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2006 Information Polity
The paper provides an empirical insight into the global conditions in which e-Government projects are developing in EU countries. We were looking for differences in national environments, identifying forces that defy or stimulate e-Government projects, examining dissimilarities between old and new EU member states, and seeking an overall assessment of the Central European countries. Research confirms that e-Government readiness correlates to national competitiveness (0.77) and particularly innovativeness (0.90). On the other hand, there is surprisingly low correlation between e-Government readiness and overall Government efficiency (0.54). Use confidence expressed terms of Composite Trust correlates with e-Government readiness (0.79), but confidence has a low impact on user preference for new services (0.55). Slightly higher is the correlation between national innovativeness and user preference for innovative services (0.62). Central European countries show the same development patterns as the old European Union member states, but the environment in the former is generally less favorable for e-Government development in all the studied aspects. Research also suggests that a more holistic view of e-Government projects would reveal a complex interplay of new Government services, economy, national innovativeness, and social structures.
Leben, Anamarija ; Kunstelj, Mateja ; Bohanec, Marko ; Vintar, Mirko
2006 Information Polity
Electronic administration portals have become the basic platform for electronic administrative services for users (citizens and businesses). The quality and user-friendliness of this supply depends to a large extent on how well planned and developed it is. The first part of the paper presents some of the more notable approaches to measuring the development or sophistication of e-services and administrative e-portals. Part two presents a methodology for evaluating e-portals developed at the Faculty of Administration – its strength lies primarily in its attempt to provide a more comprehensive evaluation of life-event portals. It measures the level of sophistication, coverage, coordination and accessibility of a service and combines these into an overall portal score. The paper closes by presenting empirical results from the application of the methodology to assess 12 administrative portals from around the world.
Demczuk, Agnieszka ; Pawłowska, Agnieszka
2006 Information Polity
This paper considers a variety of aspects in the development of e-services in Poland. National e-government strategies as well as legal regulations that prepare the organizational conditions of electronic services delivery are presented. The authors refer to the state of electronic services development in Poland. They base their considerations on two independent research projects conducted in the years 2003–2006. The first was a project that investigated public e-services delivered through the Internet with reference to the entire public administration in Poland; the second was a project that examined Web sites of the Public Information Bulletin, (PIB) administered by local governments in the Lubelskie region. In the first project, twenty public services were investigated. The research showed that in 2004–2006, the level of public e-services in Poland increased, reaching, in most cases, the informational stage and a few in the transactional stage. The second research – executed in three stages – was aimed at answering the following questions: 1. To what extent does local administration in the Lubelskie region follow the national policy of e-government development? 2. Does the project of PIB support electronic communication between administration and citizens? 3. Does the project of PIB support services delivered by local administration? The knotty problems of public e-services development in Poland were named.
Golubeva, Anastasia ; Merkuryeva, Irina
2006 Information Polity
This paper describes methods that can be applied to the analysis of demand for e-government services and presents the results of e-government demand study in St. Petersburg. In order to extend the knowledge of public expectations, we considered three groups of e-government stakeholders: civil servants, business, and nonprofit organizations. We further analyzed awareness of available e-government services among representatives of the three groups and their attitudes towards these offerings in St. Petersburg. Obtained results allow to formulate recommendations for further e-government development in St. Petersburg and can be extrapolated to other regions of the Russian Federation.
2006 Information Polity
This paper examines citizens' interaction with local government. The main concern of the paper is how the citizens of Estonia use the Internet for local services. It presents an empirical study supported by direct observation of websites with an accompanying description of e- and m-services being implemented or planned, and provides data from a survey conducted among citizens of a major city. My findings show that the indicators of access to the Internet, use of the Internet and mobile phones are very high in all age groups. Also, the evaluation given by the people to the website of the city council is high in different categories. The e- and m-services the city government has implemented or is planning to implement are innovative. However, the citizens' readiness to use them is low. If there is any interest, it is mainly limited to every-day-life services like m-parking etc. Forums or other services implemented to provoke citizens' involvement are not attractive. Finally, my paper discusses the impact of these results, referring to the theoretical framework, and states that the key factor for interactive communication is motivation. Should interactive communication – even if only "consumerism" of entertainment services – become a routine, it might provide a solution to problems stemming from the perceived disconnection of political and administrative institutions from citizens' everyday concerns.
2006 Information Polity
This paper tries to apply institutional theory to the analysis of Internet-based social security services. I argue that institutional features of service providers matter significantly in the quality of websites. Diverse quality of websites in turn, is a crucial factor in explaining what causes different take-up rates of e-services. The article tests the relevance of empirical and normative accounts of institutional theory to explanation of the quality of public e-services. The websites of five institutions, which provide social insurance in Estonia, serve as the empirical base for the research. Results indicate that the extent of power (de)concentration is a more crucial variable in having citizen-oriented websites than the policy content or public-private ownership.
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