Digital Government and the Internet of Things

Description

The Internet of Things (IoT) is disruptive and a fundamental game changer already impacting almost all aspects of everyday individual and organizational life. IoT is massively changing the way humans act and interact with each other even without noticing or knowing IoT’s underlying workings. IoT embodies and enacts the idea of connecting everyday physical and logical objects that intelligently interact with each other in various including autonomous ways via the Internet. IoT integrates, is enabled by, or enables other advanced technologies such as Big Data Analysis, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. Application areas include but are not limited to one’s personal home, car, and lifestyle, as well as basically all industries such as energy, transportation, manufacturing, retail, logistics, agriculture, and healthcare. Furthermore, government at all levels and in all branches is beginning to implement IoT (smart cities, smart infrastructures, safety/security, etc). IoT technologies are rapidly permeating all layers and aspects of any existing infrastructures fundamentally improving, changing, extending, and redefining them.

While the potential benefits of IoT will be significant, IoT also poses never-encountered vulnerabilities and opportunities for harmful impacts.

The purpose of this minitrack is to explore the role of government, and, in particular, Digital Government, in the evolution and proliferation of the Internet of Things.

We welcome submissions on varied topics around IoT, such as (but not limited to):

• Government roles in advancing certain IoT network architectures and designs
• Public sector smart objects and smart object connections
• Public sector IoT data flows and data analytics
• IoT security in government
• IoT and open data
• IoT management platform in the public sector
• IoT-related regulation and statutes
• Smart grids (transportation, energy, safety, etc.)
• IoT social impacts and outcomes
• Ethical considerations, privacy concerns, and the right to know
• Artificial intelligence and IoT in government

Minitrack Leaders

John Carlo Bertot is Ph.D./Syracuse, is Professor at the University of Maryland's College of Information Studies. He also serves as Co-Director of the Information Policy & Access Center. His research and teaching focus on information policy, equitable access, and public service innovation. He served as editor of Government Information Quarterly from 2000-2015, and is past-president of the Digital Government Society.

Hans Jochen Scholl, PhD, MBA serves as a Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. He earned a Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of Albany, NY/SUNY and also holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the GSBA Zurich, Switzerland. His research interests focus on understanding human-originated complex systems, in particular, by means of system dynamics. Besides quantitative approaches, he also embarks on qualitative research using Action Research, Situational Action Analysis among other methods. Areas of study include information management, electronic government, disaster studies (disaster information management), technology evolution, and pro sports information management. Jochen is a past president of the Digital Government Society and serves as Chair of the IFIP WG 8.5 (IS and Public Administration). Jochen's group also maintains and publishes the E-Government Reference Library (EGRL).

Euripidis N. Loukis is Professor of Information Systems and Decision Support Systems in the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering of the University of Aegean. Previously he has taught at the Postgraduate Program 'Athens MBA' of the National Technical University of Athens and the Athens University of Economics and Business, at the University of Thessaly, and at the National Academy of Public Administration. He has an extensive experience as Information Systems Advisor at the Ministry to the Presidency of the Government of Greece, as well as National Representative of Greece in the Programs 'Telematics' and 'Interchange of Data between Administrations' of the European Union. He has conducted extensive research in the areas of e-government, e-participation, ICT adoption, business value and impact, and decision support systems, and has participated in numerous European and national research programs in these areas. Dr Euripidis Loukis is the author of more than 200 papers in international journals and conferences in the above areas. His papers have been honoured with prestigious international awards, such as the International Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in the area of Controls and Diagnostics, the Best Paper Award of the European and Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems, and the Most Innovative Research Contribution award of the IFIP EGOV-EPART Conference.