Brown eGovernment Study Ranks Utah #1

The 2005 version of Brown's annual study on eGovernment rated the State of Utah #1 in digital government. An interesting thing about the Brown study is that each year it seems to add new elements that make it even more comprehensive. Maine and Michigan are two other states with impressive IT programs that made it into this year's Top Five. The study evaluated 1,620 state and federal websites, looking at an impressive list of criteria, including:

...online publications, online databases, audio clips, video clips, foreign language or language translation, advertisements, premium fees, user payments or fees. They also evaluated sites with regard to disability access, privacy policy, security policy, online services, digital signatures, credit card payments, e-mail addresses, comment forms, automatic e-mail updates, Web site personalization, PDA accessibility, quality control, and readability.

For more information, see:

• Brown University’s sixth annual review of digital government
• Full report

Brown also ranked 197 countries with Taiwan ending up on top and Somalia on the bottom. I think its hard to even evaluate Somalia since they have no effective national government with the country being in . Somaliland, which is controlled by warlords in the northern end of the country maintains this English-language site.