Browsing by Author "Krimmer, Robert"

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Automated impact assessment - How digitizing government enables rapid and tailor-made policy responses
(Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2022-09-14) Maksimova, Mariia; Alishani, Art; Solvak, Mihkel; Krimmer, Robert
As interest in the digital transformation of public administration grows, the main challenge remains to improve government governance systems and integrate a wider range of evidence into decisionmaking processes. The successful digitalization and application of such approaches improves the quality, responsiveness and flexibility of public administrations. The digialtization of processes has made it possible to use micro-level data to assess the impact of a policy or program and apply the feedback to improve the design and delivery of public services. Evidence-based policy-making evaluates programs based on their visible impacts. Large-scale data collected through digitized governance, coupled with econometric impact assessment, provides an ideal working toolkit for this. However, the current situation of European governments is one of slow adoption, as they are often slow to respond to new challenges. This is due to the static one-off impact assessment approaches used, the results of which quickly become outdated. With further digitalization, improvement of systems, and a rapidly changing situation, there is a need to speed up institutions’ ability to quickly draw working solutions to offset the effects of unexpected events in society and economy and react without delays if policy effects dissipate. This paper demonstrates how a high level of digitalization in government allows addressing such issues by automating causal impact assessment and making it a continuous part of the service delivery. The use case is an automated system for assessing active labour market policies in Estonia using individual-level data from government digital registers. Building on this, it shows how impact assessment automation depends on automatically generated data, only available due to the digitalization of other public services, and how versatile it is when it comes to proving casual evidence in a suddenly changing environment.
Building Global Societies on Collective Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities
(Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2022-10-14) Suran, Shweta; Pattanaik, Vishwajeet; Kurvers, Ralf; Hallin, Carina Antonia; De Liddo, Anna; Krimmer, Robert; Draheim, Dirk
Digital disruptions caused by the use of technologies like social media arguably present a formidable challenge to democratic values and in turn to Collective Intelligence. Challenges such as misinformation, partisan bias, polarization, and rising mistrust in institutions (including mainstream media), present a new constant threat to collectives both online and offline—amplifying the risk of turning ‘wise’ crowds ‘mad’, and rendering their actions counterproductive. Considering the increasingly important role crowds play in solving today’s socio-political, technological, and economical issues, and in shaping our future, it is vital to protect crowd-oriented systems against such disruptions. In this commentary, we identify time-critical challenges and potential solutions from emerging work on diversity, transparency, collective dynamics, and machine behavior, that require urgent attention, if future CI systems are to sustain their indispensable role as global deliberation instruments.
Data-Driven Personalized E-Government Services: Literature Review and Case Study
(Springer International Publishing, 2021-09-07) Maksimova, Mariia; Solvak, Mihkel; Krimmer, Robert
Better targeted and more personalized service offering to citizens has the potential to make state-citizen interactions more seamless, reduce inefficiencies in service provision, and lower barriers to service access for the less informed and disadvantaged social groups. What constitutes personalization and how the service offering can be customized to meet individual user demand is, however, much less clear and underdeveloped partially due to the technical and legal dependencies involved. The paper gives an overview of how personalization and customization of digital service offering have been discussed in the literature and systematizes the main strand emerging from this. It follows up with a case study of the Estonian X-road log data as one potential way to detect latent user demand emerging from an experienced life-event that could form a basis for letting users define their service needs as holistically as possible. The results show the existence of distinct service usage clusters, with specific user profiles behind them, a clear indication of latent demand that leads to a simultaneous consumption of otherwise independent digital services.
