Lasse Berntzen's research homepage

Research areas

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Research area: e-Government benchmarking and indicators

Publications

Research area: The Use of ICT to Increase Citizen Participation and Influence on Political Decision Making

Publications

The growing importance of government transparency is clearly shown through legislation being passed by most democratic countries during the last few decades. If transparency is important to democracy, governments should use information technology to support transparency wherever possible. This paper presents a framework that facilitates evaluation of transparency of political bodies on different levels of government. The framework is categorizing transparency into five different types. For each type, examples of transparency are given, as well as suggestions on how information technology can be used to support them. The framework has been applied to different cases to show how it can be used as an instrument for discussions on improving e-transparency.

Abstract: This paper reports on one current effort by the Norwegian municipality Våler to implement a feedback system using paper based forms complemented by local government appointed ombudsmen to oversee the processing of the feedback. Following a short discussion of the ombudsman role as a mediator between citizens and government, a proposal is made to substitute this manual feedback system with a web-based tool (e-Ombudsman). The web-based tool facilitates effective communication between a citizen and a group of politicians and/or civil servants working together to fill the ombudsman role.

Abstract: Current research in e-democracy has so far focused on the early stages of political decision making. Information- and communication technology (ICT) has been shown to facilitate participation in agenda setting and alternative selection. But ICT also has the potential to facilitate evaluation of existing policies. This paper examines policy evaluation from local politicians view. What web-based tools are useful for policy evaluation, and what kind of information do these tools provide?

Abstract: This paper reports on content analysis performed on a local government initiated web site: demokratitorget.no. The expressed purpose of this web site is to increase citizen participation by using a discussion forum. This research reports on activity prior to the local and regional elections in the autumn of 2003. In order to analyse the content of the political discussions, it was necessary to develop a categorization scheme. Content is analyzed based on scope, type of contribution, and intention. The results show that the primary use was to raise and comment on political issues. The discussion forum was also used to promote party political viewpoints, and to ask questions. The discussion forum generated only a few new ideas that could be translated into political decisions. On this basis, strategies for increased citizen influence are discussed.

Research area: The use of ICT by politicians and parties

Publications

This paper presents the results of a recent study of Norwegian political party web sites. By introducing the concept of a maturity model, the study aimed to establish the current state-of-the-art of political party web site utilization. The study used crawler technology to perform semi-automatic information collection combined with observation. The results show that political parties now use a variety of advanced web site features to enhance communication with web site users.

Today, Internet is an important part of election campaigns. Political parties use web sites and e-mail campaigns to promote political viewpoints. The content is controlled by the party, and provides an unfiltered view of the party viewpoints. But Internet also has other arenas. Public discussion forums are such arenas where the parties are expected to participate. Public discussion forums may be organized by local government, newspapers or other institutions. This paper reports on how politicians used and experienced a public discussion forum during the Norwegian local and regional government election campaign period.

Abstract: The local government initiated web site demokratitorget.no was launched in August 2003, one month before the Norwegian municipal and regional elections. This paper reports on interviews with 34 newly elected representatives of the Kristiansand city council on their use, and the outcomes of the discussions. The interviews show that the forum generally did not influence politicians; neither did they get new ideas. The politicians found the discussion forum useful for promoting party viewpoints, and for citizens to ask questions, get answers, and express frustration on political issues.

Research area: Enhanced services through collaboration (with emphasis on collaborative GIS)

Publications

Abstract: this paper presents a conceptual model for collaboration between government, individuals and voluntary organizations to provide innovative digital services to the public. The government provides the necessary infrastructure, application software and basic content, with the opportunity for individuals and voluntary organizations to provide additional content. This approach makes it possible to deliver services of greater value to the public. Two Norwegian case examples are used to show the practical use of this conceptual model. The first case, “The Digital Inn”, shows how the Norwegian National Archival Services use collaboration to enhance its service to genealogists. The second case describes “The Map Hostel”, a project to better utilize geographic information systems by delivering new maps based on information collected by voluntary organizations and individuals.

Abstract: Development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has reached a mature stage. One common option is web-based access. This feature makes it possible to use GIS as a tool for enhancing democracy, enabling transparency, and providing new services. Within the scope of our study we use the OECD model, which provides a framework of categorizing different levels of interaction between citizens and government. We have extended this model by introducing an additional level, named collaboration. The extended model distinguishes among information delivery, consultation, collaboration, and participation. We provide some practical examples of web-accessible GIS applications in order to demonstrate their functionalities and the level of interaction. We then demonstrate an innovative approach of how GIS can be used to achieve active collaboration, where citizens and the government work together to develop new maps, which benefit both parties. This idea includes the establishment of "map hostels" and a web-based interface that allows voluntary organizations and citizens to provide their own map data for public consumption. We conclude the paper with some suggestions for future research.

Project: Implementation and Evaluation of Web-based Citizen Initiative

Publications

Abstract: Citizen initiative (innbyggerinitiativ) was made part of the Norwegian Municipal Act in 2003. Its primary goal is to increase citizen influence between elections by introducing a formal procedure for citizens to raise issues. A rationale for implementing citizen initiative as a web-based application is given, and a prototype application is described. Field trials are planned in three municipalities, and forthcoming evaluation of these trials is discussed.

Project: Parliamentary Web Presence

Publications

Abstract: Parliamentary web presence is seen as a tool designed to buttress a range of key parliamentary functions operating within an overarching democratic framework. Many governments have embarked upon ambitious e-government programmes in the hope of increasing participation. However, there is now a growing realisation that e-government strategies have not achieved the hoped-for success and there is an increasing body of research concerned with analysing these problems. This paper seeks to add to this body of research and draws upon insights provided by usability studies developed to provide an analysis of various parliament websites. It also compares how parliaments of several countries use ICT to increase transparency and to facilitate participation of citizens. As such it is the first of its kind to undertake work of this nature. The paper concludes by arguing for a usability framework for analysing the effectiveness of e-parliaments. This could be used by e-government web designers and architects alike to identify weaknesses, within a specific area, of both the form and content of their parliament and other e-government websites.

Project: Enhanced Video Streaming of Local Government Meetings

Publications

Video streaming of local government meetings offers transparency. After an experimental phase, video streaming has now become a regular service in several Norwegian municipalities. This paper describes the design, development and implementation of one such video streaming service for a consortium of twelve municipalities. One important goal of this project was to deliver rich user experience without putting additional workload on municipal administrators. Our solution is ableto deliver multiple video streams originating from differentvideo sources (cameras), and the user may choose which videostreams to view. Video streams are stored and made available for later viewing. An administrative application facilitates linking items on the agenda to relevant video content. A search engine makes it possible to search for video content across municipal borders. The paper also reports on a recent survey conducted among initial users of the video streaming service. The results are discussed, and some areas of future research are proposed.

Project: Social Movements and the Use of ICT