Website eParticipation Quality: A Quantitative Evaluation Approach

Information Communication Technologies ICTs are promoting participatory governance by engendering open, trans- parent civic engagements. There is an increased interest in ePar- ticipation and its tools since it is established to increase citizen engagement and collaboration. This is achieved by providing information and promoting participatory, citizen driven policy- making, thereby empowering the citizen. Although, there are a few eParticipation methodologies such as the UN eParticipation index, they are survey based and an overall measure of a country's eParticipation readiness as opposed to its actual level of eParticipation. In this paper, we presented an approach to quanti- tatively evaluate the quality of websites eParticipation. We lever- aged on principles of ISO standards, ISO 15939, ISO/IEC 25041, ISO 9126, ISO/IEC 25010, as well as CMMI to isolate the quality components and attributes of ePartcipation within the context of an eGovernment website. Systematic review of literature enumerated e-Enabling(e-Informing), e-Engaging(e-Consulting) and e-Collaboration(active participation or e-Empowerment) as the core components describing eParticipation. Based on We- bQEM methodology, an eParticipation measurement metric was developed for the key components and attributes. Furthermore, a less subjective methodology for weighting these components and their attributes in the domain of eGovernment websites was developed. A direct aggregation method was adopted for tallying the results. We applied this quantitative approach to 23 federal ministries of Nigeria. From the implementation, ministry of foreign affairs, health and information present the highest level of eParticipation accordingly. Conversely, the ministry of FCT, education and transportation have the least level of eParticipation. All the evaluated ministries showed low level of eCollaboration. Addition of eParticipation tools, such as, wikis, collaboration portals, blogs, social media tools etc will greatly enhance the level of eParticipation.