Information Polity

This study focuses on private intermediaries in the course of public service delivery. Typically, intermediaries facilitate the matching process between citizens or companies that have to fulfill certain obligations to governments and government agencies. Therefore, intermediaries can contribute fundamentally to bypassing red tape. In this study, we go beyond improving service to explore the role of ICT on private intermediaries and their relation to public administration. In particular, we aim to clarify how private intermediaries act and whether information technology can strengthen or weaken their roles.

Methodologically, we use a single case because this issue is still unexplored and therefore open for investigating intermediaries at their interface with public administration. Specifically, we chose the case of plant approval procedures under the German Federal Control of Pollution Act because plant approval is characterized by high complexity and private intermediaries have been active in that area for many years. Regarding our chosen theoretical lens, we go beyond a narrow focus on the economic theories that are often used in the business administration literature in intermediary research. Instead, we frame intermediaries as boundary spanners and ICTs as boundary objects.

In the context of politics, emotions and facts work together to shape opinions about political candidates. While there is considerable research on motivated reasoning about political issues, there is less attention to how affect and rationality combine in the hybrid world of new media. This study examined the interaction of social media comments about politicians with more traditional information sources. Participants were exposed to political candidates' Facebook news feeds, to news articles about the candidates, and to a political speech. The order of exposure was varied and measures of both knowledge and emotion were taken. When social media was encountered before news about a political candidate, it influenced feelings toward the candidate but did not influence personal mood or perceived knowledge. In contrast, when social media was encountered before information unrelated to the candidates, it negatively influenced all dependent measures. The findings are discussed in terms of motivated reasoning theories, Papacharissi's concept of ``affective publics,'' and the implications for civic participation in the new media era.

Governments around the world are investing in large scale information and communication technology projects that are intended to modernize and streamline healthcare through the provision of nationally accessible electronic health records. In this way, they hope to `tame' the complex `wicked' problems facing healthcare, such as rising costs and fragmented delivery. However, these projects often encounter difficulties. Using a case study of Australia's 20-year journey towards a national electronic health record system, we show how these projects can ironically take on the characteristics of the `wicked problems' they are intended to solve, and how a failure to recognize and cope with these `wicked' characteristics can lead to waste, conflict and frustration among potential users. We suggest some alternative approaches to the management of large-scale ICT projects in healthcare and other public service sectors that deal with complex, sensitive data.

The topic of this paper is the role of benchmarking in Chinese e-government. Through content analysis of documentary material, this paper addresses the following questions: Which benchmarking schemes have been applied to e-government in China? What are the intentions behind the different benchmarking schemes? and Whose interests are served? Whereas previous research finds that benchmarking addresses mainly the front office of e-government (websites), this paper finds that organizational indicators are also used. Benchmarking efforts now increasingly address the back office, and basic benchmarking schemes have become institutionalized into a census. Benchmarking reinforces the interests of the central government and communicates the values of the Communist Party to the fragmented bureaucracy. In this way, benchmarking is used as an integrative mechanism that centralizes governance while maintaining adaptive capacity at the local level.

Designing effective visualization software in the context of super wicked problems includes incorporating understanding of public policy and decision making settings into the software development process. Case study findings presented here show that a problem-driven design approach must include both the primary and secondary users of visualization software. The primary lesson learned is that extending the scope of the problem domain beyond the explicit functionality of creating visualizations, to include the reactions or enhanced participation of decision makers, will likely provide scientists with more effective software.

Korea has put forth Government 3.0 as a national drive to improve government operations. The incumbent administration's strong pledge for public sector reform through the Government 3.0 drive envisions a transparent, competent, and service-oriented government. The drive has received as much criticism as praise, and has raised the following issues. First, is Government 3.0 in Korea truly novel? The features of Government 3.0 are similar to those of Government 2.0 in other countries, which are based on the interactive potential of Web 2.0. Second, does Government 3.0 create visible outcomes as the achievement of ultimate objectives? Even leading agencies associated with the drive are unclear or confused between regarding its ends and means. Third, does disclosing more information guarantee better results? More disclosure may impose more burdens on public employees in terms of warranting the accuracy of information released and security of information sharing settings. Last, is the drive politically neutral and does it focus on administrative goals? Government 3.0 may be temporary, given the shifts in politics.