Chapter 3: e-Government Phases, Formats and Services

In this Chapter:

• Phase One - Publish
  • Advanced Publish Functionality
  • Publish Websites – Selected Examples
• Phase Two - Interact
  • e-Comments and Feedback
  • e-Consultation
  • e-Decision-making
  • Resources on Interact e-Government
• Phase Three - Transact
  • Common Transact Applications
  • Transact Case Study – e-Procurement in Romania and Chile
• Types of e-Government Websites
• Illustrative e-Government Services and Applications
• Additional Resources on the Types of e-Government and Illustrative Applications

e-Government is an evolutionary, multi-faceted process and can be viewed as consisting of a set of phases. One way of conceptualizing these phases is as follows:

• Publish – government information is published online – also includes “push” systems that send information to users via email, SMS or other means
• Interact – users can interact with public officials, such as by commenting on proposed regulations or filing corruption complaints
• Transact - citizens and businesses can complete transactions online, such as filing tax returns or applying for government jobs

These “phases” need not be pursued sequentially. Although Interact and Transact applications require more sophisticated back-end capabilities, some e-Government projects have components of more than one phase, and all three phases can be implemented simultaneously across a government. At the least, a government can continue to deepen its Publish applications while also implementing projects in the Interact and Transact phases.

Viewed from another perspective, e-Government initiatives can be characterized based on their intended users:

• Government to Government (G2G) – projects or systems that support information sharing and collaboration within or between government agencies.
• Government to Citizen (G2C) – those that provide information, services and other functionality to citizens.
• Government to Business (G2B) - those that facilitate any of the range of relationships and interactions between government and businesses.

Both of these conceptual frameworks for understanding the process of e-Government development are applicable at the national, provincial, local, or municipal levels.

A third perspective is that e-Government initiatives span sometimes the entire government of a country, sometimes only the central government, sometimes a single sector ministry across the country and sometimes the provincial, municipal or village levels only.

Resources on Planning and Designing e-Government Websites:

• Australia, The Guide to Minimum Website Standards (April 2003).
• UK, Web guidelines (2003-06).
• UK, Website Template Start-up Kit (2002).
• New Zealand, Web Guidelines Toolkit.
• US, Usability.gov on creating e-government websites. Includes step-by-step guidelines.
• eGov4Dev: How do I implement my e-government site?
• eGov4Dev: How do I maintain my website?

Next: Phase One - Publish>>

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