Lisbon, at Nova University

Visiting Lisbon at times of financial crisis - well it looked like the "last" visited the one before the end.  But Lisbon   was a pleasure both from the artistic and sociological side of things.  As a city lying in two coasts, it kept being interesting and innovative while also easy to find your way within, apart from one issue: the crossing of the bridges to get from one side of Tago river to the opposite.







The impressive Vasca de Gama bridge, at left, with a length exceeding 15 Km over the river must have been an engineering challenge, when built a few years ago.







Visiting Nova University Lisbon and especially the UNINOVA research centre within FCT (Technical Sciences Faculty) was also a pleasure, joining together NTUA, CNR, Intrasoft International and Uninova teams to work on Interoperablity Scientific Approaches and Future Internet Researcch Roadmapping.



At Nova University Lisbon with friends and colleagues from Italy, Greece, Portugal






Αποτελέσματα του Διαγωνισμού WeGov 2011 - Τελική Φάση

Η τελική φάση του 2ου Πανελλήνιου Φοιτητικού Διαγωνισμού Καινοτομίας στην Ηλεκτρονική Διακυβέρνηση "WeGov Awards 2011" που έλαβε χώρα στο πλαίσιο της εκδήλωσης «Ημέρες Διαλειτουργικότητας - Ανοιχτά Δημόσια Δεδομένα» την 1 Δεκεμβρίου 2011, ολοκληρώθηκε με επιτυχία με την τελική επιλογή και βράβευση των νικητών του διαγωνισμού. Τα βραβεία απονεμήθηκαν ως εξής:

Κατηγορία Καλύτερης Εφαρμογής
"Ανοιχτά Οικονομικά Δεδομένα"
Θεοχάρης Γιώργος, Εθνική Σχολή Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, Τμήμα ΔΠΣ
Παπαδόπουλος Θοδωρής, Εθνική Σχολή Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, Τμήμα ΔΠΣ
Τσιάβος Πρόδρομος,  Open Knowledge Foundation, Λονδίνο

*Το βραβείο συνοδεύεται από χρηματικό έπαθλο 2.000 ΕΥΡΩ και περαιτέρω ανάπτυξη της εφαρμογής, σε συνεργασία με το Microsoft Innovation Centre.

Κατηγορία Καλύτερης Ιδέας
"Σύστημα ηλεκτρονικής τοπικής αυτοδιοίκησης για την καταγραφή, οργάνωση και διαχείριση των τοπικών προβλημάτων/θεμάτων με άμεση συμμετοχή των πολιτών"
Καμπάνταη Λία, Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης, Τμήμα Πληροφορικής

*Το βραβείο συνοδεύεται από χρηματικό έπαθλο και περαιτέρω ανάπτυξη και αξιοποίηση της καλύτερης ερευνητικής ιδέας, σε συνεργασία με το Ελληνικό Κέντρο Διαλειτουργικότητας.

Ειδικό ΒραβείοCloud & Mobile App
"Σύστημα ηλεκτρονικής τοπικής αυτοδιοίκησης για την καταγραφή, οργάνωση και διαχείριση των τοπικών προβλημάτων/θεμάτων με άμεση συμμετοχή των πολιτών"
Καμπάνταη Λία, Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης, Τμήμα Πληροφορικής

*Το βραβείο συνοδεύεται από χρηματικό έπαθλο και περαιτέρω ανάπτυξη της εφαρμογής, σε συνεργασία με την ATC ΑΕ.

Ημέρες Διαλειτουργικότητας - Τελικός WeGov Awards 2011

Ημέρες Διαλειτουργικότητας
Ανοιχτά Δημόσια δεδομένα
WeGov Awards 2011
1 Δεκεμβρίου 2011


Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο
Κεντρική Βιβλιοθήκη Πολυτεχνειούπολης, Αμφιθέατρο Πολυμέσων

