The improvement was a pleasant surprise to Gov. Bob Riley's office.
"Gov. Riley has put a special emphasis on refining state government so that it operates more efficiently ...," said Riley spokesman Jeff Emerson. "We're moving up steadily in the ranking." Alabama is 29th this year out of 43 repondents to the survey, which grades state Web sites on 60 separate criteria. In 2002, Alabama came in 44th out of 46 states.
According to Paul W. Taylor, chief strategy officer at the Center for Digital Government, Alabama is playing catchup against states that have been refining their Web offerings for almost a decade.
"States one, two and three have been at this in a concerted effort for nine years ...," Taylor said, referring to Michigan, Washingtion and Virginia, the top finishers in this year's survey. "That 15-point jump reflects that (Alabama) has got its traction now."
Alabamians can conduct about 35 different transactions at www.alabama.gov. The vast majority of those features were added in the past year and a half.
"We're rolling out 15 to 20 applications a year ...," said Rex McDowell, assistant director of finance and overseer of Alabama's e-government initiative. "We have made a lot of progress."
Beyond the main state government Web site, www.alabama.gov, Alabama's ranking is based on all of its state Web sites, such as those for Medicaid, the Department of Health and the Department of Corrections.
Services available at www.alabama.gov range from getting a hunting or fishing license to finding out the status of your income-tax return.
Making the various state departments work together on the Web is one of the challenges of moving government into cyberspace, said Andy Martin, president of Square Root Solutions, a Montgomery Web site design firm.
"It's a constant challenge ...," he said. "I'm glad Alabama's moving in the right direction."
The Center for Digital Government only publishes the top 25 finishers of the biennial survey. The group does not release the list of bottom-half finishers to the news media, but states can request to know where they stand. "We're only four away from getting in the top 25," Emerson said.
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, in mid-2003 "use of the Internet to interact with government had grown 50 percent since the middle of 2002." And 97 million people, had at some point gone online to interact with their government.
Autor: John Davis
Quelle: Montgomery Advertiser, 31.07.2004