Digital Sovereignty and Participation in an Autocratic State: Designing an e-Petition System for Developing Countries
(Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2021-06-09) Lips, Silvia; Ahmed, Rozha K.; Khayyam, Zulfigarzada; Krimmer, Robert; Draheim, Dirk
Establishing a sustainable citizens-government dialogue is a crucial topic on the agenda of many countries. E-petition systems are among the most popular and effective tools for establishing a responsive and effective dialog between governments and citizens. E-petition systems mitigate the gap between citizens and government authorities and contribute to the empowerment of citizens. This study aims to determine how to increase citizens’ participation in decision-making processes through the case of an e-petition system in Azerbaijan. The research employs a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods within a case study design. Data were collected from a triangulation of multiple sources, i.e., interviews with state authorities and online survey among the citizens of Azerbaijan. Additionally, we reviewed experiences from other countries that introduced e-petition systems, in order to better understand the success factors of and obstacles to launching e-petition systems, with a particular focus on the needs of developing countries. The outcome of this study is a proposed design of an e-petition system model that can be considered in developing countries.
E-Vote-ID 2022
(2022-10) Krimmer, Robert; Volkamer, Melanie; Duenas-Cid, David; Budurushi, Jurlind; Germann, Micha; Glondu, Stéphane; Hofer,Thomas; Krivonosova, Iuliia; Martin-Rozumilowicz, Beata; Rønne, Peter; Zollinger, Marie-Laure
This volume contains papers presented at E-Vote-ID 2022, the Seventh International JointConference on Electronic Voting, held during October 4–7, 2022. This was the first in-personconference following the COVID-19 pandemic, and, as such, it was a very special event forthe community since we returned to the traditional venue in Bregenz, Austria. The E-Vote-IDconference resulted from merging EVOTE and Vote-ID, and 18 years have now elapsed sincethe first EVOTE conference in Austria.Since that conference in 2004, over 1500 experts have attended the venue, including scholars,practitioners, authorities, electoral managers, vendors, and PhD students. E-Vote-ID collectsthe most relevant debates on the development of electronic voting, from aspects relating tosecurity and usability through to practical experiences and applications of voting systems, alsoincluding legal, social, or political aspects, amongst others, turning out to be an importantglobal referent on these issues.
Elections in digital times: a guide for electoral practitioners
(2022) Krimmer, Robert; Rabitsch, Armin; Kužel, Rast’o; Achler, Marta; Licht, Nathan
Strengthening democracy and electoral processes in the era of social media and Artificial Intelligence Democracy requires free, periodic, transparent, and inclusive elections. Freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and the right to political participation are also critical to societies ruled by the respect of human rights. In today’s rapidly evolving digital environment, opportunities for communication between citizens, politicians and political parties are unprecedented –– with information related to elections flowing faster and easier than ever, coupled with expanded opportunities for its verification and correction by a growing number of stakeholders. However, with billions of human beings connected, and disinformation and misinformation circulating unhinged around the networks, democratic processes and access to reliable information are at risk. With an estimated 56.8% of the world’s population active on social media and an estimate of 4 billion eligible voters, the ubiquity of social networks and the impact of Artificial Intelligence can intentionally or unintentionally undermine electoral processes, thereby delegitimizing democracies worldwide. In this context, all actors involved in electoral processes have an essential role to play. Electoral management bodies, electoral practitioners, the media, voters, political parties, and civil society organizations must understand the scope and impact of social media and Artificial Intelligence in the electoral cycle. They also need to have access to the tools to identify who instigates and spreads disinformation and misinformation, and the tools and strategies to combat it. This handbook aims to be a toolbox that helps better understand the current scenario and share experiences of good practices in different electoral settings and equip electoral practitioners and other key actors from all over the world to ensure the credibility of the democratic system in times of profound transformations.
Electronic Voting: 6th International Joint Conference, E-Vote-ID 2021, virtual event, October 5-8, 2021
(Springer Cham, 2021-09-28) Krimmer, Robert; Volkamer, Melanie; Duenas-Cid, David; Kulyk, Oksana; Rønne, Peter; Solvak, Mihkel; Germann, Micha
This book constitutes the proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Electronic Voting, E-Vote-ID 2021, held online -due to COVID -19- in Bregenz, Austria, in October 2021. The 14 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 55 submissions. The conference collected the most relevant debates on the development of Electronic Voting, from aspects relating to security and usability through to practical experiences and applications of voting systems, as well as legal, social or political aspects.