Τα Ανοιχτά Δημόσια Δεδομένα αναδεικνύονται  πλέον διεθνώς ως ένα ισχυρό στρατηγικό εργαλείο της Δημόσιας Διοίκησης στην προσπάθειά της να αυξήσει την εμπιστοσύνη των πολιτών, τη συμμετοχή και τη συνεργατική δράση. Παρά τη μεγάλη σημασία που αποδίδεται στην κατεύθυνση αυτή και παρά την σαφή υποστήριξη που επιβεβαιώνεται σε επίπεδο ευρωπαϊκής πολιτικής, οι προκλήσεις είναι πολλές για τα κράτη μέλη προκειμένου να αναπτυχθούν νέες εφαρμογές και να παρέχονται καινοτόμες ψηφιακές υπηρεσίες βασισμένες στην ανακάλυψη και αξιοποίηση ανοιχτών δημόσιων δεδομένων.
Στην ημερίδα αυτή, στόχος είναι να παρουσιαστούν καινοτόμες και βέλτιστες πρακτικές αλλά και ερευνητικές προσεγγίσεις στην περιοχή «Ανοιχτά Δημόσια Δεδομένα» και να γίνει συζήτηση πάνω στις ενέργειες και πρωτοβουλίες που λαμβάνονται στην Ελλάδα για την ανάπτυξη εφαρμογών και υπηρεσιών προστιθέμενης αξίας. 
Στο δεύτερο μέρος της ημερίδας, θα γίνει αξιολόγηση των τελικών προτάσεων και ανάδειξη των Νικητών του 2ου Πανελλήνιου Φοιτητικού Διαγωνισμού WeGov Awards 2011.

Ο διαγωνισμός WeGov Awards 2011 συνδιοργανώνεται από το Εργαστήριο Πληροφοριακών Συστημάτων, του Τμήματος Μηχανικών Πληροφοριακών και Επικοινωνιακών Συστημάτων, του Πανεπιστημίου Αιγαίου, το Εργαστήριο Συστημάτων Αποφάσεων, της Σχολής  Ηλεκτρολόγων Μηχανικών & Μηχανικών Υπολογιστών του Εθνικού Μετσόβιου Πολυτεχνείου, και το Εργαστήριο Συστημάτων Ασφάλειας, του Τμήματος Ψηφιακών Συστημάτων, του Πανεπιστημίου Πειραιά.




Το διαγωνισμό πλαισιώνουν και υποστηρίζουν το Ελληνικό Κέντρο Διαλειτουργικότητας, το Κέντρο Καινοτομίας της Microsoft Ελλάδας, η ATC ΑΕ. και το Greek ICT Forum.



Πρόγραμμα
08:30-09:15
Άφιξη, εγγραφή, καφές
09:15
Έναρξη  - Καλωσόρισμα
Δημήτρης Ασκούνης, Αναπλ. Καθηγητής ΕΜΠ,  Επιστημονικός Υπεύθυνος GIC
09:30
Ανοικτό Περιεχόμενο - Στρατηγική και Προϋποθέσεις για Ανάπτυξη
Θεόδωρος Καρούνος, Εταιρεία Ελεύθερου Λογισμικού - Λογισμικού Ανοικτού κώδικα 
09:45
Microsoft: Open Data strategy
Dejan Cvetkovic, Regional Technology Officer, Central and Eastern Europe, Microsoft
10:15
H στρατηγική της Oracle στα Δημόσια Ανοικτά Δεδομένα
Φραγκίσκος Ζερβός, Technology Sales Consulting Director, Oracle Hellas S.A
10:35
Ανοικτά Γεωχωρικά Δεδομένα στην Ελλάδα: geodata.gov.gr
Θοδωρής Στρατιώτης, Eρευνητικό Κέντρο  ΑΘΗΝΑ
10:55
Ερωτήσεις - Συζήτηση
11:15
Διάλειμμα
11:35
Το έργο ENGAGE: ανοικτά Παν-ευρωπαϊκά δεδομένα, για την έρευνα και την κοινωνία
Σπύρος Μουζακίτης, ΕNGAGE project, Εργαστήριο Συστημάτων Αποφάσεων και Διοίκησης, ΕΜΠ
12:00
Workshop: Ανοικτά δεδομένα – υπάρχουν?
Δημήτρης Ασκούνης, Αναπλ. Καθηγητής ΕΜΠ, Επιστημονικός Υπεύθυνος GIC
Γιάννης Χαραλαμπίδης, Επ. Καθ. Παν. Αιγαίου,  GIC Manager

