Description (short summary):
The U.S. Municipalities E-Governance Survey assessed the practice of digital governance in large municipalities across the United States by evaluating their websites and ranking them on a national scale. Simply stated, digital governance includes both digital government (delivery of public service) and digital democracy (citizen participation in governance). Specifically, the authors analysed security, usability, and content of websites; the type of online services currently being offered; and citizen response and participation through websites established by municipal governments.

The methodology of the U.S. survey of municipal websites mirrors the previous research of the E-Governance Institute on digital governance worldwide in 2003, 2005 and 2007. The worldwide survey focused on cities throughout the world based on their population size; this research focused on the largest and the second largest cities in each of the 50 states based on their population size, along with Washington. The instrument for evaluating U.S. municipal websites consisted of five components: (1) Privacy/Security; (2) Usability; (3) Content; (4) Services; and (5) Citizen Participation. For each of those five components, the research applied 18-20 measures, and each measure was coded on a scale of four-points (0, 1, 2, 3) or a dichotomy of two-points (0, 3 or 0, 1). Furthermore, in developing an overall score for each municipality the authors have equally weighted each of the five categories so as not to skew the research in favor of a particular category (regardless of the number of questions in each category). This reflects the same methods utilized in the worldwide surveys. To ensure reliability, each municipal website was assessed by two evaluators, and in cases where a significant variation (+ or - 10%) existed on the adjusted score between evaluators, websites were analyzed a third time.

Based on the evaluation of 101 U.S. cities, Washington, Portland OR, New York, New Orleans, and Los Angeles represent the cities with the highest evaluation scores.

The survey results indicate that all the 101 cities selected for the survey have developed official websites, and the average score for digital governance in these municipalities is 42.04. This research represents a longitudinal effort to evaluate digital governance in large municipalities in the United States. The continued study of municipalities nationwide, with the next U.S. Survey planned in 2010, will further provide insights into the direction and the performance of e-governance in the United States.

Original URL:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~egovinst/Website/researchpg.htm

Number of pages:
91

Related document(s):  
US: States e-Governance Report (2008)