Electronic Voting: 7th International Joint Conference, E-Vote-ID 2022 Bregenz, Austria, October 4–7, 2022 Proceedings
(Springer International Publishing, 2022) Krimmer, Robert; Volkamer, Melanie; Duenas-Cid, David; Rønne, Peter; Germann, Micha
This volume contains papers presented at E-Vote-ID 2022, the Seventh International Joint Conference on Electronic Voting, held during October 4–7, 2022. This was the first in-person conference following the COVID-19 pandemic, and, as such, it was a very special event for the community since we returned to the traditional venue in Bregenz, Austria. The E-Vote-ID conference resulted from merging EVOTE and Vote-ID, and 18 years have now elapsed since the first EVOTE conference in Austria. Since that conference in 2004, over 1500 experts have attended the venue, including scholars, practitioners, authorities, electoral managers, vendors, and PhD students. E-Vote-ID collects the most relevant debates on the development of electronic voting, from aspects relating to security and usability through to practical experiences and applications of voting systems, also including legal, social, or political aspects, amongst others, turning out to be an important global referent on these issues.
European Interoperability Landscape Report 2022
(Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions, 2022) Krimmer, Robert; Solvak, Mihkel; Alishani, Art; Dedovic, Stefan; Schmidt, Carsten; Castle, Salina
The delivery of cross-border digital public services largely depends on the ability of public administrations and businesses to transfer data across borders. Therefore, access to trusted, interoperable, and secure data-exchange solutions is essential for delivering cross-border services but is also crucial for establishing the Single Digital Gateway (SDG) and building a functioning European Digital Single Market (DSM). Numerous projects, alliances, and partnerships have been implemented to explore and develop different solutions that would support the creation of an interoperable future for Europe. Thus far, a clear understanding of cross-border data exchange initiatives is lacking, especially regarding roles, specifications, interdependencies, and technological differences between initiatives. This study report aims to start mapping European cross-border data-exchange solutions and initiatives, analyse the status of adoption, and investigate different aspects of these initiatives pertaining to legal, commercial, and technical specifications. Also, the report discusses the future outlook of European cross-border digital public services. Findings from this study could provide valuable insights for policymakers, solution owners, and service providers as it informs them about the interoperability, extensibility, and sustainability of European cross-border data exchange initiatives and projects.
Global Intelligent Governance—A Collaborative Platform
(Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2021-06-09) Ahn, Michael; Chen, Yu-Che; Ganapati, Sukumar; Krimmer, Robert; Viale Pereira, Gabriela; Pliscoff, Cristian; Tseng, Hsien-Lee; Wu, Jiannan
The purpose of this panel on “Global Intelligent Governance—A Collaborative Platform (GIG-CP)” is to discuss the feasibility and need for developing a collaborative platform to facilitate a global network-to-network collaboration of research in intelligent governance (IG). The discussion could provide a guide to establish the platform which will enable collaboration among international research networks. The platform will facilitate establishing common protocols for sharing high quality and high value open data. It would transform data-driven public engagement in collaborative decision making processes. There are three aims of the project: (i) to facilitate the development of research network collaboration; (ii) to enable the design of a global data hub, and (iii) to examine the IG skills required for the future workforce.
How to Implement the European Digital Single Market: Identifying the catalyst for digital transformation
(2022) Schmidt, Carsten; Krimmer, Robert
COVID-19 is regarded as a major driver for digital transformation of our society and, potentially as a boost for further digital single market integration. From the current perspective, pandemics cannot be avoided, but fully enabled digital societies will be better prepared to cope with them in future. This will, however, require reliable digital infrastructures to be put in place and further developed. Member States of the European Union and the European Commission have worked for more than 30 years to realise a European Digital Single Market. One key element in this development has been the so-called 'Large Scale Piloting' (LSP) approach. This paper will focus on implementation of the 'Once-Only Principle' Pilot (TOOP) as part of LSP and the adjoint Single Digital Gateway Regulation (SDGR). This paper will examine whether, and how these initiatives can foster further integration into a digital single market.
