[ecrea] cfp Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government CeDEM 2017

                Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government CeDEM 2017

                    17-19 May 2017, Danube University Krems, Austria

                            http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/cedem17

                                        Call for Papers
                                        ---------------

            Submission deadline for all papers, workshop proposals, 
reflections:

                                        12 December 2016

The international Conference for e-Democracy and Open Government (CeDEM) 
brings together e-democracy, e-participation and open government 
specialists working in academia, politics, government and business to 
critically analyse the innovations, issues, ideas and challenges in the 
networked societies of the digital age.

We invite individuals from academic and applied backgrounds as well as 
business, public authorities, NGOs, NPOs and education institutions to 
submit their papers, reflections as well as workshop proposals to the 
topics addressed in the tracks. We welcome interdisciplinary approaches 
to the conference topics/tracks:
•    Research papers/Case studies/Project papers: 12 pages maximum 
(double-blind peer-reviewed);
•    Reflections: 6 pages maximum (selected by the chairs);
•    Workshops: 4 pages maximum (selected by the chairs);
•    PhD Colloquium papers: 3 pages maximum (excluding literature list; 
selected by the colloquium track directors);

Full papers submitted are peer-reviewed in a double-blind process, and 
published in IEEE Proceedings. Workshop proposals, PhD colloquium papers 
and Reflections selected by the chairs are published in the Edition 
Donau-UniversitätKrems Proceedings.

The CeDEM offers a PhD Colloquium in cooperation with the Danube 
University Krems’ Platform for Political Communication and netPOL 
(www.netpol.at). The PhD Colloquium provides PhD students the 
opportunity to present their work and gain feedback from experts as well 
as meet other PhD students. Students from any stage of their PhD are 
invited to submit their work and apply for the CeDEM PhD Bursary.The 
CeDEM also provides an Open Space, where participants can submit 
proposals, then democratically choose and organise their own 
presentations, workshops, birds of a feather, events, meetings 
etc..Since 2014, the CeDEM conference presents the author/s of the best 
paper with the “CeDEM Best Paper Award”. Papers are nominated for this 
award by the reviewers during the peer-review process; the best paper is 
then selected by the CeDEM’s track directors.Authors of the best 
peer-reviewed papers will be asked to re-submit their revised and 
extended papers for the autumn issue of the Centre for E-Governance’s 
Open Access eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government (www.jedem.org).

Important Dates
===============
•    Submission deadline for all papers, workshop proposals, 
reflections: 12 December 2016
•    Notification of acceptance: 13 February 2017
•    Camera-ready paper submission and author registration: 6 March 2017
•    Conference: 17-19 May 2017

Conference Chairs
=================

NoellaEdelmann & Peter Parycek (Danube University Krems, AT)
(noella.edelmann /at/ donau-uni.ac.at)
(peter.parycek /at/ donau-uni.ac.at)

CeDEM17 Tracks
==============

Track: E-Democracy and E-Participation
======================================

Chairs: Fiorella De Cindio (University of Milan, IT), Mauri Kaipainen 
(Södertörn University, SE), AlonPeled (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, IL)
The explosion of social media is fuelling new and unanticipated 
directions in e-democracy and e-participation - from increased pressure 
for direct democracy, new ideas to engage citizens in service and/or 
policy co-design, co-delivery and co-evaluation. This session will 
explore the latest trends and ongoing challenges facing this evolving 
field, trying to outline the emerging traits of a new model of inclusive 
e-participation for local/territorial and global/virtual communities. We 
welcome papers presenting case studies and papers with a more 
theoretical focus, but encourage in particular authors to combine them 
for challenges, analyses and elaborations on further developments. 
Typical issues might be, but are not limited to:
•    Sustainability of e-participation and citizen engagement; best 
practices and key factors for success; motivational factors and the 
impact of participation;
•    Participatory and communication platforms; ICT for e-participation; 
mobile media and new forms of participation; applications for citizens;
•    New kinds of interactions between citizens and other societal 
stakeholders, citizens and government interaction, business and 
government interaction; different perspectives held by citizens, 
government, NGOs, NPOs, practitioners, service providers;
•    Citizen inclusion and digital divide: gender, age, education, etc.;
•    New approaches to direct democracy, new forms of democracy enhanced 
by ICT and the impact of new technologies, in particular block chains, 
to the development of e-participation;
•    Inclusive e-governance in the context of Regional Smart Specialisation;
•    Living Labs and Social Innovation;
•    E-participation and cooperation for development;
•    Business and e-participation;
•    Critical perspectives: wrongdoings, bad and worst experiences, hype 
but not reality, fringe groups;

