A comprehensive study of the digital divide phenomenon in Taiwanese government agencies

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive study of the digital divide phenomenon in Taiwanese government agencies. Based on a review of past literature in digital divide, we found most studies merely focused on the household&47;individual. Little attention was given to government agencies. To fulfill the research goal, this study employed the major elements, IT infrastructure, IT literacy, and IT application, to investigate the digital divide in Taiwanese government agencies. A national web-based e-survey was conducted. The effects of agency attributes and technological development on both internal interactivity and external online client services were examined. The sample consisted of responses from 1,769 agencies, representing 43.57% of total Taiwanese government agencies contacted. The results showed that there are significant disparities in internal interactivity and external online client services between different agency levels. The implications of these findings are discussed in the paper.