Social and Political Implications of Data Mining: Knowledge Management in E‐Government

Citation

Fourie, I. (2010), "Social and Political Implications of Data Mining: Knowledge Management in E‐Government", Online Information Review, Vol. 34 No. 1, pp. 194-195. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521011024227

Social and Political Implications of Data Mining is marketed as a premier reference source addressing knowledge management in e‐government. Under the guidance of Hakikur Rahman, 18 chapters are arranged in five sections. The sections cover the following: content and knowledge management; universal access to social services; security, safety and trust; e‐governance and artificial intelligence; and virtual communities and cases. Within the chapters a wide variety of issues concerning data mining and knowledge management is covered, such as frameworks for data mining and knowledge management, as well as knowledge management in e‐government. Data mining challenges in this context, as well as knowledge management portals for empowering citizens and societies and the discovery guideline compliance in health services are also covered.

There are also chapters on governance in European hospitals, the use of data mining to advance knowledge in government, electronic payment systems in developing countries, data mining as part of intelligence‐led policing in the Finnish Police as well text mining for information security applications and data mining in aviation safety data analysis. The last group of chapters deals with dynamic causal mining in e‐government modeling, ontology‐based management of e‐government knowledge, data mining in decision support for bio‐energy production, virtual assistants for e‐government interaction, the digital divide and its implication for Malaysian e‐government policy initiatives, digitisation initiatives in East African universities and data mining in public administration. It is thus a wide variety of themes under discussion.

What I did find useful was the detailed table of contents followed by a preface setting out the rationale for the book and its organisation and the extensive list of references at the end of each chapter. The three‐page index is, however, extremely basic, and it is not clear how it can offer adequate access to the content of the book. It is also not clear why some chapters start with an abstract and others not.

Although this collection certainly contains useful information on the topic, and would serve as a good starting point for research on the topics addressed, I do not think it quite meets with the rigour I would expect from a book marketed as a premier reference source. Apart from references provided to the subject literature, terminology lists, as well as directions for further research for all chapters would be useful. Social and Political Implications of Data Mining is recommended with reservations for all interested in gaining an overview of what is happening in the field.