SGER: E-Government in Rural Communities: Developing a Customer Service Approach to Enhancing Civic Engagement

这项提案中描述的研究活动的双重目标是评估准备情况，并为蒙大拿州地方政府之间的一项新的电子政务倡议奠定基础。在人口少、资源少、上网经验少的市县推行电子政务的新形式和新技术，可能会遇到各种障碍。这项倡议采用简单和灵活的客户服务方法来提供信息和与选民沟通，旨在简化过渡，同时提供机制，加强政府与公民的互动和社区意识。在主要倡议下将研究的研究问题涉及引入电子政务信息服务对政府机构和公民的态度、看法和做法的影响。政府的公开性或响应性是否发生了变化？公众的信任、参与和对问题的理解会受到怎样的影响？如何改变实际做法，包括提出和回应公民询问或投诉的程序，以及管理向公众传播信息的程序？这些问题将通过调查、访谈、民族志观察和网站使用分析来调查。研究将包括政府人员和公众，并将在倡议实施之前、期间和之后进行。根据目前的提议，将开展的评估和准备活动包括：确定潜在的市和县参与者并评价其准备情况；审查相关文献和当前的地方电子政务做法；设计和测试调查工具和协议；以及创建一个示范网站。拟议的活动将增进地方政府官员对实施与选民互动的技术方法的影响的了解和理解，并将通过开发可被其他地方政府复制的电子政务服务模式来产生更广泛的影响。作为蒙大拿州立大学、地方政府中心、地方政府单位和私营部门之间的合作，该项目为推动人口稀少、财政有限的地方电子政务的发展提供了独特的机会

The two-fold goal of the research activities described in this proposal is to assess readiness and lay the groundwork for a novel e-government initiative among Montana local governments. The introduction of the new forms and technology of e-government in cities and counties with small populations, few resources, and slight Internet experience will likely encounter a variety of obstacles. The initiative, by adopting a simple and flexible customer service approach to providing information and communicating with constituents, aims to ease the transition while providing mechanisms to strengthen government-citizen interaction and sense of community. The research questions to be studied under the main initiative concern the effect of introducing e-government information services on the attitudes, perceptions, and practices of both government agencies and citizens. Is there a change in openness or responsiveness on the part of government? How are public trust, engagement, and understanding of issues affected? How are actual practices altered, including the processes by which citizen queries or complaints are made and responded to, and by which dissemination of information to the public is managed? These questions will be investigated via surveys, interviews, ethnographic observation, and web site usage analysis. Studies will cover both government personnel and the public, and will be carried out before, during, and after implementation of the initiative. Assessment and preparation activities to be undertaken under the current proposal include: identification of potential city and county participants and evaluation of their readiness; examination of related literature and current local e-government practices; design and testing of survey instruments and protocols; and creation of a demonstration web site. The proposed activity will advance the knowledge and understanding of local government officials of the effects of implementing technological methods of interacting with constituents, and will provide a broader impact by developing a model of e-government services that can be replicated by other local governments. As a collaboration among Montana State University, the Local Government Center, local government units and the private sector, this project offers a unique opportunity to advance the development of local e-government in sparsely populated, fiscally limited