Ανοικτή συζήτηση με στελέχη του Δημόσιου Τομέα και Ιδιωτικού Τομέα.  Παρίστανται εκπρόσωποι της κεντρικής /  περιφερειακής διοίκησης και οργανισμών.
13:00
Ελαφρύ Γεύμα
13:45
Βραβεία WeGov: Παρουσίαση των Προτάσεων της Τελικής Φάσης
“Online 15μελή”
Αθανασάκης Γεώργιος, Σαλαβασίδης Πέτρος, Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Διατμηματικό Πρόγραμμα Μεταπτυχιακών Σπουδών στα Πληροφοριακά Συστήματα
“4-delta : Δημιουργία και Διαχείριση Διαδικασιών Αξιολόγησης  Δημόσιου Τομέα”
Αλεξόπουλος Χαράλαμπος, Πανεπιστήμιο Αιγαίου, Τμήμα Μηχανικών Πληροφοριακών και Επικοινωνιακών Συστημάτων
Χονδρογιάννης Θεόδωρος, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, Τμήμα Πληροφορικής και Επικοινωνιών

“Ανοιχτά Οικονομικά Δεδομένα”
Θεοχάρης Γιώργος, Εθνική Σχολή Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, Τμήμα ΔΠΣ
Παπαδόπουλος Θοδωρής, Εθνική Σχολή Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, Τμήμα ΔΠΣ
Τσιάβος Πρόδρομος,  Open Knowledge Foundation, Λονδίνο
“Σύστημα ηλεκτρονικής τοπικής αυτοδιοίκησης για την καταγραφή, οργάνωση και διαχείριση των τοπικών προβλημάτων/θεμάτων με άμεση συμμετοχή των πολιτών”
Καμπάνταη Λία, Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης, Τμήμα Πληροφορικής
“Personal guide based on Fingerprint positioning: a social network approach”
Λιονάκης Παναγιώτης, Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης, Τμήμα Επιστήμης Υπολογιστών

15:15
Διάλειμμα Σύσκεψη αξιολογητών
15:45
Αναγγελία Νικητών και Απονομή Βραβείων

Κατεβάστε το πρόγραμμα και τις οδηγίες πρόσβασης στην ημερίδα εδώ.
Δηλώστε συμμετοχή στην ημερίδα εδώ: http://bit.ly/su1iPt

AEGEAN Startups - A Greek startups competition

The final phase of the first National eBusiness Entrepreneurship Competition - AEGEAN Startups - was held in Karlovasi, Samos, on 5th and 6th November 2011. The final phase involved the presentation of 9 proposals that were selected from a total of 35 originally submitted. The presentation of proposals and the final selection and award of the teams were held at the Ceremonial Hall of the Municipality of Samos, in Karlovassi.


The three proposals that were selected at the final stage and will be awarded with 15,000 euros each, are:



Empires At War 1805

An original, international online strategy game



Parking Defenders

Application for sharing public parking space via mobile devices



Personalization-as-a-service, Infolytics

Consumer Behaviour analysis and recommendation system  


The Agean Startups Finalists in Karlovassi, Samos


The Aegean Startups competition is co-organised by the University of Aegean, the Athens University of Economics and Business and the National Technical University of Athens, under the exclusive sponsorship of TANEO fund.

The PADGETS project: Google engagement in Social Media based policy campaigns

It was a great pleasure to have a plenary meeting of the PADGETS research project at Google premises in Zurich, Switzerland. The PADGETS project develops a revolutionary platform for politicians and policy makers, allowing them to publish information, interact with citizens, monitor and analyse citizen opinion.



The padgets project is being implemented by a consortium of leading research centres (University of the Aegean, National Technical University of Athens, Fraunhofer FOKUS, ISMB, University Regensburg)  enterprises (Google, Whitehall Srl, ATC SA, Tech4i2) and administrations from Greece, Italy and Slovenia.







