PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A new study of urban "e-government" completed by researchers at Brown University has found that websites maintained by city government agencies in America's 70 largest cities have made major strides toward placing information and services online. At the same time, however, city government Web sites rely to a greater extent than last year on user fees to finance this e-government.

Darrell M. West, director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University and a team of public policy students, investigated 1,567 sites on the basis of more than two dozen separate features. The team examined an average of 22 sites for each of the largest metropolitan areas nationwide as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Financial support for the project was provided by Brown University. The analysis was undertaken during June and July, 2002. A previous study of urban e-government was released in 2001.

City governments have made dramatic gains in putting services online. Forty-nine percent of city websites offer services that are fully executable online, up from 25 percent last year. The most frequent services are requesting services, requesting information, paying traffic tickets, and filing complaints. Ninety-three percent of websites provide access to publications (up from 64 percent in 2001) and 77 percent have links to databases (up from 38 percent last year). Thirty-eight percent show privacy policies (up from 14 percent in 2001), while 25 percent have security policies (up from 8 percent last year). Eighty-two percent of government websites have some form of disability access, which is up from 11 percent last year.

This year's research, however, determined that cities are relying more heavily on revenue-generating Web user fees and premium services. Eleven percent of websites charge user fees for the ability to execute particular online services, while 2 percent have premium sections requiring payment for entry. Two percent of sites have commercial advertising. Eight percent of city government websites have restricted areas requiring user names and passwords to access.

The research team evaluated Web sites based on a 100-point scale measuring the availability of information and services, the quality of citizen access, privacy, security, disability access, and foreign language translation, among other features.

The most highly ranked city governments include Minneapolis, Seattle, Denver, San Diego, Boston, Kansas City, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Houston, and Tampa. Most cities showed improvements in their scores over 2001. The lowest ranked cities in the study include New Orleans, Norfolk, Raleigh, and Detroit. The table below shows the ranking for each city in 2002, with last year's rank or score in parentheses.

Twelve cities improved their position in the rankings by 15 or more points over last year: Cleveland (up 49 places), Dallas (up 47), San Antonio (up 45), Louisville (up 38), Phoenix (up 38), Milwaukee (up 28), Houston (up 27), Rochester (up 24), Buffalo (up 22), Philadelphia (up 22), Nashville (up 18), and Columbus (up 16). Fifteen cities fell 15 or more places from last year: Oklahoma City (down 35 places), Long Beach (down 32), Salt Lake City (down 32), Las Vegas (down 31), Providence (down 29), New Orleans (down 25), Syracuse (down 25), Orlando (down 23), Los Angeles (down 22), Raleigh (down 21), Atlanta (down 20), Norfolk (down 20), Richmond (down 17), Fort Worth (down 16), and Oakland (down 16).

All cities -- even those which lost ground in the rankings -- improved their scores over last year. The average score this year was 59.07 , a dramatic improvement over last year's average score of 33.9.

The poor ranking of some city government Web sites reflects the lack of online services and lack of privacy and security statements, as well as the existence of user fees, premium sites, and restricted access areas on their sites. While many sites contain phone and address contact information, publications, and databases, many do not offer such interactive and advanced features as foreign language translation, comment areas and online forums, email updates, video and audio clips, broadcasts, and the ability to customize sites. While most city government websites post email addresses, only 62 percent of agencies responded to an email requesting information on about the business hours of city agencies.

In their conclusion, West and his research team suggested several means to improve e-government Web sites. Among their recommendations:

• The use of revenue-generating areas runs the risk of creating a "two-class' society of information haves and have-nots. Government officials must think carefully about the ramifications of reliance on for-fee services;
• While some "restricted access" areas are valid based on the privacy of employee records, officials must be careful not to limit information in areas where there is a legitimate public right to know;
• Make more extensive use of interactive technologies that would help citizens hold leaders accountable;
• Publish websites in languages other than English, especially in areas with large non-English speaking populations;
• Empower citizens by providing website search engines and areas to post citizen comments. Right now only two-thirds of government websites are searchable, which limits the ability of ordinary citizens to find information that is relevant to them. Also, only one-third of government websites have comment areas.