Prime Zone Media Network

News Clipping: 100 Cities Survey on E-government

<North America>

U.S.: Fourteen news portals reported.

Magazines: Government Technology, ASPAnet, PA Times, This week(American Society for Public Administration)

Canada: Government of Canada Internet Guide, Journalist homepage

<Europe>

International Telecommunication Union(ITU)

e-Forum(the forum for European e-Public services)

European Commission’s IDA (Interchange of Data between Administrations)

U.K.: Guardian, Kable Net, Public Technology Net, Yahoo, School of Oriental and African Studies

Ireland: ElectricNews Net

Germany: The Institute for eGovernment at the University of Potsdam

Bulgaria: The Coordination Center for Information, Communication and Management Technologies

<Africa>

South Africa: Mail & Guardian Online newspaper

<Asia>

Korea: Chosun, JoongAng Daily Newspapers

Hong Kong: Governance in Asia Research Centre, City University, Tradelink-ebiz

United Arab Emirates: MiddleEastEvents.com

<Oceania>

Australia: Victorian Government

Yahoo news portal reported our press release at:

http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/031117/48340.html

The First Study On Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide Ranked Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, and Shanghai as the Top Five Cities, and Tallinn, Dubai, Jakarta as Among the Top 20 of 100 Large Cities Worldwide.
Monday November 17, 8:00 am ET

NEWARK, N.J., Nov. 17, 2003 (PRIMEZONE): ……

Press Release Network posts our press release under menu “Newsroom” on the left side at

http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com/

Smart mobs reported our press release.

http://www.smartmobs.com/archives/002063.html

November 18, 2003

A survey on digital governance has been conducted jointly by the E-governance Institute of Rutgers University-Newark and the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute of Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, and was co-sponsored by the UN Division for Public Administration and Development Management, and the American Society for Public Administration.Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, and Shanghai come in as the top five cities, with Rome,Auckland Jerusalem, Tokyo and Toronto making up the top ten.
Rutgers University E-Governance Institute Documents

Posted by Jim_Downing at 05:00 PM

HighMark Funds reported our press release.

http://sites.stockpoint.com/highmarkfunds/newspaper.asp?Mode=oecd&Story=20031116/321u3561.xml

E-governance Institute of Rutgers University-Newark: The first study on digital governance in municipalities worldwide ranked Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, and Shanghai as the top five cities, and Tallinn, Dubai, Jakarta as among the top 20. ….

Investor.stockpoint.com reported our press release.

http://investor.stockpoint.com/newsstory.asp?Mode=united%2Barab%2Bemirates&Story=20031117/321u4049.xml

M2.com reported a short article about our research at:

http://m2.com/M2/M2Web.nsf/aaf53dd4b51cd3bd85256c3d004dff44/85256a0f00242d3c80256de20044fd08?OpenDocument

Survey shows Seoul's city web site is the best in the world

Published in Internet Business News on Tuesday, 18 November 2003 at 16:45 GMT
Copyright (C)2003 , M2 Communications Ltd.
A new survey conducted to evaluate digital governance in municipalities around the world has found that three out of the top 20 areas were developing countries.
Seoul was ranked first with a score of 73.48 followed by Hong Kong with 66.57 and Singapore with 62.97, Tallinn in Estonia was 14th, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates was 18th and Jakarta in Indonesia was 20th.
The survey examined 98 countries as well as Hong Kong and Macao and evaluated them in terms of security and privacy, usability, content, services and citizen participation.
Other results show that New York was ranked first in terms of content and 67% of cities in Africa have not set up an official city web site, while just 3% in Europe have no city web site.

Prime Zone Media Network reported our press release.

http://www.primezone.com/pages/news_releases.mhtml?d=48340

The First Study On Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide Ranked Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, and Shanghai as the Top Five Cities, and Tallinn, Dubai, Jakarta as Among the Top 20 of 100 Large Cities Worldwide.

