A Comparative Analysis of the E-participation of Izmir Municipalities Websites

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1 Int'l Conf. e-learning, e-bus., EIS, and e-gov. EEE'18 57 A Comparative Analysis of the E-participation of Izmir Municipalities Websites Beste Kaysi 1 and Ezgi Kaysi Kesler 2 1 Department of Software Engineering, Kırklareli University, Kırklareli, Turkey 2 Department of Public Sector Business Solutions, Koçsistem, Ankara, Turkey Abstract - During recent years, evaluating e-participation process has become a priority for public institutions in Turkey. Associated with development of information and communication technologies and increasing usage of Internet, public institutions have started to provide their services through their websites. As a consequence of that situation, they need to scrutinize their websites in terms of meeting the needs of their citizens. The objective of this study is to analyze the existing websites of municipalities in İzmir in terms of citizen s e-participation. To evaluate e-participation of public institutions websites, questionnaire technique is preferred and implemented as data collection method. In this study, local municipalities were observed and analyzed to see their weaknesses in terms of e-participation. The results indicated that the websites of the municipalities were not qualified enough for e-participation. For this reason, various suggestions have been made to increase the quality of websites in terms of e-participation. In this way, it is expected that the e-participation rate of the users will be increased by improving the quality of municipal websites. Keywords: E-government, E-participation, Citizen centric design, Citizen and social engagement, Online public services 1 Introduction Electronic participation (E-participation) is becoming a political priority for many European countries, often perceived as an essential ingredient of e-government policies. Electronic government is defined in AOEMA report by the United Nations (UN) as utilizing the internet and the worldwide-web for delivering government information and services to the citizens [1]. As a matter of fact, the crucial necessity of modernization and the replacement of traditional websites by e-government system that have been accepted by governments. Governments use information and communication technologies to obtain more quality, efficient and effective government and give more accessible government services opportunity to citizens [2]. Therefore, e- government services are closely related to e-participation. E- participation encourages and enhances citizen contribution to have better government and governance process. Applying e- participation in municipalities websites, greater convenience, increased satisfaction, revenue growth and cost reductions are targeted by governments [3]. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) team has made investigations for the potential of information and communication technology (ICT) to support citizen participation in policy making during Their final report [4] describe a number of e- participation case studies in OECD member countries and then after some studies e-participation run significant projects which each contribute a greater inclusive to citizens in government and governance process. E-participation have been defined the use of information and communication technologies to broaden and deepen political participation by enabling citizens to connect with one another and with their elected representatives [5]. Stakeholders can attend administration, service delivery, decision making and policy making process in government and governance. Its framework consists of using of online services to access information by governments to citizens (information), interaction with stakeholders to provide feedback on policy issues (consultation), and agreement in decision-making processes (decision making) [6]. The objective of e-participation is to improve the citizen's access to information and public services and promote participation in decision-making which impacts individual citizens and whole society. In this study, it was aimed to increase the quality level of municipalities websites in terms of e-participation. In order to achieve this, we evaluate Izmir s 30 counties websites with questionnaire method. We specified the points that each municipality received in terms of e-participation. After that, we have determined each local municipality that is involved which continent categories, respectively. Lastly, several improvements have been defined for the development of more user-centered design in the future. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The methodology of this research is explained in section 2. In section 3, we presented the results obtained from the evaluation. The discussions of the results are shown in section 4. Finally, general conclusions obtained from this study are presented in section 5.

