Call for Papers: 14th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research

Courtesy of Larkin Dudley and Andrea Kavanaugh:

"Call for Papers

dg.o 2013

14th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research

From e-Government to Smart Government

Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

Monday – Thursday, June 17-20, 2013

Submission deadline– February 1st

 

Home page: http://dgo2013.dgsna.org

General inquiries: dgo2013@easychair.org

Twitter: DGSociety, #dgo2013

Paper submissions: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=dgo2013

The Digital Government Society (DGS) announces the 14th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research - dg.o 2013. The dg.o meetings are an established forum for the presentation, discussion, and demonstration of interdisciplinary e-Government research, technology innovation, applications, and practice. Each year the conference combines:

·         Presentations of effective partnerships and collaborations among government professionals and agencies, university researchers, relevant businesses, and NGOs, as well as grassroots citizen groups, to advance the practice of e-Government.

·         Presentations and discussions on new research on e-Government as an interdisciplinary domain that lies at the intersections of information technology research, social and behavioral science research, and the challenges and missions of government.

·         Practice regarding e-Government projects, implementations, and initiatives that bring together the research and practitioner communities, demonstrate the effectiveness and/or challenges of e-Government, and offer best practices.

Governments today face unprecedented opportunities and challenges. New technologies provide governments with the opportunity to redefine the relationship between government and the public that they serve, create innovative public services, provide customer-focused services, encourage transparency, promote participatory democracy, facilitate the co-design of services, form new partnerships in service delivery, streamline operations and reduce costs, and build trust in government. But harnessing and implementing technologies effectively raise a number of policy, technology, and governance challenges. This year, the conference program will focus on research and practice related to the adoption of smart technologies by governments, citizens and other private and non-profit organizations. More and more, the adoption of smart technologies by individuals and organizations is opening new opportunities for creating public-private partnerships to improve current government services as well as to create new, innovative ones.

Submissions addressing this theme could include but are not limited to: smart technologies for governments, semantic technologies for e-government, web services applications, open and transparent government; social media and public participation; effective use of social media by governments; crowd sourcing for government decision making; transformative government; models of collaboration among government, industry, NGOs, and citizens; data integration, visualizations, and analytics for government decision making; agile and flexible government; financial/economic/social policy making; policy and governance issues that enable, facilitate, and promote smart government; government productivity and effectiveness; service quality and customer-centric e-Government; social and health infrastructure; global government collaboration models and practices; infrastructure for data sharing among government agencies; computing infrastructure models, cyber-security and project management; IT-enabled government management and operations, and interest in program execution; IT and tools to support government security; and methods to measure and evaluate success in e-Government.

In addition, we welcome submissions from the broader domain of digital government research. We invite completed research papers, papers describing management and practice, policy, and case studies, on-going research posters, and live demonstrations that demonstrate the use of technology to promote innovative e-Government services. We particularly encourage submissions on interdisciplinary and crosscutting topics. We also encourage the submission of suggestions for panels, and pre-conference tutorials and workshops.

Accepted papers are published in the ACM Proceedings Digital Library, and selected papers will appear in leading journals such as Government Information Quarterly and Information Polity.

The conference has five thematic tracks, which accept full research papers as well as management, case studies and policy papers (see below for paper submission types), each with chairs responsible for managing the submission and review process for that track. The conference also accepts work in progress as well as short descriptions of applications in any topic on a poster and demo track, and panels, workshops and tutorials also in separate tracks. Feel free to get in contact with any track chair for guidance.

Track 1. Social Media and Government

Track chairs: Rodrigo Sandoval and Andrea Kavanaugh

Social media use in public administration has been growing rapidly around the world. Since the launch of web 2.0 many governments and public officials use new online tools to communicate among themselves, and with organizations and citizens. Recently this growing use has been creating new challenges for government users (e.g., regulations, policies), and an overwhelming increase in messages and other communications from citizens that are difficult to accommodate. These outcomes have started changing government interaction among their own personnel and with citizens and other agencies.

Track 2. Transformation and Open Government

Track chair: Marijn Janssen, Natalie Helbig and Vishanth Weerakkody

Many governments are striving towards a vision for government-wide transformation to achieve an open, transparent, accountable and demand-driven government,. This requires fundamental changes and the concept of transformational government is pushed forward. At the same time governments have become open system and seek for participation and interaction with their environment. The track solicits for papers addressing the issue of public sector transformation between governments and their environment.

Track 3. Emerging Topics

Track chairs: John C. Bertot, Paul Jaeger and Chris Reddick

Digital government both as an academic discipline and in practice continues to evolve. As new technologies, big data applications, policies, and management practices develop, governments seeks ways in which to provide innovative, smart, and transformational government services.  The  Emerging Topics track seeks submissions that provide insights into emerging digital government  research and practice.

