S. S. M. Sadrul Huda [1]
Rumana Parveen [2]
Masud Ibn Rahman[3]
Abstract
E-Government can be used as an effective tool to create a relationship of trust and confidence between Government and people as well as to generate greater efficiency and responsiveness of Government. This empirical study observes people’s opinions and expectations about positive outcomes of e-Government. The researchers have identified the expectation level among urban people in Bangladesh about outcomes of e-Government and the variability in these expectations in terms of their demographic characteristics. The study re-emphasizes application of e-Government to improve Government performance as well as locates the critical factors to succeed in such application.
Key words: E-Government, expectations, efficiency, responsiveness, demographic characteristics.
Introduction
In many countries, disbelief, suspicion and distance may be created between Government and people from country to country. The origin of this is the communication gap between the two parties. When this happens, it becomes difficult for people to reach various Government departments for rules, regulation, security and other purposes. So issues about accountability and transparency of Government arise. In recent years Governments have embraced the idea of using information technology (IT) to improve services, a trend known as e-Government.
E-governance is more than just a Government website on the Internet. It can be defined as the application of electronic means in the interaction between Government and citizens and Government and businesses, as well as in internal Government operations. The purpose of e-Government is to simplify and improve democratic, Government and business aspects of Governance (Backus, 2001). Drucker (2001) defined e-Government as ‘the use of emerging ICT (Information & Communication Technologies) to facilitate the processes of
References: 1. As_Saber, Srivastava & Hossain, 2006. Information Technology Law and e-Government: A Developing Country perspective. JAOOG, Vol 1 , No. 1. 2. Backus, Michael, 2001. E-Governance and Developing Countries : Introduction and examples . Research Report, No. 3, April 2001, International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD). 3. Bestle, Lars H., 2005. Pro-poor e-Governance in Asia and the Pacific-Making public service delivery work better for the poor. UNDP- APDIP, Bangkok Regional Center. 4. Davis, Richard, 1999. The Web of Politics: The Internet’s Impact on the American Political System. New York Oxford University press. 5. Dr. Madon, Shirin, 2004. Evaluating the development impact of e-governance initiatives: an explanatory framework. The electronic journal on Information systems in Developing countries ; 20,5,1-13. 6. Fountain, Jane, 1999. The Virtual State: Toward a Theory of Federal Bureaucracy in the 21st Century. In Democracy.Com? Governance in a Networked World, edited by in Elaine Kamarack and Joshep Nye, 133-56.Hollis, NH: Hollis Publishing Company. 7. Gore, Al., 1993. From Red Tape to Results: Creating a Government That Works Better and Costs Less. New York: Times Books. 8. Heeks, R. 2006. Implementing and Managing e-Government: An International Text. Sage Publications Limited, London. 9. Imaran, Ahmed and Gragor, Shirley, 2007. A Comparative Analysis of Strategies for e-Government in Developing Countries. Journal of Business systems, Governance and Ethics, Vol 3, no. 3, Victoria University, Australia. 10. Lindblom, Charles. 1959. The Science of “Mudding Through”. Public Administration Review 29 (1): 79-88. 11. Margolis, Michael, and Davis Resnick, 2000. Politiccs as Usual: The Cyberspace “Revolution”. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication. 12. Markoff, John. 2000. A Newer, Lonelier Crowd Emerges in Internet Study. New York Times, February 16, A1. 13. MOSICT (Ministry of Science and ICT). 2002. Information and communication technology (ICT) policy - 2002. Retrieved June 15, 2006, from http://www.bccbd.org/html/itpolicy.pdf 14 15. Parks, Thomas, 2005, A Few Misconceptions about e- Government, Thomas Parks Page 1 The Asia Foundation. 16. Parveen, K. , 2006. Computer based crime: A new legal challenge in Bangladesh. The Daily Star, April 22. Retrieved from http://www.thedailystar.net/law/2006/04/03. 17. Raney, Rebecca. 2000. Study Finds Internet of Social Benefit to Users. New York Times, May 11, E7. 18. Riley, Thomas, 2006, Commonwealth Centre for e-Governance, Canada , Retrieved from http://www.gisdevelopment.net/magazine/years/2006/aug/46_1.htm 19 20. Taifur, S., & M. Chowdhury, 2003. Problems of e-governance in Bangladesh and possible steps towards solution