook the possible distinctive challenges affecting the adoption of IIS by the government in developing countries. This study identified several unique contexts and critical situational factors affecting interagency information sharing pertinent to a developing country.