Level of utilization from e-municipality applications: The case study of Gaziantep province

In this study, the level of benefiting from e-municipality applications was taken as an example from Gaziantep province, and, depending on this, the concept of e-government was considered within the context of general literature. The aim of the study is to make firm the level of benefiting from e-municipality services in the sample of citizens living in Gaziantep. Firstly, critical literature review was made, and conceptual frame set forth by utilizing relative academic works. The data were collected through 16 question-survey with the participation of citizens over the age of 18 living in Gaziantep. Totally 422 citizens participated to the research in this phase. Of the participants, 219 were women and 202 were men. In the study, first of all, citizens were asked whether they visited the website of the municipality in their city within the scope of e-municipal services, and it was found that 295 people rarely visited and 127 people never visited. For other research questions, the data obtained in the survey study were analyzed in the SPSS 21.00 program. It is observed that the causes of majority to keep distance from using applications are citizens either lack information about the applications made by the municipality or they see the possibility of achieving a positive result from these applications is low, the applications are not user-friendly, and certain age groups' weakness in the use of technology. It has been determined that those who use the applications relatively more frequently are mostly individuals who are in contact with public institutions or the municipality, and who have to make transactions with these institutions more frequently due to their job. The resulting situation has shown that organizing informative and educational activities for the citizens at appropriate times and conditions regarding the services provided by the municipality will be important in terms of resource use and the effectiveness of the implemented practices. Therefore, it is considered that informative and skill-enhancing training activities in this direction, which will be organized in partnership with the municipal units that carry out e-municipality applications, and the public relations and education units of the municipalities, will facilitate the access of citizens to applications and the more effective provision of services.