The book describes aspects of eGovernment in the context of eDemocracy and public management. Its reference style is oriented toward students (both graduate and advanced undergraduate) who seek to gain knowledge about eDemocracy and eGovernment.

The book has ten chapters. A significant plus of the book is that all chapters (except the introductory chapter) conclude with one or two case studies--a valuable source of knowledge for students in the field of economics and management. The introductory chapter provides a framework and definitions for an eGovernment model. Underlying political documents such as the Lisbon Strategy are listed, along with a description of the eGovernment model. The latter has three levels: communication, production, and participation. The members of these three levels are discussed later in the book (in detail, each level in a separate chapter). Thus, chapters 3 to 6 cover production-level elements, namely eProcurement, eService, eContracting, and eSettlement; chapters 7 to 9 discuss participation-level members, namely eCollaboration, eDemocracy, and eCommunity; and chapter 2 is devoted to eAssistance, the only member of the information and communication level of the model.

Each chapter outlines the technical, organizational, and semantic aspects of a particular activity. Understanding the material requires a broad but quite basic knowledge of computer science topics such as data encryption, the Internet, electronic signatures, databases, security, and some others.

The most interesting chapter is the last one (chapter 10), which deals with knowledge societies. The chapter is not technical at all, but outlines how the use of knowledge-based systems along with advances in technology define a shift in social values and thus lead to significant social change. The chapter includes risks such as information overload, quality of data and information, information security, privacy, and so on.

The book is well written and well organized, and the style is light and easy to read. In addition, the many case studies make it a valuable reference for students and educators.