Advances in Electronic Government

1
Advances in Electronic Government

• Professor Yelena Yesha
• Dept. of Computer Science
• University of Maryland Baltimore County
• Joint work with Mr. Sachin Singhal

2
Outline

• Introduction
• Definition and Goals
• Stages of E-Government Development
• Trend Shifts
• Factors and Impacts
• Conclusions and the Future
• Deeds

3
Introduction

• In the past years, there has been a noticeable
  shift in the way government is using technology
  to provide services and disseminate information.
• The change has begun with larger governments and
  is slowly moving toward the local and county
  organizations which closely interact with
  citizens.

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Introduction

• However, the development of transactions and
  online services has been progressing at a slow
  pace.
• The adoption of web sites is related to
  government demographics such as size and region.

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Introduction

• 1995 -- only 8.7 of local governments had
  websites 1
• 1997 40 of the organizations had websites
• 2000 doubled to 83.7 of the organizations
• The level of sophistication is rapidly
  increasing. US government spending will rise from
  1.5 billion in 2000 to 6.2 billion in 2006. 1

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Definition and goals

• E-government can be defined by the following
  goals
• Electronically or Internet-based website
• 24 hours a day seven days a week.
• Distribution of services and information to
  citizens.

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Stages of E-Government development

• This model provides a manner to measure the
  development of an organizations structure.
• Catalog Users can view or download brochures,
  forms, and other static information.
• Transactional Possesses the ability to
  exchange information with users and accept
  payments

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Stages of E-government Development

• Vertical Integration
• Allow businesses to interact with various
  departments from one government to register
  electronically.
• Horizontal Integration
• Complete transactions with various levels of
  government.
• Allow businesses to request permits/services
  from state and federal governments.

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Trend Shifts

• E-government organizations have been improving
  their structure rapidly.
• Since 1995, local governments have been
  building their own websites at an exponential
  rate.

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Trend Shifts

• Government organizations are expanding and
  improving available services and technologies.
• Portals are now available on some sites for
  paying bills, filing complaints, and service
  requests, etc.

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Trend Shifts

• 3. Sophistication is out of reach for local
  governments.
• There is a relationship between government size
  and sophistication. Large cities located in the
  west and south are at the leading edge of IT.

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Factors and Impact

• Three different demographics determine government
  
• Size Larger gt 250,000,
• medium 25,000 to 249,000 and
• small lt 25,000
• Type City versus county/local
• Region Located in east, west, and central.

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Factors

• Web Site Adoption
• The adoption of websites has rapidly increased
  from 8.7 to 83 in 2000 1.
• The most sophisticated websites are in large
  government cities and counties.
• 50 of the local governments have web staff and
  25 pf were part time 1.

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Factors

• Strategic Planning
• Planning is necessary for a valid and effective
  development of infrastructure.
• While 70 of governments claim to have followed
  planning, 90 of local governments had none.

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Factors

• Strategic Planning
• Speed of evolution the rate of improvement for
  e-government is very fast. The majority of
  governments are not able to build a plan to meet
  the challenges.
• Inadequate financial resources and web staff.
• Lack of plan can lead to barrier for deployment

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Factors

• Perceived Impacts
• Building an E-Government structure has led to a
  mixture of positive and negative effects.
• The Bush administration has set e-government
  spending as 1 of 5 facets in its agenda
• Available services such as an IRS tax-filing
  application has provided more convenience for
  citizens.

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Factors

• Perceived Impacts
• Increased the demand on government staff
• Altered the roles of staff
• Re-designed government procedures

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Factors

• Perceived Impacts
• Reduced time constraints
• Lowered administrative costs
• Improved quality of service with businesses

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Factors

• Providing Transactions
• Most local governments according to a 2002 study
  were beyond stage 1 of development 1.
• Very few ( lt 3) provided any type of service or
  portal.
• Current services paying taxes, paying bills,
  permit fees, online voting registration

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Factors

• Barriers of E-government deployment
• Most websites lt 3 years old
• Public organizations require time to develop
  services in an IT environment
• Few have a dedicated web staff for building and
  maintaining an Internet site.
• As a result, the information can become obsolete
  and is not helpful to the citizen.

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Factors

• Barriers of E-Government deployment
• Lack of financial resources
• Determining security and privacy issues
• Upgrading existing IT resources.
• A lack of resources can prevent upgrade of the
  existing site. Budgets continually fluctuate
  based upon current conditions.

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Conclusions

• While most governments do have a website, most
  are still at level 1 of development.
• Due to the rapid evolution, more organizations
  will move to later stages.
• For local governments, e-government can entail
  negative aspects due to stretched resources.

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Conclusions

• Undertake thorough strategic planning to
  determine whether it is feasible and would return
  positive features.

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References

• 1 Stephen Holden, Donald Norris, and Patricia
  Fletcher. Electronic Government at the Local
  Level Progress to Date and Future Issues.
  American Society for Public Administration, 2003.
• 2 Donald Norris and M. Jae Moon. Advancing
  E-Government at the Grassroots Tortoise or
  Hare? University of Maryland, Baltimore County.