Electronic government at the grass roots: contemporary evidence and future trends

In this article we explore the short and largely undocumented history of electronic government, discuss the literature of e-government at the local government level, and document the adoption and sophistication of e-government among US local governments. We employ data from a survey conducted in the winter of 2000 to examine local government adoption of electronic government. We compare the results of that survey to a normative model of e-government maturity. We have found that the emergence of electronic government at the local level is still in its formative stages. Local e-government offerings tended to be more basic when compared to the normative model although many local governments indicate that they have plans to develop more sophisticated offerings in the future. E-government adoption also generally tracks well with previously documented patterns of technology adoption.