Digital government comprises all means to enable governments to interact with their constituents digitally. The metaverse provides a virtual reality environment where various activities can be carried out without physically visiting the places of interest, including the public authorities. Yet, how governments can use the metaverse is unknown. This paper aims to extend the understanding of the metaverse architecture requirements and their suitability for digital public services provision. We used the systematic literature review, experts' assessment using the Delphi method, and quantitative analysis to attain this goal. Our research contributes to the literature by eliciting the structure and composition of the functional and non-functional requirements. The contributions include (1) identification and classification of 50 functional and 16 non-functional metaverse-related architecture requirements, (2) determination and relevancy of 15 most important functional and 6 non-functional requirements for digital public services provision, and (3) suitability assessment of the 21 services recommended for provision in the EU's metaverse platform with the highest potential to attract users. These findings show that governments pose unique requirements on the metaverse. Not all types of services are suitable for providing in the metaverse. Those focused on empowering citizens and helping them to develop are most important.

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There is a lack of understanding of the elements that constitute different types of value-adding public data ecosystems and how these elements form and shape the development of these ecosystems over time, which can lead to misguided efforts to develop future public data ecosystems. The aim of the study is twofold: (1) to explore how public data ecosystems have developed over time and (2) to identify the value-adding elements and formative characteristics of public data ecosystems. Using an exploratory retrospective analysis and a deductive approach, we systematically review 148 studies published between 1994 and 2023. Based on the results, this study presents a typology of public data ecosystems and develops a conceptual model of elements and formative characteristics that contribute most to value-adding public data ecosystems. Moreover, this study develops a conceptual model of the evolutionary generation of public data ecosystems represented by six generations that differ in terms of (a) components and relationships, (b) stakeholders, (c) actors and their roles, (d) data types, (e) processes and activities, and (f) data lifecycle phases. Finally, three avenues for a future research agenda are proposed. This study is relevant for practitioners suggesting what elements of public data ecosystems have the most potential to generate value and should thus be part of public data ecosystems. As a scientific contribution, this study integrates conceptual knowledge about the elements of public data ecosystems, the evolution of these ecosystems, defines a future research agenda, and thereby moves towards defining public data ecosystems of the new generation.@en

Open government and open (government) data are seen as tools to create new opportunities, eliminate or at least reduce information inequalities and improve public services. More than a decade of these efforts has provided much experience, practices, and perspectives to learn how to better deal with them. This paper focuses on benchmarking of open data initiatives over the years and attempts to identify patterns observed among European countries that could lead to disparities in the development, growth, and sustainability of open data ecosystems. To do this, we studied benchmarks and indices published over the last years (57 editions of 8 artifacts) and conducted a comparative case study of eight European countries, identifying patterns among them considering different potentially relevant contexts such as e-government, open government data, open data indices and rankings, and others relevant for the country under consideration. Using a Delphi method, we reached a consensus within a panel of experts and validated a final list of 94 patterns, including their frequency of occurrence among studied countries and their effects on the respective countries. Finally, we took a closer look at the developments in identified contexts over the years and defined 21 recommendations for more resilient and sustainable open government data initiatives and ecosystems and future steps in this area.@en

Open government data (OGD) include the provision of government data, which have so far been reserved for the provision of public utilities and services, wherein different stakeholders may create value out of the same source. Recently, OGD initiatives around the world have dampened or were found to be inadequate for one or other reasons. The present study seeks to underline the root causes behind these inadequate or stalled initiatives with a specific focus on the developing countries. This article undertakes a literature review of the most significant studies in this area, followed by a root cause analysis wherein the database across Scopus and Web of Science has been explored with the set inclusion and exclusion criteria being set in line with the research focusing on the hinderances and bottlenecks behind the failure of OGD initiatives (n ~ 15), thus not only summarizing what has been revealed in previous studies but also identifying these “root-cause” relationships, which are responsible for the stalled OGD projects. A deep understanding of the literature on OGD shows that research of OGD barriers repeat each other. The results show that the main root causes include politico-administrative, social, technological, legal and organizational (inter- and intra) dimensions including aspects like state of the economy, infrastructural issues, the tendency to copy the OGD initiative without need to institutionalize the same, and so forth. Whereas a number of studies are available covering the barriers in the roll-out and implementation of OGD initiatives, the root causes behind the existence of these barriers have not been identified so far-the present study seeks to plug this gap. Besides being a contribution to the extant OGD literature in general, the study seeks to leave academic and practical implications for furthering up deliberations and discussions on the OGD themes with specific impetus upon the cause analysis of the failure in OGD initiatives and the manner in which the same may be corrected or preempted.@en