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Definition of E-Government

E-government is an idea raised by former U.S. vice president (AI Gore), within his vision of linking the citizen to the various agencies of government for getting all kinds of government services in an automated way, in addition to the completion of the government working itself depending on information and communication with network to reduce costs improve performance, speed of delivery and effectiveness of implementation.

Electronic government as government use of information communication technologies to offer for citizens and business the opportunity to interact and conduct business with government by using different electronic media such as telephone touch pad, fax, smart cards, self-service kiosks, e-mail/Internet, and EDI. It is about how government organizes itself; its administration, rules, regulation and frameworks set out to carry out service delivery and to co-ordinate, communicate and integrate process within itself.

Another definition of E-government was presented by United Nation’s website to be “E-government refers to the use of information and communication Technologies (ICT) Such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing by government agencies”. While OECD noted that Electronic government refers to the use of information and communication technologies, and particularly the Internet, as a tool to achieve better government.

Maturity of E-Government

In the concept of government in general, as well as of E-government, we can distinguish between 3 groups’: citizens, business and services, and government and citizen, G2B denote the transaction between different government units. Most of the governments begin to provide information across direct on-line, but the public needs require quick more services and usually take this form gradually. E-government becomes more widespread; one is beginning to see the progress through six stages. Not all governments will reach all stages, and there will be much diversity within a government, with different agencies at different stages. The stages are:
1. Using internal network and setting up and email system.
2. Enabling inter-organizational and public access to information
3. Allowing 2-way communication
4. Allowing exchange of value
5. Digital democracy
6. Joined-up government

Implementing E-government is a continuing process, and most often the development is conceptualized in stages. The widely known maturity model suggested by Layne and Lee (Layne and Lee, 2001), who sees E-government as an evolutionary phenomenon, from which E-government initiatives should be derived and implemented. They assume four stages of growth model for E-government:

1. Cataloguing:
  • Online Presence
  • Catalogue Presentation
  •  Downloadable Forms
2. Transaction:
  • Services and Forms Online
  • Working Database
  •  Supporting Online Transactions
3. Vertical integration:
  •  Local System linked to higher level system within similar functionalities.
4. Horizontal integration:
  •  System integrated across different functions
  •  Real one stop shopping for citizens

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