A transformational approach to e-government necessitates departing from the limited and positivistic perspective on the t-government, one that is akin to government reengineering and considering a larger ambit for transformation. Three 'transformating threads' have been identified to cover the theoretical domain of t-government; namely the (1) facilitating (transformating) environment; (2) the transformating process; and (3) transformation models. These threads are mirrored into the main transformation themes that are covered in this issue; which are (1) the digital divide and t-government uptake (2) t-government development and management of change and (3) innovation as the foundation for t-government business models. We have further reviewed the existing literature on t-government and attempted to fit it within the three theme classification. The results of our review are shown with an indication of the surrogate themes that were used to describe transformation. It was not always obvious to do so because not only did some papers transcend any single category, but more often they related only superficially to t-government research despite their claim to the contrary. A key indicator of such a state of affairs is when 'transformating' is used as an adjective of e-services rather than being an inherent characteristic to the above three themes. This is not to suggest that ICT cannot have a 'transformating potential' but this can be enacted when applied to appropriate and specific governance goals (Saxena, 2005). Needless to say, we make no claim that this is the only way to classify t-government literature but it does account for most of it.
