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UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Context Matters. A Social Informatics Perspective on the Design and Implications of Large-Scale e-Government Systems. Oostveen, J.M Publication date 2007 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Oostveen, J. M. (2007). Context Matters. A Social Informatics Perspective on the Design and Implications of Large-Scale e-Government Systems. [S.l. : s.n.]. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:27 Sep 2021 CONTEXT MATTERS A Social Informatics Perspective on the Design and Implications of Large-Scale e-Government Systems ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. mr P.F. van der Heijden ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Aula der Universiteit op 23 januari 2007, te 12.00 uur door JOHANNE MARIE OOSTVEEN geboren te Woerden Promotiecommissie: Promotor: Prof. dr. P. van den Besselaar Overige leden: Prof. dr. K.L.K. Brants Prof. dr. S. Coleman Prof. dr. J. Grin Prof. dr. R. de Hoog Dr. S. Wyatt Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen Copyright © Anne-Marie Oostveen, Amsterdam 2007. Printed by PrintPartners Ipskamp, Enschede. ii CONTEXT MATTERS A Social Informatics Perspective on the Design and Implications of Large-Scale e-Government Systems Anne-Marie Oostveen iii In herinnering aan mijn vader Co Oostveen iv Table of Contents List of original publications ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction xiii 1. Theorizing the Relationship between Technology and Society 1 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Technological Determinism 1.3 Social Constructivism 1.4 Social Informatics 1.5 Participatory Design 1.6 The Research Questions 2. The FASME and TRUEVOTE Case Studies 29 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The FASME Case 2.3 The TRUEVOTE Case 3. Research Methodology 45 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Researching User Needs and Opinions 3.3 Studying Complex ICT Applications in Context 4. From Small-Scale to Large-Scale User Participation: 59 A Case Study of Participatory Design in e-Government Systems 4.1 Introduction 4.2 From Small to Large Scale PD 4.3 The Case: The FASME Project 4.4 The Stakeholders 4.5 Organising User Participation 4.6 The Results 4.7 Lessons 4.8 Conclusion and Discussion v 5. Linking Databases and Linking Cultures: 77 The Complexity of Concepts in International e-Government 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Large Technical Systems 5.3 User Involvement 5.4 Concepts, Classifications, Systems 5.5 Conclusion and Discussion 6. Internet Voting Technologies and Civic Participation: 89 The User’s Perspective 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Internet Voting 6.3 Internet Voting Categories 6.4 Internet Voting: Opportunities 6.5 Internet Voting: Risks 6.6 Data and Methodology 6.7 Results 6.8 Conclusion and Discussion 7. Social Experiments with e-Voting: 105 A Social Informatics Approach 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Set-Up of the Research 7.3 Findings 7.4 Conclusions 8. Security as Belief. User’s Perceptions on the Security of Electronic Voting Systems 129 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Voter-Verifiable Electronic Voting 8.3 Security in the TRUEVOTE System 8.4 Conclusions vi 9. The Effects of Voting Technologies on Voting Behaviour: 143 Issues of Trust and Social Identity 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Theoretical background 9.3 Methodology and Model 9.4 Findings 9.5 Discussion 10. Conclusions 163 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Participation in Large Technical Systems 10.3 Social Effects of e-Government Technologies 10.4 The Role of Experiments 10.5 The Social Informatics Approach 10.6 Suggestions for Future Research Samenvatting 185 References 189 Appendix A1: FASME – Mobile Citizens Questionnaire 207 Appendix A2: FASME – Citizens Evaluation Questionnaire 213 Appendix A3:TRUEVOTE – Design of the Demonstration Questionnaires 217 Appendix A4: TRUEVOTE – Voting Sessions Checklist 227 vii viii List of original publications Chapter 4 has been published as: Anne-Marie Oostveen & Peter van den Besselaar (2004) From Small Scale to Large Scale User Participation: A Case Study of Participatory Design in e-Government Systems. In: A. Clement, F. de Cindio, A. Oostveen, D. Schuler & P. van den Besselaar Artful Integration: Interweaving Media, Materials and Practices. New York, ACM Press, pp. 173-182. A somewhat shorter version of Chapter 5 has been published as: Anne-Marie Oostveen & Peter van den Besselaar (2001) Linking Databases