Maturity and Usability of e‐Government in Informational World Cities
Agnes Mainka, Kaja Fietkiewicz, Adriana Kosior, Sandra Pyka and Wolfgang Stock Department of Information Science, Heinrich‐Heine‐University Düsseldorf, Germany Agnes. Mainka @ hhu. de Kaja. Fietkiewicz @ hhu. de Adriana. Kosior @ hhu. de Sandra. Pyka @ hhu. de Stock @ phil. hhu. de
Abstract: In view of the increased popularity of e‐Government in the development of Informational World Cities, i. e. prototypical cities of the knowledge society( such as Singapore, Seoul or Hong Kong), we present two research questions: What is the state of maturity of e‐Government in Informational World Cities? How high( or low) is their degree of usability? In order to deal with these issues, we formulate an extended criterion model for the quantification of e‐Government maturity, and analyse the average quality of the navigation systems of 31 identified Informational World Cities ' official websites..
Keywords: e‐government, knowledge society, informational world city, maturity, usability
1. Introduction
With the advent of the knowledge society begins a new era for cities. Developed societies in many regions throughout the world depend upon the growing importance of knowledge. Just as there have been typical cities of industrial society( e. g., Manchester in the 19th and early 20th century) or the service society( e. g., Manhattan in the late 20th century), there exist typical cities of the knowledge society. According to Manuel Castells( 1989), we will call them“ Informational Cities”( Yigitcanlar, 2010; Stock, 2011; Mainka, Khveshchanka, & Stock, 2011). These cities are metropolises of the 21st century and they make their mark in the global economy. Urban development and economic growth are based on infrastructures of information and communication technology( ICT) and on cognitive infrastructures. In an Informational City, there exist two spaces: the space of places and the space of flows( Castells, 1994). The space of places( e. g., buildings, streets) is dominated by the space of flows( flows of money, power and information).
In the early phases of Informational City research, it was necessary to identify potential Informational World Cities. An Informational City combines different aspects of modern cities in the knowledge society. In the present project phase, we will investigate world cities. Above all, an Informational World City must be a world city based on the groundwork laid out by Friedmann( 1995), Taylor( 2004), or Sassen( 2001), who define such a place by its degree of“ cityness”. The number of residents by itself does not make a world city. There also has to be important infrastructure, as given in a digital city( Yigitcanlar & Han, 2010), which some authors call a“ ubiquitous city”( Hwang, 2009), a smart city( Shapiro, 2006; Hollands, 2008), a knowledge city( Ergazakis, Metaxiotis, & Psarras, 2004), or a creative city( Landry, 2000; Florida, 2005). The economic success of a world city correlates with emerging human capital( Glaeser, Scheinkman, & Shleifer, 1995). Hence it is necessary for such a city to meet the needs of the knowledge society and to contain important infrastructures in order to be able to compete with other world cities.
How should a real Informational World City be defined? Two conditions must be met. First of all, a city must be referred to as a world city in the literature, and secondly, the city should be referred to also as a digital, smart, knowledge, or creative city( at least one precondition must be fulfilled). All in all, we analysed 126 references. We found information that identified 31 cities in the literature that can be recognised as Informational World Cities( Figure 1). These cities reflect global centres distributed all over the world.
In an Informational World City, eGovernance is the basis of innovation( Yigitcanlar, 2010). Here we looked beyond the aspects of e‐Government and eCommerce, taking into account other important characteristics of a city, such as the improvement of living standards for citizens and the increase of economic growth via better cooperation between authorities and citizens and businesses. Thus, the term eGovernance should be understood as a generic term for planning, innovation and funding at city level( Sharma & Palvia, 2010, 3).
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