Minitrack description

The most important stakeholder in e-Government and e-Democracy systems is the citizen. This minitrack focuses on e-Participation, the involvement of citizens in the development, use, and evaluation of e-Government and e-Democracy systems. According to the European
Commission, e-Participation involves areas such as e-consultation, e-legislation, e-petition and e-deliberation.

Participation of citizens is critical to the democratic process and to the effective performance of e-Governmental services and systems. With
the advent of e-Government, citizen participation also becomes critical in the conceptualization, planning, development, implementation,
evaluation, and reflection phases of application development. Unfortunately, the experience and expertise of citizens is often minimized in e-Government development contexts. Ignoring the perspectives and input of citizens can result in systems that are difficult to use, inaccessible to some people, inequitable, ineffective, un-trusted, or otherwise not accepted. Deliberative decisions and legislation are improved by the participation of citizens in the process. Tools for facilitating e-Participation in the development of legislation are being developed and evaluated.

As e-Government becomes more ubiquitous, many questions arise about what it means to be an e-Citizen, how the concept of citizenship might be changing, and how participation in the democratic process and democratic/governmental institutions might be influenced.

This minitrack showcases projects in which citizen participation plays a significant role and highlights the experience of e-Citizens.

Topics include (but are not limited to)

• Participatory design practice, ethnographic studies, and case studies of e-Government and e-Participation applications
• Empirical observations of use of e-Government and e-Participation systems
• Studies of the impact of e-Government, e-Democracy, and e-Participation systems on citizen involvement
• Social networking and other digital collaborative spaces in the context of e-Government and e-Participation
• Awareness, acceptance, and use of community and regional information systems by citizens
• The experience of the e-Citizen
• Adoption of e-Government and e-Participation systems
• Research on use of the internet by political candidates and the democratic process online
• Studies of citizens and democratic processes in virtual worlds
• Impact and contrasts of e-Voting and e-Participation systems from the perspective of citizens
• Discussion of the universal access requirements of e-Government
• Ergonomic, human-factors, and HCI-related studies of e-Government, and e- Participation applications
• Accessibility
• Interaction design, user experience design, and contextual studies of e-Government, e-Democracy, and e-Participation systems

Empirical studies are favored and all research paradigms are welcome. Multidisciplinary efforts are encouraged. Practice and development papers should have a strong theoretical basis or contain principled reflections on design.

Chairs

Scott Robertson, University of Hawaii, scottpr@hawaii.edu
Sara Eriksén,  Blekinge Institute of Technology, sara.eriksen@bth.se
Thomas Horan, Claremont Graduate University, tom.horan@cgu.edu

Submission guidelines

Prospective authors may contact any of the Minitrack Chairs (see above) to discuss topics or get feedback on an abstract. Full papers are due by
June 15. Please consult the HICSS-42 Call for Papers (http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/hicss_42/42callforpapers.htm) for detailed
instructions.

Conference website

http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/

Minitrack website

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~scottpr/hicss42/

CFP Poster

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~scottpr/hicss42/HICSS42_EParticipation_CFP.pdf