and Linking Cultures. The Complexity of Concepts in International e-Government. In: B. Schmid, K. Stanoevska-Slabeva and V. Tschammer (eds.) Towards the E-Society: E- Business, E-Commerce, and E-Government , Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 765-774. Chapter 6 has been published as: Anne-Marie Oostveen & Peter van den Besselaar (2004) Internet voting technologies and civic participation, the user’s perspective. Javnost / The Public Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 61-78. Chapter 7 has been submitted as: Anne-Marie Oostveen & Peter van den Besselaar (2006) Social Experiments with E- voting: a Social Informatics Approach. A shorter version of Chapter 7 has been published as: Peter van den Besselaar, Anne-Marie Oostveen,, Fiorella de Cindio, and Davide Ferrazzi (2003) Experiments with e-voting: experiences and lessons. In: Paul Cunningham (ed.), Building the Knowledge Economy - Issues, Applications and Case Studies . Amsterdam: IOS-press, pp. 719-727. A somewhat shorter version of Chapter 8 has been published as: Anne-Marie Oostveen & Peter van den Besselaar (2004) Security as Belief. User’s Perceptions on the Security of Electronic Voting Systems. In: A. Prosser and R. Krimmer (eds) Electronic Voting in Europe: Technology, Law, Politics and Society. Lecture Notes in Informatics P47, pp. 73-82. A longer version of Chapter 8 has been published as: Anne-Marie Oostveen & Peter van den Besselaar (2004) Ask No Questions and Be Told No Lies. Security of computer-based voting systems: trust and perceptions. In: U.E. Gattiker (ed) EICAR 2004 Conference CD-Rom . A shorter version of Chapter 9 has been published as: Anne-Marie Oostveen & Peter van den Besselaar (2005) The Effects of Voting Technologies on Voting Behaviour: Issues of Trust and Social Identity. In: Social Science Computer Review 23, pp. 304-311 ix x Acknowledgements I have spent five very pleasurable years working on my PhD. thesis. I loved doing the research and everything that surrounded it: attending international conferences and project meetings, burying myself in stacks of books and articles, interviewing respondents, organising scientific seminars, reviewing papers, having fierce arguments with project members (which then later were settled during our wonderful social events), and discussing my work with colleagues. Of course, writing my dissertation was really arduous at times, but for the most part it was great fun, not in the least because of the involvement of some great people to whom I am forever grateful. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. dr. Peter van den Besselaar for his expert and wise counsel and tireless, highly professional assessments of my work. I would particularly like to thank him for his great patience in always standing willing to answer far too many of my questions despite his busy schedule. His unstoppable enthusiasm and his mission for providing high-quality work, has made a deep impression on me. I owe him lots of gratitude for having shown me this way of research. Part of the work underlying this thesis has been funded by the European Commission, Information Society Technology program. I want to thank all my colleagues in the FASME and TRUE-VOTE projects. I have immensely enjoyed working with them and treasure the invaluable experience of having had the opportunity to work with experts from not only academia, but also government and business. I am especially grateful to all the respondents involved in the FASME and the TRUE- VOTE projects who gave us their generous cooperation and without whom my research could not have been conducted. Thanks are due to those who have had the dubious pleasure of sharing offices with me: Anders Bouwer at the Department of Social Science Informatics at the University of Amsterdam, for his kindness and calming influence on me. Gaston Heimeriks, Barbara Dubbeldam and Eleftheria Vasileiadou at the Social Science Department of the Netherlands Institute for Scientific Information Services (NIWI), part of the Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), for their clever, sympathetic and humorous support. I should apologize to them for my awful habit of talking out loud to myself. It must have driven them up the wall! A special heartfelt thanks goes to my colleague Iam Hooijen for being my friend and sounding board. One hundred thousand thanks! Most of the articles presented in this thesis were peer reviewed by anonymous researchers working for academic journals. The valuable changes, additions and corrections suggested by these independent authorities have greatly enhanced the quality of this thesis.