NEWARK, N.J., Nov. 17, 2003 (PRIMEZONE)

Web Wire reported our press release at:

http://webwire.com/TopTenView.asp?id=3228

The First Study On Digital Governance In Municipalities Worldwide

11/16/03,

The First Study On Digital Governance In Municipalities Worldwide Ranked Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, And Shanghai As The Top Five Cities, And Tallinn, Dubai, Jakarta As Among The Top 20 Of 100 Large Cities Worldwide.
Newark, New Jersey ?November 16, 2003: ……

iWon.com reported our press release at :

http://money.iwon.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_ge.jsp?section=news&news_id=pzn-48340&feed=pzn&date=20031117&cat=PRRELEASE

Monday November 17, 8:00 AM EST

NEWARK, N.J., Nov. 17, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) ……

Zawya.com reported a short article about our research.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=322u1774&Section=Main&page=Home&channel=Latest%20Press%20Releases&objectid=F441F2B1-2AAF-11D5-867D00D0B74A0D7C&l=165000031118

Survey shows Seoul's city web site is the best in the world

Nov 18, 2003 (INTERNET BUSINESS NEWS via COMTEX) -- A new survey conducted to evaluate digital governance in municipalities around the world has found that three out of the top 20 areas were developing countries.

Seoul was ranked first with a score of 73.48 followed by Hong Kong with 66.57 and Singapore with 62.97, Tallinn in Estonia was 14th, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates was 18th and Jakarta in Indonesia was 20th. The survey examined 98 countries as well as Hong Kong and Macao and evaluated them in terms of security and privacy, usability, content, services and citizen participation.

Other results show that New York was ranked first in terms of content and 67% of cities in Africa have not set up an official city web site, while just 3% in Europe have no city web site.

Radio.Weblog.com reported.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0105060/

Seoul leads in city e-government.

Seoul leads in city e-government.

Seoul has been ranked the top city for e-government in a survey of the web sites of 100 cities. The study, conducted jointly by the E-governance Institute of Rutgers University in the US and the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute of Sungkyunkwan University in Korea, claims to be the first to evaluate digital governance in municipalities throughout the world. The survey assessed the e-government Web site of the biggest city in 98 countries with the highest percentage of Internet users, along with Hong Kong and Macao. The sites were evaluated in terms of security and privacy, usability, content, services, and citizen participation. The top 10 cities in digital governance worldwide are:

Seoul (73.48)
Hong Kong (66.57)
Singapore (62.97)
New York (61.35)
Shanghai (58.00)
Rome (54.72)
Auckland (54.61)
Jerusalem (50.34)
Tokyo (46.52)
Toronto (46.35)

[via ElectricNews.net]

Government Technology magazine reported our research results.

http://govtech.public-cio.com/newsStory.php?id=2003.11.17-77710

E-Governance Institute Ranks Digital Governance Worldwide

News Release

Nov 17 2003

NEWARK, N.J. -- The first study on digital governance in municipalities worldwide ranked Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York and Shanghai as the top five cities, and Tallinn, Dubai, Jakarta as among the top 20 of 100 large cities worldwide.
This survey was conducted jointly by the E-Governance Institute of Rutgers University-Newark and the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute of Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, and was co-sponsored by the UN Division for Public Administration and Development Management and the American Society for Public Administration.
This is the first research effort to evaluate digital governance in municipalities throughout the world.
This survey examined the largest city in each of 98 countries with the highest percentage of Internet users, and Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR were included. This research evaluated the official Web sites of each city in their native languages. Our instrument for evaluating municipal Web sites consists of 92 measures over five core areas: 1.) Security and Privacy, 2.) Usability, 3.) Content, 4.) Services, 5.) Citizen Participation. Each measure was coded on a scale of four-points (0, 1, 2, 3) or a dichotomy of two points (0, 3 or 0, 1). Then, an overall score for each municipality (on a 100-point scale) was derived by giving equal weight to each of the five categories.
Professor Marc Holzer, chairman of the E-Governance Institute, said, "This joint research was helpful for reducing cultural bias in our survey methodology. During the design of the 92 measures in our e-government index, we identified some terms which people in various cultures might not understand. So, we developed an index which was 'culture-neutral.'"
Each Web site was assessed by two independent evaluators between June and October 2003, and in cases where significant variation existed on the raw score between evaluators, Web sites were analyzed a third time. Based on the evaluation of 100 cities, the top 10 cities are as follows:
Top 10 Cities in Digital Governance Worldwide
RANKING CITY SCORE
1.) Seoul 73.48
2.) Hong Kong 66.57
3.) Singapore 62.97
4.) New York 61.35
5.) Shanghai 58.00
6.) Rome 54.72
7.) Auckland 54.61
8.) Jerusalem 50.34
9.) Tokyo 46.52
10.) Toronto 46.35
New York City was ranked No. 1 worldwide in terms of content. Among the top 20 cities, three are from developing countries: Tallinn (Estonia) 14th, Dubai (United Arab Emirates) 18th, and Jakarta (Indonesia) 20th. This research identified a digital divide gap between developed and less developed countries. Although the average score for all cities is 28.10 out of 100, the average score in OECD countries is 36.34; however the average score in non-OECD countries is only 24.26. In addition, 67 percent of cities selected in Africa have not established official city Web sites, whereas only 3 percent in Europe have no city Web sites.
Sungkyunkwan University is holding an international conference to present best practices cases based on this survey and is giving a "World Cities Best Practices E-Government Award" to the top five cites on November 21 in Seoul. Professor Seang-Tae Kim, president of the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute, said, "Government services can be improved remarkably by e-government, but the digital divide is a problem to be solved. We can encourage e-government among cities in the world by measuring them and giving this kind of award."
Scores and ranking of all 100 cities are online at Web site.

