Although a large research effort has been directed toward improving Anti/Counter-Terrorism (ACT) authorities' internal efficiency and interoperability, only a handful of studies have looked at citizens as an integral part of ACT services. The proposed research takes a citizen-centric perspective and is geared toward enhanced e-government services that help citizens prepare and protect themselves from terrorist attacks. This study proposes to survey citizens to understand Internet-based ACT government service use. Specifically, three categories of usage behaviors or behavioral intentions (i.e., get news, provide public leads, and follow directions) will be analyzed using an analytical framework that decomposes the behaviors/intentions into three, interlinked cognitive/decision processes; risk perception, channel choice decision, and source choice decision. Building on previous human behavior and innovation diffusion research in the MIS field, the study will examine the impacts of various social, technological, and personal factors on the cognitive/decision processes. The study will administer a questionnaire survey to two groups: systematically sampled US citizens and ACT service subscribers of a partnering organization (an Internet-based ACT service provider- Terrorism Research Center (www.terrorism.com)). The resulting model will be able to provide answers to such questions as "why are some citizens indifferent to ACT services?", "how can the US government improve citizen-to-government ACT information flow using e-Gov facilities?", "why do some citizens prefer ACT services provided through traditional channels to those provided through the Internet?", and "why do some citizens prefer Internet-based ACT services provided by a non-government organization to those provided by a government authority?" In addition to the timeliness of this research activity, an innovative aspect is that the research model will take into account an inherent duality: an e-gov service is perceived in some instances as an instrument of service and in others as an instrument of compliance. The model will also examine citizens' fear, privacy, and trust in relation to the role of the ACT service provider: protector, controller, or both.
This project will benefit ACT authorities by providing more and better public intelligence and benefit citizens by helping understand the key to well thought, higher quality ACT e-Gov services. The findings will be made available to the research community in the form of journal/conference papers. Results will be also incorporated into classes taught at UB. The proposed research framework encompasses the three basic levels of e-governance: information, communication and participation, which makes it also applicable to a wide range of situations of public emergency, such as epidemic outbreaks, earthquakes, oil/chemical spills, etc., which may have a significant impact on the economic and psychological well-being of the Citizen.
