摘要：This paper explores the adoption of one of the Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) tools, i.e. the Internet and more particularly, the World Wide
Web, by Eastern and Southern African governments as a means of facilitating
interactions between the state and its citizens. It was observed that most
governments in the region have constructed their own Web sites, some of which
are up to date. English is the most commonly used language to prepare the web
sites. Other findings include: foreign missions recorded the highest number of
web pages followed by political parties; the .com or .co Top Level Domain (TLD)
generated most web pages followed by .ac or .edu in each country; most
governments provide contact information as opposed to sitemaps and feedback
forms which recorded relatively few postings; governments with few webpages and
large quantities of in-links (including self-links) recorded high Web Impact
Factors (WIFs); and only the South African government provided links to other
Eastern and Southern African governments. Ethical issues regarding the analyzed
variables as well as conclusions and recommendations are provided.
