1. Introduction

Knowledge Societies empower citizens to use the facilities available through digital infrastructures to have the freedom to live their lives in the manner they want to live. Governments, civil society and private enterprises often see their role as enablers of the knowledge society by providing needed services, support and products. Governments have overwhelmingly adopted digital means to ignite and sustain this empowerment. Responding to social, economic, political and other pressures, they use digital technology to innovate their policies, processes, structures and interactions with partners and citizens alike, and institutionalize such innovations over time. Four waves of Digital Government innovations emerged: 1) Digitization - improving internal government operations and delivering better public services, 2) Transformation - facilitating administrative and institutional reform in government, 3) Engagement - engaging citizens and non-state actors in policy- and decision-making processes and 4) Contextualization - supporting policy and development goals in specific sectors and localities. Focused on creating conditions for self-governance and self-development on the local, sectorial and national levels, the Contextualization stage is directly relevant to Knowledge Societies.

The challenges facing researchers and practitioners today have to do with ensuring that the digitalization in society leads to transformation and empowerment, and finally to positive, sustained development outcomes. Policy makers and decision makers in government have to understand and deal with a whole host of issues related to building Knowledge Societies, and this call-for-papers highlights many of these issues. The main purpose of ICEGOV2017 is to explore how Digital Government can lead to Digital Empowerment, relying on locally-appropriated Knowledge Societies as both the means and the end to such empowerment.

The ICEGOV series brings together academia, governments, international organizations, civil society, and the private sector to share the insights and experiences in theory and practice of Digital Government. ICEGOV promotes interactions between stakeholders - policymakers, government officials, elected representatives, researchers, innovators and educators from developing and developed countries - all sharing a concern that public investment in Digital Government advances public policy and development. ICEGOV is a platform where such stakeholders can discuss ways of working together across the national, sectorial, development and other boarders towards addressing this concern.

Following the earlier conferences in Macau (ICEGOV2007), Cairo (ICEGOV2008), Bogota (ICEGOV2009), Beijing (ICEGOV2010), Tallinn (ICEGOV2011), Albany (ICEGOV2012), Seoul (ICEGOV2013), Guimaraes (ICEGOV2014) and Montevideo (ICEGOV2016), the ICEGOVseries has become a source of significant research and policy insight, able to reach national and global policy and research audiences. In figures, the ICEGOV community includes 1548 authors and reviewer from 102 countries - 69% from academia, 18% from government, 9% from industry and 4% from international and other organization. Also, on average, every ICEGOV conference attracts 140 submissions from 49 countries and is attended by over 400 participants from 50 countries including government (40%), academia (36%), industry and civil society (14%), and international organizations (10%).

2. Submissions

ICEGOV2017 invites submissions of original work including research, experience or both, not published or considered for publication elsewhere, that contribute to the conference theme "Building Knowledge Societies - From Digital Government to Digital Empowerment". The submissions can be targeted at one of 12 defined tracks, the emerging topics track, the doctoral track and the poster track, as described in subsequent sections.

2.1. Track 1: Digitization

Aimed at modernization, internal efficiency and access, Digital Government at the Digitization stage involves the development, operation and maintenance of the technological environment, including the availability of technological capabilities, services and infrastructure within and between government organizations. In this environment, Digitization entails the representation of data, documents and other information in digital formats, when previously held by government organizations in physical or analog forms; making such information available to staff, partners and other stakeholders within and outside a government organization in digital formats, when previously available to the same stakeholders in physical and analog forms; automating existing processes, services and the entire offices based on digitized information and its exchange through digital networks; and making the services accessible to citizens in digitized format and through digital networks, when previously accessible in physical and analog forms.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Administrative process automation
• Big data, linked data and data analytics
• Big data outlier handling
• Computer-supported government work
• Decision support systems in government
• Digital versus traditional channels
• Electronic public record management
• Electronic public service delivery
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• GIS applications for decision support
• Government cloud computing
• Government enterprise architectures
• Government information networks
• Government information portals
• Government interoperability frameworks
• Government office automation
• Government-wide architecture
• Mass government data processing
• Management information systems
• Visual analytics for big data

