Citizens' Discussions on e-Government Topics: The Perspective for Social Media Analysis

WThis article presents the results of citizen discussions in social media analysis on topics related to online services, e-cards, open data publication and e-petition portal, with the purpose to assess citizen involvement and participation in this area. The research focused on the Russian Federation with its separation into six federal districts. The social media monitoring service IQBuzz was selected as a research instrument. The study determined that social networks can be sources for detecting citizen interest in different topics. The larger the percentage of Internet users in a federal district, the more they posted messages on social media related to e-government, open data, e-cards and e-petition portal. The research also revealed that if citizens were not satisfied with transparency as it related to the authorities, this did not indicate their intention or will to publish petitions on Russian e-petition portal (RPI). The research revealed that the happier people were, the less they published initiatives on the e-petition portal. Increases in citizen incomes in federal district boosted their interest in publishing posts about RPI growth.