Electronic Data Safes - personal information management at the intersection of electronic process support and user-managed access in e-business and e-government

Abstract

In private households, paper-based documents are increasingly substituted by electronic documents. In order to “get organized”, an individual nowadays needs to oversee a plethora of digital and physical information items stored at various locations. As a technological solution to alleviate or overcome this problem of information fragmentation, cloud-based storage services such as Electronic Data Safes (EDS) emerge as the quasi-natural habitat for all digital valuables. Besides storing such information items, an (active) EDS also connects individuals and organizations from the private and the public sector to exchange information items related to business processes following the user-managed access paradigm. This means, that the individuals decide with whom they want to share specific information items. In other words, an EDS acts as a tool or service at the intersection of personal information management and process support in the domain of e-government and e-business.
This thesis investigates the overarching research question: How can we reduce or even overcome information fragmentation in the context of e-business or e-government processes? by putting the EDS concept into practice. This is done by researching existing EDS services and by carrying out exploratory research using the prototype of an active EDS. Thereby, this thesis contributes to e-government, e-business, and human com-puter interaction by providing new knowledge and insights due to an in depth-analysis of current practices and by uncovering challenges and requirements that are relevant for the future design of EDS solutions or cloud-based information item storage solutions in general.
The thesis consists of four research essays. The first essay gives an overview of the current landscape of electronic data safes in the e-business and e-government domain. Thereby, and with its in-depth study of business models for EDS, this essay provides the foundation and context for the further research activities of this thesis.
Essays two and three identify current usage patterns and emerging problems from the user-perspective when individuals chose to store their information items in an EDS. The second essay investigates what it means to go paperless with the help of an EDS in terms of user-behavior. A typology of content that is kept safe in an EDS is developed. Moreover, the users’ motivations are reflected and an EDS’s role with respect to other cloud-based storage services is analyzed. Also, the challenges of maintaining a digital, personal archive are depicted and “data value zones” are introduced as a sensitizing concept to reflect upon problematic areas.
The third essay focusses on the aspect when digitally stored information items eventually become a digital legacy and which strategies people choose to shape and give access to it. Pre-mortem password sharing is identified as a common coping strategy. Additionally, the challenges associated with passing on a digital legacy, such as the lack of enculturated practices, difficulties in the appraisal and selection of information items, the preference for deletion, and implicitly transferring data stewardship duties are described and discussed to suggest design implications.
The fourth and last essay reports on the results of an evaluation of an EDS prototype with e-government and e-business process support in order to identify potential benefits, challenges, and problems. Four barriers for the adoption of an active EDS in the light of transformational government are identified: (1) offering citizens unfamiliar services that have the charac-ter of experience-goods; (2) failing to fulfil common service expectations of the customers; (3) failing to establish contextual integrity for data sharing, and, (4) failing to establish and run an (active) EDS as a multi-sided platform providing an attractive business model. Furthermore, design implications are suggested to overcome the identified challenges and problematic areas.
The last chapter wraps up the findings from the four essays and puts them into context with smart government initiatives aspiring to the idea of “government 4.0” or “industry 4.0” that are being discussed as emerging future topics.