2.2. Track 2: Transformation

Digital Government at the Transformation stage aims at improving internal processes, structures and working practices of government organizations through digital technology. The improvement often takes place as part of a larger administrative and institutional reform in government, and aims at internal efficiency, effectiveness, rationalization, simplification and other reform-related goals. The reform includes but is not restricted to improvements pursued within a single organization - cooperation with other government organizations, even whole-of-government arrangements comprising entire sectors and levels of government, are pursued at this stage. The main mechanism to carry out such improvement is technological and organizational innovation, including a fundamental rethink of what a technology-enabled government, organization or sector does or should do in digital terms and how to align its business and technological developments. The main enabler to carry out such improvement is the digital and technological environment, including related capabilities and structures, established as part of the Digitization Stage.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Business process reengineering and integration
• Connected and networked government
• Digital Government competencies and frameworks
• Electronic contracting and procurement
• Electronic delivery systems for public services
• Emerging modes of digital communication
• e-Avatars and government organization
• e-Avatars and Knowledge Society transition
• Government change management
• Government Chief Information Officer
• Government information sharing
• Government knowledge retention
• Government knowledge management
• Government performance management
• Government stakeholder management
• Government workforce management
• Organizational and semantic interoperability
• Public-private partnerships
• Shared government services
• Whole of government structures and processes

2.3. Track 3: Engagement

Digital Government at the Engagement stage aims at transforming the relationships between government and citizens, businesses and other non-government actors using digital technologies. The transformation aims at increasing access, convenience and effectiveness of public service delivery systems, engaging citizens in political and civil affairs, developing knowledge-based society and economy, and pursuing other high-value public policy goals. The Engagement stage is also part of a larger trend towards implementing the Digital by Default and Open Government principles, the letter aimed at increasing the transparency and accountability of government operations and the operations of public service providers, and in turn building trust between citizens and institutions, and between the governed and the governing. Realizing the Engagement Stage builds on the capacity of government organizations, thanks to the Digitization and Transformation stages, to interact with external actors and with each other through digital channels, to establish their presence and operations on various digital platforms, to collaborate across organizational boundaries, and to demonstrate performance improvements in technology-enabled internal operations.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Automated fraud detection
• Citizen consultation, ideation and scorecards
• Crowdsourcing and co-delivery
• Data-driven citizen journalism
• Digital collaborative accountability
• Digital oversight institutions
• Digital reasoning frameworks for social platforms
• Electronic rule-making
• Emerging modes of digital communication with citizens
• Expose and investigate services
• Online deliberation and discourse
• Open government data ecosystems
• Participatory budgeting
• Proactive release of government data
• Public bidding on government contracts
• Public-private-people partnerships
• Social enterprise for public service
• Technology-facilitated anticorruption
• Social media and cyber-wellness
• Volunteering for public service

2.4. Track 4: Contextualization

Digital Government at the Contextualization stage supports specific efforts by countries, regions, cities, communities and other territorial and social units to develop themselves, e.g. to pursue specific public policy and sustainable development objectives. While the stage constitutes a major step beyond digitizing government (Digitization Stage), improving the internal operations of government (Transformation Stage) and improving the relationships between government and constituencies (Engagement Stage), it also builds on the earlier stages by putting their outcomes at the service of public policy and development. A major consequence of the development focus is specialization of Digital Government initiatives at this stage, including their objectives, design, operations and outcomes, to different local, sectorial and local-sectorial contexts. The combination of context-specificity and development objectives is the cornerstone of this stage.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Digital Government and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
• Digital Government and cross-sectorial policy requirements
• Digital Government and local and sectorial impact evaluation
• Digital Government and policy coherence for development
• Digital Government design for context versus design for reuse
• Digital Government for aligning national strategies with local needs
• Digital Government context adaptation
• Digital Government context-to-context transfer
• Enabling versus disabling Digital Government contextual features
• Local versus national Digital Government
• Multi-level Digital Government
• Sectorial Digital Government
• Sectorial versus multi-sectorial Digital Government
• Emergency – community response grids
• Healthcare – digital preventive healthcare
• Regulation – compliance automation
• Security – crime mapping and hotspot monitoring
• Social – digital social innovation
• Transport – mobile collaborative transport
• Waste – institutionalizing e-waste management

