159 research outputs found

    The use of a blockchain-based smart import declaration to reduce the need for manual cross-validation by customs authorities

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    For determining the correctness of an import declaration lodged by a declarant within international shipping, customs authorities rely on manual cross-validation of the declaration with other trade documents. However, the sheer volume of import declarations lodged annually makes it impossible to manually cross-validate each declaration. Smart contracts have the potential to automatically aggregate relevant information from blockchain-based ledgers for lodging and cross-validation. In this paper we explore how such smart contract could be implemented. We demonstrate that a smart import declaration can be used to automatically aggregate information from different sources (e.g., pro forma invoice data elements stored on the blockchain ledger). However, technical and organizational considerations that are inherent to blockchain technology need to be addressed for the smart import declaration to be acceptable for both customs authorities and declarants. It is therefore suggested that future work focusses on data standards required to enable automatic aggregation of relevant trade information and the generation of the import declaration and governance of the smart import declaration by customs authorities to assure correctness.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Information and Communication Technolog

    Citizen engagement in an open election data initiative: A case study of Indonesian's "Kawal Pemilu"

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    Citizen engagement is key to the successful and sustainable use of Open Government Data (OGD), involving multiple activities ranging from the retrieval and conversion of raw data to OGD based applications, to the use of these applications to solve societal problems. However, there is a lack of insight into what drives citizens to engage in OGD initiatives. Such insight helps inform policymakers in stimulating and improving the engage ability of an OGD program. This study aims to identify factors that influence why citizens engage in OGD initiatives. To attain this objective, we conducted a single case study of citizen engagement in an open election data initiative in Indonesia. Our study shows that social altruism as an intrinsic motivation is a strong driver for citizens to start and continue engaging with open election data. Low data quality appeared not to hinder citizens from engaging in the OGD initiative; in contrast, it can lead to more engagement. Election is typically concerning with political participation, yet trust and political efficacy factors only marginally influenced citizen engagement in our case study. The case shows that, in a time-critical situation where potential social conflicts were seen to threaten the citizens' lives, collective actions are enabled by the availability of OGD. We draw some key lessons learnt for policymakers to enhance OGD engage ability. Further research is needed to examine whether factors found in this particular case also apply in different settings.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Information and Communication Technolog

    Writing Stories of and from the Future: Fostering Personal and Socio-Political Action

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    This chapter takes the shape of alternating viewpoints on using stories of and from the future as vehicle for resistance and personal and social change. Clinical psychologist and fiction author Nick Wood focuses on the writing of his debut novel Azanian Bridges and how he weaved in his experiences with an ex-patient (the unfolding ‘Sibusiso’s’ story). Narrative psychologist Anneke Sools draws on examples from her research on how personal narrations from the future (Letters from the Future) guide present thought and action. We share our ideas on: (1) Why Write Science Fictional Differences? (2) What Is the Ground, for the Seeds of Stories? (3) The Story Seeds Are Sharing What You Know-and Learning Too; (4) What’s the Water on the Ground? The Impetus for Developing an Idea; (5) Whose Story Is This? (6) Which Stories Get Heard? (7) Feedback from Our Storying; (8) Just Doing It: Ten Steps for Turning Story Seeds into Trees. All in all, our respective viewpoints and experiences can scaffold ideas about changing the lives of individuals and communities. Together, we propose ways forward for promoting the creation of stories that embrace the struggles of now, but also potential ways of building alternative, hopefully more meaningful and communal futures.</p

    Challenges to government use of social media

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    The use of different kinds of social media by government has been steadily increasing over the last decade. National, regional and local governments often employ social media to communicate and interact with citizens, organizations and/or other government agencies. However, as many authors highlight, the use of social media by government has many challenges, barriers and issues which undermine governments' actual use of social media. We argue, however, that prior research has to some extent overlooked the nature of challenges, in so far as it does not fully address differences between them and other elements, such as risks. This has resulted in a debate on challenges that includes both general barriers and risks of social media use by governments which, as a consequence, does not allow for consideration of the different actions that are needed to counter challenges and risks.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.OLD Urban Renewal and Housin

