Preface Realizing the Promise of Electronic Government

i The drive to implement electronic government (e-government) has become a pervasive global phenomenon. Countries around the world, from highly developed ones such as the United States to very small island states like Malta and Mauritius, have committed substantial resources to creating the environment and infrastructure for doing business electronically with their citizens, businesses, and other government entities. E-government is viewed by many as having the potential to enhance the delivery of services to citizens, improve the interaction between individuals, businesses, and civic institutions, and, at the same time, reduce the costs and time associated with delivering government services. It is also expected to empower citizens by allowing them to contribute directly to the process of public gov-ernance, as well as being a catalyst for economic and social development. The promise of e-government is tantalizing. However , as with any ICT-enabled transformation , the implementation of e-government is fraught with a multiplicity of challenges. Moving from a traditional stove-piped, bureaucratic , paper-intensive, and rule-driven environment to a more horizontal, networked, electronic, and citizen-centered one will require significant transformation in the administrative , legislative, technological, and sociocultural infrastructure of government and other civic institutions. It will also require a reoriented populace that is able to access and use government services electronically. Research on e-government is embry-onic and, therefore, diverse, somewhat un-focused, and oftentimes contradictory. The situation with e-government research currently mirrors that faced by e-commerce researchers most recently, and by IS researchers more generally, where fragmentation (Banville & Landry, 1989) and confusion (Checkland & Holwell, 1998) prevail. Consequently, attempts at being definitive about what constitutes e-government research at this stage is fraught with potential for controversy because key constructs and notions are still being developed and articulated. Much of what is written about e-government comprises practitioner reports, government documents, and white papers. Academic work in the subject is growing as researchers seek to explore and explain phenomena related to the e-government construct. A key challenge in addressing issues related to e-government is determining what constitutes the notion, and what is actually meant by the term. A review of the literature indicates that the construct e-govern