2.5. Track 5: Information Ethics

Use of information systems within organizations raises issues of ethics related to privacy, monitoring, workplace harassment, power, accountability and transparency. These issues arise from the concerns of shared norms and values rather than from legal or regulatory issues. With the widespread digitalization of government departments and organizations, these issues have assumed prominence, particularly with respect to accountability, corruption and transparency. Issues of ethics are also culture specific, where aspects of privacy, sharing, collaboration, work routines, reporting, individuality, group membership and participation, public discourse entitlements, arguments and disagreements, amongst many others, are understood in the local cultural context and norms. These local norms often interact with the information systems that may mediate them, possibly leading to conflict, or emancipation.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Centralization of power in government with ICT growth
• Digital divide and access to government services
• Evolving values and ethics with regard to technology change
• Forms of corruption persisting in Digital Government
• Graft and kickbacks in procurement of ICT
• Impact of social networks on workplace behavior
• IT-mediated transparency and impact on corruption and graft
• Power asymmetry created by digital access and use
• Resistance to Digital Government
• Vendor dependence and conflict of interest in ICT procurement and deployment
• Information asymmetry created with digital access
• Evolution in reporting norms in government
• Conflict in resource access and use
• Resistance to change and modernity
• Evolution and change in workflow routines in government offices
• Norms of discourse over electronic media
• Norms of inter-agency/department collaboration
• Interpretations of access and sharing
• Ethnic identities and mediation through ICT
• Loyalty and group identity through ICT

2.6. Track 6: Open Government

Governments around the world have taken up the challenge of opening and making transparent the data pertaining to their functioning and that of the public sector at large. Research questions revolve around achieving transformation through open data that serves the needs of citizens. Considerations include having adequate design of data storage, data governance and data retrieval that assists policy analysis and research, while being relevant, current, adequately contextualized. This theme also inquiries into issues of openness and transparency, their definitions and practical implementation issues, and their conflict with security and surveillance.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Accuracy, accountability and relevance of open data
• Censoring and restriction of open data
• Copyright, intellectual property issues of open data
• Cross-border data flows
• Crowdsourcing of open data for government
• Data quality assessment
• Freedom of information policies
• Innovation with open data
• Institutional mechanisms for open data and open source
• Licensing of open data
• Measurement and evaluation of open government efforts
• Meta-data standards for open data
• Multi-lingual data and localization of open data
• Open source use in data governance and sharing
• Policy interventions for open data and open source
• Pricing and access to open content
• Sharing and cooperation policies between departments
• Technologies and standards for data storing and transformation
• Technologies for open data
• Sharing of e-governance research data

2.7. Track 7: Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship refers to the norms of appropriate and responsible use of technology i.e. it defines what is considered appropriate technology usage. It is a concept which helps technology leaders, teachers and parents to understand what technology users, students and children should know to use technology appropriately. It provides a way to prepare different categories of technology users for a society full of technology. Discussions about digital citizenship are gaining momentum around the world due to the increasing need to guide different categories of technology users on how to act when online and what to teach to the next generation. With the growth of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and 1:1 initiatives in schools, there is a need to talk about responsible use of technology.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Creative Credit & Copyright
• Cyberbullying
• Digital access
• Digital and information literacy
• Digital commerce
• Digital communication
• Digital currencies
• Digital empowerment
• Digital etiquette
• Digital financial inclusion
• Digital health and wellness
• Digital law
• Digital rights and responsibilities
• Digital rights management
• Digital security and privacy
• Internet safety
• Lifelong universally verifiable digital identity
• Online presence
• Social media
• Social media and cyber wellness