Track:Social Media, Public Administration and Citizen Engagement
================================================================
Chairs: Marko Skoric (Nanyang Technological University, SG), Morten 
Meyerhoff Nielsen (Tallinn University of Technology, EE), Natalie Pang 
(Nanyang Technological University, SG)
Social media integrate Web 2.0 technologies, user-generated content 
creation, and social interactions in the domains of public 
administration and citizen engagement. It encourages innovations within 
governments towards organizational benefits (such as reducing 
transaction costs, efficient dissemination, cooperative and 
cross-organizational work etc.) and also fosters citizens' engagement 
with their governments. Topics include, but are not limited to:
•    Social media and social networks in public administration and 
government: practical experiences, theoretical approaches, legal 
frameworks: country reports;
•    Information provision, new services, service delivery, and service 
quality;
•    Social media platforms and applications to foster the interaction 
between public administration and citizens: e-consultation, 
participatory budgeting, participatory city planning, online petitions;
•    Inclusion, accessibility, legal obstacles, dos and don'ts, 
transparency and control: exploring the opportunities, risks and 
challenges of socialmedia platforms and applications in the public 
administration;
•    Types of citizens' social media use (informational, 
expressive,relational, entertainment, identity-building, etc.) and 
theirparticipatory outcomes/consequences;
•    Unintended consequences of social media uses and other 
emergingbehaviours such as polarisation, exposure to disagreement, echo 
chambers,and unfriending/unfollowing;
•    Social media use by political parties and citizen mobilisation 
duringthe elections;
•    Government surveillance of social media; surveillance as 
citizenfeedback.

Track: Open Collaborative Government
====================================
Chairs: MuneoKaigo (University of Tsukuba, JP), Sylvia Archmann 
(Austrian Chancellery, AT)
Collaboration across organizational boundaries can significantly 
increase the quality, the efficacy, and also the efficiency of 
government. However, it also faces many hindrances. In some situations 
the organizational reality reads "My agency is my castle". Particular 
objections exist against collaboration across different levels of 
government, and even more against collaboration between government and 
civil society or between government and industry. We are interested in 
research papers, which study the problems, present case studies, design 
innovation solutions, identify success and failure factors, or provide 
overviews of existing research results. Papers should highlight the role 
of information and communication technology, but they should equally 
discuss political, organizational, and/or cultural aspects. Topics 
ofinterestsinclude, but are not limited to:
•    Innovative collaboration platforms and tools;
•    The use of social media, collaboration, or decision making tools;
•    The role of  interoperability as an enabler of collaboration, e.g. 
EIF and CEF infrastructure support collaboration;
•    The implementation of cross-organizational collaboration or 
decision making processes;
•    Informal or formal collaboration between government and civil 
society, PPPs (private-public-partnerships), shared funding, etc.;
•    Evaluation methods for collaboration initiatives;
•    Success or failure criteria, empirical observations of success;
•    Semantic, legal, organisational, contextual or other hindrances for 
collaboration.

