Becoming cyberactive: State and local governments on the World Wide Web

This article describes an empirical study of the current level and type of state and local public activity on the World Wide Web (WWW), providing some important baseline information on government activities in this area. Movi ng governments onto the WWW represents a paradigm shift in the use of techn ology, and some governments are moving faster and are becoming more innovat ive than others. Governments are clearly becoming "cyberactive" but are emp hasizing information and services for business and other economic developme nt activities rather than dissemination of policy information, encouraging policy discussions, or delivering public services. Internet activity has been growing at a rapid pace during the past several years. Much of this activity has been in the private sector and in educatio n but many U.S. state and local governments have also moved onto the WWW. T he purpose of this empirical research is to provide baseline descriptive da ta on the current level and type of state and local public sector activity on the WWW. Like many other social science phenomena (e.g., public opinion, electoral behavior, and public policy itself), the WWW and Internet activi ty are dynamic phenomena, constantly changing and reorganizing. This study recognizes that and assumes that the empirical data gathered here are a sna pshot in time of the entire public sector WWW phenomena.