E-GOVERNMENT SERVICE INNOVATION IN THE SCOTTISH CRIMINAL JUSTICE INFORMATION SYSTEM

The paper features an original case study of integration of the Scottish criminal justice information systems, charting the ten-year history of the project. After briefing referencing international e-government experience, it critically assesses e-government in the UK, arguing that following an auspicious start laying infrastructure, e-government now focuses on cost-saving process improvements and is less successful at inter-organisational integration and citizen interactions, responding poorly to the challenges of interactive Internet (Web2) and service interoperability. Surveying literature on the use of project management techniques, it argues that popular e-government tools prescribe closed innovation when more open innovation frameworks (Chesbrough, 2006) may be appropriate to e-government. Two themes emerge: that the nature of e-government project management is closed rather than open and secondly, that e-government is often inadequately conceptualised in technical and organisational terms. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd