icegov2012 proceedings

integrating them worth it? Because a lack of measurement to
performance (see below), we don’t know. But what we do know is
that one of the biggest trends in e-government will be the move
away from specific websites to search. Indeed, already in 2010
only a small minority of UK users came in through the direct.gov
portal (12%) with the majority arriving at their service of choice
from search (52%) or via an external link (43%). 11 A constituent
will no longer go to a central government portal to look for
something but rather use Google, or another search engine, to
simply search for the service or information desired.
The current common approach is in effect not a measure of
‘supply’ as a feature may exist in theory but if it is not found on
websites then it is not counted. Adding searching for a service
anywhere in a country’s e-government ecosystem to the arsenal of
locating items from a supply-side perspective is an obvious
addition considering the often meager usage numbers of portals
and the high usage numbers for search engines. An updated
survey should thus also cover assessments of search relevance.
6.5 Link Survey to Performance
Linking e-government performance as measured by the supplyside
efforts to outcome, i.e. performance, is increasingly
important. To date, however, such efforts have been minimal due
to the difficulty in execution at all levels.
“Just as there is tremendous complexity in public performance
measurement in general, so too are there substantial definitional
and methodological challenges in monitoring and evaluating the
efficiency and effectiveness of public service delivery through
online media,” says the UN 2010 report. But desk research can
supplement online supply-side efforts in linking a survey to
performance, a key measure of e-government. For example, a
2009 book chapter used traditional supply-side analysis of the 239
largest U.S. cities correlated with U.S. Census data to show that
large cities, on average, have better e-government than small ones,
likely an effect of the fact that there is often a fixed cost of system
implementation, which decreases cost per user. [27] Qualitative
analysis can also be linked to quantitative estimates using web
analytics (see section 5.2.1) which, although biased and
incomplete, tend to be consistently so thereby enabling relatively
good country and longitudinal comparisons.
In this way, it is possible to begin to answer the most fundamental
of questions: is the money being spent on e-government worth it?
Which organizations are spending the appropriate amounts? Are
there organizations that spend less but achieve more? This
exercise will entail asking those surveyed for their e-government
budgets, usage statistics, satisfactions surveys, and data on cyber
security, among others (also see section 6.2). If organizations do
not provide such information, then their e-government website
can be evaluated to see whether they do. Or search can be used to
see whether any such data are available. If all else fails, so should
the organization in this area: if money is being spent on egovernment
but the results are not transparent or the benefits not
being measured, why do it in the first place?
6.6 Measurement at All Levels
The UN survey fulfills an important international role in
benchmarking the supply of e-government services across
11 http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/digital-default-proposed-
government-services
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countries. But there is also great demand for e-government
measurement surveys at all levels. This paper has outlined recent
e-government, technology and benchmarking trends, and
proposed a revised measurement framework to meet the demand
at all levels.
All politics is local as Tip O’Neill, the former speaker of the U.S.
House of Representatives, used to say. Indeed, many public sector
services are offered at the local level, which means that egovernment
too needs to offer them locally. However, many local
services are also increasingly integrated into national level
websites – again, the user should not need to know who is
offering them or at what level, but rather just how to find them.
For example, South Korea’s national portal includes links to both
national and local government services. 12 The Canadian national
portal goes one step further and provides a ‘close to your home’
feature through which one can locate services by postal code, city
or province/territory. 13 The Australian national portal, meanwhile,
offers an advanced search feature that filters results by, among
others, local government services. 14 Australia’s portal also
explains how constituents can file a complaint through a number
of channels, including via email, fax, post or – in the most
traditional way – by hand. 15
Every case will be slightly different depending on the scope,
specific measurement objectives and intended level of
sophistication, all equations of time, money and effort. However,
the basic approach will remain the same: to use a robust supplyside
approach, which is customized for cultural and local needs
and takes into account emerging trends in order to support the
larger endeavor of linking survey performance to government
performance.
7. CONCLUSION
As illustrated through the UN survey, supply side analysis
remains a useful way of comparing relative development in the
digital era. However, to fully capture the modern complexities of
e-government across various levels, a revised framework is
necessary, one that is sustainable into the future by having
government supply the data for verification, providing policymakers
with near real-time data, while supplementing the
traditional efforts with additional automation and search. In this
effort, additional improvements can be made in regards to adding
measures of transparency, usage, security, and performance.
E-government must be achieved through sustainable development,
illustrating how investment is connected to outcome and how it is
reflective, and supports an organization’s broader development
goals. The UN approach is a good framework to start from. When
we customize it, we can support the goal of linking the survey to
performance.
12
http://www.korea.go.kr/new_eng/main/index.do
13
http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/cgi-bin/hrsearch.cgi?app=hme&ln=eng
14
Select “search” and then “advanced search” on the portal to try:
http://australia.gov.au
15
http://australia.gov.au/service/privacy-complaint-to-the-officeof-the-australian-information-commissioner