Members of congress websites: diffusion at the tip of the iceberg

ABSTRACT

How do Members of Congress manage the opportunities that the Internet offers? Here we present the initial results from interviews with 100 Congressional offices about their decisions regarding how to use official Member websites. Strikingly, we find that there are relatively few efforts by offices to evaluate what constituents want or like on their websites. Further, we find that diffusion occurs at the "tip of the iceberg": offices often look at each others' websites (which are publicly visible), but rarely talk to each other about their experiences or how they manage what is on their websites (which are not publicly visible). We also find that there are powerful extra-organizational influences on Member websites, most notably, vendors and the Congressional Management Foundation.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.1 ADMINISTRATIVE DATA PROCESSING

Additional Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.4 SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

General Terms:
Human Factors, Management, Measurement, Theory

Keywords:
congress, diffusion, information technology, intra-, inter- and extra-organizational influence, online practices