Digital transformation and new technologies have made peopleâs lives easier and led to great results in most areas of business and society. Implementing blockchain technology is one of the best tools for establishing sustainable smart cities and societies. In terms of sustainable governance sophisticated and secure voting systems are necessary to achieve high integrity and transparency and null election fraud, and, in environmental sustainability, e-voting systems eliminate the mass waste of paper and transportation gas emissions; namely, e-voting systems are eco-friendly with high democratic outcomes. Blockchain technology can revolutionize e-voting by increasing the security and transparency of the voting process. Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into blockchain-based e-voting systems further augments their effectiveness. AI algorithms can analyze voting patterns and detect irregularities, supporting the prevention of fraudulent activities and coercion. ML procedures can enhance voter authentication processes, improve accessibility for diverse demographics, and optimize the productivity of blockchain networks during peak voting periods. This study focuses on understanding citizen perceptions of blockchain-based e-voting in a smart city context using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The studyâs results indicate that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are important factors in determining citizensâ intentions to use blockchain-based e-voting. Furthermore, trust in the technology and perceived security were found to influence the usefulness of blockchain-based e-voting positively. This study provides important insights for policymakers and technologists seeking to promote the adoption of blockchain-based e-voting systems in smart cities. The findings of the research supported the research model with positive results. In conclusion, our research model encourages the adoption of a blockchain-based e-voting system to enhance the future voting environment.
Andrea Peña-Calvin, Javier Arroyo, Andrew B. Schwartz, Samer Hassan
Blockchain technology enables a new form of online community: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), where members typically vote on proposals using tokens. Enthusiasts claim DAOs provide new opportunities for openness, horizontality, and democratization. However, this phenomenon is still under research, especially given the lack of quantitative studies. This paper presents the first census-like quantitative analysis of the whole ecosystem of DAOs, including 30K DAO communities on the main DAO platforms. This enables us to provide insights into the allegedly "democratic'' nature of DAOs, building metrics concerning their lifespan, participation, and power concentration. Most DAOs have a short lifespan and low participation. There is also a positive correlation between community size and voting power concentration. Like other online communities, DAOs seem to follow the iron law: becoming increasingly oligarchic as they grow. Still, a significant amount of DAOs of varying sizes defy this idea by being egalitarian by design.
Experiments in alternative forms of urban digitalisation include blockchain-based applications as enablers of civic action in local communities, inspired by different visions than blockchain-based speculative cryptocurrencies. This article investigates how blockchain technology can be oriented towards locally embedded applications. It explores the case of a blockchain-based wallet app that aims to support social collaborative economies and civic participation in urban communities by tokenising social and economic assets. Building on studies on the embeddedness of urban digital platforms with a local character, this article studies how the app under consideration is shaped by, and adapted to, the needs and resources of local socio-economic contexts. Two pilot experimentations on the app are considered, concerning systems for rewarding civic participation and urban sharing economies. The empirical analysis concerns the methodology for introducing the app into local socio-economic contexts, the way in which local actors interpret its properties, and the resulting iterative co-design of its functionalities. The article defines and discusses the extent to which the civic blockchain is rendered context-based by this methodology, and highlights similarities and differences with other urban digital platforms. The empirical evidence drawn from this research contributes to the debate on how community members, researchers and digital experts together can realise alternative forms of urban digitalization.
Yanhui Du, Jingfeng Yuan, Shouqing Wang, Yan Liu · 5 authors
Purpose The information used for supervision by regulatory departments in public-private partnership (PPP) projects is primarily transmitted and processed by the PPP implementation department, which negatively impacts the information quality, leading to information asymmetry and undermining the overall effectiveness of supervision. This study aims to explore how to use blockchain to anchor the information used for supervision in PPP projects to the original information, to strengthen the oversight. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts the principles of design science research (DSR) to design a conceptual framework that systematically organizes information along the information dissemination chain, ensuring the reliable anchoring of original information. Two-stage interviews involving experts from academia and industry are conducted, serving as formative and summative evaluations to guide the design. Findings The framework establishes a weak-centralized information organizing mode, including the design of governance community and on-chain and off-chain governance mechanisms. Feedback from experts is collected via interviews and the designed framework is thought to improve information used for supervision. Constructive suggestions are also collected and analyzed for further development. Originality/value This paper provides a novel example exploring the inspirations blockchain can bring to project governance, like exercising caution regarding the disorderly expansion of public sector authority in addressing information disadvantages and how to leverage blockchain to achieve this. Technical details conveyed by the framework deepen understanding of how blockchain benefits and the challenges faced in successful implementation for practitioners and policymakers. The targeted evaluation serves as rigorous validation, guiding experts to provide reliable feedback and richer insights by offering them a more cognitively convenient scenario.
