Ομότιμη παραγωγή και ψηφιακή διακυβέρνηση

Abstract

This thesis aims to study the possible ways of using Commons Based Peer Production (CBPP) practices and methods in e-Governance. E-governance has become, especially in recent years, an important and integral part of the functions in public administration. Even more public administration functions are performed digitally, more of the employees’ tasks requires the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and more intensively, the public administration is looking for ways to simplify procedures including large bureaucratic burden. There is the need, to study the way in which e-governance policies are implemented and formulated, how the become services or applications, ready-to-use, by the citizens, the public administration or anyone interested. In the present thesis, we propose a way to analyze e-governance, beyond technical specifications and quantitative results. Actor Network Theory (ANT) is used to show the interactions that take place in the background of e-governance projects. These interactions reflect the wider social, political, institutional environment and include all the stakeholders (citizens, employees, enterprises etc.). Thus, a network of actors is created who interact each other, creating a dynamic environment. Within this dynamic environment, the practices of Commons Based Peer Production can be integrated. Peer production is a theoretical field that proposes a new way of production, giving high importance to the decentralized organization and the collective efforts of the communities involved. Peer to peer (P2P) production is a theory that has found great response in the internet era. Many efforts (either commercial or not) work this way. Wikipedia, Linus Operating System, file transfer services (as BitTorrent Protocol) are some of the most well-known case studies that use peer-to-peer production principles. Peer to peer production is based on the commons, a very important notion and theoretical field, which is elaborated in this thesis, and is becoming more important with the emergence of digital commons.