The PADGETS team at Google Zurich


Within the project, several new technologies are for the first time combined, tested and optimised in the electronic governace context, incuding:



  • Web and Mobile Dashboards for implementing policy campaigns on-line, allowing for automatic communication with multiple Social Media platforms

  • Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis of citizen interactions in blogs and social media, such as facebook, twitter, youtube. 

  • Modelling and Simulation of citizen awareness, interest or involvement in public policy

  • Visualisation of policy discussions, citizen interaction and trending.

PADGETS project includes one of the first applications of Google Chart Tools in policy visualisation.











Left: visualising tweets concernign a specific policy campaign using Google Map gadget.

















Right: visualising different group interactions in Facebook, on a specific subject













A new book from IGI Global on social and semantic web. The PADGETS project presented



A new book has recently been published by IGI Global, in the area of customer relationship managent (CRM).  Titled "Customer Relationship Management and the Social and Semantic Web: Enabling Cliens Conexus" the book provides an overview of the field of the Semantic Web, the social Web, and CRM through a careful collection of various research studies from different subfields.



Edited by Ricardo Colomo-Palacios (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain), João Varajão (University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal) and Pedro Soto-Acosta (University of Murcia, Spain), the book provides a forum for the exchange of research ideas and practices, while being a reference point for professionals, managers, and researchers in the CRM, ICT and management fields.  The book also aims to explore the opportunities and challenges for organizations in the light of citizens having augmented presence in Web 2.0, by utilising new technologies, including those of the semantic web. 



Within this framework, together with colleagues from University of Aegean and Fraunhofer FOKUS, we present the recent developments and propositions for utilisation of Social Media within the governance context.  Our chapter "Systematically Exploiting Web 2.0 Social Media in Government for Extending Communication with Citizens" presents the perspective and offerings of the PADGETS project - an innovative attempt to combine Social Media, Text Analytics and Simulation in collaborative public policy making.  


An Interview on Interoperability Standards and Digital Agenda 2020

It was a great pleasure to have a film-making team from the oncoming Danish EU presidency, in the Greek Interoperability Centre premises at NTUA, to record a small interview on interoperability and standardisation issues of the EU Digital Agenda.


The interview revolved around ICT standardisation in the Public Sector and respectice challenges for the ICT industry, especially SME's, touching upon:


- The need for timely evolution and adoption of ICT standards by the public sector
- The innovative nature of ICT SME's and how they can be of use to a legacy-based public sector
- The evolving standardisation at EU and National levels.



The final edited video clip will be available in a couple of months.




With Rasmus (director) and Ralf (cameraman) at the GIC premises


New Book on Organisation Interoperability from Springer





I had the pleasure to read the newly published Springer book on "Organisational Interoperability in e-Government", by esteemed colleagues Herbert Kubicek, Ralf Cimander and Hans Jochen Scholl.



This authored book contains draws many important practices from the MODINIS study on eGovernment Interoperability, giving a plethora of ideas and methods pm how to tackle organisational and operational issues in the public sector, with the use of interoperable systems and services.  The book is a well written, coprehensive approach to classify critical shortcomings and respective succesful solution paths, delivering real value to the reader.  Excellent for public policy makers, e-government consultants and innovative researchers, this is also a worthy companion in the university class, especially at post-graduate lessons on information systems.



Not least, the book provides a carefully made selection of the core references in this domain  - I was happy to see our work on National Interoperability Frameworks and Interoperability Science Base, among cited methods and guidelines of almost 20 well known e-Government scientists.



A must read for the period.



Find more on the book here.









Greek Tax Offices productivity visualisation

Tax offices productivity in Greece during summer 2011: Aegean Islands productivity rises during summer



Continuing the visualisation of Greek Tax Offices productivity a new map is provided below, depicting the number of cases handled during the summer period. Each spot indicates the percentage of cases processed  by the tax office of the specific location in the interval between June and September of 2011, in relation with the total pending ones in the beginning of summer.



Three different colors displayed on the map represent the three levels of completion:

  • Red (153 Tax Offices): minimum productivity (less than 20% of open cases were processed within summer). 

