Virtual Reality for Smart Government – Requirements, Opportunities, and Challenges

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) might enable promising novel applications to involve citizens and businesses in governmental processes. As the body of literature in the field of VR in digital government is limited, we conducted an exploratory interview study with experts from the fields of e-government (both academia and practice) and VR technology to gain more knowledge about the potential utilization of the technology for smart government. The semi-structured interviews were encoded around thematic topics that emerged from the data. The findings cover important requirements, chances and opportunities, risks and challenges as well es potential application scenarios. Among other factors, authentication has been identified both a requirement and a core challenge to apply VR in governmental services. Despite recent decreases in prices of VR devices, our experts considered current costs still high for general interest. Nevertheless, promising potential applications such as community gatherings or the immersive presentation of urban planning projects have been identified.