E-government portals in central America: A preliminary evaluation and ranking (2011-2012)

Developing e-government strategies and particularly Internet portals could be considered an important trend for public administrations worldwide. These government-wide websites could potentially provide useful information and services and, at the same time, become the gateways for citizen participation and collaboration with government. However, the development of these tools and their potential impacts are not the same for developed and developing countries and there is not enough research about less developed nations. This paper applies a multi-dimensional evaluation model to the national portals of Central American countries (2011-2012) and starts providing some of the necessary knowledge about this particular reality. The model was first used in 2005 for evaluating Mexican state portals and has been systematically refined during the last 7 years. The results clearly identify important gaps and opportunities for improvement in most Central American countries.