ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some background on the Internet and the World Wide Web before addressing some of the major managerial and public policy issues raised by its existence: namely e-government, e-democracy, e-voting, and the digital divide. The Internet was created for political and military purposes. The idea was to construct a computer sed communications system of many networks so that if one of the networks went down, messages could still be transmitted via other networks using packet switching technology. E-government is about delivering information and services to the public over the Internet and the web mainly through the use of web pages and web portals. E-government refers to the use of the Internet and related technologies to provide citizens with relevant public information and public services. E-democracy defined as the use of the Internet and related technology to foster democratic discourse among citizens and between citizens and elected or appointed officials over public policy issues.
