Evaluating e-government: learning from the experiences of two UK local authorities

Abstract. Part of the remit of public sector management includes planning and reflecting on capital expenditure on new technology. With this in mind, the role that information systems play in supporting improvements in e-government service delivery to stakeholder groups continues to attract much attention. The authors of this paper seek to define the scope and role that information systems evaluation plays within the public sector. In particular, the authors assess whether public sector organizations might benefit from the use of established ex-ante evaluation techniques, when applied to analyse the impact of e-government information systems. Following a comprehensive review of the normative literature, an initial conceptual framework for public sector information systems evaluation is proposed, which is then empirically explored within two local government authorities. The conceptual framework is then revised by using the structured case approach, which is dependent on an iterative research cycle where triangulated data are elicited. This then supports the emergence of new concepts during each research cycle that leads to the view that information systems evaluation in the public sector is a process of experiential and subjective judgement, which is grounded in opinion and world views. This leads the authors to challenge the appropriateness of traditional modes of investment appraisal when applied in the public sector. The finalized framework embraces investment decisions, evaluation methods, culture and structure, as well as post hoc evaluation. It emphasizes the importance of situated, interpretive user assessments in evaluating e-government investments.     

Managing accessibility in local e-government websites through end-user development: a case study

This work discusses accessibility problems concerning content creation and publication on e-government websites, and proposes an approach based on end-user development (EUD) techniques to overcome them. To deal with the huge and diverse amount of documentation to be published, content management systems (CMSs) are usually adopted in government institutions to support content creation by a large set of publishers, who typically have no competencies in information technology. This paper proposes the integration of EUD techniques in CMSs in order to limit CMS personalization and, at the same time, relieve publishers from managing the low-level details of content representation. To demonstrate the validity of the approach, a case study research has been performed by involving some employees of the Brescia Municipality in Italy. The results of the study confirm the positive impact of EUD techniques on content accessibility and publishers’ work practice, and suggest their possible use in more sophisticated tasks.     

Website accessibility: a survey of local e-government websites and legislation in Northern Ireland

The provision of accessible websites is a legal requirement under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, which applies throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Equality (disability, etc.) (Northern Ireland) Order 2000. A survey of local e-government websites indicated that few local councils in the devolved administration of Northern Ireland offered websites which were adequately usable by people with a disability, yet most citizen-government transactions occur at the local level. Design for all has obvious commercial benefits, but it has also become a legal obligation, and application of accessible design principles should improve the online experience of all users.     

How does e-government use affect citizens’ trust in government? Empirical evidence from China

Although much literature has discussed the potential of e-government for improving citizens’ trust in government, the question of how e-government use affects citizens’ trust in government remains underexplored. To investigate the driving mechanism of the effects of different types of e-government use on trust in government, this research develops a conceptual framework based on the institutional-based trust theory, the process-based trust theory, and the expectancy-disconfirmation model. Based on data collected from 1668 citizen users living in five cities in China, the study verifies the proposed mediated moderation model and then tests the robustness of the results using process analysis. The results reveal that citizens’ use of e-government revitalizes their trust in government indirectly, via influence on citizens’ evaluation of government integrity, performance, and responsiveness from the experience of using e-government, while the mediating effects of citizens’ evaluation of government on relationship between e-government use and public trust are diminished by citizens’ expectations for their government. The analysis also offers strong support for the conclusion that the effects of different types of e-government use on public trust are differentially distributed among multiple levels of governments in China.     

Accessibility analysis using WCAG 2.1: evidence from Indian e-government websites

Universal Access in the Information Society - E-government is a global phenomenon. Many governments throughout the world are using e-government websites to deliver government services to their...     

A security review of local government using NIST CSF: a case study

Evaluating cyber security risk is a challenging task regardless of an organisation’s nature of business or size, however, an essential activity. This paper uses the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cyber security framework (CSF) to assess the cyber security posture of a local government organisation in Western Australia. Our approach enabled the quantification of risks for specific NIST CSF core functions and respective categories and allowed making recommendations to address the gaps discovered to attain the desired level of compliance. This has led the organisation to strategically target areas related to their people, processes, and technologies, thus mitigating current and future threats.     

