Designing mutual-aid model for RAQ (rarely asked question) in e-government: practical use of anonymity

Abstract

To ensure the availability of e-government, it is necessary to handle diversity of administrative cases properly. This paper proposes RAQ (rarely asked questions) to cover minor, non-conforming cases which are overlooked. We focused on effects of anonymity to prevent prejudice and to decrease the barrier to join. We did case study on non-conforming case in Japan, treating four kinds of mutual-aid on the Internet. As a result, we discovered that unofficial ways of information sharing are more effective to solve problems than official ways .The process to solve problems itself plays a role of covering diversity of cases, which are not aggregated to FAQ. Thus, we led RAQ, instead of FAQ. RAQ contains details of problems and empathy among people concerned. We argue that to ensure to RAQ functions in e-government, it is necessary not only to make the best use of unofficial, informal mutual-aids but also promote information disclosure to be referred.