Track: Open Data, Transparency and Open Innovation
==================================================
Chairs: Anneke Zuiderwijk (TU Delft, NL), Johann Höchtl (Danube 
University Krems, AT),Ramon Gil-Garcia (University at Albany, US)
Open data can provide a platform for many forms of democratic 
engagement: from enabling citizen scrutiny of governments, to supporting 
co-production of public data and services, or the emergence of 
innovative solutions to shared problems. This track explores the 
opportunities and challenges to open data production, quality assurance, 
supply and use across different levels of governance. Key themes include:
•    Open data policy and politics: opportunities and challenges for 
governments; the global spread of open data policy; transparency and 
accountability, economic innovation, drivers for open data; benefits and 
challenges for developing countries;
•    Licensing and legal issues: copyright vs. open licenses & Creative 
Commons; Freedom of Information and the ‘right to data’; information 
sharing and privacy;
•    Open data technologies: technical frameworks for data and 
meta-data; mash-ups; data formats, standards and APIs; integration into 
backend systems; data visualisation; data quality; data end-users and 
intermediaries;
•    Open data as a valuable resource towards the European data market: 
Open Data and Public Sector Information as a source for Business 
Intelligence; Open Data, closed data and data market intermediaries; New 
market models, roles and responsibilities;
•    Open data as a social movement: How can the global trend towards 
open data be conceptualized as a form of collective action? How do 
challengers and incumbents organize and change? How is the data branch 
embedded in the field of open movements?
•    Open innovation and co-production: open data enabled models of 
public service provision; government as a platform; making open data 
innovation sustainable; data and democracy; connecting open data and 
crowdsourcing; data and information literacy;
•    Evidence and impacts: costs and benefits of providing or using open 
data; emerging good practices; methods for open data research; empirical 
data measuring open data impacts, public value generation and open data.

Track: Citizens’ Participation in Democratic Governance Processes 
through ICT in Africa
=======================================================================================
Chairs: Johnstone Baguma – Kumaraki (Toro Development Network, UG), 
WakabiWairagala (CIPESA, UG), Wilfred Warioba (Commission for Human 
Rights and Good Governance, TZ)
InformationCommunication Technologies (ICT) offer concrete opportunities 
for local and national governments to improve their performance in terms 
of transparency, participation and decentralization (Guchteneire and 
Mlikota, 2008). Many other scholars globally, have echoed related 
statements previously. However, the greatest challenge is that many are 
anecdotal and coming across empirical case studies to support such 
conclusions becomes difficult. For instance, this track will present 
evidence-based experiences of ICT-enabled, citizen-led democratic 
engagements for good governance in the Eastern and Southern African 
regions. The track will provide more normative than positive knowledge 
to practitioners, public sector, service providers and academic 
researchers. With comparison to other initiatives in Africa and the 
developing world, submissions should focus, for example, on:
•    How simple, affordable, and cost effective ICT tools are used to 
activate and facilitate local citizens’ participation in governance issues;
•    Electronic virtual platforms for citizens’ participation and 
e-participation;
•    Model discussions of how local citizens’-led advocacy forums, 
Voluntary Social Accountability Committees (VSACs), human rights 
networks and other initiatives in the region are using these platforms;
•    Initiatives that use the ICT tools convergence approach, that 
combine online social, broadcast media and mobile technology to mobilize 
local citizens for offline physical meetings, to democratically engage 
local and central government leaders;
•    Improving accountability for essential service delivery at the 
grassroot level;

Track: Open Access
==================
Chairs: Antonio Vetró(NexaCenter for Internet & Society, IT), Lorenzo 
Canova (NexaCenter for Internet & Society, IT)
Open Access (OA) is a concept that applies to both scientific 
publications and other related entities, including scientific data, 
thatare freely accessible and reusable. The Berlin Declaration, one of 
the milestones of the Open Access movement, states that OA contributions 
must satisfy two conditions: that “a free, irrevocable, worldwide, right 
of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and 
display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works” 
is granted by the author(s) and rights holder(s) of such contributions 
and that a “complete version of the work and all supplemental materials” 
in a “standard electronic format” is available online, to ensure 
“unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term 
archiving”.While we welcome any innovative contribution concerning OA, 
the focus of the track is on emerging models grounded on cooperation, 
defragmentation of resources, knowledge sharing and non-rivalrous reuse 
of significant amounts of content, with the aim of paving the path 
toward a “networked science”. In particular, we encourage the submission 
of papers on:
•    Robust methodologies and empirical analysis that are able to 
provide evidence about the benefits of OA;
•    Proposals concerning the use of OA repositories for innovative 
purposes, such as new forms of research assessment and evaluation;
•    Open scientific data, i.e., scientific data whose usage is 
unrestricted, or placed under permissive terms that guarantee the free 
access and reuse of data.