    Unraveling Transparency and Accountability in Blockchain

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    Blockchain technology is heralded for improving trust and can provide a new approach for creating transparency and promoting accountability of government activities. However, it is still not clear how and in what ways blockchain technologies can improve this. This study examines the mechanisms and capability of blockchain technology to contribute to improved transparency andaccountability in government. We use a set of system transparency and accountability concepts and mechanisms to critically assess the capabilities of blockchain . By means of a land registration case in Indonesia we investigate the effects of blockchain on the transparency and accountability of the system. Creating transparency and accountability might be more difficult than expected, as non technical issues need to be addressed. Based on our assessment we discuss key issues, including digital ID, privacy, interoperability, connectivity and technology aware population, computational efficiency and storage size, acceptability, check and control mechanism, data validity, digital signature, algorithm transparency, law and regulation support, and dispute resolution, that must be considered in developing a transparent and accountable blockchain based e-Government system.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Information and Communication Technolog

    Current and expected roles and capabilities of CIOS for the innovation and adoption of new technology

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    Governments across the word are under pressure to adopt new technologies and to innovate and transform their processes. Some governments have introduced the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) to facilitate these innovations though adoption of new technologies. The traditional CIO role of improving operational efficiency is now shifting towards exploring new IT-enabled opportunities required in digital transformation. In this context, CIO capabilities are expanding to be more involved in administrative processes and digital transformation, however, their organizational role seem to lag behind. This paper is aimed at evaluating the current role of CIOs and to provide policy recommendations to strengthen their role. Data was collected during a session in which roles and capabilities of CIOs were discussed. In particular, we found that often the CIO was positioned as having an IT role, whereas a more organizational role was needed. CIOs should develop capabilities to support digital transformation and to develop architecture that is adaptive and agile. The expectations of the CIO and the role of the CIO need to be better aligned.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Information and Communication Technolog

    Towards a Smart Sustainable City Roadmap Identifying Competency Gaps

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    This workshop of the CAP4CITY (Erasmus+ Strengthening Governance Capacity for Smart Sustainable Cities) project is to promote and stimulate the discussion and networking in the area of Digital Government. Smart Sustainable Cities and related concepts of Digital, Intelligent and Smart Cities represent a progression of how cities around the world apply digital technology to serve their populations, pursue sustainable socioeconomic development, and transform themselves in the process, and require strong capacity for public governance in the digital world. In order to identify the gaps concerning missing knowledge and training needs in this area we propose to validate a Smart Sustainable Cities roadmap through a scenario-building approach.Information and Communication Technolog

    Toward an ethics of digital government: A first discussion

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    In this panel, scholars discuss involving data, computational analysis, and information technology that hasthe potential to present ethical quandaries in the course of decision making related to digital government. More specifically, the presentations focus on algorithm-based decision making, personally identifiable information, and the manipulation of publicopinion in social media channels. Discussion following the presentations will focus on how ethical guidelines should be formulated or what their specific content should be.Ethics & Philosophy of Technolog

    Panel: Blockchain applications in government

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    In the past fewyears, researchers and practitioners have highlighted the potential of Blockchain (BC) and distributed ledger technology to revolutionize government processes. Blockchain technology enables distributed power and embedded security. As such, Blockchain is regarded as an innovative, general purpose technology, offering new ways of organization in many domains, including e-government for transactions and information exchange. However, due to its very characteristics of peer to peer information exchange, its distributed nature, the still developing technology, the involvement of new actors, roles, etc., the implementation of blockchain applications raise issues that need governance attention. BC initiatives have implications for citizen trust, privacy, inclusion and participation. Governmental organizations need a thorough understanding of the BC design principles, the possible applications in the domain of e-government and the exploration of governance mechanisms to deal with the limitations and challenges of the BC technology when used in a myriad of sectors, ranging from the financial and business sector to the social domains of healthcare and education. In this panel we explore the impact of block chain technology on all levels of government and create an awareness of effects or applications in society that raise governance issues.Information and Communication Technolog

    Steering the adoption of Standard Business Reporting for cross domain information exchange

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    Over the years, several governments around the world have introduced a version of Standard Business Reporting (SBR) for information exchange with public agencies. Their main goals are to ease the reporting burden for businesses and the regulatory burden for government agencies. This paper takes a look at the adoption numbers in the Netherlands over multiple years. The objective of this paper is to analyse the adoption rates and explain them by revealing the steering instruments employed by government agencies looking to positive-ly influence SBR adoption. Our dataset consists of the total number of reports submitted using SBR towards the Tax Office, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Education Executive Agency. Quantitative data analysis reveals different adoption rates and patterns in the aforementioned reporting chains. We found that adoption was positively influenced using a deliberate and fine-tuned set of steering instruments, including public-private governance, open communication and knowledge exchange, mandation, software community engagement and technical configuration (use of interfaces that match the sector specific reporting capabilities). When considering these steering instruments, policy makers and practitioners need to balance progressive standard setting and steady implementation.Information and Communication Technolog
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