The annual EGOV conferences bring together leading researchers and professionals from all over the globe and from many disciplines. Over the years, the interest has increased tremendously. The 2008 conference attracted some 140 participants from more than 30 countries all over the world including developing countries. Hence the EGOV Conferences have proven once again its capacity to serve as a platform for academics and professionals and as an important ground for networking in the community.

The EGOV Conference Series hosts four distinct formats of contributions: Scientific papers (distinguished between completed research and ongoing research); project presentations, and workshops. These formats encourage scientific rigor and discussions of state of the art in the study domain, but also welcome innovative research work in progress, and studies of practical eGovernment projects and systems implementation.

The conference also includes a PhD student colloquium providing doctoral students with an international forum for presenting their work, networking opportunities and cross-disciplinary inspiration.

Over the years, organizational and user-related issues long discussed among researchers have finally gained influence on practice. Conversely, eGovernment practice has influenced and inspired eGovernment research. A wide range of topics has received scholarly attention over the years. In recent years, the assessment of eGovernment efforts, the prospects of eGovernment as a research discipline, and the role of information and communication technology for development rank among the top topics on the research agenda. The seventh series of EGOV conferences, hence, includes, but is not limited to the following topics around eGovernment, eGovernance, eParticipation and other fields of application in the public sector.