Track: Communities, Participation and Civic Engagement
======================================================
Chairs:JakobSvensson (Uppsala University, SE), Judith Schossböck (Danube 
University Krems, AT), Peter Mambrey (Universität Duisburg-Essen, DE)
Civic engagement in communities or in single-issue formations relies on 
the utilisation of ICT and the internet (in combination with traditional 
and offline methods) to mobilise, to coordinate activities and to 
organise discourse. This track welcomes papers that studies how 
so-called „new“ media facilitates, constrains, affords and influences 
such civic engagement and participation. We are interested in issues 
such as the logic of connective and collective action, aspects of peer 
production and a focus on communities, participation and citizens in 
different fields: from science (citizen science) to politics (bottom-up 
movements and activism). We welcome theoretical as well as empirical 
papers and are open to different types of methodological approaches 
including qualitative and innovate solutions to data-gathering. Topics 
include, but are not limited to:
•    The formation of communities and (collective) identities;
•    Bottom-up movements, grassroots activities and the counter-public 
sphere;
•    New media activism, hacktivism and modern forms of civic online 
engagement;
•    The study of social and cultural capital in new media or social media;
•    The study of power and (in)equality within bottom up movements as 
well as in relation to society at large;
•    The effects of new media usage on identities and behaviour of 
online groups and communities;
•    The logic and nature of civic online engagement and NGOs/NPOs in a 
network society;
•    Online spaces for self-organisation and the negotiation of 
(collective) identities;
•    User generated content, peer production and crowd-sourcing 
(including online research communities);
•    Citizen and group driven innovation (including citizen science and 
open innovation);
•    The methodology for the study of online communities (nethnography).

Track: Information Visualization for the People
===============================================
Chairs: Michael Smuc (Danube University Krems, AT), Florian Windhager 
(Danube University Krems, AT)
    From its early days to its current mass application as statistical 
charts or interactive infographics, information visualization has been 
striving for academic elaboration and the broadening of its target 
audiences. With specific regard to both of these aspects, the track is 
looking for contributions where information visualization meets 
political data and content in the public communication domain. 
Submissions may focus on case studies, evaluations, as well as 
conceptual or theoretical contributions on:
•    Translational work between academic and application oriented 
communities of practice;
•    Optimization of representations to provide insights into complex 
subject matters;
•    Non-expert audiences, casual infovis contexts and strategies for 
visual literacy development;
•    Transparency and critical reflection of design choices for visual 
representations;
•    Developments in the emerging field of data journalism or other 
public communication domains;

Track: Connected Smart City
===========================
Chairs: Carlos E. Jiménez Gómez (IEEE Computer Society e-Gov 
STC&estratic, US), Francisco Falcone (UPNA/IEEE STC e-GOV, ES), 
GabrielaViale Pereira (Danube University Krems, AT), Jörn von Lucke 
(Zeppelin University, DE), Norbert Kersting (University of Münster, DE)
This track provides a platform for the various living labs, initiatives 
and projects that work on or with concepts of "Smart Cities". It aims at 
sharing experiences as well as test results and to further investigate 
relations of innovative technologies and democratic societies. 
Government & Governance, Citizenship & Cities as well as Information & 
Knowledge Society are key elements of a new view of  the world as a 
“system” in which the aim should be to achieve the highest degree of 
governance within a city, where benefits are maximized and disadvantages 
are minimized. Contributions are especially appreciated on the following 
topics:
•    Becoming a smart city: Best practices, failures & practical challenges;
•    Successful technologies for encouraging citizen participation;
•    Successful technologies for integrating all dimensions of human, 
collective, and artificial intelligence within the city;
•    Smartness vs. Openness? Open data & Big data, Usability 
&Accessability, the internet of things and co-production;
•    Do smart cities need smart people? Relations of innovative 
technologies, democratic societies & concepts of "Smartness";
•    The 4 incremental stages where ICT transform the public 
organizations and produce better services to the citizens: 
e-Administration, e-Government, Open Government and Smart Government;
•    The social implications of technology, social cities,  the best 
options for citizens, avoiding the negative impacts of technology;
•    The Interoperability Principle as a part of the Open Government 
concept and linking this concept with the Smart Cities view;

