E-government Portals Research Articles

ZeGo: Development and Validation of a Short Questionnaire to Measure User Satisfaction with e-Government Portals

In recent years, electronic services delivered via the World Wide Web have become increasingly important to governments. Substantial investments have been made to provide crucial services and information to citizens, businesses, and governmental institutions. This paper presents the development of a short questionnaire to measure user satisfaction with e-Governmental portals. After two validations of the instrument with federal e-Governmental portals in Switzerland, a final set of 15 items remained that were tested with 2498 participants. The final version showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's ) of .91, good item difficulties (.51 to .82), and discriminatory power coefficients (.49 to .81), as well as a moderate average homogeneity of .47. The survey was translated into five languages.

A cross-country comparative analysis of e-government service delivery among Arab countries

Much of the existing e-government research focuses on developed countries. Although a relatively small number of studies explored Arab e-government development, they did so in a single country context. This article provides an insight into the current state of Arab e-government developments. A cross-country comparative analysis of e-government Web sites and portals was conducted on 16 Arab countries to assess their development stages in e-government service delivery capability. Further comparative analysis was performed between the top Arab e-governments and the global top e-governments in developed countries with regard to “e-democracy,” often the highest level e-government service delivery capability identified in the literature. The results confirm a wide digital divide that remains between the Arab countries and the leading developed countries. Importantly, however, the results also show a wide digital divide even among the Arab countries studied, particularly in the development of advanced e-government service delivery capabilities. These results have important implications for developing countries in managing both economic and non-economic resources effectively for successful e-government development. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

정부포털 사이트 이용의도에 미치는 요인 - 모호성과 정부지원의 조절효과 -

Government uses the Internet technology to create electronic Government(e-Government). E-Government is an on-going project, and it represents a strong intention of Korean government to make effective and smooth communication between Korean government and its people. To achieve this purpose, government portal sites is one of projects of e-government, being a common gateway for users to find information and to communicate with the government concerning many matters/any matter. However, user`s attitudes and behaviors explaining why they intend to use government portal sites is a scant. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate empirically the determinants influencing users` intention to use government portal-sites. Starting with DeLone & McLean`s Updated Information Success Model(2003), this study suggests three qualities(Information Quality, Systems Quality, and Service Quality) and two moderating effects(Ambiguity and Government Supports), which affect the perceived usefulness of government portal sites. Results show that the hypotheses were supported. The findings of the study suggest not only a new theoretical model for IS research, but also the important indicators of a successful usage of e-Government portal sites.

COGNITIVE DIFFERENCES IN SERVICE QUALITY BETWEEN E-GOVERNMENT USERS AND ADMINISTRATORS

After Taiwan governments implement it’s egovernment portal (MyeGov, www.gov.tw) in 2002 as a means of delivering better information services and resources, building quality service that encourage citizen uptake is becoming an increasing challenge. This paper addresses this issue and examines the quality divide cause by the cognitive difference between users and administrators of the egovernment portal. To understand what governments need to do to secure successful implementation of comprehensive government service that are relevant to citizens, the services quality of e-government portals are scrutinized through a survey on both its users and administrators. The investigation instrument is based on the conceptual model of service quality proposed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry. The research finds that the user’s intention of re-use the e-Government portal is highly associated with their service quality factors. The research also provides insights for government officials and practitioners to understand and improve e-Government practice by identify major cognitive difference between e-government portal’s users and its administrators that cause the low usage rate of the e-government portal.

Service Quality between e-Government Users and Administrators

Governments worldwide increasingly apply Internet technology to enhance and leverage their services to citizens. Taiwan has a strong ICT (information and communications technology) sector, and thus its government strives to improve its service quality and reduce operational costs by adopting advanced information technologies [1]. Taiwan has previously put many public services online through the MyEGov (www.gov.tw) portal built in 2002 by the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC). The MyEGov portal is intended to be the entry point for all online public services, and is designed to provide a focal point for collecting government information and services. However, since different government agencies provide information and services independently on MyEGov, the scattered services cannot fulfill citizen demand for high quality e-Government service. Even though more than 80% of Taiwanese people are aware of this government website, only 8% of them ever use it to access services. Therefore, building quality services that encourage citizen uptake is becoming a major challenge for administrators of the MyEGov portal. This study addresses the e-Government issue and explores the quality divide caused by perceived differences between users and administrators of the MyEGov portal. To understand how governments can successfully implement comprehensive government service relevant to citizens, a survey of both users and administrators is performed to review the MyEGov portal service quality. The investigation instrument is based on the conceptual model of service quality proposed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry [2,3]. This work develops a model to assess user intention of continuing to use the MyEGov portal by identifying major service quality variables of the website, and analyzes the impact of these variables on user intention of continued use of the MyEGov portal. This study also provides a valuable reference for governmental officials and practitioners to understand and improve website practice by identifying the major perceived differences (gaps) between the users and administrators of the e-Government portal that cause low website usage.

차세대 u-City를 위한 정부 대표포털 구축전략

u-City란 언제어디서나 수요자 중심의 정보서비스가 가능한 도시를 말한다. 현재 대한민국 전자정부 대표포털은 현재 우리나라 대표 행정포털로써, 게이트웨이 역할을 수행하고는 있으나, 몇 가지 문제점을 갖는다. 즉. 수요자 중심으로(수요자 분류체계에 의해) 단순한 인터페이스를 제공해야 하는데, 현재 시스템이 너무 복잡하여 수요자 중심의 정보검색기능을 제공하고 있지 않다는 점이다. 따라서 이 논문에서는 바람직한 u-City를 위한 정부 대표 행정포털로서의 기능을 제안하고자 한다. u-City is a city for users who are in everywhere as well as everytime. Korea e-government portal as a main e-government portal is a gateway for entering Korea e-government, but it has some problems. This portal has to provide a simple interface according to user's needs, but the current system is too complicated so that this system does not provide information retrieval function according to user's needs. So in this paper, we propose an effective strategy and functions of Korea e-government main portal for effective u-City.

