Website Evaluation

According to United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2010) the concept and functionalities of ‘E-Government', which is also known as Digital Government gets identified as ‘The employment of the Internet and the world-wide-web for delivering government information and services to the citizens.’ This is a formulation that has been well followed by webpage for the city of Tuscan, Arizona. Under strict regulation sand by applying very rigid kinds of professional approaches, this website adds a very comfortable edge to the entire development of e-government. The website offers every possible ground to connect the government with people and declares every small and bib information about the Arizona governance in details.

In this paper the core idea is to evaluate the webpage for the city of Tuscan, Arizona. This website has been evaluated by the application of three determined models of E-Government. These evaluative models are the functionalities designed and applied as per Managerial, Consultative, and Participatory approaches. While analysing the system, it has been marked that this e-government is very active and the web pages are well update and upgrade as per relevant needs. Declarations related to city of Tuscan, Arizona has been more illustrative in terms of offering general and in-depth political content.

As the Managerial sector gets analysed, it has been marked that the website connects the government with general public in no time. The services are prompt and hassle free. Proceedings are all based on four determined formulations as offered by Jeong (2007) that are digital interactions in between -

1. G2C that is government and citizens,
2. G2B that is government and businesses or Commerce,
3. G2E government and employees, and
4. G2G that is government and governments or agencies

It offers information related to locations of through maps under Lookup by address with ZoomTucson. Any visitor can very well get directed by this map. Moreover, there are detailed contact information for departments, employees and the public officials. Email addresses and phone numbers are all offered with the provision to chat over skype. It is great to see that the website offer minutes details related to public meetings with latest declarations. Clear declarations about the mission statements made by various public related agencies and online budget information are stated with great clarification. In order to know and understand various dates of the year, the website also offers calendar of events. There is also the provision led by the site for the users to file necessary complaints and the page of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), termed as A-Z Answers; in order to guide all the visitors about the structure and functionalities of city administration. There is the sectors for

• Frequently Asked for Contact Information
• Business Relocation Contact Information

Along with all these detailed aspects, there is also the provision for the visitor to leave comments as well as feedback to all the elected officials, as for instance to the Mayor or the respective city council. However, this provision is allowed from the personal inbox of the user to the email addresses of the representatives. There is no open forum meant for this provision. The possibilities related to this restriction must be due to some security reasons and which definitely must get respected.

In reference to the Consultative sector the website is somewhat structured in a very limited way. In case of meeting the targeted audience there are some very restricted modes implemented by the site. The links for targeted audiences are there in the homepage. however they are not about general citizens or respective group of youths or older generation etc. The links are definitely about attaining necessary assistances on social welfare grounds of services, necessary businesses or industry. This page has been marked as How Do I... All      

The best part of this website is that, it has got all the provisions related to the payment of utilities by the users. Any citizen can very well pay taxes and all the necessary government payments instantaneously. The section for I Want To is of great importance it has got all the links related to utilities and the necessary information and payment provisions under -

1. Find my collection day
2. View the 2012 Holiday Schedule
3. Find Los Reales Landfill Hours
4. Pay my utility bill online
5. View a Tucson recycling list
6. Schedule a special collection for yard waste
7. Look up the B&B service schedule
8. Request low income assistance
9. Schedule a classroom presentation
10. Dispose of household hazardous waste

The link for CUSTOMER SERVICES & BILLING is another provision to attain all the payment related information and provision. In order to file or to pay taxes the site offers services through Pima County Assessor's Office. The site also deals with Spray and Neuter Solutions. There is the provision for tickets or fines added by the scope for permits like Beer Permits through provisions declared under INFOGUIDE: CITY SERVICES A TO Z, Building Permits through www.pimaxpress.com. Permits for excavation is generated through calling process to Tucson Department of Transportation Engineering Division in 791-4254; followed by the sign permit at (520) 791-5607.  In this section,it is necessary to check out the page for Online permit Limitations that adds necessary information about the proceedings for various limitations while developing the site structure. These are the sectors that are not considering online payments; still the hopes remain for the provision of the same in the near future. In case of attaining licences’ there are provision mentioned through –

1. BINGO LICENSES
2. BUSINESS LICENSES
3. DRIVER'S LICENSES
4. MARRIAGE LICENSES

Yet there is no room for online payments in these sectors.

Participation related to social media and issues related to e-procurement has been much encouraged by this site. The provisions of social media are managed by declaring the agendas and declarations in the form of reviewed reports. There is no open forum or pages where the visitor can declare his statements openly. All kinds of content get subject to review before publication and this is appreciated. Though it seems to be under restrictions yet prevents unwanted content from being published in such an official site. As a matter of fact it is proper that all kinds of links that needs specific kinds of verifications or personal conformation must get well restricted. For the provision of e-procurement, the visitor can visit . In this page there is every single detail about the provisions and scopes of procurement.

The need for customization of the main city homepage has been not entertained. The reason is that the government want to keep it simple and equally accessible in the same way. Variations can create problems with the internet and intranet accessibility and thus is restricted. These also differentiate the site from any other entertaining site. Though the sense of conservativeness is felt here, there still remains provision to attain all the information. 

In reference to the Participatory sector of this webpage, there is enough restrictions maintained for a synchronised provision of the site. The website has got the implication to apply wireless technology like those of Palm Pilot, mobile phone or PDA (Personal Digital Assistance). However, these are all attainable only through skype if needed. The only thing that troubles this well managed and sophisticated site is the lack of an online bulletin board. Limitations over chat capabilities for the attainment of public issues can be well understood. However, there is a definite need for an online bulletin board, the content of which must get published after serious verifications and revision. If online discussion is restricted then the entire formulation related to policy related issues get handicapped. No citizen can come forward with discussion related to this concern. It is thus suggested that there should be an introduction for an online bulletin board, so that people can feel free to express the legislative, executive and judiciary issues openly. However, a bunch of editors must get employed for maintaining and filtering content that are inappropriate and got no relevance to the content of the site.

The schedules related to meetings are well declared over the site; however, there is no room for any e-meetings. The helpline to answer al lkinds of queries has been implemented under CONTACT OCSD, yet there still lack online forum for interactions on direct basis. Moreover, there is no scope for online decision-making, as in case of e-petition, any e-citizen juries or e-referenda. Though these domains need personal signatures, yet initiations of the same must get well planned and added to this particular site.

Eventually, to conclude we can look into the following pie chart, where-

It is important to note that this official site has followed various restrictions in the Partcipatory sector. Also has been well built in terms of preventing any unofficial declarations to be made over the site. Followed by this is the restriction offered against inappropriate or the scope for duplicative links to get added to the site. It is thus noted that the site lacks platform for direct communication among citizens and with official representatives, yet is efficient in connecting people with government in no time through internet provisions. The site strictly follows all the non-Internet formulations and technologies related to e-government, yet at the same time are equally accessible for establishing interaction between government and people.