The document discusses two projects examining Norwegian local governments' strategies for implementing information and communication technologies (ICT). The first project analyzes strategies to support local industrial development using advanced ICT based on interviews and documents. Most governments are not very active, but some exceptions pursue different strategies varying in technological integration and government engagement. The second project analyzes local government websites, finding variations in information quantity/quality, communication/service options, and configurations of users. The majority of sites provide information, while a growing number offer services, and few enable democratic participation, indicating geographic digital divides.

1. Communicating local
governments: Implementing
community informatics
Knut H. Sørensen
NTNU

2. Briefly about the project
The project examines the visions and strategies of
Norwegian local governments with respect to the
implementation of advanced ICT-based communication.
We study the challenges local governments and local
firms meet through such efforts and identify
characteristics of successful efforts to improve services
and increase their social value.
Two sub-projects:
 Local governments’ strategies to support local industrial
development based on advanced ICT (to be finalised by
summer, 2011)
 Vision and strategies of local government with respect to
implementing ICT to improve services (PhD project to be
finalised fall, 2012)

3. In this talk
Local governments’ strategies to support local
industrial development based on advanced ICT,
based on interviews and analysis of documents,
newspapers and professional journals.
Analysis of local governments web pages, based
on quantitative content analysis of all such web
pages, and in-depth qualitative analysis of the
web pages of 10 municipalities

4. I. Local governments’ strategies to support
local industrial development based on
advanced ICT
Main finding: Most local governments are not
very active, but there are some exceptions
We have studied four local communities,
pursuing different strategies.
Strategies differ along two main dimensions:
 Technological integration – the degree to which ICT is
woven together with established industry or is a
prominent feature of local industry.
 Degree of engagement of local government – seems
most decisive in terms of outcome

5. Two main forms of local
government engagement
Ambassador
 Engaging in talent scouting and networking
 Demanding in terms of level of activity
 Depends on a strong interest in innovation and local
development
 Usually carried out by the mayor in small communities
 Results in a feeling of empowerment with respect to coping with
technological opportunities
Substitute chief officer
 Less demanding and thus more tempting
 Does not require innovative thinking of local politicians
 Initiatives are delegated to consulting companies
 Hired expertise tend to be transitory, making local politicians
frustrated and helpless with regard to identifying ways of making
new ICT contributing to local value creation.

6. II: Web pages of local communities
Some findings
 All 430 municipalities have Web pages
 All offer information, but with large variations in terms of quantity and
quality
 All offer at least a simple form of communication (a common email
address)
 Only 9% offer more advanced forms of communication (chats or instant
messaging services)
 60% offer at least one type of electronic service
 18% offer interactive access to several local community services
(kindergarten application, job vacancies, building licenses, after-school
programmes)
 Almost all Web Pages offer electronic contact with politicians, but there
is nearly no interactive access to politicians
 14 % of the municipalities offer electronic forums for political matters.

7. A new geographical digital divide?

10. Web pages as assemblages
Three main types of assemblages:
 Information assemblages – web pages mainly
offering information, configuring users as
information seeking
 Citizen assemblages – facilitating mediated
democratic participation, configuring users as
politically active
 Client assemblages – offering interactivity
with respect to municipal services, configuring
users as ICT competent clients

11. What characterise the web pages
of local governments
The majority is based on more or less
comprehensive information assemblages
A growing number display a hybrid of
information and client assemblages
Only a small number of the municipalities
offer a hybrid of all three assemblages

12. Some conclusions
There are very substantial differences
between national visions about local
governments’ use of ICT and the actual
practice
There are very substantial differences
between local governments in terms of
level of activity, strategies and what they
offer to the public
As a consequence, there are
geographically caused digital divides that