10th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance Held in New Delhi

The 10th edition of the International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV 2017) was held in New Delhi from March 7-9, 2017.

• The three-day long conference was organized by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India, in collaboration with United Nations University and UNESCO.
• Theme: Building Knowledge Societies: From Digital Government to Digital Empowerment
• Objective: ICEGOV 2017 focused on the use of technology to transform relationships between government and citizens, businesses & civil society.
• The ICEGOV 2017 was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad.
• Besides, Ms. Maria Manuel Leitao Marques, Minister of Presidency and Administrative Modernization, Portugal, Shri P. P. Chaudhary, Hon’ble MoS, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, Mr. P. K. Sinha, Cabinet Secretary and Ms Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology were also present during the launch of the conference.

About International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV)

The ICEGOV is a series of international conference on theory and practice of electronic governance that focuses on the use of technology to improve public governance and its contribution to public policy and development.

• In other words, it can be seen as having similar objective as the flagship Digital India programme of the Government of India.
• This is the first time since the start of the conference that it is being hosted by India. The past nine editions of ICEGOV have been held in Africa, East Asia, Europe, South America and North America.
• The conference is coordinated by the United Nations University Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance (UNU-EGOV), based in the city of Guimaraes, Portugal.
• The ICEGOV conference series was founded precisely by the Center for Electronic Governance at UNU-IIST based in Macau SAR, China and the first edition was held in Macau.
• The ICEGOV invites submissions of original work, not published or considered for publication elsewhere, including research papers, experience papers, posters, doctoral research papers and tutorials on electronic governance.

Rationale of ICEGOV Conference

The main purpose of the conference is to bridge the gap that hinders the effective utilization of the technology benefit for the overall development of the nation.

• It focuses on shifting from utilizing technology for improving internal government operations (Electronic Government) to improving interactions between government, citizens, businesses and other non-state actors (Electronic Governance or EGOV).
• It calls for creating a stronger governance to enable transparent and accountable institutions that are responsive to the needs of people, and meaningful participation of individuals and strong collaboration between the government and the governed in governance processes to tackle inequalities and promote social inclusion.

ICEGOV 2017

The main objective behind ICEGOV-2017 is to explore how Digital Government can lead to Digital Empowerment by local knowledge.

• Academia, governments, international organizations, civil society, and the private sector from around the world participated to share the insights and experiences in theory and practice of Digital Government and submitted research papers on the same.
• About 1000 delegates including more than 200 international guests were present during the conference which received a record-breaking 560 papers from almost 60 countries and economies.

Call for Paper

The call for paper was announced on 20 July 2016 and saw a record number of submissions.

• By the application deadline on 3 October 2016, a total of 560 submissions were received which was three times more than the number of submissions from the previous record of 166 set by ICEGOV2012 in Albany, USA.
• All 560 accepted papers were published in the conference proceedings by ACM Press, while 70 selected papers were invited for submission to the special issue of Government Information Quarterly published by Elsevier.
• The best paper and best reviewer awards were also announced at the conference.

Other Programme

In addition to research papers, experience papers, poster papers and doctoral research papers, the programme also had keynote lectures, plenary discussions and invited sessions by major institutional actors in the area.

• The programme also includes Digital Exhibition and special events highlighting the Indian experience and achievements in digital governance.
• Special events titled ‘Building Capacities within Government for Enabling Digital Empowerment -CIO Conclave’, ‘GIS in Local Governance and Digital Infrastructure’, ‘How to benefit from FIWARE open platform to accelerate development of innovative smart city services’ and ‘Data Analytics’ was also held as the key highlight of the conference.
• Thematic Track Sessions were held on the topics like Digitization, Transformation, Engagement, Contextualization, Ethics & the Dark Side, Open Government, Digital Citizenship, Digital Culture & Inclusion, Digital Healthcare & Education, Smart Cities, Villages & Regions, Policy, Research & Innovation and e-Government & Applications

2018 ICEGOV

The ICEGOV 2018 will be held in Galway, Ireland.