Darrell West and his team of researchers at the Brown University Center recently published the third annual U.S. federal and state e-government survey for Public Policy. The survey looked at 1206 state government websites, in addition to 45 federal legislative executive branch websites, and 13 federal court websites. The full report is available online: www.insidepolitics.org/Egovt02us.html (HTML) www.insidepolitics.org/egovt02us.PDF (PDF) State and federal sites were rated on a scale of 1-96, with four points awarded to each of some 24 evaluation points. Up to four bonus points were awarded, based on the level of online services sites offered (an online service was defined as one in which all aspects of the transaction were conducted online, versus, say providing a link to a form which was to then be downloaded/printed/faxed/e-mailed). For each state, the cumulative score for each site was averaged across all the sites evaluated for a state (an average of 24 across all three branches). For the federal government, the same scoring system applied to individual sites, and was averaged across 59 federal agencies and departments. A short e-mail request for office hour information was also sent to the identifiable human resources (or comparable) department to determine the whether and how long before a response would be generated. The evaluation points were: ? contact e-mail address ? contact phone number ? contact address ? online versions of publications ? online databases ? links to outside websites ? audio content ? video content ? broadcasts of proceedings ? non-English content ? accessible by persons with disabilities ? absence of online advertisements ? user fees (charges levied as part of a transaction) ? premium fees (charges levied as requirement for accessing site content or features) ? restricted or permission-only site areas ? privacy policies ? security policies ? links to an online state government gateway or portal ? use of digital signatures (electronic code) to verify transactions with government ? supports credit card payments ? ability to receive e-mail updates ? online space for providing comments and/or interacting with the governmental entity ? allows personalization or customization of features ? search capabilities Some might consider the presence of certain factors to count against a site, such as user or premium fees, or restricted areas. But the authors lay out some useful arguments for discussion to address these. For example, states feeling particular budget crunches may have had to resort to fees to continue to support their online efforts that, hopefully, might result in cost savings and increased efficiencies. Additionally, in the wake of September 11th concerns, a number of states have moved to articulate, if not solidify, privacy and security policies to address safety and law enforcement concerns. A number of commentators have focused on the figures regarding government site responsiveness to e-mail requests. That the non-response figure more than doubled from 2001 (20%) to 45% in 2002, and quadrupled from 9% in 2000 is indeed bothersome-- while the tendency of sites to respond within one day dropped from 53% in 2001 to 35% in 2002. But there are arguably more intriguing trends the study highlights. For starters, more federal and state government sites are actually listing phone numbers (96%) and addresses (95%). But while more sites are offering three or more complete online services (7%), more sites (77%) are providing no services at all. Nearly twice as more sites (34%) are offering security policies compared to 2001, and 43% are offering privacy policies. But 35% of sites admit that they disclose information to law enforcement agencies, and 61% do not expressly promise to not turn over some level of user information for commercial marketing purposes. While there was also only a slight increase in accessibility features (28%) in 2002 from last year (27%), the type of features present tell a different story. While compliance with Section 508 and/or W3C accessibility guidelines increased slightly to 5% (helped significantly by a change in federal rules regarding technology accessibility), and text versions of sites increased to 18% from 8%, the presence of TTY/TTD lines actually dropped by half to 8%. There is also different aspect to specific sets of features at the state level. Arkansas, comes out on top with 48% for online services (Wyoming fares the worst at 0%). Connecticut has the best showing among security policies (100%) while Alaska, Alabama, and Kansas run a three-way tie for last with no security policies. Connecticut also leads the states in providing privacy features (100%), with Nebraska (8%), Alabama and Louisiana (9% each) at the bottom. Connecticut also leads on disability access (92%), with Michigan and West Virginia tied at none. Texas leads non-English content at 46%, but there is a staggering 26 state tie for no features in this area. Things get more interesting when looking at the total range of features present. The best overall state ranking was Tennessee at 56% meaning, that, on average each of the sites for that state had a bit more than half of the features analyzed. The worst was Wyoming at 34.8%. For federal government sites, the best was the Federal Communications Commission at 92%, and the worst, at 24%, was the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals (this covers cases in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota). On the surface, this would seem to support the thinking that states, particularly those facing severe budget crunches, are not able to devote the level of resources into their online efforts. Across branches of government in general, legislative sites had the greatest percentage of databases (72%), audio clips (34%), and video clips (21%). Executive sites were more likely to have links to other websites (70%), disability access (27%), online services (24%), privacy policies (45%) and security policies (35%). Judicial sites were more likely to charge user fees, equally as likely as executive branch sites to feature restricted areas (5%) and broadcasts of proceedings (3%), and equally as likely as legislative sites to provide comment areas (3%) as they are unlikely to support digital signatures or online ads. Assuming the study did not evaluate the individual websites of legislators themselves, keep in mind that each branch has certain rules and restrictions governing what can and shou executive branch sites also include agencies, which can outnumber both the set of legislative and judicial support entities required. Key areas where federal government sites were found to have decreased slightly in their 2002 levels from 2001 included security policies (54%), outside links (80%), links to a government gateway (61%). More significant decreases included disability access (41%), privacy policies (76%), comment areas (14%), user fees (7%), credit card support (10%), and search capabilities (75%). Federal sites showed increases with respect to online services (44%), publications (100%), non-English content (44%), e-mail visibility (90%), and restricted areas (12%). Areas where the states showed modest decreases in 2002 include providing e-mail addresses (80%), e-mail updates (50%), online services (22%) and charging premium fees (1%). The states did, however, experience a major drop-- from 51% to 41% over the past year-- in their provision of search capacity. Those areas where states reportedly showed a modest increase in 2002 include database access (55%), accessibility (28%), outside links (70%), credit card transactions (10%), web personalization (2%), in addition to restricted areas (6%). Significant increases occurred with respect to comment areas (10%), links to portals and online government gateways (55%), privacy policies (42%) and security policies (33%). All in all, this study series continues to prove an invaluable read, and all NPTalkers are encouraged to examine the findings and methodology to help inform both continued discussion, future research, and actionable items with respect to online government and nonprofits. Ryan Turner OMB Watch