Darrell West, director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University, and a team of public policy students examined 1,265 state and federal sites and evaluated the variety and quality of the electronic services they offered.
The team ranked those sites on a 100-point scale based on information and service availability, quality of citizen access and material that would help citizens hold leaders accountable. Of the sites evaluated, 1,206 were state government sites (an average of 24 per state), 46 were federal legislative or executive sites and 13 were federal court sites.
Security Becomes More Important
Since the last study, which was issued Sept. 10, 2001, governments are taking security and privacy measures much more seriously than they did in previous years. Forty-three percent of government Web sites displayed privacy policies on their site, up from 28 percent in 2001. Thirty-four percent now have a visible security policy, up from 18 percent last year.
This attention to security has also created an increase in the presence of restricted areas on government Web sites that require user names and passwords for entrance. Six percent of sites have restricted areas and 1 percent of sites have areas requiring payment for entry. Governments are creating restricted areas for a variety of reasons, such as an interest in providing services and a greater focus on security.
There was also a substantial drop in government responsiveness to e-mail queries. Using a short inquiry, "I would like to know what hours your agency is open during the week. Thanks for your help," researchers sent e-mails to the human services department within each state.
E-mail responses were recorded based on whether the office responded and how long it took in business days. In general, public officials were not as responsive this year as last year. Eighty percent answered our sample query last year, only 55 percent did so this year.
The study ranked the 50 states on overall e-government performance using measures such as online services, attention to privacy and security, disability access, foreign language translation and Web site personalization -- among other features.
Cream Of The Crop
The research team rated the various state sites and compared their performance to last year. The top-ranking state was Tennessee with 56 out of the possible 100 points, followed closely by New Jersey (55.0), California (54.8), Connecticut (53.3) and Pennsylvania (52.9).
The states achieving the lowest rankings were Wyoming (34.8), Alabama (35.8) and Mississippi (37.4).
States that rose 15 or more places since last year's rankings include: New Hampshire (up 34 places), Nevada (up 23), Connecticut (up 20), Illinois (up 20), Oklahoma (up 18), New Jersey (up 16), New Mexico (up 16) and Arizona (up 15).
States that lost 15 or more places include Louisiana (down 28 places), Maine (down 20), Wisconsin (down 20), Colorado (down 18) and Michigan (down 17).
Ranking of Federal Sites
Among federal sites, the Federal Communications Commission scored a 92, followed by the Department of Labor (88), Environmental Protection Agency (84), Department of Treasury (84), Department of State (84), Social Security Administration (80) and the FirstGov portal (80).
The federal sites that had the lowest ratings were various Circuit Courts of Appeal. The following table lists the ranking of federal agencies in 2002, with last year's rank or score in parentheses.
Federal Web sites that rose 15 or more places since last year's rankings include: the State Department (up 33), White House (up 25), FirstGov portal (up 24), Central Intelligence Agency (up 23), U.S. Senate (up 19), Department of Labor (up 19), Department of Commerce (up 18), Department of Justice (up 17), Environmental Protection Agency (up 16), U.S. House of Representatives (up 16), Federal Trade Commission (up 15) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (up 15).
Sites that lost 15 or more places include: the Food and Drug Administration (down 40), Department of Veterans Affairs (down 24), Department of Defense (down 23), Consumer Product Safety Commission (down 21), Housing and Urban Development (down 21) and Small Business Administration (down 15).
Making Better Web Sites
In the conclusion of their report, West and his research team suggest several means to improve e-government Web sites. Among their recommendations:
- Employ consistent design and navigational principles so users of e-government services may move among different agencies and offices without confronting radically different user interfaces, search techniques and other impediments.
- Integrate state agency Web sites into their state portal or gateway Web site. This enables citizens to easily locate desired services by surfing either the portal page or the agency Web site.
- Minimize use of areas that require premium fees. Placing additional charges on governmental services deters free and open access to electronic governance.
- Increase access to interactive technologies. The public sector has yet to successfully implement two-way communications devices, Web site personalization and credit card payments on the majority of their pages.
- Enable foreign language translation through translated pages or software translators.
- Provide a clear and consistent privacy/security policy. The state of Connecticut, for example, has linked every agency in its borders to a common portal page outlining the state's policy in these areas.
Previous studies were released in 2000 and 2001. Financial support for these projects was provided by Brown University.
The Taubman Center for Public Policy
