Deadlines
March 15, 2010
April 9, 2010
Notification of Acceptance
June 21, 2010
Tuition due
“An intense one-week long institute on how to bridge academia with practitioners in the domain of digital government; oh and it is interdisciplinary! It is an institute that will force you to extend your thoughts of digital government and to think outside the box. It is a portal that will allow you to get a glimpse of the real world in one short week.”
— 2008 Institute Student
2009 Institute Slide Show
Byoung Joon Kim
University
University
Virginia Tech
Country of Citizenship
South Korea
Dissertation Topic/Research Interests
The Impact of the Internet on Civic Engagement in Transformational Local Governance: How to Build a Bridge between the Individual and Group Level of Analysis .
Countries/Regions of Interest
U.S.A., South Korea, China, and Japan
Personal Background
I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Center for Pubic Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech, and a Graduate Research Assistant with the Digital Government project at the Center for Human Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech. I hold both Master of Public Policy (Korea University) and Master of Public Administration (California State University, Hayward) degrees. My many diverse experiences include serving as a research and teaching assistant, student assistant, and assistant researcher over a period spanning six years in South Korea and the United States. My ultimate career objective is to nurture students and conduct pioneering research by becoming a professor of public administration and policy at a university.
Interest in the Field of Digital Government
My research interests are the social impact of the Internet and its effect on information communication technology, citizen interaction, and collaborative governance. I believe that the development of DG is a broad and powerful trend in the evolution of contemporary government. There are two different approaches to participation in DG for online citizen participation and deliberation. The first approach uses official routes based on a conventional DG model (e.g., visiting governmental portals and sending email to public officials). The other approach is new and more reflective of a grassroots approach. It relies on voluntary civic participation through innovative ICT such as Wikis, Blogs, and other interactive tools. In addition, I am interested in the role of local community groups in DG. Local community groups can be mediators or connectors between citizens and government in terms of civic participation and deliberative activities. Local community groups’ ICT capacity may be especially important in addressing the digital divide and the marginalization of citizens in a new century of the information society.