On State-Level Architecture of Digital Government Ecosystems: From ICT-Driven to Data-Centric
(Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2021-05) Draheim, Dirk; Krimmer, Robert; Tammet, Tanel
The \digital transformation" is perceived as the key enabler for increasing wealth and well-being by politics, media and the citizens alike. In the same vein, digital government steadily receives more and more attention. Digital government gives rise to complex, large-scale state-level system landscapes consisting of many players and technological systems { and we call such system landscapes digital government ecosystems. In this paper, we systematically approach the state-level architecture of digital government ecosystems.We will discover the primacy of the state's institutional design in the architecture of digital government ecosystems, where Williamson's institutional analysis framework supports our considerations as theoretical background. Based on that insight, we will establish the notion of data governance architecture, which links data assets with accountable organizations. Our investigation results into a digital government architecture framework that can help in large-scale digital government design e_orts through (i) separation of concerns in terms of appropriate categories, and (ii) a better assessment of the feasibility of envisioned digital transformations. With its focus on data, the proposed framework perfectly _ts the current discussion on moving from ICT-driven to data-centric digital government.
Sixth International Joint Conference on Electronic Voting E-Vote-ID 2021. 5-8 October 2021
(University of Tartu Press, 2021) Krimmer, Robert; Volkamer, Melanie; Duenas-Cid, David; Germann, Micha; Glondu, Stéphane; Hofer, Thomas; Krivonosova, Iuliia; Kulyk, Oksana; Martin-Rozumilowicz, Beata; Rønne, Peter; Solvak, Mihkel; Zollinger, Marie-Laure
This volume contains papers presented at E-Vote-ID 2021, the Sixth International Joint Conference on Electronic Voting, held during October 5-8, 2021. Due to the extraordinary situation provoked by Covid-19 Pandemic, the conference is held online for second consecutive edition, instead of in the traditional venue in Bregenz, Austria. E-Vote-ID Conference resulted from the merging of EVOTE and Vote-ID and counting up to 17 years since the _rst E-Vote conference in Austria. Since that conference in 2004, over 1000 experts have attended the venue, including scholars, practitioners, authorities, electoral managers, vendors, and PhD Students. The conference collected the most relevant debates on the development of Electronic Voting, from aspects relating to security and usability through to practical experiences and applications of voting systems, also including legal, social or political aspects, amongst others; turning out to be an important global referent in relation to this issue. Also, this year, the conference consisted of: · Security, Usability and Technical Issues Track · Administrative, Legal, Political and Social Issues Track · Election and Practical Experiences Track · PhD Colloquium, Poster and Demo Session on the day before the conference E-VOTE-ID 2021 received 49 submissions, being, each of them, reviewed by 3 to 5 program committee members, using a double blind review process. As a result, 27 papers were accepted for its presentation in the conference. The selected papers cover a wide range of topics connected with electronic voting, including experiences and revisions of the real uses of E-voting systems and corresponding processes in elections. We would also like to thank the German Informatics Society (Gesellschaft für Informatik) with its ECOM working group and KASTEL for their partnership over many years. Further we would like to thank the Swiss Federal Chancellery and the Regional Government of Vorarlberg for their kind support. EVote-ID 2021 conference is kindly supported through European Union's Horizon 2020 projects ECEPS (grant agreement 857622) and mGov4EU (grant agreement 959072). Special thanks go to the members of the international program committee for their hard work in reviewing, discussing, and shepherding papers. They ensured the high quality of these proceedings with their knowledge and experience.