Article Review

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Article Review

• Fawn-Marie Golden
• October 2003
• FYS Internet Citizenship

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Source

• The Urban E-Government Full Report, 2002,
  submitted September 2002.
• By Darrell M. West, Center for Public Policy
• Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
• http//www.insidepolitics.org/egovt02city.html

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About the Article

• A report on urban e-government across America.
  E-government refers to the delivery of
  information and services online through the
  Internet.
• Purpose to use a detailed analysis to measure
  information and services that are online, chart
  the variations that exist across cities, and
  discuss how urban e-govt can be improved.

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About the Article

• Significance if e-govt increases communication
  between citizens and their govt, the hope is
  that these govt are improving their govt
  websites.

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The Reviewer

• I selected this article because it gave a
  thorough and interesting evaluation. Also, the
  areas of evaluation were urban, which is more
  interesting because its more specific.
• This presentation will review the report on urban
  e-govt, critique the reports strengths and
  weaknesses, and finally give those conclusions of
  the report, and more importantly, myself.

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Methodology

• Analysis was undertaken June and July 2002 at
  Brown University. Dylan Brown and Julie Petralia
  were responsible for recording the findings.
• Researched websites that would help an average
  citizen or business person logging onto a govt
  website. Includes services, directory to
  specific agencies and officials, visible
  statements that assure privacy and security over
  the Internet

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Methodology

• Analyzed 1,567 city govt websites for the 70
  largest cities in America. List of cities was
  provided by U.S. Census Bureau for the most
  populous in 2002.
• Analyzed for presence of various features dealing
  with information delivery, service delivery, and
  public access (i.e. general information regarding
  source, online publications, foreign language
  translation)

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Methodology

• Analyzing for service delivery meant the service
  could be done completely online. Analyzed the
  number and type of services.
• Analyzed email responsiveness of city agencies
  and the extent of the response. Sent a short
  email to human services dept. or equivalent of
  each city. Email response based on whether a
  response was made and how many days it took to
  respond.

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Down to Business

• Overview large increase of e-govt activity at
  the urban level. Cities are targeting specific
  needs like disability access, the elderly, and
  more online services, publications and data.
  Theyre also using technology for common urban
  issues like traffic and tourist attractions.
• Online Information contact information is very
  prevalent vast majority of sites provide their
  dept. phone number (97) and mailing address
  (95).

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Down to Business

• Services Provided substantial incr. in fully
  executable services online
• 49-some service (up from 13)
• Of these
• 12-one service
• 4-two services
• 2-three services
• 31-four or more services

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Down to Business

• Services Provided cont ability to use credit
  cards and digital signatures on financial
  transactions has aided development of online
  services.
• Privacy Security privacy is very important to
  the public. Incr. in sites that offer policy
  statements.
• 38 post some type of privacy statement (from
  14)
• 25 have security statement (from 8 in 2001)
• Also assessed quality of statements what they
  covered/permitted.

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Down to Business

• Disability Access dramatic incr. from 11
  (sites had some form of access) to 82.
• Foreign Language Access 17 have foreign lang.
  features to allow access to non-native speakers
  up from last years 7.
• Ads, User Fees, Premium Fees use of ads is
  not very prevalent. Only 2 had them.
• There has been a growth in reliance on user fees.
  These are transaction fees over actual use of
  govt service. Ex marriage license, traffic
  violations, certificates 11 compared to none
  in 2001.

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Down to Business

• Ads, User Fees, Premium Fees cont 2 use
  premium fees to enter particular sections of the
  site.
• Restricted Areas 8, requiring user names and
  passwords
• Public Outreach 74 offered email contact
  material 69 had ability to search the
  particular website, allowing people to find
  specific information they want.

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Down to Business

• Email Responsiveness not very good.
• 62 responded, 38 didnt
• Of responders, most in 1or 2 days clearly an
  area of improvement.
• Top E-Govt Cities 0-100 pt. scale. 4 pts. For
  each feature (24 total features), equaling 96
  pts. Then 1 pt. for each online service
  executable on that site. Total was averaged for
  each city.

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Down to Business

• Top E-Govt Cities cont
• Top city-Minneapolis, 89.5
• Baltimore, 61.9 (rank 23)
• Washington DC, 74.3 (8)
• Richmond, 58.1 (32)
• Difference by Branch of Govt portal sites to
  city govt websites had more that executive,
  legislative, or judicial sites.

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Strengths

• Includes analyzation process and basis for
  certain features (i.e. online services, foreign
  lang. features)
• Thorough, detailed research broad specific
  categories.
• Compares current status to illustrate degree of
  changes.
• Basis for analyzation is fair.
• Addresses many of the concerns of ordinary people
  as well as well versed e-govt users.
• Gives actual point values lists top cities.
• Used data to address possible improvements.

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Weaknesses

• Didnt address how city govt use e-govt to
  improve their systems.
• Didnt address the response of users to their
  sites.

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Reports Conclusions

• Incr. in improvements show that when mayors and
  city councils place a priority on introducing
  technology into govt, rapid progress can be
  made.
• Growth of user fees and premium service areas
  limits the ability of all citizens to access
  these features creates two-class society of
  information have and have-nots.
• Some cities dont have e-govt services due to
  budgetary problems.

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Reports Conclusions

• Incr. in restricted areas some of these
  restrictions are valid based on the privacy of
  employee records, but officials must be careful
  not to limit information in areas where there is
  a legitimate public right to know.
• City govt need to figure out how to take
  advantage of features that enhance public
  accountability ( i.e. searchability)
• Cities should create ways for citizens to post
  comments or provide feedback about a govt agency.

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Reviewers Conclusions

• The people responsible for this report know what
  they are doing. The report is reputable.
• The report completed its task very well it
  serves as a great, dependable source for future
  research.
• The report could have included user response
  that would show how affective the sites are.
• It is possible that the increase in e-govt is
  due to the September 11th attacks. It is good
  that cities are taking greater strides to
  communicating with their citizens, considering
  most citizens use the internet all the time.

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The End

• Thank You!