The report ranked nations in a number of different categories. In terms of overall rating, Ireland found itself near the top of the charts, coming in at 17th out of a total 173 countries. Ireland's score was 0.697 (from a possible 1.00). The United States lead the table with a score 0.927. Countries such as the UK, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Korea and Singapore were also ahead of Ireland on the league table. The report also noted that the top 25 nations were far ahead of the remaining countries examined.
Of Ireland, the study concluded that the Irish e-government initiative "provides an example of the political commitment and the quality of on-line programmes." It said that easy-to-find and easy-to-use information and tools were the hallmarks of the Irish sites. Several useful one-stops were available, it said, such as the e-government site Reach.ie, OASIS (On-line Access to Services, Information and Support), and BASIS (Business Access to Services Information and Support). It also described the government's e-tenders initiative as "innovative."
The report also attempted to gauge the degree to which governments used their e-government potential, as determined by their telecommunication and human capital resources. This Web Measure Index also found Ireland at 17th place. However countries such as Mexico, Chile, Argentina and the Philippines were found to be making better use of their available resources.
Another aspect of the report involved assessing the effectiveness of existing e-government services. The "E-Participation Index" attempted to measure how relevant and useful these services were from the point of view of peopleÂ’s ability to engage in dialogue with their government as consumers of public services and to participate in the political process as citizens. Ireland came in at joint tenth in the table, with a score of 0.586. Top countries such as the US, UK, Chile and Canada had scores of between 0.8 and 1.0.
Quelle: Electric News, 10.11.2003
