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Global E-Government, 2004
by
Darrell M. West
Center
for Public Policy
Darrell_West@brown.edu
(401)
863-1163
www.InsidePolitics.org
September,
2004
Table of Contents
Executive
Summary
A
Note on Methodology
Online
Information
Electronic
Services
Privacy
and Security
Disability
Access
Foreign
Language Access
Ads,
User Fees, and Premium Fees
Public
Outreach
Top
E-Government Countries
Differences
by Region of World
Conclusion
Appendix
Table
A-1 E-Government
Rankings by Country, 2004
Table
A-2 E-Government
Country Ratings, 2003 and 2004
Table
A-3 Individual
Country Profiles for Services, Privacy, Security, and Disability Access, 2004
Table
A-4 Individual
Country Profiles for Foreign Language Translation, and Ads, 2004
Table
A-5 Best
Practices of Top Government Sites, 2004
Executive Summary
Electronic government refers to public sector use of
the Internet and other digital devices to deliver services and
information. Although personal computers
have been around for several decades, recent advances in networking, video
imaging, and graphics interfacing have allowed governments to develop websites
that contain a variety of online materials.
As discussed in my forthcoming book, Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance
(Princeton University Press, 2005), electronic government is supplanting
traditional means of access based on personal visits, phone calls, and mail
delivery.
Governments around the world have created websites
that facilitate tourism, citizen complaints, and business investment. Tourists can book hotels through the
government websites of many
In this report, I present the fourth
annual update on global e-government. I
study what is online globally and how electronic government has changed over
the past four years. Using a detailed
analysis of 1,935 government websites in 198 different nations undertaken
during Summer, 2004, I chart the variations that exist
across regions and countries, and discuss the pace at which e-government is
unfolding around the world.
In looking at electronic government from 2001 to
2004, I find that progress is being made, albeit at an incremental pace. Governments are showing steady progress on
several important dimensions, but not major leaps forward. On several key indicators, e-government
performance is edging up. However,
movement forward has not been more extensive in some areas because budget,
bureaucratic, and institutional forces have limited the extent to which the
public sector has incorporated technology into their mission.
Among the significant findings of the research are:
1) 21 percent of government websites offer
services that are fully executable online, up from 16 percent in 2003, 12
percent in 2002, and eight percent in 2001.
2) 89 percent of websites
this year provide access to publications and 62 percent have links to
databases.
3) 14 percent (up from 12 percent in 2003)
show privacy policies, while 8 percent
have security policies (up from 6 percent in 2003).
4) 14 percent of government
websites have some form of disability access, meaning access for persons with
disabilities, the same as in 2003.
5) Countries vary enormously
in their overall e-government performance based on our analysis. The most highly ranked nations include
6) There are major
differences in e-government performance based on region of the world. In general, countries in
A Note on Methodology
The data for our analysis consist of an assessment
of 1,935 national government websites for the 198 nations around the world (see
Appendix for the full list of countries). We analyze a range of sites within
each country to get a full sense of what is available in particular
nations. Among the sites analyzed are
those of executive offices (such as a president, prime minister, ruler, party
leader, or royalty), legislative offices (such as Congress, Parliament, or
People's Assemblies), judicial offices (such as major national courts), 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. Websites for subnational
units, obscure boards and commissions, local government, regional units, and
municipal offices are not included in this study. The analysis was undertaken
during June and July, 2004 at
The regional breakdowns for the websites we studied
are 20 percent from Western European countries, followed by 17 percent from
Africa, 14 percent from Asia, 12 percent Eastern Europe, 8 percent the Middle
East, 7 percent South America, 5 percent Pacific Ocean countries (meaning those
off the Asian continent), 6 percent from Central America, 6 percent North
America (which included Canada, the United States, and Mexico), and 5 percent
Russia and Central Asia (such as the areas of the former Soviet Union).
Websites are evaluated for the presence of various
features dealing with information availability, service delivery, and public
access. Features assessed included the
name of the nation, region of the world, and having the following
features: online publications, online
database, audio clips, video clips, non-native languages or foreign language
translation, commercial advertising, premium fees, user payments, disability
access, privacy policy, security features, presence of online services, number
of different services, digital signatures, credit card payments, email address,
comment form, automatic email updates, website personalization, personal
digital assistant (PDA) access, and an English version of the website.
Where national government websites
are not in English, our research team employed foreign language readers who translate
and evaluate national government websites.
In some cases, we have made use of foreign language translation software
available online through http://babelfish.altavista.com. Some of the non-English websites are assessed
in part through English translations of portions of the websites.
Online Information
In looking at specific features of government
websites, we want to see how much material was available that would inform
citizens. Most agencies have made
extensive progress at placing information online for public access. Eighty-nine percent of government websites
around the world offer publications that a citizen could access (the same as in
2003 and up from 77 percent in 2002), and 62 percent provided databases (down
from 73 percent last year).
Percentage of
Websites Offering Publications and Databases
|
|
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
|
Phone Contact Info. |
70% |
77% |
-- |
-- |
|
Address Info |
67 |
77 |
-- |
-- |
|
Links to Other Sites |
42 |
82 |
-- |
-- |
|
Publications |
71 |
77 |
89 |
89 |
|
Databases |
41 |
83 |
73 |
62 |
|
Audio Clips |
4 |
8 |
8 |
12 |
|
Video Clips |
4 |
15 |
8 |
13 |
Most public sector websites do not incorporate audio
clips or video clips on their official sites.
