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The purpose of this paper is to introduce a layered, comprehensive model of quality of service (QoS) for local eGovernment, and discuss its feasibility on a regional eGovernment case study. The eGovernment online services are becoming a key infrastructure for advanced countries. They allow significant efficiency gains in different sectors of society, offering benefits for individual citizens and for the community as a whole. The deployment of online services alone is not sufficient in order to qualify an eGovernment strategy. The intrinsic and perceived quality of services offered, as well as the actual impact of new functionalities, should be properly measured and taken into account.

This paper presents an applied research study for a quality‐focused evolution of a service‐oriented architecture for local eGovernment portals. This investigation was based on three main layers: the perceived quality and effective impact of services (G2C layer), the effectiveness of the deployed processes (WFM layer) and finally, the system‐level efficiency (G2G layer).

The measurement of quality with respect to eGovernment services is a complex task which requires appropriate tools to tackle the different aspects of the problem. Specifically, active and passive tools (respectively surveys and usage analysis) should be used to evaluate the quality perceived by the users as well as the utility of the service itself. The efficiency of the back office workflow must be estimated measuring statistical and dynamical indicators. Finally, technical measures should be used to monitor the responsiveness and scalability of software implementations and deployment systems.

A better knowledge regarding (e‐)Government service delivery processes, their QoS and their impact on the society can empower both citizens and local administrators, and can help them to better improve the effectiveness of local government.

The multi‐layered quality measurement architecture proposed in this paper offers local governments the capability to systematically monitor and analyse the quality of their online services. The business process management technologies allow citizens to get a better knowledge of the service delivery processes; the QoS measurements allow to improve control on them; and the eGovernment Intelligence model allows to better quantify their actual social impact.

This paper aims to explore similarities and differences between robots, invasive biological species, and genetically modified organisms. These comparisons are designed to better understand the potential effects of robots on human society.

This paper applies established ideas in one discipline – biology – to issues that are less well understood, but actively being studied in another discipline – science and technology studies.

Robots entering human society in large numbers share many of the characteristics of an invasive species entering a new ecosystem. The authors also find that robots have several characteristics that are similar to a genetically modified organism. Taken together, these similarities suggest that society should be cautious about the introduction of large numbers of robots in a short period of time.

The approach taken here to assess robots in society by these analogies to ecological processes is, to the authors' knowledge, novel. Applying ideas from a better-known area to a less well-known area is routine in philosophy, but these particular analogies have not yet been carefully articulated in the literature.

This contribution looks at some relatively new and recent advanced tools, techniques, methods and standards related to the Internet which form the basis for mixtures of documents and services, which we can call ‘document+program hybrids’. The new Internet systems contribute to an evolution from documents on the one side and computer programs on the other side, neatly separated, apart from each other, without much interaction, so that the static document can also exist without computers and networks, to hybrid systems where the classical distinction between the contents and the container is blurred; where all components are integrated, interwoven and exist in synergy with each other; they can be more dynamic and interactive, in comparison with more classical and static documents, by involving and exploiting the power of computers and networks. A collection is presented of Internet‐based sources (URLs) that can serve as illustrations. Recent methods, techniques, standards and protocols on the Internet that form the basis of the evolution are listed. As professional information intermediaries, the authors also consider the impact in the area of online access to information and knowledge.

The purpose of this paper (editorial) is to introduce a collection of “best papers,” selected from the 11th International Conference on Digital Government Research (dg.o, 2010), that are devoted to the technical, managerial, social and policy challenges and issues of collaborative e‐government. It provides a conceptual model for collaborative e‐government that may be used to explain the motivations and findings behind these studies.

The paper outlines a conceptual model of collaborative e‐government using value‐driven, citizen‐driven, cost‐driven and technology‐driven forces that tie together various e‐government collaboration projects. A brief survey of government collaboration projects is presented and a set of research questions on collaborative e‐government are formulated.

The conceptual model of e‐government collaboration forces provides a framework that encompasses the research questions, topics and themes addressed in various digital government papers, especially those in this issue.

The paper introduces and summarizes seven research papers relative to the theme of e‐government collaborations, identifying a set of research challenges, opportunities, and unique solutions drawing on past experiences.

Virtual teams are typically made up of geographically dispersed experts, supported by computer‐based communication technologies. Though increasingly popular this is still a relatively unstudied organizational form. Virtual team membership is typically based solely on needed expertise; the teams rarely have any history of interaction and their performance potential is unknown. Research shows that teams exhibit constructive, passive, and aggressive interaction styles, which have significant effects on the decisions the teams produce as well as the teams’ satisfaction with those decisions. We present managerial tools for the assessment of conventional and virtual team interaction styles. We detail how the tools are used, and we also discuss how the styles manifest in each medium, and their effects. We give suggestions to team managers on how to use the insights the tools provide to manage their virtual teams for optimal performance.

The Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags constitute a set of instruments that can be used to instruct software robots. However, the current version of Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags are both too simple and ambiguous in an internet world with many potential conflicts, especially in terms of copyright and trespass to chattels. This paper seeks to propose an amendment to the Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags to solve the problems.

Instead of following personal experience, this paper surveys several predominant cases in an attempt to find general principles that can be used as guidelines to amend the Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags.

According to several court cases, the Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags can not only be used to simply allow or refuse the software robots, but also expressing the online copyright authorization policies of webmasters. Any robot following the given policies can prevent possible conflicts, and undoubtedly, any robot ignoring these may be in breach of the law. In terms of adapting to their new roles successfully, the Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags need some supplements and adoption; as a result, the webmasters can express their will more explicitly and avoid unnecessary disputes in relation to copyright authorization scope and trespass to chattels as well.

This paper reveals the new function of the Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags. Based on this new function, this paper points out the disadvantages of the current Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags and proposes new a comprehensive amendment based on this new function.