  • Yellow (111 Tax Offices) : medium productivity (between 20% and 40%) 

  • Green (23 Tax Offices): higher productivity (more than 40% of all open cases)





The visualisation shows that certain touristic destinations (e.g. Aegean Islands or Crete) tend to be more productive during summer period.  See the before summer status here.


The global average for the efficiency of Tax Offices in the summer period is 22% in terms of completion of cases. What is remarkable is that there are still tax offices that have not resolved a single case since the beginning of the year. The last update of data taken into consideration was published by the Ministry of Finance / General Secretary of Information Systems (http://www.gsis.gr/doyaudit/) on September 30, 2011.

The EU Digital Agenda discussion on Interoperability, Cloud and eID



My colleague David Osimo asked me, an assistant professor of eGovernance Systems in Aegean University, in Samos, to moderate an on-line discussion on Digital Agenda 2020 issues around Interoperability, Cloud and eID. This on-line group of experts and citizens will produce a  report on findings and actions proposed, including on-line contributions.



When I accepted the task, the first suggestion was to list a few sources of relevant background material and gather some existing on-line discussion forums.



So here we are:



Area I : Online material







Area 2: On-line forums and communities





 Also, check some more interoperability and cloud related sites: http://bit.ly/oE1S65 



Area 3: On-line discussion initiation

By looking at the main topics of the online discussion, we could depict Interoperablity (as a framework) and

e-Invoicing (as a specific interoperability and organisational challenge for enterprises). A classification of topics would yield:


Interoperability 
- standards
- frameworks
- national status
- approaches for eBus and eGov
- Break-through approaches




e - invoicing

status, barriers,technical implementations

- feedback form practice

- Break-through ideas



Then, on a more national level at local events in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, the discussion will evolve around cloud, eID and internet of things, to be integrated at a later stage:

  • e - Identity (frameworks, technical implementations, barriers, best practices)

  • Cloud Computing (typology, status for public, private and hybrid, PaaS-SaaS orientation, cloud interoperability)

  • Internet of things (standards, status of adoption, outlook)

It is easy to join the discussions at: http://linkd.in/n1rdIP 



Diploma Theses 
  • See available Post Graduate theses (.rar file, in Greek) 
Lessons at University of the Aegean

   I. MSc Programme Join the Linkedin Group  
  • MSc Programme - Government Interoperability Frameworks 
  • MSc Programme - Electronic Government 2.0   
  • MSc Programme - Digital Organisations Management
   II. BSc Programme Join the Linkedin Group 
  • BSc Programme - Software Engineering   
  • BSc Programme - Electronic Government Technologies and Applications

Working Projects and initiatives

Greek - Ukrainian delegation meeting on FP7 Research

A meeting of a Greek and Ukrainan delegation on research and development projects and initiatives was held on  9th September 2011, at NTUA premises in Athens.  Several Ukrainian State University and the Ukrainian Academy of Science were represented in this high-level meeting.



Projects presented in detail include:



- The PADGETS FP7 project on social-media based policy making



- The ENGAGE eInfrastructures project on Open Data



- The Greek National Interoperability Framework and the initiatives of the Greek Interoperability Centre



The two delegations agreed to proceed in strengthening the scientific collaboration between Greece and Ukraine in the areas of ICT, electronic Government and Interoperability.



View of the Greek - Ukrainian delegations meeting


Αποτελέσματα του Διαγωνισμού WeGov 2011 - Πρώτη Φάση

Μετά την αξιολόγηση των προτάσεων στο Φοιτητικό Διαγωνισμό WeGov Awards 2011, στην οποία συμμετείχαν αξιολογητές - έμπειρα στελέχη πανεπιστημίων και επιχειρήσεων, ξεχώρισαν οι καλύτερες ιδέες και εφαρμογές, οι οποίες προκρίθηκαν για την επόμενη και τελική φάση. 

Οι ομάδες που προκρίνονται, ανά κατηγορία, παρουσιάζονται παρακάτω:
(με αλφαβητική σειρά)

Κατηγορία "Καλύτερη Ιδέα":

Online 15μελή
Αθανασάκης Γεώργιος, Σαλαβασίδης Πέτρος
Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Διατμηματικό Πρόγραμμα Μεταπτυχιακών Σπουδών στα Πληροφοριακά Συστήματα

Σύστημα ηλεκτρονικής τοπικής αυτοδιοίκησης για την καταγραφή, οργάνωση και διαχείριση των τοπικών προβλημάτων/θεμάτων με άμεση συμμετοχή των πολιτών
Καμπάνταη Λία
Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης, Τμήμα Πληροφορικής

Personal guide based on Fingerprint positioning: a social network approach
Λιονάκης Παναγιώτης
Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης, Τμήμα Επιστήμης Υπολογιστών

Κατηγορία "Καλύτερη Εφαρμογή":

4-delta : Δημιουργία και Διαχείριση Διαδικασιών Αξιολόγησης  Δημόσιου Τομέα
Αλεξόπουλος Χαράλαμπος, Πανεπιστήμιο Αιγαίου, Τμήμα Μηχανικών Πληροφοριακών και Επικοινωνιακών Συστημάτων
Χονδρογιάννης Θεόδωρος, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, Τμήμα Πληροφορικής και Επικοινωνιών

Ανοιχτά Οικονομικά Δεδομένα
Θεοχάρης Γιώργος, Εθνική Σχολή Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, Τμήμα ΔΠΣ
Παπαδόπουλος Θοδωρής, Εθνική Σχολή Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, Τμήμα ΔΠΣ
Τσιάβος Πρόδρομος,  Open Knowledge Foundation, Λονδίνο

Σύστημα ηλεκτρονικής τοπικής αυτοδιοίκησης για την καταγραφή, οργάνωση και διαχείριση των τοπικών προβλημάτων/θεμάτων με άμεση συμμετοχή των πολιτών
Καμπάνταη Λία
Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης, Τμήμα Πληροφορικής


Οι προτάσεις της τελικής φάσης θα παρουσιαστούν στα πλαίσια του Greek ICT Forum, όπου θα ακολουθήσει η βράβευση των καλύτερων προτάσεων από κάθε κατηγορία.  Η ημερομηνία διεξαγωγής του Greek ICT Forum 2011 αναμένεται να είναι στις αρχές Νοέμβρη 2011 - θα υπάρξει νέα ανακοίνωση / πρόσκληση.


  

Call for Papers: Special Issue on eParticipation - ISM Journal (ISI)



INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
An ISI-Indexed Journal / Taylor & Francis Group


Special Issue on:
European Research on Electronic Citizen Participation and Engagement in Public Policy Making


Guest  Editors




Euripidis Loukis
Assistant Professor
University of the Aegean
Greece
email: eloukis@aegean.gr
Yannis Charalabidis
Assistant Professor
University of the Aegean
Greece
email: yannisx@aegean.gr
Jeremy Millard
Senior Consultant
Danish Technological Institute
Denmark
email: jrm@teknologisk.dk


Aims and Scope
The rapid development and the growing penetration of digital technologies provide rich opportunities for more extensive participation and engagement of citizens in public policy and decision making and in general for increasing the influence of society on government. They offer possibilities for strengthening political deliberation and establishing new participatory models of governance through electronic means which reduce existing limitations associated with time, location, cost and physical presence.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have the potential to support the provision of information concerning government activities, decisions and public policies, and also to increase both the quantity and quality of consultation with the citizens. Also, ICT has the potential to support both top-down government initiatives and ground-up civil society ones, both aiming at enhancing public participation in the decision processes and improving interaction between society and government. ICT enable the collection of huge amounts of citizens’ knowledge on the problems and needs that public policies attempt to address, and on proposed courses of government action and legislation. At the same time ICT also enable the exploitation of this knowledge for the assessment of the impact of various policy options on society, so that governments can make better and more informed decisions.
However, it is necessary investigate to what extent this potential is actually exploited, what is the impact of the existing exploitation, and which contextual factors affect positively or negatively this impact. Furthermore, it is important to discover new ways of exploiting this huge potential and using ICT for increasing citizens’ participation and engagement in public policy making, and to proceed to pilot applications of them in ‘real-life’ cases and conditions in order to assess their value, and if necessary improve and optimize them.
Especially in Europe, due to its long tradition of social state characterized by strong interaction with the society and intervention in order to secure social welfare and support of weak groups (European Social Model), there is a strong interest in the above ideas. For this reason in the last ten years there has been extensive financial support by several institutions, such as the European Commission and the National and Local Governments, of research in this domain of ICT-supported/mediated citizen participation and engagement in public policy making for investigating the above research questions. It is quite interesting to reflect on the results and conclusions of this research, and attempt to exploit them both in Europe and in other parts of the world, probably with adaptations to local histories and political traditions.    
This Special Issue of ‘Information Systems Management’ solicits original high quality papers presenting this ‘European Research on Electronic Citizen Participation and Engagement in Public Policy Making’. Topics of interest in this area include, but are not limited to:


