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State and Federal
E-Government in the
by
Darrell
M. West
Center
for Public Policy
(401)
863-1163
Email: Darrell_West@brown.edu
Website: www.InsidePolitics.org
September,
2004
Table of Contents
Executive
Summary
A
Note on Methodology
Online
Information
Electronic
Services
Privacy
and Security
Broken
Links and Anchors
Search
Problems
Design
Problems
Readability
Disability
Access
Foreign
Language Access
Ads,
User Fees, and Premium Fees
Public
Outreach
State
E-Government Ranking
Federal
Agency E-Government Ranking
State-Federal
Differences
Differences
by Branch of Government
Conclusions
Appendix
Table
A-1
Table
A-2 Overall
Federal Agency E-Govt Ratings, 2003 and 2004
Table
A-3 Number of
State Website Quality Problems, 2004
Table
A-4 Individual
State/Fed Profiles for Publications, Databases, Foreign Language, and Services,
2004
Table
A-5 Individual
State/Fed Profiles for Disability Access, Privacy, and Security, 2004
Table A-6 Best Practices of Top Federal and
State Websites, 2004
Executive Summary
This report presents the fifth
annual update on the features that are available online through American state
and federal government websites. Using a detailed analysis of 1,629 state and
federal government sites, we measure what is online, what variations exist
across the country, and what differences appear between state and national
government. We compare the 2004 results to 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003 (also see
my forthcoming book, Digital Government:
Technology and Public Sector Performance, Princeton University
Press, 2005).
Among the more important findings of the research are the
following:
1) 42 percent of federal
sites and 37 percent of state sites meet the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
disability guidelines.
2) The presence of online
services has improved over the last year.
This year, 56 percent of state and federal sites have services that are
fully executable online, compared to 44 percent last year.
3) One percent of government
sites are accessible through personal digital assistants, pagers, or mobile
phones, the same as last year.
4) A growing number of sites
offer privacy and security policy statements.
This year, 63 percent have some form of privacy policy on their site, up
from 54 percent in 2003. Forty-six percent now have a visible security policy,
up from 37 percent last year.
5) government
websites have a number of quality control issues, such as broken links, missing
titles, missing keywords, and warnings and redirects to new pages.
6) 21 percent of sites offered some
type of foreign language translation, up
from 13 percent last year.
7) 62 percent of government
websites are written at the 12th grade reading level, which is much higher than
that of the average American.
8) The highest ranking
states include
9) Top-rated federal
websites include FirstGov (the
A Note on Methodology
This project is based on a comprehensive analysis of
1,629 government websites (1,569 state government websites, 47 federal
government legislative and executive sites, and 13 federal court sites). The list of web addresses for the 50 states
can be found at www.InsidePolitics.org/states.html, while the federal
government sites are located through the national portal, FirstGov.gov. Among the sites analyzed are portal or
gateway sites as well as those developed by court offices, legislatures,
elected officials, major departments, and state and federal agencies serving
crucial functions of government, such as health, human services, taxation,
education, corrections, economic development, administration, natural
resources, transportation, elections, and agriculture. An average of 31.4
websites is studied for each individual state so we could get a full picture of
what is available to the general public, plus all the major federal government
sites. Tabulation for this project was completed at
Websites
are evaluated for the presence of a number of different features, such as
online publications, online databases, audio clips, video clips, foreign
language or language translation, advertisements, premium fees, user payments
or fees, disability access, several measures of privacy policy, multiple
indicators of security policy, presence of online services, the number of
online services, digital signatures, credit card payments, email addresses,
comment forms, automatic email updates, website personalization, PDA
accessibility, and readability level.
Online Information
In looking at the availability of basic information
at American government websites, we find that access to publications and
databases are excellent. Ninety-eight
percent of sites provide access to publications (the same as last year), while 87
percent have databases (up from 80 percent in 2003).
