A Conceptual Model for the Measurement of E-Government 2.0 Adoption by Developing Countries

Web 2.0 And E-Democracy

When World Wide Web opened the doors of knowledge to the public during the decade of the 1990s, the Web looked like a set of static pages with texts, images and weblinks. The static content of the internet was useful for information seeking but less useful for interaction between the internet viewers. Several changes in social and technological levels raised the need for the transformation of the world wide web to a new version that embedded all those changes. The most important changes were (Shelly & Frydenberg, 2010):

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  The usage of personal computers in schools, offices and homes.

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  The advancement in mobile communication because mobile phones were equipped with access to the Internet.

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  The accessibility of Web applications on many types of electronic devices.

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  The society’s encouragement of all these technological innovations and expectation of an increase in the sectors that would apply internet technology.

The new version of the World Wide Web was baptized as Web 2.0. This innovative web version is commonly used by virtual communities to maintain their status and to implement the will of their members. Web 2.0 as a concept and a term originated from Tim O Reilly (2003) who characterized the Web as a platform for software applications that focus on the interaction between internet users. Since then, Web 2.0 still continues to develop itself and adopts the state of the art technologies so as to take advantage and to meet the needs of the broadband world. Web 2.0 is not only a hardware and software conceptual model, but it is based on the social use of technology with associated advantages of meeting the common needs of communities.

Teamwork (Rothwell, 2012) and democracy (Coleman & Shane, 2011) are the main pillars of Web 2.0. Teamwork refers to the work performed by a team or a community towards a common goal where each member of the team contributes in the working process. For instance, if a Facebook group exists that gathers electronic signatures to save the whales in Japan, then each member of the group can use it to persuade people outside the community to sign an electronic membership enrolment form. In this case, teamwork operates in the Web 2.0 community in order to reach the common goal which is the preservation of the lives of the whales. Democracy is the second element of the Web 2.0 and it is implemented in various ways. The word democracy itself is of Greek origin and describes the unity of “demos” (people) and “kratos” (power). In other words, it is a philosophy that strongly supports the “power to the people” message where people vote equally for the future and take decisions upon common issues.

The electronic utilization of democracy is popular under the name of e-Democracy (Insua, 2010) and it is present at the electronic community through various forms such as e-participation and e-voting. Electronic democracy is time and location independent (Meier, 2012) because it enables the citizens to participate in the public governance from any place and at any time they wish. The electronic participation of the citizens promotes transparency and strengthens the bonds between the community members. Governmental authorities all over the world consider e-Democracy as one of the most important tools for national progress. Especially in the continents of Europe and USA, e-Democracy seems to influence the local culture and people tend to show relatively less discrimination towards minorities and disabled people.