Dear Aoirs, I am currently working in a research project aimed at analyzing the quality of government web site in Emilia-Romagna (one of the twenty Italian administrative division, roughly equivalent to a U.S State or a German Lander). We are studying both the quality of what is offered online and the interactivity of thoese services offered online. We are much concerned in benchmarking, that is in comparing our situation with other European and World regions (that's different from National and Local level...). If you know any research that could be useful for this purpose or are interested in this knind of project, please read the rest of the message and send any reference. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Benchmarking Information Society in the Regions of Europe The Emilia-Romagna Telematic Plan The Emilia-Romagna region has recently launched its Regional Telematic Plan 2002-2005. For the year 2002, attention is focussed on: · Broadband infrastructure in the region o A network for Romagna o A satellite for the mountain districts o In Emilia the network runs along the rails · TETRA, an emergency network · Interactive public services · Online General Practitioners and Paediatricians · Digital land registry · E-Procurement for Public Administrations · Support for enterprises operating in the sector In this framework, the Regional Government has launched a benchmarking action, in order to compare itself with other regions in Europe. Quantitative data and comparison between regions provide a great decision-support tool for local policy-makers. Ervet, the Regional Development Agency, is in charge of the execution of the project, which was already carried out successfully as a pilot in the Province of Parma. The benchmarking indicators The benchmarking action is consistent with and takes accoun of main eEurope actions, current European projects such as BISER, and priorities of the Regional Plan. Although not yet finalised and open to discussion, actual indicators for benchmarking are: - Interactivity of public services and quality of public websites - Connection of research centres and universities to Research Networks - Internet access in households - Number of places and graduates in ICT - Number of Public Internet Access Points - E-commerce in enterprises - E-procurement in Public Administration - Availability of broadband connection - Internet connection in schools - Dimension of ICT/multimedia sector WHAT WE HAVE We are already aware of a number of pieces of research, among these: Benchmarking Eeurope http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/benchmarking/text_en.htm Bartelsmann Foundation: Balanced e-government benchmarking http://www.begix.de/en/frames/content.html Accenture, Governments Closing Gap Between Political Rhetoric and eGovernment Reality, studio del 2001 sull'e-gov in 22 paesi http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enWeb&xd=Industries\Government\gove_st udy.xml http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enweb&xd=industries\government\gove_me thod.xml I materiali del laboratorio di Benchmarking della comunicazione pubblica in rete organizzato da Urp degli Urp http://www.urp.it/Database/urpdegliurp/urp.nsf/pagine/35DC4B691A14E2C8C1256C 52002557DA?OpenDocument Cheklist per il controllo della conformità dei siti ai requisiti per l' assegnazione del dominio gov.it (valido per la pubblica amministrazione centrale) http://www.mininnovazione.it/ita/intervento/normativa/dominio.shtml AIPA - I servizi in rete offerti sui siti web delle regioni italiane e delle province autonome Quaderno n. 11 - Luglio 2002 http://www.aipa.it/servizi%5B3/notizie%5B2/Rilevaz_servizi_in_rete.pdf AIPA - I servizi in rete offerti sui siti web dell'amministrazione centrale italiana, Quaderno n. 6 - Ottobre 2001 http://www.aipa.it/servizi[3/pubblicazioni[5/quaderni[3/quaderno_6.pdf Censis - Città Digitali e analisi dei siti della PA centrale (arpa-l, arpa-c) http://www.rur.it/rur/ http://www.censis.it http://www.censis.it/censis/ricerche/2001/paonline/index.html Darrell M. West, Assessing E-Government: The Internet, Democracy, and Service Delivery by State and Federal Governments, Providence (RI), Brown University, 2000 http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/polreports/egovtreport00.htm l Altri studi, compreso il follow-up di quello del 2000 http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/policyreports.html Is Your Local Government Plugged In? Highlights of the 2000 Electronic Government Survey Prepared for ICMA and PTI byDonald F. Norris, Patricia D. Fletcher, and Stephen H. Holden University of Maryland, Baltimore County February 27, 2001 http://icma.org/download/cat15/grp120/sgp224/E-Gov2000.pdf INVOLVEMENT If you are working on some similar project, especially in Europe, please contact me outside the list (my email is katanankes@yahoo.com); we are looking for partners for future efforts and for polishing our methodology. Mattia Miani University of Bologna ITALY