PA Times, American Society for Public Administration reported in the issue of December 2003.

http://www.aspanet.org/patimes/index.html

New York One of Top Five in Digital Governance Study
ASPA Co-Sponsors First International Study on Digital Governance

Newark, NJ - The first study on digital governance in municipalities worldwide ranked Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York and Shanghai as the top five cities, and Tallinn, Dubai, Jakarta as among the top 20 of 100 large cities worldwide.

This survey was conducted jointly by the E-governance Institute of Rutgers University-Newark and the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute of Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, and was co-sponsored by the U.N. Division for Public Administration and Development Management and ASPA. This is the first research effort to evaluate digital governance in municipalities throughout the world.

This survey examined the largest city in each of 98 countries with the highest percentage of Internet users (Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR were included). This research evaluated the official web sites of each city in their native languages. The instrument for evaluating municipal web sites consists of 92 measures over five core areas: security and privacy, usability, content, services and citizen participation. Each measure was coded on a scale of four points (0, 1, 2, 3) or a dichotomy of two points (0, 3 or 0, 1). Then, an overall score for each municipality (on a 100-point scale) was derived by giving equal weight to each of the five categories.

Marc Holzer, chairman of the E-Governance Institute said, "This joint research was helpful for reducing cultural bias in our survey methodology. During the design of the 92 measures in our e-government index, we identified some terms which people in various cultures might not understand. So, we developed an index which was 'culture-neutral'."

Each web site was assessed by two independent evaluators between June and October 2003, and in cases where significant variation existed on the raw score between evaluators, web sites were analyzed a third time. Based on the evaluation of 100 cities, the top 10 cities are as follows.

Top 10 Cities in Digital Governance Worldwide

Seoul 73.48
Hong Kong 66.57
Singapore 62.97
New York 61.35
Shanghai 58.00
Rome 54.72
Auckland 54.61
Jerusalem 50.34
Tokyo 46.52
Toronto 46.35

New York City was ranked number one worldwide in terms of content. Among the top 20 cities, three are from developing countries: Tallinn, Estonia, 14th; Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 18th and Jakarta, Indonesia, 20th. This research identified a digital divide gap between developed and less developed countries. Although the average score for all cities is 28.10 out of 100, the average score in OECD countries is 36.34; however the average score in non-OECD countries is only 24.26. In addition, 67 percent of cities selected in Africa have not established official city websites, whereas only three percent in Europe have no city web sites.

Sungkyunkwan University held an international conference to present best practices cases based on this survey and gave a "World Cities Best Practices E-Government Award" to the top five cites in November in Seoul. Seang-Tae Kim, president of the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute said, "Government services can be improved remarkably by e-government, but the digital divide is a problem to be solved. We can encourage e-government among cities in the world by measuring them and giving this kind of award."

Scores and ranking of all 100 cities are online. For more information, contact Marc Holzer at (973) 353-1351/5504 x23, e-mail mholzer@pipeline.com or Chan-Gon Kim, e-mail chankim@pegasus.rutgers.edu.