Perspectives of citizens towards e-government in Thailand and Indonesia: A multigroup analysis

Thailand and Indonesia are two developing countries still in the early stages of e-government implementation. An understanding of their citizens’ perspectives can help the governments of these countries better plan their services and also provide useful information to governments of other developing countries. The current study uses a new survey instrument to assess the importance of e-government services and website success factors from the perspective of citizens. Using multigroup analysis to validate the instrument, it identifies that an important difference between the perceptions of citizens of the two countries is that in Thailand, the importance of financial transaction services is negatively related to the importance of citizen identification with the e-government site whereas in Indonesia this relationship is insignificant. Only two expected relationships were found to be equivalent across both datasets, i.e., the importance of financial transactions services is positively related to the importance of website efficiency and the importance of local information services is positively related to the importance of citizen identification with the site. The multigroup analysis showed that citizens in both countries interpreted the survey instrument similarly but had very different expectations for their e-government services.

Quality assurance for a local government geographic information system: A geo-facilities project perspective

Of all the procedures utilized in the conversion phase of implementing a Geographic Information System (GIS), perhaps the most important are those pertaining to quality assurance. It is especially important that sound quality assurance procedures be established for the conversion of the base data or base layer, as erroneous data may be carried into subsequent databases, thus compounding problems and diminishing the perceived usefulness of the system. This article discusses the quality assurance process and control procedures invoked in the conversion of the property base layer for Alachua County, Florida (GEOMAX project). Since the Alachua County GIS employs a facility management model, specific examples of quality control procedures presented are from that perspective. However, common problems encountered during the conversion process of GIS projects are discussed, along with solutions used to locate and correct those problems within the GEOMAX project.     

Accessibility and findability of local e-government websites in the Czech Republic

This article focuses on the accessibility of local e-government web pages. Accessibility is herein considered in a broader perspective, taking also into account that information must be findable within the Internet through conventional fulltext search engines. Based on this assumption, an analysis of 39 local e-government websites in the Czech Republic was carried out in two testing periods (March 2006 and April 2008). The web pages were analysed both from a citizen’s point of view (with disadvantage due to disability or to technical equipment) and from the point of view of fulltext search engines. In the analysis of results, there is an overall evaluation and comparison between testing periods and recommendations for improvement of the current conditions.     

User engagement in e-government systems implementation: A comparative case study of two Singaporean e-government initiatives

Noting that user engagement is a key issue in e-government systems implementation and that the actual form and strategies of user engagement, especially within the context of e-government, is poorly defined, this paper intends to contribute to the research and practice of e-government systems implementation by conducting a comparative case study of two e-government systems implementation within a single government agency in Singapore. The comparative analysis of these two e-government systems implementation was accomplished through using stakeholder theory as a sense-making theoretical lens. This generated four findings pertaining to the form and strategies of user engagement in e-government systems implementation.     

Managing e-government implementation in China: A process perspective

Launching a municipality-wide e-government program is an extensive, meticulously planned initiative involving ambitious goals and large-scale operational transformation. This has been particularly true in Shanghai, an urban area, occupying approximately the same area as New York or London. Here we report on our study of a social security smart card project developed and now operating in Shanghai. From the perspectives of modularity and societal learning, this case study demonstrates how localized e-government efforts may be implemented throughout the tiers of the municipal government, to present an e-government model that can be diffused to other parts of the country.     

An empirical study of cultural dimensions and e-government development: implications of the findings and strategies

We aim to examine whether national culture has an impact on e-government development. We used methods of correlation and multiple regression to analyse two sets of index: (1) Hofstede's cultural dimension index and (2) the e-government development index of the 2010 United Nations e-government survey. We found that there is a correlation to a various degree between e-governmental development and the cultural dimensions defined by Hofstede. Of the five cultural dimensions, we found that, individualism (i.e. the extent to which an individual is integrated into a group), power distance (i.e. the extent to which a society accepts the differences and inequalities in power distribution) and long-term orientation (i.e. the extent to which a culture programs its members to accept delayed satisfaction of their material, social and emotional needs) are significantly correlated with e-government development. The implications of the findings and the strategies proposed by this study could help governments and decision makers design and implement policies that take into account cultural factors to improve e-government services and their overall development. This study confirms and supports previous research and extends the scope of, and updates the results of, similar studies in the field.     

