A research dissertation submitted
for the Degree of
Master of Commerce (Information Systems) by Research / One of the aims of the development of Smart City initiatives is to provide electronic services that address residents’ information needs. Local governments in South Africa have realised that e-government can improve service delivery. There are currently government e-services that are designed to meet residents’ information needs and transform Johannesburg into a Smart City. However, local governments face the challenge of deficiencies in the use of government e-services. In order to ensure that all residents benefit from Smart City services there is a need to understand the use and non-use of these services. This research has been conducted in Johannesburg to understand what makes people use or not use the provided Smart City services. In this context, Smart City services refer to government e-service websites and government city Wi-Fi.
The research was addressed from an interpretive perspective employing qualitative methods. The theoretical framework of government websites utilisation developed by Wang (2014) was used as a theoretical grounding. Data was Data was collected through in- depth semi -structured face-to -face interviews with open-ended questions. Twelve interviews were concluded. The results confirm Wang's (2014) theoretical framework in that all the major concepts: value, user needs, effectiveness of government websites, and alternative information sources were reflected as influencing the use and non-use of Smart City services. In addition the results extend Wang's (2014) framework with additional important core concepts: awareness, access, and trust. These concepts are particularly important to residents' participation in a developing country context and can be used to create a deeper understanding of how different types of residents engage or don't engage with Smart City services. In the pursuit of Smart Cities, local governments can use the results of the study to establish measures that can increase the use of free Wi-Fi around the city and government websites.
A paper from this research report has been peer reviewed and was accepted for the Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN) conference which was held at Monash University in Italy, Prato. The title of the paper is: Explaining the Use and Non-Use of Smart
Cities Services in Johannesburg: Residents’ Perspectives. On the 9th, 10th, and 11th November 2015, I attended the CIRN conference in Italy and presented the paper. The paper will be part of the conference proceedings. / MT2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/21800 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Topo, Malefa |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (xi, 162 leaves), application/pdf |
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