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* dg.o 2007 Highlights


Bridging Disciplines & Domains

May 20 -23, 2007, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Overview

The 2007 dg.o conference theme of bridging disciplines and domains emphasized the value of linking computer science and social science, government and research, educator and practitioner.  The conference program included 25 research presentations, 42 posters and system demonstrations, 8 panels, as well as keynote events, workshops and tutorials.  The full program presents the entire schedule of events.  Link to research papers and panel descriptions below and find the full proceedings including short papers describing posters and demos, in the ACM Digital Library.

The conference this year initiaited several 'firsts':  the first year the conference was sponsored by the nascent Digital Government Society, the first year we made awards for best paper, best demo, and best poster, all highlighted below. 

The conference committee included Therea Pardo, University at Albany/SUNY, and Judith Cushing, The Evergreen State College (conference co-chairs); Alan Borning, University of Washington and Marijn Janssen, Delft University of Technology (program co-chairs), and many others .

 

Keynote Speech

William Pelgrin, Director of the New York State Office of Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure Coordination and Founder and Chair of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) was the keynote speaker.

He addressed the lessons learned and challenges facing government agencies as they collaborate to share information about networks and computing infrastructures across state, national, and private sector boundaries in support of emergency response. 

Key Remarks:

  • Cyber Security is everyone's business; we are very vulnerable
  • It is time to break down the walls of silence
  • Information sharing is critical to understanding how and where we are vulnerable
  • Don't make it a pre-requisite to be inclusive; model sharing to build trust
  • Leadership is personal and social; you have to build trust relationship by relationship

Mr. Pelgrin focused on the importance of both leadership and personal responsibility in evolving a more responsive and open government. His passion for his topic and commitment to exemplifying his beliefs came through with wit and clarity. 

 

Keynote Panel: Global Climate Change

International and interagency data sharing, information technology, and modeling are all valuable tools for making improved observations about global warming, disaster warning, and changes in global land cover, sea level, drought, and air quality. This Keynote Panel discussed why and how innovative computing and information technology are critical to international efforts to understand and mitigate global change.

Panelists

 

Best Of Awards

Best paper award went to Jose Luis Ambite and Dipsy Kapoor for Automatic Generation of Data Processing Workflows for Transportation Modeling

Abstract:

An approach to automatically generate data processing workflows is presented to improve the productivity of analysts by encouraging the reuse of data sources and data processing operations. A methodology is defined for assigning formal semantics to data and operations according to a domain ontology, which allows sharing and reuse. Specifically, data contents are defined using relational descriptions in an expressive logic. Second, a novel planner is developed that uses relational subsumption to connect the output of a data processing operation with the input of another. The modeling methodology has the significant advantage that the planner can automatically insert adaptor operations wherever necessary to bridge the inputs and outputs of operations in the workflow. The approach is implemented in a transportation modeling domain.  

 

Rajiv Shah and Jay Kesan were awarded best paper for Governing with Information Technologies.

Abstract:

A necessary part of digital government is the use of standards that allow for technologies to interconnect and interoperate. A growing debate among the technical and policy community is
whether governments should provide preferential treatment to open standards over de facto or proprietary standards. This paper discusses preliminary research into open standards. A core finding is that scholars and policymakers need to recognize the role of politics at many phases from the development to the adoption of open standards. By focusing on the role of politics, a number of useful proposals for addressing issues around open standards are offered.

Anthony Cresswell, Theresa Pardo, G. Brian Burke and Lucy Dadayan won best poster award for Advancing Return on Investment Analysis for Government Information Technology.

Abstract:

The Center for Technology in Government (CTG) in collaboration with SAP, the business software solutions provider to public sector organizations, conducted a research
project focusing on improving government’s ability to assess public returns on IT investments. The work conducted for this project and presented in this poster will be of particular interest
to dg.o attendees since the project was based in part on five government case studies involving e-government initiatives in North America, Austria, and Israel. The public value framework
developed in the project offers a useful resource to both academics and practitioners interested in better understanding, assessing, and communicating both tangible and intangible costs
and benefits of government IT investments.

Best system demo was awarded to Seema Degwekar, Jeff Depree, Stanley Su and Howard Beck for A Distributed Event-Triggered Knowledge Sharing System.

Abstract:

Solutions to problems such as illegal immigration, terrorism, and disease diagnosis and control rely heavily on collaborating organizations’ ability to effectively and efficiently share data, but also knowledge embedded in organizational and interorganizational policies, regulations and constraints. Responding to an emergency often requires complex operating procedures to be followed. The sharing of data associated with events of interest to collaborating organizations is the focus of this demo. Condition-action, alternative- action rules, logic/derivation rules, and constraint rules are used to define organizational and inter-organizational policies, regulations, and data and security constraints. Structures of these heterogeneous rules are used to capture organizational and interorganizational processes and operating procedures. Operational procedures developed by collaborating organizations in USDA’s National Plant Diagnostics Network (NPDN) are used to show the knowledge definition facilities and the distributed event-triggered knowledge sharing strategy.

 

International Focus

There was a strong international focus to dg.o 2007 with 24 countries represented among the participants and presenters.  Of the 106 papers submitted for the conference 48 came from countries outside the U.S.  Researchers, government officials, educators, students and business leaders were represented from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Panels at the conference featured topics of direct international concern:

  • International Developments in Digital Government: Government Perspective
  • International Developments in Digital Government: Research Perspectives
  • Benchmarking and Measuring Digital Government : Lessons from the EU Experience
  • Global Climate Change
  • Building a Sustainable International Digital Government Research Community
  • Developing and Linking Digital Government Societies: Perspectives from North America, Europe and Asia

International participants discussed issues of common interest in digital government through the research sessions on Policy & Adoption, Services, Information Sharing and Crisis Management.  Additional opportunities for conversation and cross connection were found at the  Opening Reception, Poster & Demo Sessions, and Birds of a Feather Luncheon.  

 

Interdisciplinary Focus

Another cross boundary theme was "Building Bridges and Domains" which emphasized the value of links among computer science and social science, government and research, educator and practitioner. 

The well attended pre-conference workshop Computer Science and Social Science: Dual Perspectives on Interdisciplinary Research in E-Government led to a Birds of a Feather discussion that focused on the kind of research that involves these two disciplines that is not part of the mainstream research landscape.  Technology combined with social science can lead to research and practices that combines the best of both perspectives resulting in a hybrid that is both practical and relevant.

Government officials had an opportunity to share with researchers on e-government their perspective on the challenges they face as they implement and manage government policy through the panel on Bridging Research and Practice Domains. Moderator, Doug Robinson, Executive Director of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, defined some top priorities for government managers as: security, consolidation, shared services, cross boundary collaboration, disaster recovery and health information sharing.

Building a Relevant Digital Government Curriculum engaged educators and practioners in defining the education needs of the current and future government workforce. An important focus was the relevance of IT-related education in government management and policy programs and the importance of digital government within the public management curriculum, not separate from it.

 

Research Sessions

Policy and Adoption I

Hans J. Scholl (moderator)

Student Papers

Travis Kriplean (moderator)

Diffusion and Usage

Jyoti Choudrie (moderator)

Control and Integrity

Christopher Weare (moderator)

Advances in Technology

Peggy Agouris (moderator)

Information Sharing

Bienvenido Velez (moderator)

Policy and Adoption II

Stuart Shulman (moderator)

Crisis Management

Jay Kesan (moderator)

Services

Jose Luis Ambite (moderator)

Panel Presentations

This year's program included a full track of panels, which provided an expanded opportunity for discussion across a broad range of topics:

Program at a Glance

Conference Program

Conference Home Page

Conference Photos