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June in Vienna:
Beyond Bureaucracy

Reaching Beyond Bureaus: Perspectives and Challenges of Sustainable, Non-Bureaucratic Government

Participate - You're Invited!

You are young, ambitious, and (or) have great knowledge how to shape the future of government? Or just a great idea how to do so? Then come, participate in the "Beyond Bureaucracy" workshop in June 2015 (5th-7th) at the Vienna University of Technology.

How do you mean »Beyond Bureaucracy« ???

It's about goying beyond what human kind had so far in terms of governing societies. About going beyond electing representatives every couple of years, who then stear the vast bureaucratic machinery which we perceive as "the state". It's about how ICTs enable humanity to fundamentally restructure the government of the public domain.

Think about it for a while: we're the first generation in human civilization, which has available a ripe set of ICTs. Never ever in human history before we could interact in a way we can do nowadays. Besides: ICTs have reached a level of maturity and penetration in the last ten years, which enables us to go truly beyond approaches we have seen so far.

In the last few decades we have seen radical transformation in telecommunications, in transport, logistics, credit transfer, navigation, etc., etc. But we haven't yet seen transformation in the government of public matters. Well, sure, we saw things like online tax returns, e-voting, open data. But, let's be frank - that's only using ICTs to imitate old principles of government, it's not beyond bureaucracy.

» first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one «

e-Government Legacy

e-Government has been driven by myths [1], and was found to be unsustainable [2]. Activities in this field did not deliver an alternative to traditional concepts so far (maybe they never will?). Can these findings be explored further?

Non-Bureaucratic Government

Decision-Making beyond Voting

Can dislocated (potentially very large) groups of people make decisions about common assets or common matters, which do not need to be interpreted by institutions? Or is it unavoidable to delegate decision-making to institutions (like parliaments, government agencies, ...)?

Participatory Budgeting / Bottom-Up Excise

How can a society self-organize its common budget (taxes etc.)? Are institutions to collect, govern, and redistribute public assets absolutely necessary or can exaction be done self-organized?

Self-Government / Self-Organization through Technology

Can core public-domain institutions (e.g. police, etc.) be realized without central institutions? How can a society dynamically self-organize its public sector institutions / projects / programmes and bind them directly to collaborative decision making?

Computing

Identification, Authorization, Signing

What are the challenges of the electronic identity? How can we overcome them to reach a system that will provide sustainable global identification for centuries to come?

Apropos: Quantum Computing?

Increased computerization of societal interactions comes with significant computing challenges. Can these be sufficiently addressed with classical computing approaches? Let us explore also possible synnergies with Quantum Computing / Information to address future needs!

Who else will be there?

Your participation will make a great event even better. The event is spearheaded by a growing community of distinguished scientists (we're working on having some interesting non-science people there as well), such as ...

  • Alois Paulin
    Vienna University of Technology, Austria
  • Sahar Sahebdivan
    University of St Andrews, UK
  • Simon Delakorda
    Institute of e-Participation, Slovenia
  • Uroš Pinterič
    University of St. Cyril and Methodius, Slovakia
  • Marko M. Skoric
    City University of Hong Kong
  • Leonidas Anthopoulos
    TEI Larissa, Greece
  • Zhendong Ma
    Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria
  • Matouš Hrdina
    Charles University Prague, Czech Republic)
  • ...

Wanna contribute?

It's about communication, not structure! Drop a mail to: apaulin at caa.tuwien.ac.at and tell us: what do you want to communicate, how do you want to communicate it, and why what you want to communicate is important.

You want to present a poster? Give a talk? Hold a lecture? Let us know, we'll do our best to squeeze it in.* (*As long as we see it has value for the theme of the event!)

We'll come back to you almost immediately, promised!
(Don't forget to tell us who you are and what you've done so far!!!)

[1]
Bekkers, V. & V. Homburg (2007). “The Myths of E-Government: Looking Beyond the Assumptions of a New and Better Government.” Inf.Soc. doi:10.1080/01972240701572913.
[4]
Adams, C. (2001). For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization
[5]
Downs, A. (1967). Inside Bureaucracy.