            Innovative forms of ICT use for supporting and enhancing citizens’ participation
            Advanced systems for structured high quality deliberation
            Social media platforms and their applications for supporting citizens’ participation
            Textual analysis technologies, ontologies and taxonomies
            Opinion mining and sentiment analysis
            Data and argument visualization technologies
            Federated content syndication systems for public participation
            Trend monitoring and policy analysis
            Policy modeling and impact assessment
            Data-powered collective intelligence and action
            Studying the impact and the overall value proposition of e-Participation
      Methods for the evaluation of e-Participation      
      Serious Games, simulation and virtual worlds for supporting policy making
            Case studies from e-Participation and e-Consultation
      Theoretical aspects towards a scientific base for ICT enabled Governance


Authors are invited to prepare original manuscripts of around 7500 words, exclusive of exhibits, according to the ‘Instructions for Authors’ web-page of the Journal:
At the end of each paper should be placed short biographical notes for all the authors, and also address for correspondence and e-mail address for the corresponding author.
Papers should be written in grammatically correct and coherent English. Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. All papers will be refereed through a peer review process. All submissions must provide:
- an abstract (max of 75 words)
- at least 3 keywords
- full author names and affiliations
- brief author bios
- an email address for the corresponding author
Prospective authors are welcome to submit an abstract to the Guest Editors for preliminary feedback on the appropriateness of their planned manuscript.
Send your manuscript to the corresponding Guest Editor, Prof. Euripidis N. Loukis (eloukis@aegean.gr)


Schedule
            Submission deadline: November 15, 2011
            Completion of first review: January 15, 2012
            Revisions deadline: March 15, 2011
            Camera-ready deadline: April 15, 2012
            Tentative publication: Fall 2012

At the International eGOV IFIP Conference in Delft, 29 Aug - 02 Sep 2011




The AULA Conference Centre at TU Delft
The International eGovernment Conference (IFIP eGOV) took place in pleasant Delft, between Monday 29/8 and Friday 2/9, 2011.



Hosted in the main Conference Hall  (Aula Building) of the spacious TU Delft campus, the conference attracted almost 200 participants from academia, policy and industry. Main topics of the discussions for more than three days have been Open Data, Policy Modelling, Social Media applications in governance, electronic participation and more theoretical stuff in evaluation and assessment of e-governance status.








With Nitesh Barosa, at TU Delft - TPM Buildings
We had the chance to host the first Workshop on Open Data, opening the programme on Monday morning 09:00, with 30 participants.  A few hours after, I had the chance to visit the Technology - Policy - Management Group, whereour collaborating team from TU Delft is based, including Marijn Janssen, Nitesh Barosa, Anne-Fleur van Veenstra and more.





Visiting TU Delft even so early in the semester was a nice inspiration - seeing how students work and relax in a nice surrounding. The town has also been a nice pair to the conference site: easy, small enough to walk all over, full of bicycles and low buildings.



Maybe ideal for studying and teaching in Europe, I think.








Work and coffee, at Technology Policy and  Management building 




Πρόοδος της αξιολόγησης των WeGov Awards 2011

Μετά την υποβολή υποψηφιοτήτων, η οποία έληξε στις 15 Ιουλίου 2011, ολοκληρώνεται σύντομα η  φάση της αξιολόγησης των προτάσεων.

