The digitalization of the public sector has been implemented through smart technologies, that is digital processes and tools. At local government level, this allows not only to communicate with citizens and provide digital services, but also to collect information generating new knowledge. Smart data and analytics can improve services, foster transparency, promote accountability, as well as improve decision-making, management, and control.
The study focuses on the digital transformation of municipalities in Italy. It highlights opportunities as well as critical issues and obstacles for local government digitalization within a knowledge management context. In particular, the timeliness, relevance, and selectivity features of information and control systems seem to be overlooked: digitalization has often induced mere bureaucratic obligations, often made even more ineffective by the digital divide.
The paper benefits from national data and the experiences and opinions of managers who generate, manage, and could use digital information at local level. The issues raised by digitalization at local level highlight the need to refine competences about information systems and knowledge management, but also to listen to local requests to avoid fuelling new gaps instead of favouring a homogeneous development at the lower tier of government.
