Each year, scholars from all over the globe present their research and share their experiences in the fields of e-government, e-participation, and ICT supported policy and governance of state under the umbrella of the two working conferences the International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 8.5 (Information Systems in Public Administration), or short, IFIP WG 8.5, is organizing. Since 2001, IFIP WG 8.5 runs the EGOV (international conferences on Electronic GOVernment) series of conferences, which has solidly established itself as one of three core conferences in the research domain of e-government, e-governance, and e-participation. Since 2009, ePart, the International Conference on eParticipation, has emerged from the strand of EGOV as a sister conference focusing on the domain of e-participation. Henceforth, EGOV concentrated more on e-government-related topics. The common strands of ICT-enabled public governance, ICT-enabled policy making and public service provision strongly unites these two conferences. Accordingly, the chairs of both conferences maintain close links and are committed to co-locating the two events also in the years to come. Co-location intentionally allows for exchange and cross-fertilization between the two communities.

Papers at IFIP EGOV and ePart shine through scientific credibility and rigor as well as through high relevance to practice. Likewise the keynote speakers come from both practice and academia, which presents a fruitful combination as practice can drive research, and research is needed by practice.

Like its predecessors, IFIP EGOV 2014 and ePart 2014 conferences attracted scholars from around the world as a venue of high reputation. The IFIP EGOV 2014 “Call for Papers” attracted a wide range of topics with 70 submissions, which included 27 accepted full research papers and 27 posters and ongoing research papers. In addition, a workshop about “Critical Success Factors for Open Data – From Policy to Participation and Innovation” was organized. The papers of ongoing research were grouped under the following headers:

• Stakeholders and participation

• Open data and interoperability

• ICT-enabled policy-making

• Services

• Design, architecture and processes

• Evaluation and public values

The IFIP ePart 2014 “Call for Papers” attracted a wide range of topics with 22 submissions, which included 11 accepted full research papers and 5 ongoing research papers. In addition a workshop about “eParticipation for Slum Upgrading in Mtwapa, Kenya” was organized. The papers were grouped under the following headers:

• Social media

• Review and Analysis

• Engaging citizens online

• Software platforms and evaluation

• eConsultations

The Paper Awards Committee of IFIP EGOV and IFIP ePart was again led by committee chair Olivier Glassey of IDHEAP, Lausanne/Switzerland. The organizing Committee carefully reviewed the accepted papers and granted outstanding paper awards to the winning authors. The winners were awarded in the ceremony during the conference dinner, which has become a highlight of each year of conference. The names of the award winners of IFIP EGOV were announced on the conference web page: http://www.egov-conference.org/egov-conf-history/egov-2014/. The names of the award winners of IFIP ePart were announced on the conference web page: http://www.epart-conference.org/.

Many people make large events like this conference happen. We thank the members of the IFIP EGOV 2014 and IFIP ePart 2014 program committees and the additional reviewers for their great efforts in reviewing the submitted papers. Frank Bannister and his team of Trinity College Dublin, Republic of Ireland were a major contributor who tirelessly organized and managed the zillions of details locally. They hosted the IFIP EGOV and IFIP ePart conferences 2014 on shortest notice and managed everything in time.

The conference was held at the heart of Dublin, the Trinity College with its magnificent buildings and beautiful campus spanning 47 acres. Trinity College Dublin was created by royal charter in 1592. There were 16,646 registered students in 2012/13 and over 100,277 alumni (source: www.tdc.ie). Trinity College has a long history, whose ongoing traditions and enduring artifacts we were able to enjoy. The conference dinner was held in the marvellous 18th century Dining hall. The welcome drinks were held in the Atrium, which has a modern structure and is an obvious contrast to the more traditional Dining Hall.

August/September 2014

Marijn Janssen

Frank Bannister

Olivier Glassey

Hans J. (Jochen) Scholl

Efthimios Tambouris

Maria A. Wimmer

Ann Macintosh