Mike Grimsley, Anthony Meehan and Anna Tan
The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework supporting the design and evaluation of e‐government projects, especially those involving voluntary and community organisations.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework supporting the design and evaluation of e‐government projects, especially those involving voluntary and community organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
The research adapts a socio‐economic model of community sustainability, reinterpreting it in the context of e‐government. It documents the evolution of a conceptual framework for evaluative design through study of a project in London, UK. An interpretive approach was adopted, within which research was guided by the structured‐case method.
Findings
The research provides an evaluative framework for e‐government projects featuring four forms of community capital: infrastructural, environmental, human and social. An ex post evaluation illustrates how the framework identifies design and management issues that are not considered by conventional evaluative frameworks.
Research limitations/implications
The main sources of data reflect project management perspectives and information from monitoring the evolution of activities undertaken by participant organisations. There has been limited direct engagement with the latter and the next phase of research will apply the framework from their perspectives to identify factors promoting and inhibiting ongoing engagement with the system.
Practical implications
The framework provides an analytic tool for designers and managers of e‐government systems, especially those which feature online community building as a strategic outcome. All project stakeholders can use the framework to structure engagement with system design and management.
Originality/value
The distinctive contribution is to reinterpret e‐government from a community development perspective. It offers a means of identifying project shortcomings ignored by methods taking a narrower approach to e‐government information systems development.
Details
Keywords
Tom Schultheiss, Lorraine Hartline, Jean Mandeberg, Pam Petrich and Sue Stern
The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the…
Abstract
The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.