More E-Government Rankings from Brown University Study

This is a follow-up to the Library Boy post of August 4, 2006 entitled Brown University 6th International Ranking of E-Government.

The Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University, Rhode Island, have released their 7th annual e-government ranking for the United States. Researchers looked at more than 1,500 U.S. state government sites, plus 48 federal government legislative and executive sites and 13 federal court sites.

Sites were evaluated for the presence of online publications, databases, audio clips, video clips, foreign language content or language translation services, advertisements, premium fees, user payments or fees, disability access, privacy policy, security policy, the number of online services, digital signatures, credit card payments, e-mail addresses, comment forms, automatic email updates, website personalization, PDA accessibility, and readability level.

According to the study, Texas and New Jersey are the best American states for e-government initiatives. The U.S. federal portal FirstGov.gov and the Department of Agriculture are the most highly rated federal sites.