Dear colleague,
As Editor-in-Chief of Information Polity, I am delighted to alert you to the latest Special Issue of this journal, entitled 'Key Factors and Processes for Digital Government Success'. Edited by Luis Luna-Reyes, Sehl Mellouli and John Bertot, this issue presents papers from the 2012 conference of the Digital Government Society of North America.
The issue is a 'must-read' for scholars and practitioners concerned to understand project implementation in forms of digital government. To explain this point let me quote from the editors of this edition:
"Digital government projects and initiatives are complex endeavors. Technology by itself is a source of complexity, as its impacts, benefits and limitations are not always fully understood by project leaders or researchers. This is particularly the case when the implemented technology is not yet widely adopted. Moreover, digital government projects regularly involve the participation of a wide range of diverse stakeholders both in public and private organizations who need to reach agreement on project goals, objectives, and means. Further, project goals and activities are usually constrained by institutional arrangements such as laws and regulations, and several context-related factors such as specific economic situations, demographic conditions, or broader social technology adoption and access.
Given this complexity, it is not uncommon that digital government projects are abandoned before completion or fail delivering the expected benefits. Some experts estimate an 85% failure rate for digital government projects. In 2009 alone, government spending in technology worldwide was about 428.38 billion US dollars, thus failure rates for these kinds of projects are a major concern. In this way, understanding reasons for project success or failure is an important research and practical problem"
The papers included here, both separately and collectively, will add to our understanding of what goes right and what goes wrong with these often complex and costly projects.
I will be delighted to receive your responses to these papers and, should you wish to respond in the form of a paper, I will consider publication in an upcoming edition. This is such an important topic it deserves debate.
I hope you will enjoy reading Information Polity.
Best wishes,
John Taylor
jta@gcal.ac.uk
Professor Emeritus of Government & Information Management Caledonian Business School, Glasgow, Scotland
Honorary Professor, University of Nottingham, UK
