McCormack Graduate School’s Aroon Manoharan, associate professor of public policy and public affairs, focuses his research on e-government, the application of information technology in government, and how global cities adopt and implement innovative technologies for providing information and services to their citizens. He was recently interviewed by Mic.com, an Internet and media company based in New York City.

The interview focused on municipal e-government and public participation, specifically the mobile voting (mVoting) app of the city of Seoul, South Korea. Although not an official voting mechanism, the application enables citizens of Seoul to participate in the democratic process by providing their feedback and opinion to public policy proposals. The app is especially helpful for politicians as they focus on the correct problems to solve.

Manoharan learned of the app when conducting a collaborative study between the McCormack Graduate School and Rutgers University’s E-Governance Institute on the e-government performance of the largest global cities. Based on an evaluation of municipal websites, the study titled “Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide Survey” identified the strengths and weaknesses of each municipality on issues of privacy and security, usability, content, services, and citizen and social engagement. Continue reading.