Cohen's Smart City Generational model has been the basis of understanding for the evolution of the Smart Cities movement. However, how does this model align with practitionersâ conceptualization of the term? Our research focuses on Infrastructure Canada's Smart City Challenge (SCC). Through 14 primary interviews and 20 finalist applications, this research reveals that practitioners overwhelmingly understand Smart City building as a government-driven, data-centric endeavor (Smart City 2.0), as opposed to being about vendor transactions (Smart City 1.0), resident engagement (Smart City 3.0), or community co-creation (Smart City 4.0), where the specific technology is of secondary importance to project objectives. We conclude that, rather than moving through distinct generations, the smart cities movement should be understood as a gradual process of municipal public administration modernization as local governments are becoming increasingly savvy and experienced about contracting with technology firms to address urban problems.
Open access
Smart Cities and Technologies
Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development
The current internet economy is characterised by a historically unprecedented bundling of private sector power over infrastructures. This situation is harmful for overcoming problems where collective action is needed, such as for governing digital commons. Organisations that run on collectively owned decentralised infrastructure are able to overcome this centralisation of power. These common decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) could help in fostering digitally enabled collective action. However, currently we have no clear view of how a DAO designed for commons governance would operate and be governed. By creating a conceptual prototype of a DAO governing a common, we provide a clear path of how common DAOs should mature and which tools are needed to create them. In this research, we created a governance framework for common DAOs by combining 16 works on technology for commons governance. The framework reveals that common DAO governance consists of three areas: 1) Governance structure, 2) Enabling technology, and 3) Community governance. We provide governance mechanisms that together describe an implementation of Ostromâs common governance principles in a DAO. This work is a synthesis of previous research on technology for collective action. The proposed framework aids in standardising DAO governance for the common good and may contribute to a large scale roll-out of commons DAOs.
Abstract Blockchain is gaining popularity as a potential solution for the decentralized management of public information. A number of interesting solutions have been proposed by independent developers around the world to promote blockchain as a promising platform to potentially accelerate democratic processes and achieve certain public values in reforming digital governance. This could be reflected in facilitating direct citizen participation in digital politics, promoting greater civic cooperation and engagement in political discussions, boosting the role of civic commentary and even collaborative decisionâmaking in eâgovernment. In this regard, the article critically elaborates on the potential of this technology to promote political dimensions of public sector reforms in a postâpositivist manner, resorting to the analysis of concrete eâparticipation cases in a number of public areas where the potential has already been realized and the opinions of professional software developers who are currently engaged in building various blockchainâdriven data management solutions in the eâgovernment area. This paper identifies, debates, and draws on what benefits and risks public policy can yield from the implementation of blockchain governance.
Abdul Khalique Shaikh, Saranjam Baig, Naresh Adhikari, Hafedh Al Shihi
This research aims to build an e-participation system for the citizens in the public policy process using blockchain technology. E-participation makes it easier for citizens to have a say in important policy decisions and helps the government be more open, inclusive, collaborative, and thoughtful. It improves government transparency, citizen involvement, and marginalized group inclusion. Yet, the limited scope of existing e-participation approaches and implementation processes makes using e-participation ineffective. E-participation platforms for citizen-government engagement often fail to meet targets and uptake expectations. In addition, the challenges involve overcoming the constraints associated with current methods, guaranteeing transparency, security, and privacy when engaging citizens, and effectively managing the intricate process of integrating various components and handling confidential information. However, blockchain applications are gaining popularity because blockchain technology can change the way how businesses operate. This study offers a blockchain-based innovative e-participation system to increase democratic engagement in a secure and decentralized environment as centralized servers struggle with transparency, security, and privacy concerns. Decentralized, immutable, and incorruptible blockchain technology solves these challenges. The proposed e-participation system can encourage public participation in governance and promote democracy. The proposed E-participation is based on a model that includes government agencies, the public/citizens, digital platforms, decision-making, communication/feedback, and decision-making. This research uses national population data and election codes and regulations to run experiments and simulation models. Process simulation will develop and build the e-participation system's software, hardware, and storage devices. The proposed four layers of blockchain-based e-participation are integrated. They have their purposes, which include government agencies, registration and verification, a blockchain-based e-participation network, and data storage.
