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The Public Sphere Information Group (PSI Group) has conducted a broad study of electronic government implementation among the largest cities in the United States. The study of cities with populations between 200,000 and 500,000, part of the overall Municipality eGovernment Assessment Project (MeGAP) designed and conducted by the PSI Group, assesses the degree of implementation of services by cities across 55 different functions and services typically provided by municipalities.
WAVE 2 of the national MeGAP is now nearing completion. The PSI Group has released results for U.S. cities over 500,000 in August 2002 and has scheduled release of data for all cities over 100,000 in December, 2002. At the same time, the PSI Group is also conducting targeted regional assessments (see other news articles)
Key findings of the study:
- Impressive strides have been made. For the most part, medium sized US cities have kept pace with larger cities and have made dramatic improvements to their web-based egovernment offerings. The average summary eScore for the 29 cities is 73.5; when Wave I of the MeGAP analysis was conducted (Winter, 2000) the average eScore was 39. In Wave Two, half the mid-sized U.S. cities have eScores over 70; in 2001, barely half had scores over 40.
- In keeping with the trend among the nation's largest cities, the typical medium-sized U.S. city has implemented several features that dramatically improve their egovernment offerings. The majority of U.S. cities with populations between 200-500K have implemented some sort of document management systems, some sort of action request system, and ready access to information on codes, regulations, licenses and permits. Many have automated processes such as permitting, tax lookup, and payments for utilities, taxes and fines. Overall, mid-sized U.S. cities have far more functional, highly interactive sites that allow a variety of transactions to take place online.
- In many cases, cities with the lowest eScores have made the most progress relative to the rest. For example, Oakland had an eScore of 4 at Wave I, which improved to 73.5 at Wave II. Birmingham had a similarly dramatic increase, going from a score of 3 at Wave I to one of 55 at Wave II. Cleveland had a 458% increase. Buffalo (259% increase), Corpus Christi (231% increase), Santa Ana (228% increase), Bakersfield (214% increase), New Orleans (210% increase), and Greensboro (200% increase) have all made enormous strides. There were some notable exceptions. Jersey City actually had its eScore decline from Wave I to Wave II.
- An interesting surprise: on average the improvement of mid-sized cities outpaced that of larger cities. The median improvement among mid-sized cities was 88%. Among larger cities, the median improvement was 60%.
The New Rankings
There's been a great deal of change in eScores over the past 18 months:
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