2 58 Int'l Conf. e-learning, e-bus., EIS, and e-gov. EEE'18 2 Methodology In this study, questionnaire method was used to evaluate the websites of İzmir s counties municipalities in terms of e- participation. 10 participants evaluated the websites on the basis of Rutgers E-governance Performance Index, United Nations E-Government Survey, and Dutch Municipalities Index s criteria. These researches provide useful sources for generating methodology to evaluate municipalities web sites. As an example of the UN E-Government Survey provide e- participation index (EPI) for us while assessing websites [7]. EPI is focusing on the use of online services to facilitate provision of information by governments to citizens ( einformation sharing ), interaction with stakeholders ( econsultation ) and engagement in decision-making processes ( e-decision making ). In a same manner, the study of e- participation in Dutch municipalities set a good example about e-participation for us while investigating municipalities websites in İzmir. In addition to these studies, we benefit from Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide ( ) and The Rutgers E-Governance Performance Index in evaluation process. 2.1 E-participation survey instruments Three significant publications have been used to evaluate the e-participation of municipalities websites in İzmir. The first resource is The United Nations E- Government Survey that presents a systematic assessment of the use and potential of information and communication technologies to transform the public sector by enhancing its efficiency, effectiveness, along with access to public services and citizen participation. This survey assesses the e- government development status of the 193 United Nations Member States. It serves as a tool for decision makers to identify their areas of strength and challenges in e- government to inform policies and strategies. Survey examines the global trends and emerging issues in e- government development. Moreover, it highlights the global progress in online service delivery and focuses on how to delegate citizens through e-participation. In addition to these, it provides useful e-participation index that indicate government e-participation facilities to get in contact with their citizen. Particularly, it is including scope and quality of online services, development status of telecommunication infrastructure, and inherent human capital component indexes. The second resource is the study that is named as Measure to Improve: A Study of E-Participation in Frontrunner Dutch Municipalities [8]. This study presents the development of a measurement instrument to investigate e- participation in seventeen Dutch municipalities. This instrument includes elements related to the role of citizens, the type of media deployed, and the organization of the municipality. It specifies the consequences of using instruments to measure e-participation in Dutch municipalities. The third resource is The Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide Survey assessed the practice of digital governance in large municipalities worldwide. It evaluated the websites of municipalities in terms of digital governance that is comprised of both digital government (delivery of public services) and digital democracy (citizen participation in governance) and ranked them on a global scale [9]. It analyzed privacy/security, usability, and content of websites, the type of online services currently being offered, and citizen response and participation through websites established by municipal governments. Additionally, the Rutgers E-Governance Performance Index that is developed by Governance Institute at Rutgers University, have been used for evaluating websites [10]. It is the best-rounded index for e-governance. It has 104 measures and five distinct categorical areas of e-governance research. These five categories are: 1. Privacy and Security 2. Usability 3. Content 4. Services 5. Citizen and Social Engagement (E-participation) We assessed the development level of municipalities websites in İzmir on the basis of Rutgers E-Governance Performance Index. For each of the five e-governance categories, we evaluated the websites in terms of the citizen and social engagement (e-participation). Measures in citizen and social engagement category suit with values on a fourpoint scale of 0 and Data collection method Questionnaire technique is preferred and implemented as data collection method to evaluate e-participation of municipalities websites. E-participation involves examining how local governments are engaging citizens and providing mechanisms for citizens to participate in government online [9]. For this category, we used 18 measures, and each measure is coded on a scale of four points (0, 1, 2, 3). E- participation category conforms to values on a four-point scale of 0 and 3. Table 1 shows the e-governance scale. Overall score for each municipality calculated based on values of each measures. These measures are indicated in Table 2. The 13 items in the Dutch Municipalities Index are also investigated to measure websites score. Criteria in the Dutch Municipalities Index are shown in Table 3.

3 Int'l Conf. e-learning, e-bus., EIS, and e-gov. EEE'18 59 Scale Table 1: E-governance scale Description 0 Information about a given topic does not exist on the web sites Information about a given topic exists on the website (including links to other information and addresses). Downloadable items are available on the website (forms, audio, video, and other one-way transactions, popup boxes). Services, transactions, or interactions can take place completely online (credit card transactions, applications for permits, searchable databases, use of cookies, digital signatures, restricted access). Table 2: Performance index e-governance criteria in Rutgers e-governance No Citizen and Social Engagement Criteria Citizen and Social Engagement Criteria No (E-participation) (E-participation) 1-2 Comments or feedback 12 Synchronous video 3 Newsletter Citizen satisfaction survey 4 Online bulletin board or chat capabilities 15 Online decision-making 5-7 Online discussion forum on policy issues 16 Post information, photos, and videos 8-9 Scheduled e-meetings for discussion service calls Online survey/ polls 18 Real-time chat or instant messaging Table 3: Criteria in Dutch municipalities index No E-participation Criteria in Dutch Municipalities Index 1 SMS 2 RSS 3 Blog 4 Forum 5 Webcasting 6 Social Network 7 Twitter 8 Media, Community (Flickr, YouTube) 9 Chat 10 Interactive Map 11 E-Petition 12 Wiki 13 Experimental media: Simulation or Game, Virtual World, Chatbot, and Group Support System 3 Results 3.1 The Rutgers e-governance performance index Participants analyzed the citizen and social engagement of İzmir s counties municipalities websites on the basis of 18 measures. They examined the government e-participation facilities to get in contact with their citizen. Especially, they focused on e-information, e-consultation, and e-decision-making process in these websites. The scores that municipalities receive according to these criteria are shown in Figure 1.

