The Internet is probably one of the best technological advancements that man has ever made. It allows from all over the world to communicate through exchange of messages. It provides a variety of information for anyone who needs it. In addition, the Internet makes everything more comfortable and easier to students, teachers, academic institutions, and businesses. The government is also one of the fields that benefit from the Internet.Local governments can build their own websites that can provide information and services to its locals or to people who would want to visit their place.
This seemed difficult to accomplish in the past “but the widespread use of the Internet by both society and government seems to offer real possibilities for change in citizen-government relationships, just as new channels of communication and transaction have opened up new possibilities for the relationship between shops and banks and their customers in countries with high levels of Internet penetration” (Pierre, 2003, p. 366).Los Angeles County is one of the cities in the United States that has made an effort to build their own website in order to provide services and information to the public. This is essential because most people nowadays are on-the-go and would prefer to transact and do business the easier way, which the Internet can provide. The categories of services that the website provide include property and municipal services, health and mental health services, public safety, children and family services, business services, and recreation and culture services.
On the left hand side of L. A. County's website, there are five drop-down menus for users to use. These are the most commonly used or requested services that the county receives from the public, and the shortcuts were made so that users do not have a hard time finding the links for these services. The first drop-down menu allows users to pay for different kinds of fees including child support fees, traffic tickets, court fines, water bills, and tax liens. This is helpful for the public because they do not have to go to facilities just to pay for the fees.
They can do this at the comfort of their own homes, which decreases their chances of being late in the payment. The second drop-down menu allows people to apply for different types of things like jobs, marriage licenses, building permits, and child support. Employers can post job openings in this website and the public can check to see if they qualify for the jobs. The public can also apply for health insurance in this website. The public do not have to go to the respective government offices to fill up the necessary forms.The application process is made easier and faster by L.
A. County's website. The public can also request for copies of their documents from the website. The documents that can be requested include birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates, tax bills, and public records. Users only need to fill up a form and enter necessary information, pay the fee, and the documents will be delivered to them. Registration is also made easier because people can now do this online through the website.
If they want to register as a candidate for office, foster parent, voter, sex offender, or domestic partner, all they have to do is go to the website and access the registration option. Lastly, the public can report to the local government and help the authorities solve problems concerning the county and its people. Users can report things such as cases of child abuse, crimes, disability complaints, fraud, graffiti incident, or illegal dumping. This improves the relationship of the local government and its people and it also decreases the problems being faced by the county as a whole.