2.8. Track 8: Digital Culture and Inclusion

According to the UN, the value of E-government will increasingly be defined by its contribution to the development for all using benchmarks such as citizen-centricity, inclusiveness, connected government, universal access, and use of new technologies. However, there are still many cases of social exclusion or digital-divides of different social groups around the world due to the way the e-government concept is operationalized, and or inadequacies in execution. ICT constitutes an essential inclusion tool, for three reasons for it allows people, who are potentially at risk of exclusion, to make up because it affects both the macro-social and the individual sphere. Therefore, the inability of an individual or group to exploit new technologies rolled out by government, condemns the individual to a process of progressive social exclusion. Those excluded from the digital world, and thus excluded from the participatory perspective, are destined to become second- or third-class workers, students, or consumers. This theme calls for research contributions that promote ways of making E-government contribute to the development of all citizens.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Accessibility and usability of Digital Government systems
• Citizen-centric Digital Government services
• Designing and implementing Digital Government systems
• Evaluation of public sector information systems
• Gender and ICTs
• Governance and electronic democracy
• Connected and networked governance
• Digital Government systems in developing and transition economies
• Digital Government adoption and diffusion
• Digital divide and digital immigrants
• Digital exclusion and disempowerment
• Digital Government in multi-lingual and multi-cultural societies
• Digital Government for unserved or underserved groups
• Digital Empowerment as a tool of social entrepreneurship
• ICT for development
• Information availability and access in Digital Government
• Persons with Disabilities and ICTs
• Pervasive media
• Universal and ubiquitous access
• Women and ICTs

2.9. Track 9: Digital Healthcare and Education

Governments around the world are engaged with providing healthcare and education facilities to citizens, at many levels. The use of digital technologies for providing and assisting with healthcare and education are growing. These facilities are a strong presence in many countries. Issues of research pertain to the access, quality, regulation, evaluation of these services, amongst many others. There are many challenges to providing these services and these constitute an active area of research.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Communities of practice in education
• Teacher-centered ICT education
• Design of massive open online courseware
• Local language use in ICT-based education
• Policies for ICT-based education
• Evaluation strategies ICT-based education
• Design of tele-education infrastructure
• Effectiveness of ICT-based education in schools
• Public-private partnerships and provision of ICT-based education
• Use and effectiveness of ICT in secondary and higher education
• Data standards for health records
• Design of telemedicine infrastructure
• Evaluation of digital technologies for healthcare
• Open source in education and healthcare
• Policies for telemedicine reach and access
• Primary, secondary and tertiary care through telemedicine
• Public-private partnerships and provision of ICT-based healthcare
• Trust and confidence in digitally mediated healthcare
• Choice vs Care aspects of telemedicine
• Smart-phone based healthcare provision

2.10. Track 10: Smart Cities, Villages and Regions

A smart city is an urban development vision to integrate multiple ICT solutions in a secure fashion to manage a city’s assets namely but not limited to local departments information systems, schools, libraries, transportation systems, hospitals, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, law enforcement, and other community services. ICT allows city officials to interact directly with the community and the city infrastructure and to monitor what is happening in the city, how the city is evolving, and how to enable a better quality of life. Smart cities are aimed at facilitating economic growth and improving the quality of life of people by enabling local development and harnessing technology as a means to create smart outcomes for citizens. Alongside development of smart cities, there is need to develop regions and villages to be smart too to reduce rural urban migration.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Institutionalizing e-waste management
• Smart economy
• Smart energy,
• Smart environment
• Smart healthcare
• Smart infrastructure
• Smart living environments
• Smart mobility
• Smart technology
• Sustainable transformation
• Wireless to connect the unconnected
• Smart Security
• Smart Law enforcement
• Smart homes
• Smart office
• Smart water systems
• Smart industries
• Smart schools
• Smart libraries
• Smart communities

