Open AccessThe practitioners guide to a digital index: Unearthing design-principles of an abstract artefact
Author(s) -
Fredric Skargren,
Karin García Ambrosiani
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
information polity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1875-8754
pISSN - 1570-1255
DOI - 10.3233/ip-200262
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , government (linguistics) , context (archaeology) , process (computing) , e government , knowledge management , index (typography) , public relations , administration (probate law) , open government , public administration , computer science , business , process management , information and communications technology , political science , sociology , world wide web , open data , law , social science , paleontology , biology , operating system , linguistics , philosophy
Based on the perspective of e-government practitioners at a government agency in Sweden, this article analyses the design-process with the aim of unearthing the design-principles of a Digital Index (DI). The DI is developed to address challenges of how to: understand; appraise; learn from and develop e-government – by combining digital technologies with the context of public administration. This study applies a design-science research method and analyses the initial steps of the design-process: awareness of the problem, suggestion, and development. The results show how the abstract artefact – the DI – is constructed and how it is based on three main design-principles. Firstly e-government should be contextualised with the nature of public administration – which means relating digital technologies vis-a-vis core-businesses of a public authority. Secondly: digital technologies support administrative processes and must be premised on the classification of information and law. Thirdly, apply a process view of e-government that highlights the relationship between internal administrative procedures, the interaction with citizens/companies and the sharing of government data. The discussion highlights how the DI is relevant for research on e-government by offering some concrete as well as general perspectives on how to combine e-government and public administration.