These proceedings represent the work of authors at the 13th European Conference on e-Government (ECEG 2013). The Conference this year is hosted by the Iuniversity of Insubria in Como, Italy. The Conference Chair is Professor Walter Castelnovo and the Programme Chair is Professor Elena Ferrari, both are fro the Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences at the University of Insubria. The opening keynote address is given by Dr Gianluca Misuraca from the European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Seville, Spain and Gianluca is addressing the topic "eGovernment: Past, Present & Future: A policy-research perspective for renewing governance in the digital age". The second day of the conference is opened by Dr Antoinio Cordella from the London School of Economics, London, UK, who will talk about "Public value creation: the new challenge for e-government policies". ECEG brings together, researchers, Government officials and practitioners in the area of e-Government from around the world. Participants are able to share their research findings and explore the latest developments and trends in the field which can then be disseminated to the wider community. With an initial submission of 153 abstracts, after the double blind, peer review process there are papers published in these Conference Proceedings from 40 countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Eygpt, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UK and USA. This will ensure a very interesting two days.

This book evaluates the history, the present and the future of water markets on 5 continents, beginning with the institutional underpinnings of water markets and factors influencing transaction costs. The book examines markets in seven countries and three different U.S. states, ranging from village-level water markets in Oman to basin wide formal water markets in Australia's Murray-Darling River basin. Introductory chapters on the background of water markets and on transaction costs and policy design are followed by chapter length discussion of water markets as an adaptive response to climate change and of supply reliability in a changing climate. Case studies describe a variety of facets of the design and function of markets around the world: California, Chile, Spain, Oman, Australia, Canada, India and China. In analyzing these real-world examples of markets, the contributors explore water rights and trading of rights between agricultural and urban sectors and the principles and function of option markets. They discuss different sized approaches, from large scale, ministry-level administration of markets to informal arrangements among farmers in the same village, or groups of villages which allocate water without large investment in management and infrastructure. Discussion includes questions of why water market practices have not expanded more rapidly in arid places. The book discusses mechanisms for resolving conflicts between water rights holders as well as between water right holders and third parties impacted by water trades and whether or not public ownership of water rights or use rights should trump private ownership and under what condition. Also covered are new and expanding categories of water use, beyond human consumption, agriculture and industry to new technologies ranging from extracting natural gas from shale to producing biofuels. The book concludes with suggestions for future water markets and offers a realistic picture of how they might change water use and distribution practices going forward.

It is a great pleasure to share with you the Springer LNCS proceedings of the Second World Summit on the Knowledge Society, WSKS 2009, organized by the Open - search Society, Ngo, http://www.open-knowledge-society.org, and held in Samaria Hotel, in the beautiful city of Chania in Crete, Greece, September 16–18, 2009. The 2nd World Summit on the Knowledge Society (WSKS 2009) was an inter- tional scientific event devoted to promoting dialogue on the main aspects of the knowledge society towards a better world for all. The multidimensional economic and social crisis of the last couple of years has brought to the fore the need to discuss in depth new policies and strategies for a human centric developmental processes in the global context. This annual summit brings together key stakeholders involved in the worldwide development of the knowledge society, from academia, industry, and government, including policy makers and active citizens, to look at the impact and prospects of - formation technology, and the knowledge-based era it is creating, on key facets of l- ing, working, learning, innovating, and collaborating in today’s hyper-complex world. The summit provides a distinct, unique forum for cross-disciplinary fertilization of research, favoring the dissemination of research on new scientific ideas relevant to - ternational research agendas such as the EU (FP7), OECD, or UNESCO. We focus on the key aspects of a new sustainable deal for a bold response to the multidimensional crisis of our times.

The proper use and dissemination of information among stakeholders, organizations, and societies is crucial for the development of productive and prosperous communities. Governance, Communication, and Innovation in a Knowledge Intensive Society gathers current research on knowledge management in governments, organizations, and institutions, and presents a compilation useful to academics, professionals, politicians, and policymakers invested in knowledge intensive societies. This book investigates the impact of knowledge and information technologies on fields as diverse as education, culture, science and business, in order to provide an effective framework for effectively navigating the nuances of an information-pervasive world.

