This paper provides an insight to the trends that exist within academic writing in the much talked about area of e-government, and the potential they hold for developing countries. While there is much hype about success stories, the bitter truth that presents itself is that the majority of e-government projects in developing countries fail. After an introduction to Ciborra's (2005) view on e-government, this paper proceeds to use Heeks' (2003) 'archetypes of failure', which are brought about by gaps between the design of the technology itself and reality of the context, to classify some of the current literature. This classification provides a brief overview of themes manifested within this body of knowledge, serving as a useful background for practitioners and implementers of e-government in developing countries.