ASPAnet This week(American Society for Public Administration) reported our research results.

http://www.aspanet.org/aspanet_thisweek/current.html

Seoul Tops Local E-Government Study Co-Sponsored by ASPA
Seoul was named the best city for electronic government services in a recent international research study conducted on behalf of ASPA and the United Nations Division for Public Administration and Development Management. Hong Kong was second, followed closely by Singapore, New York and Shanghai. The assessment was based on five major categories - information protection, convenience of use, information content, administrative services and citizen participation. The E-Governance Institute of Rutgers University-Newark and the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute of Sungkyunkwan University in the Republic of Korea conducted the survey. (information courtesy of JoongAng Daily)
URL: http://www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~egovinst/Website/researchpg.htm

MuniNetGuide.com reported.

http://www.muninetguide.com/NewAndNoteworthy/NewAndNoteworthy.asp

New York named in top five cities for digital governance …Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide – An Assessment of Municipal Web Sites throughout the World is the result of the first research study that looks at e-government in municipalities worldwide. Other cities rounding out the top five included Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. The survey was conducted by the E-governance Institute of Rutgers University-Newark in conjunction with the e-government institute of Sungkyunkwan University in Korea. The complete 100-city report can be accessed at here.

SurfWax.com reported.

http://gov.surfwax.com/files/Department_of_Economic_and_Social_Affairs.html

Seoul Ranked as Best 'E-Gov' Nov 17, 2003
The Seoul Metropolitan City Government announced on Sunday that it has been selected as the best ¡°e-government¡± out of 100 cities worldwide, in a recent survey on assessing websites and measuring the e-government indexes of global cities. The survey was conducted on 100 cities worldwide, from last March until October, jointly by the Global e-Policy and e-Government Institute of Korea¡¯s Sungkyunkwan University and the e-Governance Institute of Rutgers University, in the United States, under... (Chosun Ilbo, South Korea).

Blogspot.com reported.

http://sirc.blogspot.com/2003_11_01_sirc_archive.html
Singapore Ranks Top 5 in Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide
In a joint study by the E-governance Institute of Rutgers University-Newark and the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute of Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, and was co-sponsored by the UN Division for Public Administration and Development Management, and the American Society for Public Administration, Singapore ranked in the top 5 and Jakrta in the top 20 countries of 100 countries world wide. This is the first of such research.
- posted by Shahiraa @ 9:41 AM

Government of Canada Internet Guide posts an article from Korean newspaper.

http://www.cio-dpi.gc.ca/ig-gi/gs-cd/es-ae/es-aewrapperfile_e.asp?p=m&hl=4869#A4869

International:
Seoul Ranked as Best 'E-Gov'

The Seoul Metropolitan City Government announced on Sunday that it has been selected as the best "e-government" out of 100 cities worldwide, in a recent survey on assessing websites and measuring the e-government indexes of global cities. The survey was conducted on 100 cities worldwide, from last March until October, jointly by the Global e-Policy and e-Government Institute of Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University and the e-Governance Institute of Rutgers University, in the United States, under the sponsorship of the United Nations’ Division for Public Administration and Development Management, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Appraisals were made in five areas: security, usability, content, service and citizen participation. The survey listed Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, Shanghai, Rome, Auckland, Jerusalem, Tokyo and Toronto, ranking second to 10th. ( Source: english.chosun.com )

A Canadian journalist reported.

http://davidakin.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2003/11/27/7411.html

Seoul tops, New York 4th, Toronto 10 in digital city ranking

by DavidAkin at 08:25AM (EST) on November 27, 2003 |

The e-governance Institute at Rutgers University and a Korean university surveyed the online presence for 100 of the world's biggest cities and determined that Seoul, Korea is the model cities should emulate when it comes to providing services and information to its citizens. New York was 4th, and Toronto was 10th. But here's something: New York was the only U.S. city evaluated and Toronto was the only Canadian city evaluated. The study's authors. The authors say they "selected 98 countries with the highest percentage of Internet users, and examined the largest city in each of those countries as a surrogate for all cities in the country." I don't know about the rest of the world, but I guarantee you when Montrealers or Vancouverites hear that Toronto is acting as a surrogate for the rest of the country, they ain't going to be happy. Seriously, though, municipal governments are usually among the most independent of any jurisdiction, particularly in Western democracies and derive their revenues from vastly different and incomparable resources. For that reason, it seems pointless to have cities stand in as surrogates for others in as artifical a division as a country. (Why not have New York stand in as the surrogate for the northeastern part of North America, including Toronto, and let San Francisco stand in for the southwest). You can read the survey results here. The researchers claim that, based on their survey, there is a digital divide and the divide is drawn, in this case, along wealthier countries and less wealthy countries. (Apparently, they needed some research to come to that seemingly obvious conclusion.) But even if that conclusion is obvious, the lousy rationale for their city selection makes it easy to poke holes in their methodolgy and, as a result, their conclusion.