Track: E-Voting
===============
Chairs: Robert Krimmer (Tallinn University of Technology, EE), Jesus 
Cano (IEEE eGovernment Co-chair, UNED, USPCEU, EU)
Exploring a holistic approach to e-voting. Specifically, we aim to 
explore e-voting issues, gather perspectives and present practical 
solutions. Discussion of emerging technologies and their application to 
e-voting (kiosk and remote), often following outside-of-the-box thinking 
are particularly welcome:
•    Discussion of all forms of electronic voting: including, but not 
limited to, polling station, kiosk or remote voting by electronic means;
•    Interdisciplinary issues (e.g. technology, law, politics and 
society) in the design and implementation of e-voting;
•    Presenting new ways of solving the voting paradigm: the unequivocal 
identification of the voter and the full anonymity of the vote;
•    Implementations, their legal, organisational and technical 
framework, project experiences;
•    Analysis of the interrelationship between the effects of e-voting 
on democratic institutions, processes and voter behaviour;
•    Conducting social and political analysis on the effects of 
electronic voting;
•    Practical experiences in implementing and conducting elections with 
electronic voting parts;
•    Discussion of security requirements and testing in accordance to 
international security standards i.e. Common Criteria or ITSEC;
•    Evaluation of e-voting: the effects and how to evaluate experiments;
•    Verifiability of e-voting: individual and/or universal approaches 
to verification of e-voting;
•    Usability of e-voting: user interface evaluation and criteria for 
usability scales;
•    Future trends;

Track: Political Communication & Public Spheres in a Digital Age
================================================================
Chairs: Christina Hainzl (Danube University, AT), Jonas Kaiser (Berkman 
Klein Center for Internet & Society at Hardvard University, US), 
Francisco Seoane Perez (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, ESP), 
Cornelius Puschmann (Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet & 
Society and Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research at the University 
of Hamburg, DE), Markus Rhomberg (Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen, DE)
Digital communication is affecting all areas of political communication 
on a macro-, meso- and micro-level. Studying current phenomena like the 
UK referendum to leave the European Union, the campaign of Donald Trump, 
or other populist attempts to use migration, terrorism or security issue 
are challenging not only political actions, but also researchers. It is 
paramount to critically (re-)assess traditional models of democracy, the 
(transnational) public sphere, to analyse and compare the changing 
structure of the media environment and its impacts on discourse, 
participation, the effects of digital media on its users in a political 
context, as well as communication strategies of political organizations.
We invite empirical and/or theoretical contributions, as well as case 
studies on the changing nature of the relationship between citizens, the 
public, political actors and the media in a digital environment.Typical 
issues might include, but are not limited to:
•    The implications of a (transnational) networked public sphere on 
the quality of modern democracy, discourses and political decision making;
•    Policy debates in a digital environment;
•    The role of experts in digital policy debates;
•    New agents and actors in the digital sphere;
•    Discourse structures, strategic framing, and issue careers;
•    Interactions and interdependencies between digital and traditional 
media;
•    New journalistic practices in a digital age;
•    Propaganda and deception in online discourse;
•    Diffusion of political communication online;
•    Critical assessments and reflections on a networked public sphere;
•    The role of counter-publics and populist political actors;
•    Effects of digital communication on user perceptions, attitudes, 
and political orientation;
•    Digital communication strategies and news management of political 
organizations in national and supranational contexts (e.g. government 
communication, strategies of international organizations, populist 
political communication).