This article explores how the concept of a âDecentralised Digital Identityâ applies to media users or a professional publishing company. We investigate how these types of identities can be used to develop trust and extract new value in the publishing and media industries. The work is based on the research undertaken by the Cogency project in 2022, which assessed how Web3 can be used to help build ongoing trust and develop new sources of revenue for publishers and content producers.
Manal Mansour, May Salama, Hala Helmi, Mona F. M. Mursi
Blockchain technology is referred to as a very secure decentralized, distributed ledger that records the history of any digital asset. It is being used in numerous governmental and private sector organizations across numerous nations. Surveying the current state of blockchain applications and difficulties in e-government services is the goal of this review. Held to the account are use cases for current facilities that use blockchain. Finally, it examines the research gap in blockchain deployment and makes suggestions for future work for additional research.
Sujeet Kumar Sharma, Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Santosh K. Misra, Nripendra P. Rana
This study identifies the critical challenges for blockchain adoption in government, and more specifically in the delivery of public services in the state governments of India. A literature review and focus-group with stakeholders was conducted to identify critical cfhallenges. Each challenge was ranked based on the opinions of stakeholders using conjoint analysis. Regarding government adoption of Blockchain, this study points to ecological shifts as a more significant challenge than technology. This study provides theoretical implications for researchers and valuable insights for practitioners.
The Republic and Canton of Jura has decided to adopt and integrate the CERTUS digital seal and the KSI blockchain as the central technological components of their e-government portal and of their digital government transformation program. However, this project is taking place in turbulent times. While blockchain suffers from a bad reputation for ecological reasons and while the Swiss Confederation has rejected the selected blockchain solution, this article seeks to answer how to grasp the paradoxes of blockchain technologies acceptance by state citizens in an extreme management situation. Through an action research that aims to solve practical problems and create scientific knowledge, this study highlights the paradox of trust and considers blockchain technologies to enhance trust between citizens in politically stable countries. Furthermore, it investigates the paradox of transparency of blockchain technologies in an extreme management situation and proposes communicating in two levels of abstraction to limit tensions in turbulent times.
Nils C. Bandelow, Johanna Hornung, Ilana Schröder
Over the past decade, technological changes have had a strong influence on society and science worldwide. Information and communications technology, big data, and artificial intelligence are only some digital innovations that have been transforming the research and practice of public policy. The impact of such technologies has recently become even more noticeable, for instance, through the prominence of machine learning chatbots. This raises several questions such as how to adapt institutions and regulatory processes to digital transformation, how such innovations can be used to enhance the design and implementation of policies, and how public policy and administration scholars should understand and make use of technologically driven futures. This third jubilee issue of Review of Policy Research (RPR) comprises six original articles which present a range of theoretical and empirical contributions to answering such questions. In the opening article, Kim et al. (2023) address the rising popularity of policy labs and examine to what extent they enhance the understanding and addressing of critical policy problems. To this end, they reviewed over 130 data-based policy labs across the world and their contribution to policy capacity. Most policy innovation labs are located in Europe and North America, initiated by governments or universities, and use various data types with a dominance of administrative data. Following the policy capacity framework by Wu et al. (2018), the authors differentiate between analytical, operational, and political policy capacity at the individual, organizational, and systemic level. The findings show that data-based policy labs enhance analytical and operational policy capacity at different levels but that they have only limited effects on providing political-based policy capacity. The article concludes with a future research agenda and suggestions for strategies to improve political capacity within policy innovation labs. These include promoting individuals' policy acumen as well as strengthening the environment for collaboratively learning about policy processes and political values on the organizational and systemic levels. Torfs et al. (2023) contribute to this issue with an application of the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET, Baumgartner et al., 2009, 2018) to analyze how institutional shifts impact digital policy change. Following an evolutionary perspective, the authors explored two decades of Belgian federal digital policy and its periods of policy stability (equilibrium) and change (punctuation). To this end, they analyze explanatory factors for negative and positive feedback mechanisms and the role of policy entrepreneurs. The methodological approach combines a distributional application of the PET with an explaining-outcome congruence case study, using documents, interviews, data on media coverage, regulation, and budgets. The authors illustrate that digital policy in Belgium is characterized by longer periods of stability and two periods of punctuation. It is shown that institutional shifts did impact Belgian digital policy. However, their explanatory power is limited as they lead to both positive and negative feedback mechanisms. More decisive factors in explaining digital policy (in)stability are attention allocation, policy entrepreneurs, and the political system. Torres and Fowler (2023) contribute to research on policy entrepreneurship with a study on the strategies bureaucrats used to change decision-making processes in the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). More specifically, the authors investigate how individuals drove organizational re-thinking on public participation and initiated the adoption of participatory technology assessment (pTA) within the space agency. The analysis of public documents and interviews reveals three main entrepreneurial strategies that helped shift the status quo and support citizen interaction in program design. The paper shows that the entrepreneurs reached out to and connected audiences across organizations in small-scale meetings where they presented a positive, solution-oriented reinterpretation of the program. In this discourse, they took a mediating position to have control over the narrative and decision-making process. Therefore, policy entrepreneurs, program-related group formation, and framing played an important role in the initiation of policy change within NASA. Di Giulio and Vecchi (2023) present further evidence for the influence of policy entrepreneurs and group formation on policy change with a case study on the public sector digitalization in Italy. After failed attempts to adopt digital technologies in the Italian public sector, the digital transformation agenda launched in 2016 was the first one to effectively induce policy change, despite the political instability at that time. Following theory-building process tracing (Beach & Pedersen, 2013), Di Giulio and Vecchi operationalize mechanisms that may explain this success, with a specific focus on related institutionalization processes. For this, they empirically investigate Italian innovation policymaking from 1993 to 2021. The results show that the Italian government used several strategies to increase organizational capacity and coordination as part of the 2016 digital agenda. This included engaging and appointing new professionals, restructuring the roles of governing bodies, and establishing new governmental agencies for digital transformation. This helped to build a community of policy entrepreneurs accountable for public sector digitalization which further created a bandwagon effect among implementers. Mukherjee et al. (2023) analyze how regulatory actors and processes surrounding digital innovation influence the creation of collectively shared and institutionally supported ideas of technological futures. Building on the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries (Jasanoff, 2015), the authors conducted 33 interviews with regulators of two emerging technologies in the USA, namely the genome editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV). The in-depth interviews were used to understand how involved actors envision technology-driven futures and the social structures that enable them. In both cases, experts related ideas on technologically driven futures to questions on institutional authority, technological novelty, and risk management. However, the CRISPR and CAV stakeholders' narratives also differed along these aspects. For instance, the authors found that interviewees' imagined futures reproduce their respective regulatory environments, including power relations and intraorganizational boundaries. Mukherjee et al. argue that such differences across regulatory sectors, including institutional arrangements, norms, and practices, influence the imaginary formation around technologies and how they shape the future. Zeng et al. (2023) present another study on digitalized administration processes with an analysis of platform governance in China. The authors elaborate on the advantages of platform-based organizational processes and reflect, however, that the concept of Government as a Platform (GaaP) has been less promising. Zeng et al. argue that the platform-enabled government (PEG) concept which aims to accommodate institutional boundaries is better suited to improve collaborative governance than the GaaP with its focus on eliminating boundaries. The authors test the implementation and impact of 123 PEG cases in China across three policy areas, namely, administrative review, law enforcement, and contact tracing. The results support that PEG is an effective form of holistic governance as it enables to integrate functions of multiple departments in one workflow while respecting institutional boundaries. For instance, PEG facilitates cross-boundary exchange while enabling officials to retain intellectual property rights. The study indicates that PEG is supported by decentralized political systems and middle-tier platforms.