International Telecommunication Union(ITU) reported.

http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/newslog/2003/11/27.html#a358

27 November 2003

Seoul leads in city e-government

Seoul (73.48)
Hong Kong (66.57)
Singapore (62.97)
New York (61.35)
Shanghai (58.00)
Rome (54.72)
Auckland (54.61)
Jerusalem (50.34)
Tokyo (46.52)
Toronto (46.35)

[via ElectricNews.net]

1:30:32 PM

e-Forum(the forum for European e-Public services) reported our research results.

http://www.eu-forum.org/area_news_display.cfm?ID=763&headline=Y

Rome top European e-gov city says new report

21 Nov 2003

Rome is the only European city to make the world top ten of e-government cities, according to a new report. The first study on digital governance in municipalities worldwide ranked Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, and Shanghai as the top five cities, whilst Tallinn, Dubai, Jakarta are among the top 20 of 100 large cities worldwide.

This survey was conducted jointly by the E-governance Institute of Rutgers University-Newark and the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute of Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, and was co-sponsored by the UN Division for Public Administration and Development Management, and the American Society for Public Administration. This is the first research effort to evaluate digital governance in municipalities throughout the world.

The survey examined the largest city in each of the 98 countries with the highest percentage of Internet users. Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR were also included. This research evaluated the official Web sites of each city in their native languages. The instrument for evaluating municipal Web sites consists of 92 measures over five core areas: 1. Security and Privacy, 2. Usability, 3. Content, 4. Services, 5. Citizen Participation. Each measure was coded on a scale of four-points (0, 1, 2, 3) or a dichotomy of two-points (0, 3 or 0, 1). Then, an overall score for each municipality (on a 100-point scale) was derived by giving equal weight to each of the five categories.

Professor Marc Holzer, Chairman of the E-Governance Institute said, "This joint research was helpful for reducing cultural bias in our survey methodology. During the design of the 92 measures in our e-government index, we identified some terms that people in various cultures might not understand. So, we developed an index which was ´culture-neutral´."

Each website was assessed by two independent evaluators between June and October 2003, and in cases where significant variation existed on the raw score between evaluators, websites were analyzed a third time. Based on the evaluation of 100 cities, the top 10 cities are:

Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, Shanghai, Rome, Auckland, Jerusalem, Tokyo, Toronto.

To access the full ranking and survey, go to: http://www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~egovinst/Website/researchpg.htm

European Commission’s IDA (Interchange of Data between Administrations) reported.

http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/ida/jsps/index.jsp?fuseAction=showDocument&parent=whatsnew&documentID=1817

European Cities are no e-government champions, finds new global survey

eGovernment News – 19 November 2003 – Global

Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, and Shanghai will receive the “World Cities Best Practices E-Government Award” at an international conference to be held on 21/11/2003 in Seoul, Korea. The five cities were declared e-government champions in a new survey conducted jointly by the E-governance Institute of Rutgers University-Newark, and the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute of Sungkyunkwan University, Korea. The survey, entitled ‘Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide’, was co-sponsored by the UN Division for Public Administration and Development Management and the American Society for Public Administration. According to its authors, this survey is the first research effort to evaluate digital governance in municipalities throughout the world.

The survey assessed the e-government websites of 100 cities chosen for being the largest in each of the 98 countries with the highest percentage of Internet users, plus Hong Kong and Macao. These municipal websites were evaluated between June and October 2003 against a set of 92 criteria, grouped in the following five core areas:

Security and privacy: privacy policies, authentication, encryption, data management, and use of cookies.
Usability: user-friendliness of design, branding, length of homepage, links or channels for targeted audience, and site search capabilities.
Content: access to current accurate information, public documents, reports, publications, and multimedia materials.
Services: transactional services involving purchase or registration, interaction between citizens, businesses and government.
Citizen participation: online civic engagement, Internet-based policy deliberation, and citizen-based performance measurement.

The maximum possible scores were 100 (overall) and 20 for each of the five core areas.

Rome emerged as the highest-ranking European city, with an overall score of 54.72. The following table shows the ranking and detailed scores achieved by the first 10 European cities, overall and for each core area (scores achieved by top performer Seoul are also provided for comparison purposes).

Ranking	City	Score	Privacy	Usability	Content	Services	Participation
1	Seoul	73.48	11.07	17.50	13.83	15.44	15.64
6	Rome	54.72	6.79	14.69	9.57	13.16	10.51