Electronic Government at the Local Level: Progress to Date and Future Issues

ABSTRACT Much like businesses with electronic commerce public organizations are beginning to embrace electronic government e-government This article defines the term e-government,d iscusses the literatureo f local-level e-government,a ndd ocumentst he adoption and sophistication of e-government among U.S local governments It employs data from a survey conducted in 2000 to examine local adoption of e-government E-government adoption among local governments generally tracks previously documented patterns of information technology adoption which show a statistically significant relationship between adoption and such demographic variables as population size form and type of government region and metro status The article compares the results of that survey to a normative model of e-government maturity and finds that the emergence of e-government at the local level is still in its formative stages The analysis also examines perceived impacts from e-government sophistication of e-government offerings