How mature is Victorian local e-government: An overall view

The purpose of this empirical study is to analyse the level of maturity of e-government in Victorian local governments. The study will help to determine the extent to which Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) help local governments to provide citizens with more transparent and advanced services and to close the gap between the government and its citizens. Analysis of 30 local government websites was conducted using 52 evaluation variables (items) in a questionnaire. The evaluations were performed from the 1st of March to mid July 2011 on 38% of all Victorian council websites. The results of this study show that e-government initiatives in Victorian local governments have achieved considerable levels of maturity in terms of transparency and interactivity. However, this maturity is hindered by the low level of website usability. The main contribution of this study is that it provides a clear picture about how mature Victorian local government websites are.