Enhancing Electronic Governance in Singapore with Government Portals

The World Wide Web represents one of the most profound developments that has accompanied the evolution of the Internet. It is truly a global library. Information on the Web is increasing exponentially, and mechanisms to extract information from it have become an engaging field of research. While search engines have been doing an admirable job in finding information, the emergence of Web portals has also been a useful development—their distinct advantage lies in their positioning as a one-stop destination for information and services of a particular nature. A Web portal can simply be defined as an online gateway for accessing specialized information and services. It services a niche audience. There are several kinds of Web portals, which have evolved over the years—community portals, government portals, knowledge portals, consumer portals, and so on (Firestone, 2002; Katz, 2000; Looney & Lyman, 2000; Mack, Ravin, & Byrd, 2001). These portals are more than just Web sites—they host domain-specific content as well as provide access to specialized services for its community of users. While Web portals are generally developed by specialist expertise, many also rely on collaborative provisioning of information by their user community. Looney and Lyman (2000) describe the role of a portal as follows: