www.macrothink.org/jpag 64 Local level E-government in international comparison

In recent years the importance of E-government has, both in literature and in practice, steadily increased. In particular, the use of local E-government has attracted more and more interest and attention. Local E-government portals are often the first point of contact between the citizen and the E-government, providing a wide range of services. In international comparison, however, significant differences can be observed in terms of the extent and level of development of E-government services. This article, therefore, examines the breadth and depth of local E-government services based on a comparative case study and highlights recent trends. The cases represent the world's leading E-government portals of the cities or city-states of New York, Hong Kong and Singapore. It turns out that there exists a significant implementation gap both between the different case studies but also in the different categories of municipal services. In addition, the growing importance of Web 2.0 services in E-government is confirmed and illustrated by the three portals considered in this study