Evaluating the Iran's Governmental Websites: Information, Interaction and Transaction

Presenting a model for evaluating governmental website (Information, Interaction and Transaction), the article has compared Iranian governmental websites in two time periods (February 2006 and February and March 2011). The research has applied longitudinal study to observe the development process of the Iran's electronic government. In the research, websites has been considered as representation of the electronic government for Iranian citizens in the cyberspace. The three-stage evolutionary model in the research has inspired from the UNESCO electron government analysis. In the research model, electronic government has been defined as "applying information and communication technologies (IC TS) in the government and created changes in the government structure, nature and performance". 16 criterias and 61 sub-criterias have been used to evaluate 51 governmental websites in the first period and 41 websites in the second period. Based on the research results, the Iranian governmental websites especially in the research first evaluation has been in the primary stage of the E-Gov. Few evidences have been observed to show a development toward stages beyond the information publication in the websites. Based on the quantitative data, after more than five years no dramatic changes have been observed in the Iran's electronic government. Then as before, few websites in the second evaluation has applied interactive capabilities of the ICTS