This book contains the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Modeling and Simulation in Engineering, Economics, and Management, MS 2013, held in Castellón de la Plana, Spain, in June 2013. The event was co-organized by the AMSE Association and the SoGReS Research Group of the Jaume I University. This edition of the conference paid special attention to modeling and simulation in diverse fields of business management. The 28 full papers in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 65 submissions. They are organized in topical sections on: modeling and simulation in CSR and sustainable development; modeling and simulation in finance and accounting; modeling and simulation in management and marketing; modeling and simulation in economics and politics; knowledge-based expert and decision support systems; and modeling and simulation in engineering.

In the current context of the electronic governance of society, both administrations and citizens are demanding the greater participation of all the actors involved in the decision-making process relative to the governance of society. This book presents collective works published in the recent Special Issue (SI) entitled “Optimization for Decision Making II”. These works give an appropriate response to the new challenges raised, the decision-making process can be done by applying different methods and tools, as well as using different objectives. In real-life problems, the formulation of decision-making problems and the application of optimization techniques to support decisions are particularly complex and a wide range of optimization techniques and methodologies are used to minimize risks, improve quality in making decisions or, in general, to solve problems. In addition, a sensitivity or robustness analysis should be done to validate/analyze the influence of uncertainty regarding decision-making. This book brings together a collection of inter-/multi-disciplinary works applied to the optimization of decision making in a coherent manner.

Entrepreneurship is the result of various contextual factors in the community, which are shaped by social challenges and business needs. Recent research efforts have focused on the dynamics of communities and how they facilitate entrepreneurship among a diverse group of people and organizations. This book highlights research on the importance of communities and their role in providing an entrepreneurial ecosystem that promotes innovation and business activities. Adopting a multidisciplinary perspective, it explores what it takes to create an entrepreneurial community that fosters creativity. Sharing valuable insights, it will enhance readers’ understanding of how entrepreneurship is formed by and exists in communities.

Decision support systems (DSS) are widely touted for their effectiveness in aiding decision making, particularly across a wide and diverse range of industries including healthcare, business, and engineering applications. The concepts, principles, and theories of enhanced decision making are essential points of research as well as the exact methods, tools, and technologies being implemented in these industries. From both a standpoint of DSS interfaces, namely the design and development of these technologies, along with the implementations, including experiences and utilization of these tools, one can get a better sense of how exactly DSS has changed the face of decision making and management in multi-industry applications. Furthermore, the evaluation of the impact of these technologies is essential in moving forward in the future. The Research Anthology on Decision Support Systems and Decision Management in Healthcare, Business, and Engineering explores how decision support systems have been developed and implemented across diverse industries through perspectives on the technology, the utilizations of these tools, and from a decision management standpoint. The chapters will cover not only the interfaces, implementations, and functionality of these tools, but also the overall impacts they have had on the specific industries mentioned. This book also evaluates the effectiveness along with benefits and challenges of using DSS as well as the outlook for the future. This book is ideal for decision makers, IT consultants and specialists, software developers, design professionals, academicians, policymakers, researchers, professionals, and students interested in how DSS is being used in different industries.

To whom does a father, retiring from his life as a successful entrepreneur, pass control of the business he has built? Once it would always have been his eldest son, but increasingly women are becoming involved in family firms having risen to positions of influence and leadership. Using revealing case studies from the daughters who succeeded their entrepreneur fathers in a wide variety of challenging situations, cultures and continents, Father–Daughter Succession in Family Business discusses the changes which have led to daughters gaining influence in more and more family businesses. It looks at the tensions this succession can produce between old notions of how men and women should behave, and the new style of leadership that often comes about when a woman takes the helm. This book will help consultants, business educators, and researchers, as well as those who are themselves involved in significant family managed enterprises to better understand why it can no longer be assumed in any part of the World that the first born son will take over the reins of the family business.