2.11. Track 11: Policy, Research and Innovation

Several governments around the world have done much to leverage IT to deploy e-government services, but much more still needs to be done about how best to adopt already-existing technologies and practices, and targeted research efforts for helping government and its suppliers address challenging new requirements. The Policy, Research and Innovation track examines the emerging visions for e-government in research and practice, the technologies required to implement them, and approaches that can be taken to accelerate innovation and the transition of innovative information technologies from the laboratory to operational government systems.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Conceptual and practical boundaries of the Digital Government field
• Cybersecurity assessment of critical information infrastructure
• Design approaches for Digital Government solutions
• Digital Government and Knowledge Societies transition
• Digital Government and Sustainable Development Goals
• Digital Government at local, state and national levels
• Digital Government education, knowledge and competencies
• Digital Government in developing countries
• Digital Government innovation systems and management
• Digital Government measurement systems and approaches
• Digital Government research agenda and roadmaps
• Digital Government research foundations – interdisciplinary approaches, methods and frameworks, theories and standards
• Digital Government transformation and change management
• Knowledge Societies measurement systems and approaches
• Open data and open source policies and institutional mechanisms
• Open data impact on government policymaking
• Policies and strategies for Digital Government
• Policies and strategies for e-Democracy
• Policies and strategies for e-Participation
• Public policy issues and Digital Government

2.12. Track 12: The Dark Side

A high rate of adoption of IT by organizations has led to immense benefits, but it has also resulted in unintended consequences being referred to as the `Dark side of IT.' For example, researchers are examining issues of Technostress, where employees are subject to relentless work-related pressure driven by ubiquitous IT tools and devices. Other `dark' issues include privacy loss, workplace distress and distraction, and abuse of power. Though dark issues have traditionally focused on security breaches, data theft, piracy, malware attacks and espionage, the focus here is on the effect of IT on the individual working in a dense digital environment.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Adapting to constantly changing technology
• Policies for employee security and wellness
• Definitions of IT use-induced stress, technostress
• Digital distraction
• Digital stalking of employees
• Digital traceability and privacy loss
• Employee misuse of IT: data theft, security violations
• Insulating digitally-reliant knowledge societies from digital blackouts
• Measurement of stress from constant connectivity and impulse response
• Panoptic effects: omni-presence of power through digital connectivity
• Policies for managing technostress in government organizations
• Social media and cyber wellness
• Trust dimensions with respect to cybersecurity in knowledge societies
• Work-life balance with ubiquitous IT access
• Panic inducement through social media
• Reputation loss and cyber defamation
• De-skilling and job loss
• Workplace harassment through ICT
• Cyber criminals
• Computer induced health problems

2.13. Track 13: Emerging Topics

The conference also welcomes submissions that do not fit within the 12 tracks outlined above but generally address the issues that lie at the intersection of Technology, Governance and Development. In the order of priority:

i. Contributions that fall at the intersection of all three domains – Technology, Governance and Development, i.e. how Digital Government can contribute to development, and of the highest priority to the conference;

ii. Contributions to the Technology-Governance connection, i.e. the construction of Digital Government with or without the development linkage;

iii. Contributions to the Governance-Development connection, i.e. the role of public governance in advancing development and opportunities for technology;

iv. Contributions to the Technology-Development connection, i.e. the role of technology in advancing development and opportunities for governance.

The development domain may refer to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the World Summit on the Information Society, Digital India or other international or national policy instruments.

2.14. Track 14: Doctoral

Submissions to the Doctoral Colloquium are welcome from doctoral students who would like to present their research work on any topic related to the theme of the conference. Each submission should explain the research problem addressed and why the problem is important, the research questions pursued and the research methodology adopted to pursue them, what kind of scientific and technical challenges were encountered in the course of the research, and obtained or emerging research results. Presentation of student work at the Doctoral Colloquium aims at providing feedback from academic experts and building students’ peer-to-peer and professional networks.

2.15. Track 15: Posters

The conference also welcomes submissions of poster papers to describe ongoing work, including new ideas, initial results, open questions, development plans, etc. with potential to contribute to Digital Government research and practice. Accepted posters will be presented during the Poster Session to stimulate discussion, create research-practice and research-policy connections, provide feedback to the authors, and nourish opportunities for international, multi-disciplinary and cross-sectorial collaboration.

