Week 1: Introduction
Main questions:
● What impacts are the technologies having on society and government?
Substitute: The technology joins the existing technologies as a second option,
normally displacing it partially. E.g., e-mail, smart watches.
Replace: The technology rivals existing technologies to the extent that the rivals
disappear. E.g., mobile phones, travel cards
Transform: The technology offers something totally new that wasn’t available before.
E.g., social media, artificial intelligence.
(Lember, 2018)
● How are the impacts of digital technology different from prior kinds of
information and communication technology (ICT)?
> It is faster and cheaper.
> It is programmable using code.
> It is more accommodating to a different range of types of data and technologies
being incorporated into the same network. This is often referred to as the Internet of
Things.
> Instantaneous communication possible through multiple platforms.
> Digital code is traceable and replicable.
Learning goals:
● Define the key terms of ‘governance’ and ‘digitalisation’
Governance = Governance is a change in the role of the state from intervention and
control to steering and coordination (Bevir, 2010)
Digitalisation = Digitalisation is a digital transformation that “includes a number of
interconnected and evolving technologies” (OECD)
● Name key technologies in governance and digitalisation scholarship:
The emerging technologies which will most profoundly impact the human self at the
intro- and extrospective levels of description. These are the Internet and information
communications technologies (ICTs), artificial intelligence and robots, neuro- and
cognitive technologies, nanotechnologies, biotechnologies.
● Describe three different theoretical approaches to digitalisation’s influence on
governance (adoption, evolution, and impact).
The adaption perspective: (Homburg)
> Advocates a “social shaping of technology- perspective”.
> Factors that drive adoption: Citizens, stakeholder pressure, and organizational
search and interaction between the two.
, > Framing where ideas get embedded
> Social integration where staff and public accept the changes
The evolution perspective: (West)
> As human society gets more and more technological and the impacts are only
going to be magnified.
> We know, for example, what impact the printing press had and what impact
television had.
> Set standards about what technology should be able to deliver for us if we are
using it correctly.
> Helpful because they give us a way to prepare and they also provide a kind of
benchmark to see how we are performing against expectations.
The impact perspective: (Gil-Garcia)
> “Governments depend on the collection, storage, and processing of information to
fulfill their mission”
> Thus there is huge potential but real impact depends on how institutions and
organizations use the technology.
> Scholars have difficulty thinking about social and technical aspects of technology
together. As a result: technological determinism or social determinism.
> Instead, we need the ‘ensemble view’ which views technology as an embedded
system. A dynamic interaction.
● Describe two different deterministic approaches on digitalisation
(technological, social)
Technological determinism:
> Can bring about powerful change.
> Assumes that technology has its own agency.
> It is either a single independent variable or the main variable in a causal mix.
Social determinism:
> Focuses on the limiting factors of technologies.
> Human action is always what creates social change.
> Technology is itself a social product.
Conclusions:
- Digital technologies are growing in sophistication and influence
- There are certain unique things (affordances) about digital technology that make it
powerful
- We can evaluate the influence of digital technology on governance by either looking
at technical or human factors
- Digital technology can substitute, replace or transform
, Week 2: Challenge 1 - Information burden
Main questions:
● Why is information so important in the public sector?
Simply put, it increases efficiency. More information leads to better decision making
by and for citizens. Also, it provides for competitiveness, which eventually leads to a
higher output.
● What is the rationalist view on information?
The Enlightenment launched "a desire for human affairs to be guided by rationality,
rather than faith, superstition or revelation, a world view based on science, and not
tradition" (Outram, 2019, p.3).
● What is Big Data and where does it come from?
Big data is larger (not necessarily as in size) and more complex than regular data.
Therefore it provides a greater level of insight - it’s like going from a 2D movie to a 3D
movie; a whole new dimension to data. It’s about volume, variability and velocity
(vvv).
Volume: refers to the quantity of data especially in terms of the number of bits it
requires to be stored.
Variability: refers to the diversity of different data types (documents, social media
texts, video, audio, html, etc).
Velocity: refers to the speed at which new data is generated and travels between
different data owners and users.
“large data sets have to be handled differently than small ones; they require different
means of discovering patterns—or sometimes allow analyses that would be
impossible on a small scale.” (Mahrt and Scharkow (2013, p.22)
It comes from all kinds of businesses and organizations, collecting data. The whole
collection of data is often referred to as Big Data.
● How can Big Data help in the public sector?
Big Data has 3 main functions in the public sector: (Maciejewski)
1. Public supervision (detecting irregularities)
Fraud detection such as tax avoidance, Faults in infrastructure such as bumps in
roads, Crime hotspots. People reveal their real behavior in Google searches!
2. Public regulation (situational awareness and feedback)
Traffic light systems, School and hospital award systems to regulate distribution of
patients and students across schools.
3. Public service delivery (Better knowledge of customers)
Transport offerings based on prior data, Crowdsourcing of preferences on policies or
public services, Sentiment analysis and observations about behavior as a form of
policy feedback.
5 characteristics: (Lavinsky, 2013)
1. Visibility
