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Providing both research and practical results, this volume sets out the latest findings in electronic participation and open governance, and includes unique features such as a systematic analysis of the domain and evaluation of international initiatives.

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The use of information and communication technologies to support public administrations, governments and decision makers has been recorded for more than 20 years and dubbed e-Government. Moving towards open governance roadmaps worldwide, electronic participation and citizen engagement stand out as a new domain, important both for decision makers and citizens; and over the last decade, there have been a variety of related pilot projects and innovative approaches.

With contributions from leading researchers, Charalabidis and Koussouris provide the latest research findings such as theoretical foundations, principles, methodologies, architectures, technical frameworks, cases and lessons learnt within the domain of open, collaborative governance and online citizen engagement. The book is divided into three sections: Section one, "Public Policy Debate Foundations," lays the foundations regarding processes and methods for scoping, planning, evaluating and transforming citizen engagement. The second section, "Information and Communication Technologies for Citizen Participation," details practical approaches to designing and creating collaborative governance infrastructures and citizen participation for businesses and administrations. Lastly, the third section on "Future Research Directions of Open, Collaborative ICT-enabled Governance" provides a constructive critique of the developments in the past and presents prospects regarding future challenges and research directions.

The book is mainly written for academic researchers and graduate students working in the computer, social, political and management sciences. Its audience includes researchers and practitioners in e-Governance, public administration officials, policy and decision makers at the local, national and international level engaged in the design and creation of policies and services, and ICT professionals engaged in e-Governance and policy modelling projects and solutions.

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Section I - Public Policy Debate Foundations: Processes and Methods for Scoping, Planning, Evaluating and Transforming Citizen Engagement.- Democratic Legitimacy and Recruitment Strategies in eParticipation Projects.- Collaboration for Open Innovation Processes in Public Administrations.- An Integrated Methodology for the Evaluation of ePetitions.- Assessing a Measurement Model for Digital Political Participation: A Multidisciplinary Point of View.- Online Engagement from the Grassroots: Reflecting on over a Decade of ePetitioning Experience in Europe and the UK.- Evaluating eParticipation Projects and Lessons Learnt.- Section II - Information and Communication Technologies for Citizen Participation.- Knowing the Law as a Pre-Requisite to Participative eGovernment: the Role of Semantic Technologies.- Regional Participation Model to Engage Citizens in Distant Decision Making.- Visualisation of Online Discussion Forums.- Distributed Discussion: An Integrated eParticipation Model for Engaging Young People in Technology Policy.- Open Collaboration in Policy Development: Concept and Architecture to Integrate Scenario Development and Formal Policy Modelling.- Section III - Future Research Directions of Open, Collaborative ICT-enabled Governance.- ICT as the Facilitator of Postmodern and Empowered Forms of Citizenship - Myth or Reality?.- A Critical Analysis of EU-Funded eParticipation.- ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling: Visionary Directions and Research Paths.

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