Similar to the patterns found in previous years,
most websites do not incorporate audio clips or video clips into their
sites. Seventeen percent provide audio
clips, up from eight percent last year, and 21 percent have video clips (up
from 10 percent last year).
Percentage of
Websites Offering Publications and Databases
|
|
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
|
Phone Contact Info. |
91% |
94% |
96% |
-- |
-- |
|
Address Info |
88 |
93 |
95 |
-- |
-- |
|
Links to Other Sites |
80 |
69 |
71 |
-- |
-- |
|
Publications |
74 |
93 |
93 |
98 |
98 |
|
Databases |
42 |
54 |
57 |
80 |
87 |
|
Audio Clips |
5 |
6 |
6 |
8 |
17 |
|
Video Clips |
4 |
9 |
8 |
10 |
21 |
Fully executable, online service delivery benefits
both government and its constituents. In
the long run, such services offer the potential for lower cost of service
delivery and it makes services more widely accessible to the general public, who no longer have to visit, write, or call an
agency in order to execute a specific service.
Of the web sites examined this year,
56 percent offer services that are fully executable online, up from 44 percent
last year. Of the sites this year, 44
percent have no services, 18 percent offer one service, 11percent have two
services, and 27 percent have three or more services. Clearly, both state and federal governments
are making significant progress at placing fully executable services online.
Percentage of
Government Sites Offering Online Services
|
|
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
No Services
|
78% |
75% |
77% |
56% |
44 |
One Service
|
16 |
15 |
12 |
15 |
18 |
|
Two Services |
3 |
4 |
4 |
8 |
11 |
|
Three or More Services |
2 |
6 |
7 |
21 |
27 |
Among
the most common online services provided by states were: renewal of motor
vehicle registrations and driver’s licenses, job applications, filing taxes for
both individuals and businesses, filing consumer complaints, renewal of
professional licenses,
registration with the national “Do Not Call” listing, purchasing
or renewing hunting and fishing licenses, applying for unemployment benefits,
and submitting annual reports and Uniform Commercial Code filings for
businesses.
Several states offered novel services. Many states,
including
One
area where government sites are making progress is in offering the ability to
make credit card purchases online. Of
the government websites analyzed, 25 percent accept credit cards, nearly double
the 19 percent found last year. With the
increase in online services, more and more sites have created a means for
credit card payments. In addition, more
sites are allowing digital signatures for financial transactions. We find that 11 percent are set up for
digital signatures, up from less than one percent last year. A number of the places where digital
signatures were authorized were services allowing citizens to access birth or
death certificates.
Of the 50 states and the federal government analyzed,
there is wide variance in the percentage of states’ web sites with online
services. We computed the average number
of online services found in various states and in the federal government.
A
growing number of sites offer privacy and security statements. In 2004, 63 percent have some form of privacy
policy on their site, up from 54 percent in 2003. Forty-six percent now have a visible security
policy, up from 37 percent last year.
|
|
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
|
Privacy
Policies |
7% |
28% |
43% |
54% |
63 |
|
Security
Policies |
5 |
18 |
34 |
37 |
46 |
The state with the highest
percentage of its sites showing a visible privacy policy is
In order to assess particular aspects of privacy and
security, we evaluate 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 this analysis, we found that 40 percent of
government websites prohibited the commercial marketing of visitor
information. Sixteen percent prohibited
the use of cookies or individual profiles.
Thirty-six percent say they do not share personal information, and 39
percent indicate they can disclose visitor information to law enforcement
agents. Twenty-eight percent indicate
they use computer software to monitor website traffic.
Assessment of E-government
Privacy and Security Statements
|
|
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
|
Prohibit
Commercial Marketing |
12% |
39% |
32% |
40% |
|
Prohibit
Cookies |
10 |
6 |
10 |
16 |
|
Prohibit
Sharing Personal Information |
13 |
36 |
31 |
36 |
|
Share
Information with Law Enforcement |
-- |
35 |
35 |
39 |