Reducing the digital divide of the electronic government of the 921 reconstruction areas in Taiwan

With great efforts over the past two decades, Taiwan has become one of leading countries in E-government practice. People have benefited from the efficiency of E-government services and Taiwan government will develop the next stage E-government, which is integrated, innovative, real time, interactive, and personalized, to establish a virtually trusted society that connects each citizen via the Internet. At 1:47 a.m. on September 21, 1999, a massive earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale struck central Taiwan. This earthquake is a terrible disaster that causes tragic loss of life, severe property damage, and sharp decline in living standards and the regional prosperity. The earthquakes of the last decade also brought to light the importance of Earthquake Disaster Management (EDM) operations. As a result, there is an urgent call for applying digital services, broadening geographical service scope, enriching service options, and lowering costs for the reconstruction areas. This study employed the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to analyze the Taiwan government's supply and demand of the information services in the reconstruction areas to heed the call for reducing uneven opportunities on availability of information and telecommunication technology.