A core component of CyPRG data is a systematic measure of the openness of web operations in all ministry-level organizations worldwide. In order to carry out such measurements, we have developed the Website Attribute Evaluation System (WAES) to capture the components of the two key elements of openness:

• Transparency is the information an agency provides about itself and the issues under its jurisdiction.  How much is an agency is willing to reveal about itself to outsiders.
• Interactivity is the convenience of interacting with this information, according to whether the element is "clickable" on the website. How accessible is the website?

The table below is an extract of the coding criteria for transparency; there is a similar set of criteria for site interactivity:
 

Sample Criterion	Rationale
T4d: site provides reports, research, laws, and regulations in easily readable format on screen.	Tests if agency has taken time to provides an easily readable, organized, format for reports, research, laws and regulations. Marked by 0 or 1.
T4e: site provides a searchable index for archived newsletters, laws, regulations, and requirements.	Tests if agency allows user to search to site for old newsletter, laws, regulations, or anything relating to content agency provides online. Marked by 0 or 1.
T4f: psite rovides all downloaded or printed publications for free	Tests if agency makes all information freely available. Marked by 0 or 1.
T4g: site provides link to or text of public information law or regulation	Test if agency provides the rules under which citizens are entitled to public information.

The coder determines whether the site exhibits the characteristic, and records either a "0" or a "1" in the database, an extract of which is shown below:
 

Country Name	Sector/ Policy Issue Area	Transparency Total	Interactivity Total	...	Transparency 4d	Transparency 4e	Transparency 4f	Transparency 4g	etc. ...
Netherlands	Culture	8	5		1	0	0	0
Netherlands	Defense	3	3		0	0	0	0
Netherlands	Education	10	7		1	0	0	0
Netherlands	Energy	11	6		1	0	0	0
...
New Zealand	Health	11	2		1	1	0	0
New Zealand	Immigration	11	4		1	1	1	0
New Zealand	Industry	10	4		1	1	1	0

Raw scores comprise the basic database, but they may also be manipulated, aggregated and presented in more easily interpretable form, such as tables, maps, or "radargrams," which give snapshots of overall agency profiles. The examples of the National Science Foundation, the Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Prisons shows a hypothetical average scores of clusters of criteria for Interactivity, such as "Security/Privacy," "Contacts/Reachability," and so on. Such radargrams can be constructed for any country, sector or group.  Other examples can be linked from the Data page.

With such data, WAES can serve as a diagnostic tool for public managers engaged in organizational reform, as well as a source of information about organizations for students and scholars of government and administration.

CyPRG also has gathered data about whether organizational effectiveness is affected by the use of web technologies. Effectiveness in a large scale system depends on the extent to which there are time or resources with which managers experiment with web technologies and adapt the system to their needs.  Effectiveness is diminished to the extent that these experiments are not possible or not permitted.

This portion of the overall CyPRG project is considered the long term field research portion of the work. It has begun with in-depth field interviews with agency webmasters, who are the staff members most responsible for constructing and maintaining external web sites.

The method relies on structured interviews using the instrument described below. Interviews are open-ended, but generally take between 45 minutes to two hours.
 

Criterion	Rationale
Dates and initiating pressures	-- Establishes time and event baselines. Identifies key dates for implementation and significant alterations in design of web system, and significant external guidelines for the content or existence of the system.
Initial purposes and roles	-- Establishes the social construction of what was expected from implementing, significantly redesigning or upgrading the technological system.  -- Pursues what roles were played by senior people and change agents in this set of events.
Design of control processes,  staff and content-access procedures	-- Documents the control processes implemented by managers in terms of content, staff, access, budgets and changes at the point of establishing, elaborating or altering uses of web technologies.  -- Bulk of the interview is conducted on these sub-issues and what control mechanisms were incorporated in the use of the web technologies.
Surprises and organizational responses	-- Tracks the perceptions of organizational members key to web-related operations concerning web-induced uncertainties and their responses as their experiences with the technologies has grown over time.
Long term process, content-access and staff monitoring	-- Tracks surrogate measures of change such as web traffic demands, changes, archiving procedures. -- Notes costs of operations, and future plans in response to these changes.
Alternative or substitute uses of technology	-- Seeks evidence of alternative uses of web technologies, including an intranet if the web is an external site.  -- Goal is to understand what other uses of web technologies may be implemented or recognized by organizational members and how much control is involved in experimentation.
Knowledge discovery and dissemination processes	-- Assesses how the results of experiments, either inside or externally, may be transmitted to key organizational members including managers and technical core personnel.  -- Queries address social organizations of web-affected employees, other avenues for information on uses of the web, training investments, allowance of time to experiment, and employeesí attitudes towards and background experiences with web technologies.

One goal is to use this instrument to look more closely at intranet web systems as more and more organizations install their own web nets for solely internal use. Through periodic visits to selected public agencies this project will produce these organizational "lessons learned." They will be noted on the site.