Track 4. Organizational Factors, Adoption Issues and Digital Government Impacts

Track chair: Chris Hinnant and Theresa A. Pardo

Over the past decade, many public organizations have adopted information and communicational technologies (ICT) to facilitate communication and transactions with many stakeholders such as residents, private sector businesses, non-profit organizations, and other government agencies. While recent digital government research has often focused on understanding the external impacts of ICT adoption by government, the adoption and implementation of new ICT by public organizations is influenced by organizational factors such as the availability of resources (i.e. funding, technological knowledge, and personnel), managerial leadership, and the organization’s technological culture. This track solicits research that examines the organizational factors that influence the adoption and implementation of new ICT by as well as the impact of new ICT on the  organizational processes, effectiveness, and innovativeness of public organizations.

Track 5. Smart Government Technologies

Track chair: Soon Ae Chun, Tomasz Janowski

Smart government is achieved through innovation, transformation and re-structuring in policies, strategies, and technologies to create improved public sector process efficiency and service integration and delivery, and to support better decision making and collaboration with the public. Intelligent systems, new platforms for communication and collaboration, data collection, sharing and analytics, shared services, sensors and ubiquitous computing are all the key ingredients to transform the government that benefit the public and business, and to improve the quality of life. This track aims to facilitate theoretical and practical discussions on approaches towards the smart government, smart cities, smart community, smart citizens by technology and policy innovations in the area of energy, transport, health, public safety, buildings, urban planning, environment, business and others.

Track 6. Smart Cities and Smart Work

Track Chairs: Jungwoo Lee and J. Ramon Gil-Garcia

World population is increasingly concentrating in cities. People work and live in and around cities and information technologies have transformed their lives as well as the public and private services being provided to them. Therefore, smart cities and smart work could be considered highly interrelated and, actually, two sides of the same coin. City administrators are facing daunting tasks in order to accommodate emerging characteristics of urban life and promote better quality of life and improved work life balance, while enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of administrative services. This track invites theoretical and empirical papers concerning smart cities and smart work. Suggested topics include but are not limited to the followings: smart city services, ICT driven city development, cooperative policy development, participative governance, novel service typologies of smart ubiquitous cities, community forums for service development, spaces and mediated presence, smart work centers, telecommuting, flextime, mobile work, quality of city life, work life balance, urban mobile learning, creative cooperatives, skill changes of labor force, and urban human capital management.

IMPORTANT DATES

·         February 1, 2013 - Papers, workshops, tutorials, and panel proposals due

·         March 15, 2013 - Application deadline for 2013 Doctoral Colloquium

·         March 15, 2013 - Papers, workshops, tutorials, and panel proposals notifications

·         March 30, 2013 - Posters and demo proposals due

·         April 15, 2013 - Camera-ready manuscripts due

·         April 15, 2013 - Notification for acceptance into 2012 Doctoral Colloquium

·         April 15, 2013 - Poster and demo acceptance notifications

·         May 15, 2013 - Early registration closes!

·         May 20, 2013 - Conference hotel block closes - make your bookings before this deadline!

·         June 17-20, 2013 - Dg.o 2013 conference!

SUBMISSION TYPES AND FORMATS

·         Research papers (maximum of 10 pages)

·         Management, Case Study, or Policy papers (maximum of 6 pages)

·         Panel descriptions (maximum of 4 pages)

·         Posters (maximum of 2 pages)

·         System demonstrations (maximum of 2 pages)

·         Pre-Conference tutorial proposals (maximum of 2 pages)

·         Pre-Conference workshop proposals (maximum of 2 pages)

·         Doctoral colloquium application (maximum of 10 pages)

Submissions must not exceed the maximum number of pages specified for each type of submission in camera-ready ACM Proceedings format (double column, single spaced pages). Please do not use page numbers. Paper titles should be on the first page of text, rather than on a separate cover page.

·         Research and Policy papers will be reviewed through a double blind review process. Therefore, author names and contact information must be omitted from all submissions. Authors must identify the topic(s) being addressed in the paper to assist the program committee in the review process.

·         All other submissions should follow the same ACM proceedings camera-ready format with author names included on the paper.

·         All accepted submissions will appear in the proceedings, and authors are expected to present their work. At least one author for each accepted paper must register before the camera ready version is due in order for it to be included in the proceedings.

Submissions are through: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=dgo2013

Research papers (maximum 10 pages) – blind review

These submissions report innovative digital government research results in the form of a formal scholarly paper. Papers on any digital government topic and all research methodologies are welcome. Relevance to digital government problems, goals, or policies must be explicit.

Management, case study, or policy papers (maximum 6 pages) – blind review

These submissions describe and evaluate practical digital government projects or initiatives, discuss major policy themes, or present and evaluate management approaches to digital government initiatives and programs.