Μέσα στον Σεπτέμβριο θα ανακοινωθούν στο διαδίκτυο (στον παρόντα τόπο, σε κοινωνικά δίκτυα και σε δελτία τύπου) οι προτάσεις που προκρίνονται για την τελική φάση - η οποία θα διεξαχθεί στο Greek ICT Forum 2011.

Workshop on Open Data in the IFIP eGOV Conference

10th International IFIP eGOV Conference 
The ENGAGE Workshop on Open Data 

Monday 29th August, 09:00 - 13:00
Delft, The Netherlands



Open Governmental Data - From Governments to Science and Society: The ENGAGE project 




More than 30 high level eGovernance, ICT and Policy Experts participated in the ENGAGE Open Data Workshop in Delft, the Netherlands. Open data has been recognized as a strategic tool for Governments all over the world, in their efforts to increase citizen trust, engagement and collaborative action. Despite its significance and the political support at EU level, many challenges remain open for member states, in their effort to provide on-line services for the discovery and use of public sector datasets, especially towards scientists of non-ICT domains.



The workshop focused on discussing the scientific base of ICT-enabled governance for open data, thus harnessing open data sources and methodologies for annotating, visualising and making open data available to scientists and citizens. Participants will present innovative approaches and provide their view on open data, including value-adding examples and best practices. 


The ENGAGE project

The main goal of the ENGAGE project (ENGAGE, 2011) is the deployment and use of an advanced service infrastructure, incorporating distributed and diverse public sector information resources as well as data curation, semantic annotation and visualisation tools, capable of supporting scientific collaboration and governance-related research from multi-disciplinary scientific communities, while also empowering the deployment of open governmental data towards citizens.



Agenda

The main topics of the workshop were structured around the state of the art, the visionary scenarios, the research gaps and the future research challenges in the area of ICT for governance and public sector’s open data. The following presentations inspired constructive dialogue:

  • Yannis Charalabidis, University of Aegean & Marijn Janssen, Delft University of Technology: “Open Data Sources, Resources, Annotation Mechanisms and On-line Services Outlook from the ENGAGE project” 

  • Timo Wandhoefer & Mark Thamm, GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: “Public Politician Profiles on Facebook and the gap of Authenticity: WeGov interview results with the German Bundestag” 

  • Sicco Verwer, Susan van den Braak & Sunil Choenni, Research and Documentation Centre (WODC), Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice: “Sharing data using multiple imputation” 

  • Nils Barnickel, Matthias Flügge, Jens Klessmann, Fraunhofer FOKUS:"Provision of public sector information at the local level. Practical experiences from the State of Berlin” 

The second half of the workshop was dedicated to gahering ideas from the audience on open data sources and curation.  The following usage scenaria were deliberated with the workshop audience:
















ENGAGE Usage Scenario
Stakeholder
Storing or linking (making accessible), Annotating and Visualising a PS data set
Public Servant
Getting the ENGAGE metadata specifications (for applying them in my systems)
Public Servant
Getting useful information (through browsing datasets or visualisations)
Citizen, Public Servant
Getting data for my research work
Researcher
Linking my system with ENGAGE, for uploading data
Public Servant
Linking my system with ENGAGE, for downloading data
Researcher
Storing data in draft from (to be further curated)
Citizen
Put research-oriented data and annotate them
Researcher
Put my needs for Public Sector data
Citizen / Researcher




Finally more than 15 key challenges and research objectives for Open Data and Linked Data were collected and prioritised.













A view from the audience at the ENGAGE Open Data Workshop 










Workshop Chairs

Yannis Charalabidis, University of Aegean, Greece, yannisx@aegean.gr

Sunil Choenni, Ministry of Justice, the Netherlands, r.choenni@minjus.nl

Marijn Janssen, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, m.f.w.h.a.janssen@tudelft.nl


For more information on the ENGAGE project: http://www.engage-project.eu



Join the ENGAGE group on Open Data, in Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/ENGAGE-eInfrastructures-Project-3867416



More information on the egov IFIP Conference: http://www.egov-conference.org/egov-2011/programme/programme-overview