Government Websites of Kerala: An Evaluation using Government of India Guidelines

Abstract

Government Departments are increasingly using websites as a tool to reach out to the citizens. Through Government websites, the Government can improve the standard of information and ensure maximum reach of government information and services to citizens through different government services published on the web. The objective of Government web services is to reach to all sections of society with respect of distance and language. An organization‟s official website provides a powerful way to reach out to its potential clients. This paper proposes to evaluate the websites belonging to Government departments in the state of Kerala against guidelines for the same provided by the Government of India. These Guidelines address the entire life cycle of a website, web portal and benefits and can be useful when determining if a website provides trustworthy, up-to-date information and data about how the government operates. The following five criteria are used to determine the quality of information and also for the evaluation of web resources. Accuracy, Authority, Objectivity, Currency, and Coverage are the five factors are elaborated in the Government of India guidelines. The state of Kerala has been selected for this analysis. As per the 2011 census of India, Kerala is the first literate state in India. Kerala was declared a, 'Fully Literate State', on April 18th, 1991. For the purpose of evaluation of government websites, the following four categories of twenty Government departments are considered: Secretariat departments, Directorate/Commissionerates, Government Institutions, and Local Self-Governance. General Terms Guidelines, websites, Kerala, Government