Despite the fact that these are becoming much more common features of
e-commerce and private sector enterprise, only 12 percent of government
websites provide audio clips and 13 percent have video clips. These are slightly higher than the 8 percent
of sites last year that featured audio and video clips.
For e-government service delivery,
we look at the number and type of online services offered. Features are defined
as services only if the entire transaction can occur online. If a citizen has to print out a form and then
mail it back to the agency to obtain the service, we do not count that as a
service that can be fully executed online.
Searchable databases count as services only if they involved accessing
information that result in a specific government service response.
Of the websites examined around the
world, however, 21 percent offer services that are fully executable online,
which is up from 16 percent in 2003 and 12 percent in 2002. Of this group, 11 percent offer one service,
four percent have two services, and six percent have three or more
services. Seventy-nine percent have no
online services.
Number of
Online Services
|
|
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
|
None |
92% |
88% |
84% |
79% |
|
One |
5 |
7 |
9 |
11 |
|
Two |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
Three
or more |
2 |
3 |
4 |
6 |
Percentage of
Government Sites Offering Online Services by Region of World
|
|
2001 |
2002 |
2003
|
2004
|
North America
|
28% |
41%
|
45% |
53% |
|
19 |
14
|
17 |
43 |
|
Asia |
12 |
26
|
26 |
30 |
|
Middle East |
10 |
15
|
24 |
19 |
|
Western Europe |
9 |
10
|
17 |
29 |
|
Eastern Europe |
-- |
2
|
6 |
8 |
|
Central America |
4 |
4
|
9 |
17 |
|
South America |
3 |
7
|
14 |
10 |
|
Russia/Central Asia |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
Africa |
2 |
2 |
5 |
8 |
As the e-government industry expands worldwide, the
complexity and specificity of online services continues to develop. Many nations have sites devoted specifically to
e-government, on which they present new initiatives as well as offer listings
of services available online. For
example,
International
services have developed in response to the increasing popularity and prevalence
of SMS (Short Message Service) via mobile phones. Many of
Several
sites, such as the British Prime Minister, display links to information about
the Bobby program, a disability screening mechanism that serves to verify if a
site is properly accessible to disabled citizens. Other novel services are of a more unique
variety. The Greek Foreign Affairs site
gives visitors the option to learn basic Greek online, while the Polish
government portal provides a link to a live video feed of Polish storks. Interestingly, some nations have begun to use
the Internet as a means to encourage romance among their citizens. Moroccan online classified ads contain a
special section for personals, while
Despite
the increased complexity and technological development on many international
sites, there remain problems with government sites. For example the
One
feature that has slowed the development of online services has been an
inability to use credit cards and digital signatures on financial
transactions. On commercial sites, it is
becoming a more common practice to offer goods and services online for purchase
through the use of credit cards.
However, of the government websites analyzed, only 4 percent (up from 2
percent in 2003) accept credit cards and sixth-tenths of 1 percent allowed
digital signatures for financial transactions (up from one-tenth of 1 percent
last year).
Of the 198 nations analyzed, there
is wide variance in the number of online services provided by different
governments. The country with the
largest number of services is
Having visible statements outlining
what the site is doing on privacy and security are
valuable assets for reassuring a fearful population to make use of e-government
services and information. However, few
global e-government sites offer policy statements dealing with these topics. Only 14 percent (up from 12 percent in 2003)
of examined sites have some form of privacy policy on their site, and 8 percent
have a visible security policy (up from 6 percent). Both of these are areas that government
officials need to take much more seriously.
Unless ordinary citizens feel safe and secure in their online
information and service activities, e-government is not going to grow very
rapidly.
|
|
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
|
Privacy |
6% |
14% |
12% |
14% |
|
Security |
3 |
9 |
6 |
8 |
There are widespread variations across
the nations in providing privacy policies on their websites. The countries with the highest percentage of
websites offering a visible privacy policy are
Despite the importance of
security in the virtual world, there are wide variations across nations in the
percentage of websites showing a security policy. The countries most likely to show a visible
security policy are
In order to assess particular aspects of privacy and
security, we evaluated the content of these publicly posted statements. For privacy policies, we look at several
features: whether the privacy statement
prohibits commercial marketing of visitor information; use of cookies or
individual profiles of visitors; disclosure of personal information without the
prior consent of the visitor, or disclosure of visitor information with law
enforcement agents. In general, we found
weak protections of visitor privacy. For
example, only 10 percent of government websites prohibit the commercial
marketing on visitor information; just six percent prohibit cookies, 10 percent
prohibit sharing personal information, and 8 percent share information with law
enforcement agents. And in regard to
security policies, 9 percent indicate that they use computer software to
monitor traffic.
We
For our
The country whose sites had
the largest number of disability error problems, as judged by the Watchfire, Inc. Bobby software, was
Foreign Language Access
Fifty percent of national government websites have foreign language features that allow access to non-native speaking individuals, about the same as the 51 percent last year. By foreign language feature, we mean any accommodation to the non-native speakers in a particular country, such as text translation into a different language. Many have no language translation on their site other than their native tongue. Seventy-seven percent offer at least som