State Portals as a Framework to Standardize E-Government Services

Abstract

State portals play a prominent role in the convergence of politics and administration. On November 8, 2000, U.S. voters received conflicting media projections, but the Secretary of State’s Office in Florida was able to provide them with that state’s most timely election counts. With this example, software design factors, such as the use of dynamic Web programming, suddenly sprung to the forefront of attention. For almost all federated entities, the establishment of state portals has become an advanced stage of e-government; most now have them, and they provide a wide variety of services. They can be a gateway or central access point, but to appear coordinated, the use of portals should provide a development framework. This article presents the convergence of advanced software engineering practices with the empowerment of public administration standards and the swift enabling of public policy via state portals.