4 60 Int'l Conf. e-learning, e-bus., EIS, and e-gov. EEE'18 Figure 1: Citizen and social engagement scores As shown in Figure 1, Konak, Bornova, Karşıyaka, Narlıdere, and Karabağlar are top five ranked counties in the category of Citizen and Social Engagement. Konak is ranked first with a score of 5,73, while Bornova follow in the second position with a score of 5,68 points. Karşıyaka is ranked third with a score of 5,54 and Narlıdere follow in the fourth position with a score of 5,42 points. Karabağlar is ranked fifth with a score of 5,38. The least score is 0,27 that can be attributed to the lack of support for online citizen participation practices among municipalities. Overall, results indicate that Kiraz received the least ranking of a county website among the counties with a score of 0,27. It is followed by Beydağ with a score of 0,32 and Kınık with a score of 0, Dutch municipalities index Participants also evaluated the counties municipalities websites based on Dutch Municipalities Index measures. This index includes 13 measures. These measures related to the role of citizens, the type of media deployed, and the organization of the municipality. Figure 2, illustrates the municipalities websites scores on the basis of Dutch Municipalities Index. Figure 2: Dutch municipality index scores For the figure shown in Figure 2, Bornova is the top first ranked county in this index with a score of 5,63. Karabağlar follows in the second position with a score of 5,47 points. Konak is ranked third with a score of 5,36. Results show that Kınık received the least ranking of a county with a score of 0,15. It is followed by Beydağ with a score of 0,18. Kiraz is ranked third least with a score of 0,34. Table 4 summarizes the results for all the municipalities evaluated for Rutgers E-Governance Performance Index and Dutch Municipalities Index. It indicates the rankings for 30 counties websites and their overall scores. The results show that Bornova received a score of 11,31 and it is the top first ranked county based on overall scores. Konak had the second highest ranked municipal website with a score of 11,09 and Karabağlar ranked third with a score of 10,85. Karşıyaka and Narlıdere tied for fourth and fifth with scores of 10,44 and 10,06. However, Beydağ received the least ranking of a county with a score of 0,50. Kiraz had the second least ranked municipal website with a score of 0,61 and Kınık ranked third with a score of 0,63.

5 Int'l Conf. e-learning, e-bus., EIS, and e-gov. EEE'18 61 Table 4: Overall results for municipalities based on evaluation criteria 4 Discussion In this study, the e-participation of municipalities websites was evaluated by questionnaire method. As a result of the evaluations, it has been seen that websites have received very low scores according to the criteria examined. These scores indicate that the web sites of the municipalities are not user-centered at the expected level. More detailed analysis is implemented comparing Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality s website score and İzmir s counties municipalities websites scores on the basis of citizen and social engagement. In the Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide Survey , İstanbul was ranked 56th with a score of 2,30 but it is now ranked 39th with a score of 4,17 [11]. Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality s website score and İzmir s counties municipalities websites scores are shown together in Table 5. As seen in Table 5, seven county municipalities obtained better scores in terms of e- participation compared to İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality s website. Table 5: E-participation scores of municipalities websites Table 6 represents the average scores in citizen and social engagement by continent. The average score in this category is 3,87. It increases from a score of 3,34 in Overall, cities in Oceania scored the highest average of 6,56, followed by cities in Europe, with an average score of 4,94 in the category of Citizen and Social Engagement. The lowest average score in this category is 1,22 that belongs to cities in Africa.

6 62 Int'l Conf. e-learning, e-bus., EIS, and e-gov. EEE'18 Table 6: Average scores in citizen and social engagement by continent Based on the average scores in citizen and social engagement by continent in Table 6, we reviewed our counties scores and then determined each county that fall into which continent categories, respectively. Table 7 indicates all 30 municipalities the citizen and social engagement scores and their continent categories. When the table 7 is examined, it is seen that the majority of the web sites have the quality in the level of Africa. The websites of two municipalities are at the level of South America, while the websites of six municipalities are at the level of Asia. It has been determined that the highest scoring municipalities are at European level. Moreover, it has been seen that none of them are at the Oceania level. This situation indicates that evaluated websites are inadequate in terms of e-participation. Table 7: Results in e-participation by continent The comparison of two measure results showed that there is consistency between the two measures. For example, Konak, Bornova, Karşıyaka, Narlıdere, and Karabağlar are top five ranked counties in the category of Citizen and Social Engagement. Similarly, Bornova, Karabağlar, Konak, Bayraklı, and Karşıyaka are the top five counties based on Dutch Municipalities Index. Therefore, these two results of index are consistent among themselves. When we examined the municipalities website, we especially focus on basic e-participation criteria to find e- participation issues. These criteria are identified in below: Does the site have scheduled e-meetings for discussion? ( E-meeting" means real-time discussion which takes place at the specific appointed time in a synchronized way so that participants can exchange opinions simultaneously) Does the site allow users to engage in real-time chat or instant messaging? Page length: Are alternative versions (e.g..doc or pdf) available for long documents -- e.g. documents more than three to four screens long? Do visited links change color from original link color? Are survey results published on the site? Does the site allow users to engage in real-time chat or instant messaging? 5 Conclusions The aim of this study has been to develop a framework for evaluating municipalities websites in terms of e- participation. This project was performed through evaluating all available official websites of regional public authority in the İzmir. To evaluate e-participation of municipalities web sites, questionnaire technique is preferred and implemented as data collection method. We determined the scores for all the evaluated municipalities across İzmir s 30 counties websites in citizen and social engagement category and then according to municipalities overall scores in these categories, we specified each county that take place on which continent categories. After evaluating the existing web sites of municipalities in İzmir in terms of citizen s e-participation, the evaluation results suggest that initiatives are not yet in large supply in İzmir. More specifically, the evaluation results suggest that in İzmir have to improve websites. Because of some municipalities are not yet fully functional. Moreover, İzmir strategic goal do not include yet any provisions for promoting online participation at the regional level. Therefore, governments can benefit from websites of public institutions that are being used by citizens rather than creating new ones, to increase the chance of success for İzmir e-participation strategy. Government should encourage e participation and provide consistent feedback for citizen issues to the public. Participatory budgeting, data mining and interaction on social media allow public managers and policy-makers to take the pulse of a constituency and shape public services to more closely address the needs and aspirations of people [12].

