In our initial interviews, we’ve found that the city employees want to make both their lives and their citizens’ lives easier by putting certain things online, such as paying property taxes, requesting birth and death records, requesting building permits, and posting basic information that they get asked a hundred times a day, such as when leaves are picked up in certain neighborhoods. Thus far the response from the cities we have built “virtual city halls” for is great, and they say their citizens like the idea, too. I think that this sort of eGov is fine for smaller populations and on a more local level, because if there is ever any problem people can still literally walk into city hall and take care of things, but anything bigger I think may get way too impersonal.

In this day of interactive collaboration, it’s still amazing to see the only way to communicate with most elected official is through their “contact me” button that launches a form or your Outlook email.

What is even more deflating is to hit the “send” button and see a pop-up that states to the effect: “due to the amount of email I receive, (a) I only respond to requests from my constituents” or (b) “…it may take days or weeks for me to respond.” I believe they would be better off simply suggesting if you want to contact me, either “call my office or mail a letter.”