Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze and evaluate the current status of e-government services in Afghanistan. To identify the evaluation criteria based on citizen satisfaction from e-government services, the proposed government-to-citizen (G2C) evaluation model is considered in the context of Afghanistan. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual G2C evaluation model and e-government evaluation model are proposed. The criteria used for the G2C evaluation model is based on the demand and supply side, which have an immense effect on citizen satisfaction. The mixed research method (quantitative and qualitative) is used, and quantitative data analysis results are supported through qualitative data analysis. Findings The findings reveal that citizen satisfaction from e-government services in Afghanistan are affected by services availability on multiple channels, citizen-centric features, paralingual support, process performance, skills divide, awareness, information security and transaction security. Research limitations/implications Yet to be addressed, three criteria deemed as significant factors are recommended to be included in the model, namely, government readiness, system quality (usability, service quality and information quality) for supply side and social divide for demand side. These three criteria can help in proposing a successful G2C evaluation model. Additionally, the quantitative data used in this study were collected through paper-based questionnaires. Data collection through Internet can help to get responses from various parts of the country for future evaluation of G2C services. Practical implications The key findings of this study are vitally important for e-government strategies and policy makers to design and disseminate appropriate e-government services to Afghan citizens. The proposed evaluation model can also be used as a guideline for e-government development in Afghanistan. Originality/value A conceptual model for e-government services evaluation approach is proposed based on literature review. The proposed G2C evaluation model identifies and validates key factors and criteria in the context of Afghanistan.

Social networking sites (SNS) are used for social and professional interaction with people. SNS popularity has encouraged researchers to analyze the relationship of activities performed on SNS with user behavior. In doing so, the term “user behavior” is rather used ambiguously with different interpretations, which makes it difficult to identify studies on user behavior in relation to SNS. This phenomenon has encouraged this thorough research on the characteristics of user behavior being discussed in the literature. Therefore, in this study, we aim to identify, analyze, and classify the characteristics associated with user behavior to answer the research questions designed to conduct this research. A mapping study (also called scoping study), which is a type of systematic literature review, is employed to identify potential studies from digital databases through a developed protocol. Thematic analysis is carried out for the classification of user behavior. We identified 116 primary studies for full analysis. This study found seven characteristics associated with behavior that have direct influence on SNS use and nine factors that have an indirect effect. All studies were conducted largely under seven areas that set the context of these studies. Findings show that the research on SNS is still in its early stage. The range of topics covered in the analyzed studies is quite expansive, although the depth in terms of number of studies under each topic is quite limited. This study reports that activities performed on SNS are either associated with user behavior or reflect personality characteristics. The findings of this study could be used by practitioners to evaluate their SNS platforms and develop more user-centered applications. These studies can also help organizations to understand better the needs of their employees.

The purpose of this research was to review, analyze and compare algorithms lying under the empirical technique in order to suggest the most effective algorithm in terms of efficiency and accuracy. The research process was initiated by collecting the relevant research papers with the query of "duplication record detection" from IEEE database. After that, papers were categorized on the basis of different techniques proposed in the literature. In this research, the focus was made on empirical technique. The papers lying under this technique were further analyzed in order to come up with the algorithms. Finally, the comparison was performed in order to come up with the best algorithm i.e. DCS++. The selected algorithm was critically analyzed in order to improve its working. On the basis of limitations of selected algorithm, variation in algorithm was proposed and validated by developed prototype. After implementation of existing DCS++ and its proposed variation, it was found that the proposed variation in DCS++ producing better results in term of efficiency and accuracy. The algorithms lying under the empirical technique of duplicate records deduction were focused. The research material was gathered from the single digital library i.e. IEEE. A restaurant dataset was selected and the results were evaluated on the specified dataset which can be considered as a limitation of the research. The existing algorithm i.e. DCS++ and proposed variation in DCS++ were implemented in C#. As a result, it was concluded that proposed algorithm is performing outstanding than the existing algorithm.

Software services offer the opportunity to use a component-based approach for the design of applications. However, this needs a deeper understanding of how to develop service-based applications in a systematic manner, and of the set of properties that need to be included in the ‘design model’. We have used a realistic application to explore systematically how service-based designs can be created and described. We first identified the key properties of an SOA (service oriented architecture) and then undertook a single-case case study to explore its use in the development of a design for a large-scale application in energy engineering, modelling this with existing notations wherever possible. We evaluated the resulting design model using two walkthroughs with both domain and application experts. We were able to successfully develop a design model around the ten properties identified, and to describe it by adapting existing design notations. A component-based approach to designing such systems does appear to be feasible. However, it needs the assistance of a more integrated set of notations for describing the resulting design model.