Providence, RI-A new study of global e-government undertaken by researchers at Brown University shows that Taiwan, South Korea, and Canada have overtaken the United States in e-government performance.

The second annual survey conducted by Professor Darrell M. West of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University, measured each country's on-line presence on a 100-point scale using more than two dozen different criteria, including the availability of contact information, publications, databases, portals, privacy, security, disability access, and the number of online services. A previous study of global e-government was released last year.

This year's study reviewed 1,197 national government websites in 198 countries during June and July, 2002. Among the sites analyzed were those of executive offices, legislative offices, judicial offices, Cabinet offices, and major agencies serving crucial functions of government, such as health, human services, taxation, education, interior, economic development, administration, natural resources, foreign affairs, foreign investment, transportation, military, tourism, and business regulation.

Last year's global leader in digital government, the United States, dropped to fourth place (60.1), behind Taiwan (72.5), South Korea (64) and Canada (61.1). Chile moved up to fifth place with 60 points, followed by Australia with 58.3 points. The following table shows how each of the world's 198 countries ranked on e-government performance in 2002.

Among the other findings of this research include:

• 12 percent of government websites offered services that are fully executable online, up from 8 percent in 2001
• the most frequent services are ordering publications, making travel reservations, searching and applying for jobs, applying for passports, and renewing vehicle licenses
• 77 percent of websites provide access to publications and 83 percent have links to databases (the latter being up from 41 percent in 2001)

• 14 percent of government websites feature a one-stop services "portal" or have links to a government portal
• 14 percent (up from 6 percent in 2001) show privacy policies, while 9 percent (up from 3 percent in 2001) have security policies

In the conclusion of the report, the research team presents a number of suggestions to improve navigation and provide access to information. One of the weaknesses of many national websites has been their inconsistency in terms of design features. Government agencies guard their autonomy very carefully, and it has taken a while to get agencies to work together to make the tasks of citizens easier to undertake.

Governments should promote features that allow citizens to post comments or otherwise provide feedback about a government agency. They also should consider market research, public opinion surveys, or focus groups that would provide them with information on how citizens feel about e-government websites and what features would attract them to use these sites.

One of the major challenges of e-government is the up-front costs of developing a website and putting information and services online. To deal with this issue, smaller and poorer countries should undertake regional e-government alliances that would allow them to pool resources and gain greater efficiency at building their infrastructure.