DC, Portland OR, NYC, New Orleans, LA in Top E-Gov Rankings

Rutgers - SFSU Municipal E-Governance Survey Ranks Washington DC #1

A national survey of city websites has identified Washington, DC as the top-ranked city in the performance of municipal E-governance. The research study was conducted jointly by the E-Governance Institute, School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University-Newark, and the Department of Public Administration at San Francisco State University.

The survey evaluated municipal websites in the areas of privacy, usability, content, service and citizen participation and ranked the cities nationally. Co-sponsored by Public Technology Institute (PTI), the study listed the following cities among the top five in digital governance: Washington DC, Portland OR, New York, New Orleans, and Los Angeles.

These cities were awarded the Municipal Web Portal Excellence Awards at the May 2009 PTI Technology Solutions and Innovations Conference in San Diego, CA.

"The E-Governance Performance Index used for the survey is a set of benchmarks that spotlight high levels of performance and foster high expectations for improved web-based municipal service delivery," according to Dr. Marc Holzer, Dean of the School of Public Affairs and Administration and Director of the E-Governance Institute at Rutgers University-Newark.

"Washington DC's website is a great example of how civic engagement can impact government positively," added Dr. Alan Shark, Executive Director and CEO of PTI. "The site was built and improved with input from the community and provides progressive capabilities that serve its citizens and visitors well."

Based on the evaluation, the top 10 cities in Digital Governance Nationwide are shown in the table.

The study systematically utilizes the comprehensive Rutgers E-Governance Performance Index by classifying 98 measures into five categories: privacy, usability, service, content, and citizen participation.

Evaluating each municipality's website to examine how citizens interact with their government online, the survey highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each municipality in terms of the five areas and then ranks the municipalities within each category and on an overall basis.

Washington, DC has been ranked first overall, as well as in the categories of usability and citizen participation. The Washington, DC website is a prime example of government effectively engaging citizens online and providing services that increase efficiency and effectiveness.

Washington, DC's website provides web access that allows citizens to pay utility bills, renew driver's licenses, and view public records. Geospatial Information System (GIS) capability allows visual access to city communities, museums, national buildings, rail and bus lines or the entire city.

An additional feature of DC's website is CapStat, a sophisticated performance measurement system that allows citizens to track the performance of individual agencies, analyze neighborhood statistics, and to see how the government is addressing particular issues. This underscores a growing tendency among municipalities to publish performance measurement data on their websites.

The E-governance study highlights municipalities' focus on Usability and Content, and the need for further attention in the area of Privacy, Services and Citizen Participation. About half of all cities evaluated have websites with emergency management features or alert mechanisms (severe weather, epidemics, etc.), and only about 13% provide disability access for the blind.

Cities have yet to recognize the importance of involving and supporting citizen participation online. Only 5% of all cities evaluated provide online bulletin board or chat capabilities for gathering citizen input on public issues and about 11% provide a mechanism allowing comments or feedback through online forms to individual departments/agencies.

Among the regional rankings, the cities in the Midwest ranked highest with an average score of 45.84. Those in the West ranked second with a score of 41.41, followed closely by the South and Northeast with scores of 41.40 and 39.03 respectively. The Midwestern cities also ranked the highest on average, in all five categories.

Average Score of Cities by Region 2008

The full report is available at this link [PDF].

The continued study of municipalities nationwide, with the next evaluation planned in 2010, will further provide insight in the direction and performance of e-governance throughout the United States. The Rutgers E-Governance Institute will also be conducting its fourth Global E-Governance Survey in the fall of 2009, evaluating the status of E-governance in the largest municipalities in 100 of the world's most "wired" countries.

The E-Governance Institute is a program of the School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University-Newark, which U.S. News & World Report recently ranked ninth in Information and Technology among graduate programs in public affairs and administration in the United States.

For more information regarding the study, contact Dr. Marc Holzer, or the institute's associate director, Aroon Manoharan.

05-21-2009     Send a link     Press Room   Web Management & E-Government     Print version