Panel: E-Government: Are there Different Perspectives?

The area of e-Government has rapidly become the focus of much attention amongst academics and practitioners. Led by the drive to streamline government services to citizens and increase participation in the governing and democratic process amongst citizens, government agencies and bodies at different levels are implementing information systems and undergoing process changes under the pervasive umbrella of "e-Government". Yet, what exactly the term means is unclear. Terms such as e-Democracy, e-Voting, e-Services and e-Procurement are used interchangeably and often confusedly. In addition, there seems to be as many perspectives of the term as there are implementations at least across national boundaries. To help us achieve conceptual clarity, we propose this panel. Members of our proposed panel will present their work and experiences in different regions of Europe and North America. Specifically, we will address these questions: What exactly is meant by “e-Government”? Is it a distinct field within IS research? What are the key issues that e-Government researchers need to address? Is e-Government conceptualized and practiced differently in different parts of the world? Specifically, is there a “Scandinavian perspective” and a “North American perspective”? What have we, as e-Government researchers, done well so far? What have we not done well?