7 Int'l Conf. e-learning, e-bus., EIS, and e-gov. EEE'18 63 According to these conclusions, the following recommendations will contribute to an environment for successful e-participation [13]: Setup legal and institutional frameworks to enable freedom of information, privacy and data protection in order to secure a safe environment for e- participation. Build on existing e-participation web sites, already used by citizens to create visibility, a stronger relationship and trust for coming feedback. Ensure the integration of offline and online communication tools for an inclusive service enhancement. Promote the use of ICTs, digital and social media tools to enhance the spread of information and citizen engagement. E-governance is the public sector s use of ICTs with the aim of improving information and service delivery, encouraging citizen participation in the decision-making process and making government more accountable, transparent and effective [14]. Therefore, formal and informal institutions for e participation must work effectively to reach out to this objective. We believe that this study will lend assistance to all of inspected municipalities for serving citizens effectively. With this research we have the opportunity to determine local municipalities websites inadequate features in terms of e-participation. If we can submit this research to municipalities, we can assist these municipalities to enhance themselves in terms of citizen and social engagement and usability. By this way, we can provide them to reach international standard in these categories and competing among against the developed cities. In the next future we intend to evaluate the existing web sites of municipalities in İzmir in terms of usability, privacy/security, content, and services. There categories also took part in Rutgers E-governance Performance Index. We believe similar study would be useful to identify insufficient features of municipalities websites. 6 References [1] S.C.J. Palvia and S.S. Sharma. E-government and E- governance: Definitions/domain Framework and Status Around the World, International Conference on E- governance, [2] Dubai School of Government. Measuring and Evaluating E-government in Arab Countries, High Level Seminar on Measuring and Evaluating E-Government and 3rd Meeting of Working Group 2 on E-Government and Administrative Simplification, [3] I. Alfadli and M. Munro. Citizen Centered E- Government Services Assessment Framework, Proceedings of the European Conference on e-government, p. 573, [4] Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Whole-of-Government Approaches to Fragile States, [5] A. Macintosh. Using Information and Communication Technologies to Enhance Citizen Engagement in the Policy Process in Promises and Problems of E-Democracy: Challenges of Online Citizen Engagement, [6] A. Macintosh and E. Tambouris. Electronic Participation, Third International Conference on Electronic Participation, [7] United Nations. United Nations E-government Survey: E-government for the Future We Want, [8] A.F. Veenstra, M. Janssen, and A. Boon. Measure to Improve: A Study of E-participation in Frontrunner Dutch Municipalities, Third International Conference on Electronic Participation, [9] M. Holzer and A. Manoharan. Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide, Seventh Global E-Governance Survey: A Longitudinal Assessment of Municipal Websites Throughout the World, [10] The E-Governance Institute National Center for Public Performance School of Public Affairs and Administration Rutgers. The Rutgers E-Governance Performance Index, [11] M. Holzer and A. Manoharan. Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide, Sixth Global E-Governance Survey: A Longitudinal Assessment of Municipal Websites Throughout the World, [12] H.O. Yeloglu and M. Saglam. The Diffusion of E- government Innovation in Turkey: A Conceptual Framework, Journal of US-China Public Administration, Vol. 6, No. 7, [13] Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. United Nations Publication, Citizen Engagement and the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Report of the Expert Group Meeting, [14] E.G.G. Žilinskas. E-governance in Lithuanian Municipalities: External Factors Analysis of the Websites Development, 2013.