Le Anh Nguyen Long, Shenja van der Graaf, Athanasios Votsis
Borrowing from insights produced in urban planning, media and governance studies thereby leveraging the Ostrom-nian ideas of institutions and polycentricity, this paper examines how to govern commons in the smart city. It offers a reflection upon whether Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) could be a key notion for the commons discourse which centers around stakeholders, self-organization, and a rights-based framework. By decentralizing ledgers and enabling the interoperability of the various interfaces, DLTs make records more accessible, exchanges more transparent, and reduce costs while increasing efficiency, and permit automation, therefore commoning interactions both offline and online are facilitated. We argue that the use of DLTs to preserve the spatiotemporal integrity of key urban spaces is a common value question that needs to be elucidated or renegotiated in order to provide any useful guidance to DLTs integrity-preserving potential. In doing so, we draw attention to DLT-based urban commons and urban governance, and point to inherent incompatibilities that may lead to radical and not-so-smooth changes in urban institutions, while providing a way of thinking which can move the smart city closer towards a values-centered process and away from a preoccupation with technology and efficiency.
Johannes Rude Jensen, Nina-Birte Schirrmacher, Michel Avital, Omri Ross
In the span of just a few years, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have grown into a high-value form of organization. A growing body of IS literature examines the decentralized, transparent, and equitable design of these organizations. DAO governance is commonly mediated using âgovernance tokensâ in a one-token-one-vote system. However, the inconspicuous role of tokens for DAO governance is rarely investigated. We present preliminary findings from a netnographic study of controversial decision-making processes in two large DAOs. Our cases reveal how top holders of tokens leverage their favorable position to enact unpopular decisions unilaterally. The findings indicate a discrepancy between the espoused values and enacted practices of DAO governance, as economic capital rather than social capital investment becomes the primary determinant of voting power. We examine emerging alternative voting systems and offer a framework for parsing these new initiatives. Contributions to the literature and future work are discussed.
Aim: Current scenario shows an increase in the adoption of off-chain voting applications in DAOs to avoid complexity and costs for user engagement in their governance. This exploratory research analysis shows the role of digital presence in DAOs with off-chain voting systems, respective voting properties, and general trends. Methods: Empirical hybrid approach with statistical analysis and QCA configuration analysis of datasets retrieved from most used off-chain voting system. Input data from DAOs, proposals, and votes. DAOs with the highest followers and proposals simultaneously as selection criteria for the analysis. Results: 179 DAOs (1,39%) account for 26,538 (32%) proposals and 1,268,474 followers (54%) of the entire Snapshot database in January/2023. The most preferred social media as communication channels are Twitter and GitHub. Decrease of Ethereum as main-chain, with Polygon and Binance Smart Chain already representing 22%. Basic type voting may lead to higher user engagement in the voting process. Conclusion: This research findings suggest a better understanding of the voting process, technology features, and governance knowledge towards social community engagement and decision-making in DAOs.
Abstract This paper critically evaluates the political economy of Web3 and offers a neo-institutional model to explain qualitative observations of contemporary digital social movements. By starting to develop a sociological model of Web3 rooted in micro-organizational practices, including trust mediation and social coproduction, this paper re-evaluates assumptions of scarcity, economic value, and social belonging. It concludes by introducing a novel research program to study digital polycentric governance that focuses on community self-governance of digital common pool resources (DCPRs) and looks forward to empirical research using on-chain datasets from decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).
