of information technology and the Internet. By the 1990s, city governments were using electronic mail, listserv, and the World Wide Web (WWW) for these services. In addition to providing a technological breakthrough in the delivery of services, the Internet has transformed the philosophy and organization of government (Ho, 2002).
Ho (2002) pointed out that traditionally individuals have viewed the government as a hierarchical bureaucracy. This Weberian model of organization has a focus on departmentalization, specialization, standardization, and routinization in internal and managerial processes. Officials are grouped by their responsibilities and services and centralized control and coordination are handled by the budget office, city manager, mayor, or city council. This departmentalization leads to decreased costs and maximum efficiency and the routinization leads to less negligence and increased equitability of clients. However, a criticism of this type of government is its inability to serve human beings with preferences and feelings, since it tends to be rigid and procedural. The "reinventing government" movement, which began in the late 1980s, was a reaction to the bureaucracy that demanded a more outward-looking approach that focused on the needs of individuals. This movement was burdened by transaction costs. In addition, citizens are at times reluctant to participate in government decision-making due to time commitments involved and a lack of understanding or information. Information technology and the WWW have become an important factor in this movement to reform government. Prior to the Internet, the government was already searching for ways to reform and improve services and efficiency, however this focus tended to be internal or managerial. The Internet and the WWW shifted the government focus to an external relationship with citizens.
Ho (2002) describes the new e-government paradigm as implementing the...