Title: A citizen-centric, semantically enhanced governmental portal

Authors: Nikolaos Loutas, Vassilios Peristeras, Konstantinos Tarabanis

Addresses: Information Systems Lab, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia str., 54006, Thessaloniki, Greece. ' National University of Ireland, Digital Enterprise Research Institute, IDA Business Park, Lower Dangan, Galway, Ireland. ' Information Systems Lab, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia str., 54006, Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract: Governments and citizens alike can benefit from the development of Web 2.0 government applications. This work presents a citizen-centric public-service information portal, i.e., MyPortal.gov. The public service descriptions offered by MyPortal.gov are based on a mature public service model and are annotated using lightweight semantics. Public service descriptions are also enriched explicitly and implicitly by the users. MyPortal.gov allows the visual browsing of public service descriptions, e.g., using tag clouds. Public service recommendation mechanisms have also been implemented. The evaluation results of the portal revealed that users welcome the use of applications that engage them in public service provision.

Keywords: Web 2.0; e-government; governmental portals; public services; public service description; public service models; citizen-centric; semantic annotation; linked data; electronic government; public service information; tag clouds.

DOI: 10.1504/EG.2011.042812

Electronic Government, an International Journal, 2011 Vol.8 No.4, pp.363 - 384

Published online: 04 Oct 2011 *

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