The term âWeb3â refers to the practices of participating in digital infrastructures through the ability to read, write and coordinate digital assets. Web3 is hailed as an alternative to the failings of big tech, offering a participatory mode of digital self-organizing and shared ownership of digital infrastructure through software-encoded governance rules and participatory practices. Yet, very few analytical frameworks have been presented in academic literature by which to approach Web3. This piece draws on the theoretical lens of infrastructure studies to offer an analytical framework to approach the emergent field of Web3 as an exploration in âhow to infrastructureâ through prefigurative self-infrastructuring. Drawing on qualitative examples from digital ethnographic methods, I demonstrate how the origins of Web3 reveal the intentions of its creators as a political tool of prefiguration, yet its practices reveal the inherent tension of expressing these ideals in coherent technical and institutional infrastructure. Thus, I argue that one of the fundamental challenges Web3 is negotiating through technical and governance experiments is âhow to self-infrastructure?â.
Over the past decades, governments around the world are implementing a variety of digital solutions in order to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency of public services. By using modern information and communication technologies (ICT), citizens are provided with an easier, faster, and more secure way of accessing different types of data. Previous studies on e-government have given important insights into the differences between traditional government systems and digital, e-government. The research was conducted by the systematic literature review guidelines by Kitchenham for papers published between 2016 and 2021 and aims to identify main technologies that are adequate to be used in the context of e-government, by presenting key challenges, as well as opportunities and possible risks of adopting such solutions in public sector services. The results obtained suggest that pairing governance with modern information systems, such as artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) and blockchain technology, if used properly, can contribute to achieving a higher level of quality of public services and encouragement of citizens' trust and further political activity. Therefore, the present study concluded that there is a significant dependency between a successful e-government implementation and the country's established legal foundations, available technical infrastructures, perceived public trust, as well as social and economical conditions.
Abstract4 Corruption has had a detrimental impact on the South African economy. The use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in combatting corruption is undervalued in e-government contexts, while insufficient empirical data exists to gauge the effectiveness of distributed digital technology in combatting malfeasance. This study explores perceptions on the use of ICT in the procurement corruption investigation sector. Legal and factual perspectives of ICTs, and specifically on Digital Ledger Technology (DLT)9s usefulness in combatting public sector procurement corruption in South Africa was found to be limited. This empirical study found that most respondents in the corruption investigation field had encounters with it in the Public Procurement field of the Supply Chain Management (SCM) function. Human interference in the ICT system appears to be the main contributing factor in corrupting the system. Monitoring of user activity logs is recommended as well as strict regulations to prevent ghost users from corrupting ICT systems.
Ali Shahaab, Imtiaz Khan, Ross Maude, Chaminda Hewage · 5 authors
Despite the increasing interest and exploration of the use of blockchain technology in public service organisations (PSOs), academic understanding of its transformative impact on the operational excellence of PSOs remains limited. This study adopts an action design science research methodology to develop a proof of concept (POC) blockchain based application for Companies House, a government agency that is registering companies across UK. The application addresses the operational challenges of Companies House as well as issues citizens face when accessing its services. We draw from the public value framework proposed by Twizeyimana and Andersson (2019) and demonstrate the significance of the emerging blockchain technology in relation to their democratic practices based on six dimensions. We further discuss the related challenges and barriers for its implementation and evaluate the POC with the stakeholders of Companies House. We also present an illustrative case study, where we explored the appropriateness of the POC in relation to the draft legislation, âRegistration of Overseas Entities and Beneficial Ownersâ (ROEBO) bill which proposes the introduction of a register of the beneficial owners of overseas legal entities that own real estate in the UK. Our research is one of the few studies that will provide in-depth empirical insights about the relationship between blockchain and operational excellence of PSOs.
Rimvydas LauĆŸikas, Tadas ĆœiĆŸiĆ«nas, Vladislav V. Fomin
The conflict between heritage protection and urban infrastructure development rationales creates a context for inclusion, participation and dialogue of different heritage-related communities. However, developed in the pre-computer age of administrative practice, are often incapable, partially or completely, to accommodate the ânew-eraâ community oriented participatory practices. In this article, authors discuss the mutual effects of IT in the process of democratization of urban heritage preservation. The authors create and argue the conceptual model of distributed ledger technologies (DLT) in participatory UHP. The model demonstrates how technologies can become catalysts for democratization in situations when the regulatory and administrative change (on its own) is too inert. The article hypothesizes that novel technological developments which aim at or have the potential for increasing community involvement and democratization of administrative practice, exert their effects directly through technology-based participatory practices.