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SUMMARYOne important but often understudied area of research in public administration is the effect of e-government on administrative discretion. This article examines e-government factors that influence administrative discretion through a survey of local governments. The focus of this study is on Egyptian local governments, which are using e-government to modernise public service delivery. Through a survey of administrative officials in these governments, this study found evidence that e-government factors of collaboration and organisational change influenced administrative discretion. Other common factors noted in the literature such as size of the local government and demand by citizens for e-government did not register an effect on administrative discretion. The results of this study imply that local governments should do more to enhance e-government to reduce administrative discretion, especially in the area of increasing collaboration.

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Information is a critical element for architects to accomplish their tasks. The overwhelming increase and complexiv of digital informaiion has revealed problems concerning information acquisition. New techniques of handling information are needed to improve the transformation of data into information, and then into knowledge. Applying inforwtation visualisation (Iv)techniques is seen as one of these techniques. This paper discusses the importance of irrformation in architectural practice and the potentials ojr utilizing IV techniques to improve the information acquisition process. The paper attempts to draw an application model for developing IV tools. It explores in detail four main factors that influence their successful application, which are: ( I ) underlying data structure, (2) information seeking strategies. (3) identification of IV techniques, and (4) analysing the user profile. Based on these factors, the paper critically examines different possible /.V development approaches f o r the architectural practice, these include: technology push, data structure based, and task driven approaches. 1: Introduction to the role of Information in the Architectural PracticeInformation processing is the most common theoretical perspective on the architectural processes found in the contemporary literature of design research, [1,2,3,4]. The ontology of the design process, as information processing, assunies that information has a neutral value and different interpretations are transferred according to its codification (designed) [4]. Information in the architectural practice falls into two categories: (a) project related information, and (b) general information [5,6]. The architects' role is to manipulate this information to reproduce it in a meaningful form, which are often described as designs.With the overwhelming increase and complexity of 'digital' information, problems, particularly regarding information acquisition and use, have clearly appeared. Whereas information use is a large area of study, this paper focuses on identifying the problems concerning information acquisition in terms of accessibility and assimilation.Recently researches emphasized the crucial role of information acquisition in the building industry, as well as the lack of interest among practitioners in using information resources. Several surveys on IT usage in the building industry [6,9] show the reluctance in adapting advanced IT systems for both information acquisition and management, while interest and investment is still directed towards CAD solutions. Vries [ l ] and Love [4] emphasized that both exploration and finding information are as important sub-processes as the architectural design process itself. On the other hand, Davidson [6] advocated that practitioners still do not see searching information as a productive activity. He identifies this phenomenon by the lack of the 'acquiring information skills' training in the current educational programs. The implications of lack of information accessibility were addressed by many other ...

The numbers of successful implementations of e-government projects in developing countries are noticeably low. Yet, there are few studies that focus on the long-term sustainability and success/failure factors of such projects. This paper analyzes the factors responsible for the initial success and subsequent sustainability or setback of a local-government project that was implemented in two sites in Egypt. The findings reveal that although technological, process, and structural factors play a distinctive role in the success or failure of e-government project, the main source of success lies within the management will and actions.