Government on the Web: A comparison between the United States and New Zealand

This article discusses the approach of two national governments to the use of the World Wide Web (WWW) as a means for providing information and other resources to the public. Each country has a view of information management and information delivery through the WWW. The United States links the actions of agencies to a strategic planning process involving the use of performance indicators, whereas New Zealand has a lesser commitment to information dissemination. Performance indicators reflecting a customer's perspective could apply to U.S. government WWW sites, thereby improving the public's right-to-know, open government, and public access. The article identifies future directions for research and evaluation, and illustrates that government information for both countries need not appear in textual form.