3. Submission Categories

Completed or ongoing work can be submitted in the form of research papers, experience papers, poster papers or doctoral research papers:

• Research papers – papers that document complete or ongoing research in one or more aspects of Digital Government, with proven or potential capability to advance the state of research in the field. Complete research papers are limited to 10 pages while ongoing research papers to 4 pages. All research papers should be submitted to one of the 12 defined Tracks or the Emerging Topics Track.
• Experience papers – The papers that describe completed or ongoing innovations in Digital Government policy or practice with proven or potential capability to advance the state of practice in the field, including critical success factors, challenges encountered and how they were addressed. Complete experience papers are limited to 10 pages while ongoing experience papers to 4 pages. All experience papers should be submitted to one of the 12 defined Tracks or the Emerging Topics Track.
• Doctoral research papers – The papers submitted by doctoral students to describe their ongoing research related to the topic of the conference, limited to 4 pages. Doctoral research papers should be submitted to the Doctoral Track.
• Poster papers – The papers that present new ideas and initiatives with potential to contribute to Digital Government research and practice, limited to 2 pages. Poster papers should be submitted to the Poster Track.

4. Submission Procedure

The submission procedure includes five main steps:

i. Preparation – All papers should be written in English and prepared using the ACM Word Proceedings Template (http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/pubform.doc). Each paper must be within the page limits set for the corresponding submission categories (references included): 10 pages for completed research or experience papers, 4 pages for ongoing research or experience papers or for doctoral research papers, and 2 pages for poster papers.

ii. Submission – All papers should be submitted through EasyChair – ICEGOV2017https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icegov2017  by the First Submission Deadline. Each paper must be submitted without any means of identifying the author(s) on the paper (name, affiliation, email address, etc.).

iii. Review Process – All submitted papers will undergo a double-blind review by the Programme Committee and the authors will be notified about acceptance or rejection decisions the Notification Deadline.

iv. Revision and Final Submission – The accepted papers must be revised to address reviewer comments performed on step 3 and to add author names and affiliations. The papers must then be resubmitted through EasyChair in their final format by the Final Submission Deadline.

v. Editorial Revision and Copyright Form – Once the papers are submitted as final, an editorial review will take place in order to ensure that the paper is formatted correctly to meet the ACM standards Word template and is within the page limits. Afterwards, a rights management form and complete instructions on how to fill it will be sent by the publisher to the authors of accepted papers. After completing the form online, the authors will be emailed a copy of the form and the correct rights management text. This text will then be added to the final version of the paper.

5. Publications and Awards

All accepted papers will appear in the conference proceedings on the condition that at least one author registers by the Author Registration Deadline and presents the accepted paper at the conference. As in previous years, the proceedings will be published by the ACM Press in the International Conference Proceedings Series, and selected papers will be invited for submission to the special issue of Government Information Quarterly published by Elsevier. In addition, the conference will include the best paper awards.

6. Scholarships

The authors of accepted papers will be able to apply for scholarships to partially cover the costs of attending the conference including registration and accommodation, but not travel. The preference will be given to the authors whose main affiliation is based in a developing or transition country. At most one application will be considered per accepted paper.

7. Programme

Besides presentations of submitted work – research papers, experience papers, poster papers and doctoral research papers – the programme will also include keynote lectures, plenary discussions and invited sessions by major institutional actors in the area. The programme will also include social events for networking and community building.

8. Important Dates

• Call for papers open: 20 July 2016
• Submission deadline: 19 September 2016
• Extended submission deadline: 3 October 2016
• Review assignment: 10 October 2016
• Review deadline: 7 November 2016
• Extended review deadline: 14 November 2016
• Decision notification: 21 November 2016
• Scholarship application deadline: 28 November 2016
• Scholarship notification: 5 December 2016
• Author registration deadline: 12 December 2016
• Final submission deadline: 19 December 2016
• Conference starts: 7 March 2017
• Conference ends: 9 March 2017
• Doctoral Colloquium: 10 March 2017