INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Abstract

E-government has been widely accepted, and more governments continuously adopt it to provide better services. Great changes have occurred in the past decade, leading to the transformation from e-government to e-governance and emphasizing more citizen participation. Although increasing numbers of e-governance initiatives have been evident, e-governance development varies substantially both at the municipal and national levels. Following a model we have been developing and applying at Rutgers University “Newark since 2003 for evaluating the websites of the largest municipalities in the 100 most wired nations, our 2011 “2012 Worldwide Digital Governance Survey indicates that municipalities vary substantially in e-governance. The average score for the top five municipalities (Seoul, Toronto, Madrid, Prague, and Hong Kong) is 66.54, whereas Lagos, Kuwait City, Baghdad, Asuncion, and Tashkent rank lowest at an average of only 12.05. A substantial gap also exists between municipalities in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and those in non-OECD countries by a ratio of almost 2:1. Similar variances at the national level have been confirmed by e-government surveys conducted by the United Nations. To better illustrate the latest innovations and usage of information and communication technologies to improve e-governance, best practices need to be explored because they can contribute both to the academy and to practice. In this study, excellent examples from Seoul, Toronto, Berlin, and Hong Kong are highlighted to reflect the latest innovations and enlighten the development of e-governance in municipalities worldwide. We suggest four strategies to achieve success in e-governance, including (1) upgrading information and communication technology infrastructure, (2) improving human resource management, (3) creating a corresponding political environment, and (4) promoting administrative performance. © 2015 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.