2001 Reports

The Use of the Internet in Government Service Delivery

Cohen, Steven Alan; Eimicke, William B.

Governments have begun to use the World Wide Web to assist in service delivery. This includes, but goes far beyond, the dissemination of information to the general public and involves a variety of other governmental functions. In reviewing some government websites it is clear that the use of the web for service delivery is still in its infancy. The types of services that can be delivered through the web are still in the process of being imagined and organized by both government and the private sector. Over the next decade we can expect to see a great deal of experimentation and organizational learn- ing in this area. The purpose of this report is to accelerate this learning process by studying several noteworthy current government efforts to use the web for interactive functions. The methodology of this study is to select a number of illustrative case studies on the use of e-commerce and the Internet in government service delivery and communications. The study includes a content analysis of selected state, local, and federal government websites and, where available, an analysis of the costs and benefits of switching to web-based service delivery. We selected cases in Alaska, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the city of Boston, Florida, Indiana, and Texas. We discuss the lessons learned from these cases and their broader implications for government service delivery. Then we provide a checklist of the steps that governments should take when using the Internet to deliver government service. Finally, we present background on the websites we reviewed, discuss the development and implementation of the site, and analyze its costs and benefits.