IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

User satisfaction with federal government Web sites is at its lowest point in three years, according to a report that measures the online performance of a variety of sites.

The score for e-government sites for the first quarter of 2008 fell to 72.4 out of 100 points, a full point lower than it was the same time last year, and 1.5 points lower than the 74 points it scored in the second quarter of 2006, according to the first-quarter report of the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Government Satisfaction Index.

A national survey of city websites has identified Washington, D.C., as the top-ranked city in the performance of municipal e-governance. The research study was conducted jointly by the E-Governance Institute, School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University, Newark, and the Department of Public Administration at San Francisco State University.

How do citizens feel about federal government services? A study by the American Customer Satisfaction Index released today shows that overall satisfaction with government languishes well below most other sectors, but that trust in government is on the rise and e-Gov efforts are Uncle Sam's shining star.

In this latest ACSI report, satisfaction with e-government --- government websites, essentially --- holds steady at its all-time high of 75.2 on a 100-point scale for a second consecutive quarter. Meanwhile, traditional offline gov services bring down the overall score to 68.7, a failing grade, it must be noted. The government lags behind other industries including healthcare, insurance, retail, even utilities.

Researchers at Brown’s Taubman Center for Public Policy this week assigned Tennessee its number one state ranking after analyzing all 50 states’ web sites.

From a representative, nationwide sample of 1,000 U.S. registered voters via live telephone interviews, the study found that 92 percent of voters believe "public agencies should make better use of new technologies to cut government spending and improve efficiency."

Congressional Web sites typically are not customized to meet the needs of citizens who could use them, nor do the site’s managers confer on best practices, according to a new study.

“Strikingly, we find that there are relatively few efforts by offices to evaluate what constituents want or like on their Web sites,” state the researchers in their paper, “Members of Congress Websites: Diffusion at the Tip of the Iceberg”.

The county placed seventh in the 500,000 or more population category. The full list is at www.centerdigitalgov.com. The top-10 will be honored at NACo’s Annual Conference next month in Honolulu, Hawaii.

"However, we expect this percentage to grow, mainly because the number of internet users in Venezuela has gone up by 30% year over year. Besides, there are several initiatives to increase the presence of public entities online," Tendencias director and partner Carlos Jiménez told BNamericas.