Track: Identity, Privacy, and Security
======================================
Chairs: ReinhardRiedl (Bern University of Applied Sciences, CH), Bettina 
Rinnerbauer(Danube University Krems, AT)
We are looking for papers dealing with:
The design, modeling, standardization, and use of electronic identities 
and trust services and/or the development of the eID ecosystem as a 
whole – focusing on issues such as:
•    Take-up by users and relying parties;
•    eIDAS and cross-border usage;
•    Use of eIDs in e-participation;
Critical privacy issues such as
•    Correlation of data across different domains;
•    Identity misuse, violation of privacy, or abuse of personal data;
•    Measures to ensure and protect privacy rights;
•    Fundamental discussions of government obligations and roles;
Cybersecurity in a democratic society such as
•    The needs for government actions;
•    The collaboration of actors from different sectors of society;
•    Specific threats in the context of e-democracy;
Challenges of policy making related to identity, privacy, and security 
such as
•    Use of blockchain technology and other disruptive technologies;
•    Non-government solutions created by civil society;
Aspects of trust related to identity, privacy, and security, such as
•    Cultural, social, and contextual differences;
•    The role of institutions.

Track: Emerging Issues in E-Democracy and Open Government
=========================================================
Chairs: MartijnHartog (The Hague University of Applied Sciences, 
NL),Bert Mulder (The Hague University of Applied Sciences, NL), Josef 
Hörmandinger (SalzburgerLandtag, AT), Yuri Misnikov (St. Petersburg 
State University, RU)
The interdisciplinary track ‘Emerging Issues’ aims to broaden and deepen 
analysis, strategic foresight and development, future studies, 
innovations and quality assessments on the broad adoption of E-Democracy 
and Open Government in governmental organizations. Submissions should 
clarify the benefits, opportunities and challenges of the adoption of 
information and communication technologies by (digital) citizens and 
(digital) governments. Material and initiatives should reflect on how 
governments, suppliers and other stakeholders could create optimal 
circumstances to support a participatory society. Applicable topics of 
interest are:
•    Open Government, Transparency, E-Democracy;
•    Open Spending, Open Data, Linked Data, Big Data;
•    E-Participation, Co-Creation, Co-Design, Self-Governance, Networks, 
Smart Cities; IT Infrastructures and Architectures, Standardizations, 
Design Theories, Methods and Frameworks.

Reflections
===========
Chair: Michael Sachs (Danube University Krems, AT)
Reflections are for ideas, methods, results and outcomes that are in 
progress, in the early stages, novel or innovative. They must represent 
original work and must not have been published previously. They can, but 
must not, address topics addressed in the tracks, or they can represent 
interdisciplinary approaches to the conference topics. Reflections are 
short papers, and will not be peer-reviewed.
•    The submissions should have a maximum of 6 pages and will be 
selected by the chairs of the conference;
•    Length: 6 pages max.

Workshops
=========
Chairs: MalgorzataGoraczek(Danube University Krems, AT), Thomas 
Lampoltshammer (Danube University Krems, AT)
Workshops should focus on latest scientific research, emerging 
technologies and breakthroughs in policy and programme. The workshop 
content should be current, supported by research and consistent with 
best practices. They should promote and enhance opportunities for 
knowledge transfer, skills development and collaborative learning. 
Workshop proposals need to communicate a clear sense of the workshop: 
the goals, objectives, and how to transfer knowledge or the skills to 
the participants. They must target smaller audiences and focus on 
audience participation and interaction. Formats can be discussion or 
small group work, case-studies, demonstrations, role play, small group 
activities, problem-based learning. Whilst workshops can include 2-4 
discussion leaders, the workshop should not represent a collection of 
presentations with a short question&answer session at the end.
•    Workshops last 90 minutes;
•    Submissions are selected by the chairs of the conference;
•    Length: 4 pages max.

PhD Colloquium
==============
Chairs: Anneke Zuiderwijk (TU Delft, NL), Christina Hainzl (Danube 
University Krems, AT), Peter Parycek (Danube University Krems, AT)
The CeDEM offers a PhD Colloquium in cooperation with the Danube 
University Krems’ Platform for Political Communication and netPOL 
(www.netpol.at). The PhD Colloquium provides PhD students the 
opportunity to present their work and gain feedback from experts as well 
as meet other PhD students. Students from any stage of their PhD are 
invited to submit their work in relation to any of the conference 
topics. The PhD paper should try to address: aim of the PhD, theory 
and/or models, hypotheses, results, analysis of data, the PhD’s 
contribution to the body of knowledge.
•    PhD students can apply for a bursary: http://tinyurl.com/cedem17phd
•    Length: 7 pages max.


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