The UK capital is trailing behind the rest of the world in quality of its city website, according to a report issued on 18 November 2003. The study, backed by the United Nations, ranks Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore and New York at the top with London down in 55th place out of 80 cities.
London is behind several cities not usually recognised for their e-government ambitions including Vilnius in Lithuania, Tegucigalpa (Honduras) and Tehran.
The comprehensive survey, undertaken by academics at the e-Governance Institute of Rutgers University and backed by the UN and the American Society for Public Administration is the first attempt to evaluate municipal websites globally.
Researchers looked at the official websites for each of the 80 cities using an index of 92 measures over five core areas.
Areas analysed were: security and privacy, usability, content, services and citizen participation.
London's overall score was 19.08, compared to Seoul's 73.48, New York's 61.35 and Rome – the highest ranking European city – at 54.72.
While London has put much work into its official website, which is adorned with several pictures of Mayor Ken Livingstone, the low score may be in part explained by the city's arrangements for e-government.
"London is organised differently to most cities," a spokesperson for the Greater London Authority told Government Computing News.
"You can only really compare like with like…and we have a separate site for e-government."
The official Mayoral site highlights news and features links to the London Assembly while the main site for e-services is provided by London Connects, the official e-government agency.
The agency is attempting to set up a single portal for accessing e-services which, despite many months of development, is still not fully running and only available as a "demonstrator".
Quelle: Kablenet, 19.11.2003
