This article describes an empirical study of the current level and type of state and local public activity on the World Wide Web (WWW), providing some important baseline information on government activities in this area. Moving governments onto the WWW represents a paradigm shift in the use of technology, and some governments are moving faster and are becoming more innovative than others. Governments are clearly becoming “cyberactive” but are emphasizing information and services for business and other economic development activities rather than dissemination of policy information, encouraging policy discussions, or delivering public services.

Internet activity has been growing at a rapid pace during the past several years. Much of this activity has been in the private sector and in education but many U.S. state and local governments have also moved onto the WWW. The purpose of this empirical research is to provide baseline descriptive data on the current level and type of state and local public sector activity on the WWW. Like many other social science phenomena (e.g., public opinion, electoral behavior, and public policy itself), the WWW and Internet activity are dynamic phenomena, constantly changing and reorganizing. This study recognizes that and assumes that the empirical data gathered here are a snapshot in time of the entire public sector WWW phenomena