Community Portals: A False Dawn over the Field of Dreams?

Abstract

The context is that of UK local government portals, over the period from 1999-2004. The study finds that few existing portals enable on-line access to back office systems to enable self-service interactivity for citizens. Current activities are analogous with a False Dawn in Community Portal development, due to gaps and current inadequacies of portal capability. The Field of Dreams future gives alignment between emerging development in Enterprise Portals in the commercial sector; Grid Computing emanating from the eScience community; and the need for Community Portals in the Public Sector.