2019•09•23     San Benedetto Del Tronto

The scenic coastal city of San Benedetto Del Tronto, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea in Italy, was the chosen host of the second edition of the EGOV-CeDEM-ePart conference, which took place there from 2-4 September 2019.

EGOV-CeDEM-ePart represents the merge of three other conferences that have ran in the past: the IFIP WG 8.5 Electronic Government (EGOV) and Electronic Participation (ePart), and the Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government (CeDEM). It is mostly focused on the topics of e-Government, Open Government, e-Participation and e-Democracy. However, it also covers other subjects, such as the role of social media, digital transformation in society, artificial intelligence, policy information, smart governance, and social innovation.

UNU-EGOV’s researchers Mariana Lameiras and António Tavares presented the paper “Trendy Cities: Exploring the Adoption of Different Types of Social Media by Portuguese Municipalities“. The work, based on previous studies, uses 308 Portuguese municipalities to find the determinants of social media adoption by local government. The ongoing research examines why local governments adopt a particular social media platform. Amid reports of a steady increase, in the last decades, of citizens’ discontent with democratic institutions, it seems that social media can play an important role in the future of our societies by promoting, together with other ICTs, a culture of receptiveness and transparency in public organizations and political institutions.

An abstract was also presented: “Blockchain Technology and Value Creation for Government and Public Services”, by Soumaya Ben Dhaou and Kerley Pires. This research in progress is related to the value of blockchain technology for governments, which is motivated by the necessity to understand the real benefits of the technology for public sector. The research explores what is the value that blockchain may provide for citizens and the capabilities required to the use of the technology in government.