Escalation and de-escalation of commitment: a commitment transformation analysis of an e-government project

Abstract.  This paper presents a commitment transformation framework for analysing the change in actors' commitment during the transition from escalation to de-escalation in information technology projects. De-escalation is potentially a more important issue than escalation because de-escalation provides remedies for the ills of escalation. Therefore, it is important to understand how stakeholders may bias facts in the direction of previously accepted beliefs and thus prevent an organization from de-escalating. Here, we adopt Lewin's change theory to examine the commitment transformation during the transition from escalation to de-escalation of an e-government project in a local council in the United Kingdom. By conceiving actors' commitment transformation as an 'unfreezing–changing–refreezing' process, researchers may develop a deeper understanding of how actors may give up previous failing course of action and accept an alternative course of action. Practitioners can also utilize the framework in post-mortem analyses of projects which have faced escalation to devise useful de-escalation strategies for future project development. ¹     

Open data and e-government – related or competing ecosystems: a paradox of open government and promise of civic engagement in Estonia*

ABSTRACT

The article analyzes an open data movement in an unusual context of highly developed digital economy and widespread popularity of e-government services in a country that is universally well-known as one of the global leaders in promoting information society and electronic democracy, but paradoxically demonstrating modest results in propagating a presumably related concept of open government data. In this regard, paying special attention to the investigation of main drivers, stakeholders and challenges of the open data movement in Estonia, the author argues that a highly centralized administrative policy that has been widely used previously by authorities in advancing various technology-driven public reforms, which partly explains a truly impressive advance of this Nordic state in e-government, e-commerce, e-banking and evoting, does not necessarily lead to same effective results in the open data domain. On the contrary, the presence of established democratic institutions and developed civil society as well as an incredibly advanced and dynamic private ICTindustry that values competition and professional curiosity along with a very strong sense of patriotism and adherence to a particular neighborhood deeply rooted in Estonian society has played a much more important role in diffusing the concept rather than just traditional government directives and strategies.     

The use of computers in Australian local government

This paper reports on the extent of computer utilization amongst Australian local governments. Replies to a questionnaire circulated to all local governments in mid-1977 showed that computer usage was increasing markedly at that time. Estimates of future usage were made. The types of equipment, the computer languages, the use of bureau services, and the purposes to which the computers were put were assessed from the questionnaire to provide an overall picture of the degree of computerization amongst local governments.     

The coordination of workarounds: Insights from responses to misfits between local realities and a mandated global enterprise system

We investigate how employees react when confronted with an enterprise system (ES) that does not fit with work processes dictated by local realities. We draw on interview data (n = 31) from a multinational company to reveal how employees devised and coordinated workarounds that were not compliant with corporate IT policy, but enabled the completion of essential activities, thereby creating value for the firm and its customers. The coordination of these workarounds proved essential to their persistence. We discuss both the theoretical implications of our findings regarding workarounds and the practical contributions associated with the idea that non-compliance can be beneficial.     

Good governance,development theory,and aid policy: Risks and challenges of e-government in Jordan

Poor governance is among the most important causes of state failure and underdevelopment. Hence innovations and reforms in the governmental and bureaucratic apparatus are an important prerequisite for development. E-government policy initiatives have gained international validity by the donor community as a catalyst for such reforms. To be sure, the characteristics of the state model implicit in e-government applications and the economics of transition from a backward state organization to e-government are equally relevant for the success of the initiative. This study focuses on the analysis and early design of e-government solutions in a less-developed country: Jordan. It shows that implementing a general standardized ICT portfolio to support good governance proves to be a difficult task and that there are a number of risks emerging from development aid policies aimed at good governance. The paper provides suggestive evidence that e-government and the view of the minimal state put forward by international development agencies might not be conducive to rapid late development. The New Institutional Economics provides an illuminating framework for this purpose. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Towards a theory of local and global in computation

We formulate the rudiments of a method for assessing the difficulty of dividing a computational problem into “independent simpler parts”. This work illustrates measures of complexity which attempt to capture the distinction between “local” and “global” computational problems. One such measure is the covering multiplicity, or average number of partial computations which take account of a given piece of data. Another measure reflects the intuitive notion of a “highly interconnected” computational problem, for which subsets of the data cannot be processed “in isolation”. These ideas are applied in the setting of computational geometry to show that the connectivity predicate has unbounded covering multiplicity and is highly interconnected; and in the setting of numerical computations to measure the complexity of evaluating polynomials and solving systems of linear equations.