Abstract
Some state, national, and local governments around the world have long been playing active roles in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to stimulate economic development. Electronic government (e-Government) utilizes information technology (IT) to provide the necessary the access to a wide range of public services. Governments see IT as a way to improve the quality of life of their citizens. Today, governments at all levels of the governance hierarchy respond to millions of citizen demands electronically. Many public organizations are implementing e-Government projects. There is a need to put forward a conceptual model focusing on steps towards implementing more successful e-Government projects. This exploratory paper argues that several key success factors are appropriate for e-Government implementation. About twelve e-Government websites were examined using the identified key success factors. This chapter proposes a conceptual model for a better implementation of electronic government especially in the developing world context.
TopIntroduction
In recent years, nearly all countries have integrated IT into their national economic development strategies. Governments see IT as a way to improve the quality of life of their citizens. The scale of activity on the part of public sectors in leveraging IT has increased in volume (Smith, 2008). E-Government is enabling government companies to provide better services to their customers. The ability to improve citizens’ access to services online has made e-Government a desirable application for government organizations (Gorla, 2008; Donna, Yen, 2006). Governments around the world are implementing e-Government in a bid to improve their public service delivery endeavors. In every part of the world - from industrialized countries to developing ones, governments are putting information online to provide better services for citizens (The Working Group, 2002; Chircu, Lee, 2005; Palmer, 2006). Transactions such as renewing driver’s licenses, applying for jobs and filing tax forms can now be conducted online, quickly and efficiently (West,2008, p.2). To be able to realize these services, e-Government uses IT. The increase in e-Government operation throughout the world, although significant, is due mostly to a small number of countries, including Taiwan, Singapore, United State, Hong Kong and Canada. Table-1 shows some differences in e-Government by region of the world (please see appendix A, for various e-Government Web site URLs).
Table 1.
e-Government increase by region of the world
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| North America | 51.0% | 60.4$ | 40.2% | 39.2% | 47.3% | 43.1% | 45.3% | 53.1% |
| Western Europe | 34.1 | 47.6 | 33.1 | 30.0 | 29.6 | 35.2 | 36.8 | 37.2 |
| Eastern Europe | -- | 43.5 | 32.0 | 28.0 | 27.1 | 29.2 | 31.7 | 30.1 |
| Asia | 34.0 | 48.7 | 34.3 | 31.6 | 37.3 | 35.9 | 39.5 | 39.7 |
| Middle East | 31.1 | 43.2 | 32.1 | 28.1 | 27.4 | 29.4 | 33.5 | 32.3 |
| Russia/Central Asia | 30.9 | 37.2 | 29.7 | 25.3 | 25.0 | 30.6 | 27.8 | 31.2 |
| South America | 30.7 | 42.0 | 29.5 | 24.3 | 25.9 | 28.0 | 32.1 | 33.3 |
| Pacific Ocean Islands | 30.6 | 39.5 | 32.1 | 29.9 | 27.9 | 32.4 | 33.8 | 39.0 |
| Central America | 27.7 | 41.4 | 28.6 | 24.1 | 24.1 | 25.0 | 29.2 | 31.2 |
| Africa | 23.5 | 36.8 | 27.6 | 22.0 | 22.0 | 24.3 | 26.0 | 26.3 |
Source: (West, 2008, 1(3))
Key Terms in this Chapter
Pakistan: A Muslim country in the Asian continent.
Conceptual Model: A representation of the guidelines needs to implement e-Government in the real environment.
E-Government: The implementation of convertional government using ICTs.
Model: A mimic of the real environment. In this chapter, the conceptual e-Governmental model entails a representative of the actual e-Government factors and dimensions that may be present in the study area.
E-Document: A digital document generated by information (ICT) system such as computer, multimedia, etc.
ICT: Acronym standing for Information and Commuication Technology.