While legislative sites can streamline communications and services, they're fundamentally about increasing civic participation in the legislative process. Citizens can get to information about a pending statute as readily as lawmakers and lobbyists can. And they can respond immediately, usually via email. Conversely, lawmakers can email constituents from the floor of a session. States with part-time legislatures may find a site's efficiency factor especially alluring.
Lawmakers can get to information quickly and they have the potential to work more thoroughly.
It's true that technology won't replace the in-person handshakes that remain stock in trade for political work, but legistlative sites can extend the process of democracy from lawmakers to lobbyists to voters to students doing research. And some states use that same technology to get long-distance testimonials during hearings. Opportunities to harness the sites for mutual access between lawmakers and the public have started to emerge. Public comments were compiled into a database searchable by name or type or organization or individual, along with educational and policy interest. The familiarity can help in negotiations of other aspects of e-government, such as formulating state IT plans.