Smart Technologies for Smart Nations

Abstract

This edited volume Web 2.0 Technologies and Democratic Governance enhances our understanding of how Web 2.0 technologies are impacting the management of public service delivery, citizen protest, and mobilization against government policies, political campaigning, participatory democracy, and governance processes. In our world today where the Internet provides an avenue for reducing the constraints of time and space, the use of collaborative technologies and social media tools like blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and many more are reshaping the landscape of government–citizen interactions regarding public management and democratic governance. Although many argue that Web 2.0 offers a lot of promise to improve the efficiency of public management and the governance process, most of the existing research tends to focus on social networking sites and political participation. Much less attention has been paid to developing a better understanding of the policy and management implications of the uses of Web 2.0 technologies. This edited volume fills our knowledge gap in the uses and effects of Web 2.0 technologies by helping us to understand their managerial, policy, and political uses in government, some of the existing shortfalls, and by recommending some improvements. Through a rigorous peer review process that focused on relevance, quality, and extent of contribution to the theme of the book, this edited volume presents the works of international experts that make significant contributions to the study of how Web 2.0 affects democratic governance. Collectively, these chapters provide theoretical and practical insights into how social media and related applications can be used to: (1) support a network of public servants to communicate, collaborate, and enhance the management of service delivery; (2) enable government employees and citizens to have online interaction on relevant government programs and policy issues; (3) empower citizens to hold government officials accountable using social networking and user-generated contents; and (4) enable citizens to participate in the democratic process. The book provides a good source of reference for professors, graduate students, researchers, and professionals in information systems, public administration, and political science fields. In particular, government officials and policy makers vii interested in how best to use Web 2.0 technologies to improve service delivery and democratic governance will find the book very useful. The editors thank the reviewers for their invaluable service in making this project a success.