Panels (maximum 4 pages)

Proposals should include the theme and goals of the panel, a summary of the digital government issues or questions that the panel will address, statements about the value of the discussion to conference attendees and how well suited the topic is to a panel discussion. In addition, the proposal should include information about the expertise of the moderator and panelists in the selected issues. Please include names, institutional affiliations, addresses, email, and phone contact numbers of the contact person, moderator, and presenter(s).

Posters (maximum of 2 pages)

The poster session, held in conjunction with the system demonstrations, allows presenters to discuss research in progress, application projects, or government policies and program initiatives in one-to-one conversations with other participants at the conference. The 2-page summaries should outline the nature of the research, policy, or project and describe why the work will be of interest to dg.o attendees. Posters prepared for the conference should measure approximately 36" x 48." Each poster station is provided with a table and an easel. Selected poster submissions may be asked to give an oral presentation in the conference sessions.

System Demonstrations (maximum 2 pages)

System demonstrations are held concurrently with the poster session to the accompaniment of good food and professional fellowship. The 2-page summaries should outline the nature of the system and describe why the demonstration is likely to be of interest to dg.o attendees. Demonstrations of interest include systems under development or in active use in research or practice domains. Submissions should include authors' names and contact information according to that format. Each station is provided with a table, an easel, and Internet access. Monitors will be available for rent. Selected demo submissions may be asked to give an oral presentation in the conference sessions.

Pre-conference Tutorials (maximum 2 pages)

dg.o tutorials are half- or full-day presentations that offer deeper insight into e-Government research, practice, research methodologies, technologies or field experience. In particular, tutorials are intended to provide insights into good practices, research strategies, uses of particular technologies such as social media, and other insights into e-Government that would benefit researchers and practitioners.

Pre-conference Research or Management Workshops (maximum 2 pages)

We invite workshop proposals on any e-Government research or management topic. Workshops are half- or full-day events intended to offer interactive sessions, in which the workshop host and participants discuss and engage in activities designed to facilitate joint learning and further exploration of a particular subject. Individuals proposing workshops will assume the responsibility of identifying and selecting participants for the workshop and for conducting workshop activities.

Doctoral Colloquium (maximum 10 pages, not including references, tables and figures)
The Doctoral Colloquium is a highly interactive full-day forum in which Ph.D. students meet and discuss their work with each other and with senior faculty from a variety of disciplines associated with digital government research. The colloquium is planned for Monday June 17, 2013.PhD students can submit papers describing their planned or in-progress doctoral dissertation covering any research areas relevant to digital government. Ideally, student participants will have completed one or two years of doctoral study or progressed far enough in their research to have a structured proposal idea and perhaps some preliminary findings, but have not reached the stage of defending their dissertations. We expect students at this stage of study will gain the most value from feedback on their work and from the more general discussions of doctoral programs and scholarly careers. See the detailed announcement for complete information on the colloquium and how to submit an application. Material provided in applications to the doctoral colloquium will not be published in the proceedings. However, we encourage students to submit finished research to one of the paper tracks or as a poster or demo.

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

·         All accepted management or policy papers, research papers, student papers, panels, posters, and system demonstrations will be published in the printed proceedings and included in the ACM digital library. Selected papers may be invited for a journal special issue.

·         Outstanding achievement awards will be presented in the categories Research papers, Management and policy papers, Posters, and System demonstrations. Papers that reflect the theme of the conference, form E-Government to Smart Government, will be preferred. Other selection criteria include the interdisciplinary and innovative nature of the work, its contribution to and balance between theory (rigor) and practice (relevance), the importance and reach of the topic, and the quality of the writing for communicating to a broad audience.

CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION

The dg.o 2013 conference management team includes:

·         Conference Chair - Sehl Mellouli, Laval University.

·         Program Chairs:

o    Luis Luna-Reyes, Universidad de las Americas Puebla

o    Jing Zhang Clark University.

·         Track Chairs:

o    John Bertot, University of Maryland College Park

o    Soon Ae Chun, City University of New York

o    Natalie Helbig, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany

o    Chris Hinnant, Florida State University

o    Paul Jaeger, University of Maryland College Park

o    Marijn Janssen, Delft University

o    Andrea Kavanaugh, Virginia Tech

o    Theresa A. Pardo, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany

o    Chris Reddick, University of Texas San Antonio

o    Rodrigo Sandoval, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México

o    Vishanth Weerakkody, Brunel University

o    J. Ramon Gil-Garcia, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas

o    Jungwoo Lee, Yonsei University

·         Workshop and Tutorial Chair - Soon Ae Chun, City University of New York

·         Poster and Demo Chair - Gabriel Puron Cid, CIDE

·         Panel Chairs:

o    Teresa Harrison, University at Albany

o    Jana Hrdinova, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany

·         Doctoral Colloquium Chairs:

o    Sharon Dawes, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany

o    Björn Niehaves, Hertie School of Governance 
o    J. Ramon Gil-Garcia, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas"