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As a part of the Municipality eGovernment Assessment Project (MeGAP) the PSI Group is assessing the regional progress of egovernment implementation. This means that, in addition to charting the progress of the nation's larger cities and towns, the MeGAP is providing insight into how egovernment is being implemented by the various municipalities that make up metropolitan areas.
To date, the MeGAP regional analyses have been conducted in:
The regional analyses provide some important findings:
Municipalities are online, but the ones that are not are small:
- In all three regions, most municipal government had some sort of web presence, even if a minimal one.
- Most of the municipalities without websites are small: Of cities with populations under 15,000, over 50% are without official websites.
- This means many regional residents are without any sort of online municipal presence Boston PMSA, 492,391 (14.4%) live in municipalities without websites. In regional St. Louis, 566,000 (22%); in the Twin Cities area, 261,000 (9.6%).
Most cities &towns use their websites only as brochures:
- Most cities and towns offer any interactive features at all.
- Of those with some degree of interactivity, only a few are allowing site visitors to conduct transactions with city departments online.
- Hardly any ecommerce exists at city and town sites, meaning that citizens must still either visit City Hall to apply for permits and licenses or make payments by mail.
- Very few area municipalities are experimenting with new modes of online citizen participation.
- Most sites offer little more than listings of city departments, suggesting that little coordination at the level of the entire organization is taking place.
- Almost all sites show that individual city departments are providing their own content and organization rather than showing a coordinated, strategic approach.
Summary Statistics:
* NOTE: In Massachusetts, county governments have very little administrative function and (as a result) none have official websites
RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Move area municipalities beyond mere web presence toward egovernment
- Municipal strategic panning is crucial
- Need to target specific areas for applications
- Clear standards for usability, privacy, transparency, and security are necessary
- Regional actors have a vital role in coordination
- Need for concrete regional telecommunications needs assessment and planning
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