Towards building a semantic grid for E-government applications

Nowadays, there is a growing number of e-government portals and solutions that provide integrated governmental e-services to the customers (citizens, enterprises or other public sectors). However, ...

A VULNERABILITY AUDIT OF THE U.S. STATE E-GOVERNMENT NETWORK SYSTEMS

This study investigated the network vulnerability status of the e-government service portals of the 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. The findings indicate that most state e-government portals had their network information, such as portal’s IP address, CIDR, and network range, publicly available on the Internet through the Google search. However, the state e-government portals had their most ports filtered or behind firewalls with very few open ports— Port 80/tcp and Port 443/tcp. To further reduce the vulnerability of state e-government network systems, this paper recommended how to hide portal’s IP address and how to secure open ports.

A comprehensive analysis of U.S. counties’ e-Government portals: development status and functionalities

This research presents a comprehensive analysis of U.S. counties’ adoption of e-Government and the functions of the websites. By using content analysis methodology, the services and functions of U.S. county e-Government portals are scrutinized. The investigation instrument is based on political and technological theories, an e-Government stage model, and the review of literature. The research finds that U.S. counties’ adoption of e-Government is highly associated with certain socioeconomic factors; in addition, the functionalities of U.S. county e-Government portals are significantly related to six socioeconomic factors according to the multiple regression analysis. The research provides insights for government officials and practitioners to understand and improve e-Government practice. It also sheds light on e-Government research by bringing in a valuable research instrument and comprehensive data about e-Government adoption. The implications for future research are discussed.

E-Government Architecture In Jordan: A Comparative Analysis

This study explains architecture for the E-Government system; its main concepts, objectives, most common applications, famous worldwide experiences and the E-Government in Jordan. It introduces the E-Government model as a modern evolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and how to convert the life of societies to the communication and networked age. It presents the experiences of countries like USA, UK, Singapore, UAE and Egypt. The study focuses on launching the E-Government project in Jordan, the main planning and implementation features noticed there and the main obstacles. It proposes a simplified model for some of the Jordan E-Government Portal Online services.

A new approach to a local e-government portal for information management and deep searching

The paper introduces a new approach, that is, semantic Web techniques, to shed a new light on the solutions for local e-government information portal. After taking the comparison between traditional approaches and semantic approaches, the design of architecture and components of a local e-government information portal are illustrated in details based on semantic technologies. The paper also researches on the core technologies of implementation of the new approach, including the definition of e-government information portal Ontologies and searching algorithms.

The Bottom-up Design of e-Government: A Development Methodology based on a Collaboration Environment

In this paper the development methodology of a collaboration environment for public servants is presented. The methodology defines the importance of the specific environment for both the delivery of non-automated public services through one-stop e-government portals and for the self-maturation of Public Administration in digital transactions. The use of the collaborative environment can establish the bottom-up design of e-Government, supporting the discovery, evaluation, improvement and delivery of public services. On the other hand, the installation of a collaborative environment in Public Administration has many requirements such as the development of a proper legal framework for guiding cooperation and service execution. The use of the environment can support the diffusion of e-Government to both citizens and civil servants, while it can succeed in the modernization of Public Administration.

E-GOVERNMENT PRACTICES AT LOCAL LEVELS: AN ANALYSIS OF U.S. COUNTIES' WEBSITES

This study presents a comprehensive investigation of U.S. counties’ e-government adoption and the functions of the websites. By using content analysis methodology, we scrutinized the services, functions, and features of U.S. county e-government portals. The investigation instrument was established upon political and technological theories, e-government progress models, and comprehensive literature review. The research found that the U.S. counties’ adoption of e-government portals was highly associated with certain social and economic factors. The research provides insights for government policy makers to understand, investigate, guide, and regulate e-government practice. It also contributes a benchmark of local e-government website functionalities for researchers in the area.

E-Government, A Citizens' Perspective

Abstract New Zealand government strategy has focused on the ‘transforming’ power of e-government to provide ready access to government information and services through the World Wide Web. But an effective Web interface and good relationships between government and citizens through the Web depends on the understanding held by Web designers of the needs of specific groups of citizens, and the goals which they have in approaching a particular Web site. This paper reports on several focus groups held with different groups of citizens concerning their needs for and use of government information, their relationship with government, and their use of the Web to facilitate these purposes. Groups interviewed include business groups, the rural sector, beneficiaries, new immigrants, and Maori. Factors such as their needs for information and services, their relationship with government, and their access to the Internet are explored. Key issues related to the delivery of e-government such as the need for multiple channels to communicate with government, the need for promotion of the e-government portal, the ability to contact named individuals within government, ongoing problems with physical access, cultural issues, and issues concerning relevant content emerged from the study.

Integrated views of e-government website usability: perspectives from users and web diagnostic tools

It has now become evident that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are pertinent for economic prosperity, which has led to governments around the globe to offer online government products and services. For this purpose, websites offering information from governments to citizens and interaction between governments and citizens using static web pages and web portals are considered to be essential. This paper reports the results of an evaluative study of a cross-section of the e-government portals using a common set of performance metrics and web diagnostic engines and empirical evidence gathered from a diverse range of respondents. Results show that not only are there wide variations in the spectrum of information and services provided by these portals, but that significant work still needs to be undertaken to make the portals examples of 'best practice' e-government services.