Information technology policies and standards: A comparative review of the states

Drawing on a review of government information management and information technology (IT) success factors, this paper compares the availability of IT policies and standards in the states. Two main objectives guide the comparative review effort. The first is to show what kinds of information policies the different states make available to citizens through their Web sites. This paper offers a preliminary list of the main IT policies that are available to the public through the Internet. The second objective is to present a theoretical framework to understand the importance of IT policies and standards to government organizations. This paper compares what theory has established about IT policy with the practices of the various states. In general terms, there seems to be some degree of consistency among the states regarding which IT issues to take into account for policy and standard development. Security, internal networks, e-mail usage, software standards, and privacy show up as the most important and frequently selected IT-related topics and concerns.