The Internet and other information and
communication technologies are rapidly changing the way we work, learn,
communicate with each other, and conduct government. Societies around the world are embracing and
“bracing for” the myriad consequences and challenges posed by this growing
network of individual knowledge makers and traders. Businesses scramble to use the Internet to
increase productivity, boost exports, and forge closer relationships with
customers and suppliers. Increasingly as
businesses cope with a corporate workforce located around the globe and dealing
directly with millions of customers around the globe, they realize that the
value of communication skills probably surpasses all others.
The Federal Government similarly seeks to
create improvements in its communications capabilities throughout its
organizations by taking a citizen-centric approach. This e-government approach is focused on
unifying islands of automation and simplifying business processes to create an
unbroken “information value chain.”
The impetus behind the push towards
e-government is simple. Governments,
like businesses, believe that well-conceived services using the multiple
delivery channels of the Internet are the best way to meet agency
missions. In addition, the growing use
of interactive communication technologies used in market research and
collaborative work makes it possible to communicate directly with people with
disabilities, senior citizens, and members of immigrant or isolated groups to
foreclose on access disparities due to inadequate designs.
The most publicly visible metric for
e-government success will be enfranchising all who want the opportunity to be
involved in local civic life in spite of a handicapping condition such as age,
disability, or a previously isolating difference. But the ultimate success of electronic
government depends on the ability of all
consumers to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the
government. A sound e-government course
will tip the market balance toward more commercial offerings available to
government and other organizations that are designed for use by all
people. As the Internet shifts from
presenting static information to dynamic and service-oriented applications,
Federal organizations that form active learning partnerships with state and
community leaders will tap the power of a citizen-centric approach.
This guide presents an emerging
perspective of citizen-centric government as driver for sound and timely
implementation of three promising enterprise tools: 1) voice application
networks, 2) eXtensible Markup Language (XML), and 3) collaborative Web space. Taken together these tools and the
corresponding state and local partnership forums used to implement them will
generate the conditions needed for expanded civic and digital opportunities
that meet public expectations for access and equity. Today the unprecedented convergence of technologies
only raises the possibilities, and collaborations forged to extend digital
dividends to all Americans by local and federal participants will increase the
net value to society of the government’s information value chain by an order of
magnitude.
Overview
The Enterprise Interoperability and
Emerging Technology Committee of the CIO Council has developed this guide, Extending Digital Dividends: Public Goods and Services that Work for All,
as a first step in assisting public administrators in improving government-wide
program delivery decisions. The guide is
designed to raise awareness of the technological opportunities that exist for
spanning the digital divide and how they intersect with those segments of the
American population that are currently most underserved in terms of
participating in a citizen-centered e-government. To that end, the guide undertakes the
following activities:
·
Identifies those demographic
groups that are disproportionately underserved by e-government and, in an
effort to cultivate intervention strategies, presents information on the
addressable issues that cut across those underserved markets;
·
Provides exemplars of successful
e-government efforts to minimize digital disparities;
·
Highlights the opportunities that
eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and its variants bring to Federal agencies to
improve the delivery of government goods and services by its ability to
repurpose and reuse information;
·
Provides background and reference
information on those technology enhancements such as voice application
networks, Web networks, and collaborative workspaces that are poised to offer
forward-looking Federal programs the greatest value as they move to a more
citizen-centered e-government; and
·
Identifies ways for public
administrators to implement XML and other emerging technologies as the Federal
Government sets in motion the transformation of a government centered around
customer needs.
The principles of government openness,
equity, and accountability are inherent in the democratic ideal—an informed
citizenry is essential to the democratic process; the more the American people
know about themselves in society, mediated by government, the better they will
be governed. This philosophy is embedded
in the activities of most Federal agencies through the many public information
access requirements in individual agency authorizing statutes. Both Congress and the President have
reinforced the importance of public information in recent years through such
mandates as the Government Paperwork Elimination Act, the promulgation of
procurement standards under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the
Administration's vision of e-government.
In fact, government's very success is measured in its ability to provide
timely and useful information and services to all citizens. This performance measure is derived from
several factors, some of which grow out of Congressional statutes or
Administrative mandates, but all of which support the ideal that an informed
public is necessary to a healthy democracy.
E-government
is one of the five key elements in the President's Management and Performance
Plan. As highlighted in Office of
Management and Budget Memorandum 01-28[1],
the focus of current e-government initiatives is on reforming the government so
that it is results oriented, market based, and citizen centered. The plan calls for linking the current
"islands of automation" that make it difficult to access and derive
the value of information contained in disparate databases. This will be achieved by simplifying and
unifying business processes to maximize the benefit from technology. The movement towards e-government and the
power it holds to transform the delivery of goods and services to the public is
profound. The ultimate success of
e-government depends on the ability of all
people to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the government. Information provided electronically to only a
portion of the public will not gain public acceptance if that same information
cannot be made accessible to all citizens.
Section 508
of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (found at 29 U.S.C. 794d)
generally requires Federal agencies to ensure that their procurement of
electronic and information technology (EIT) takes into account the needs of all
people, including people with disabilities.
Doing so enhances the ability of Federal employees with disabilities to
have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to that
provided to others. Similarly, agency
procurement of accessible EIT enhances the ability of members of the public
with disabilities who are seeking information or services from a Federal agency
to have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to that
provided to others. These standards
became enforceable on June 21, 2001.
The Government Paperwork Elimination Act
(GPEA), P. L. 105-277, is another important
tool to improve customer service and government efficiency through the use of
information technology. GPEA requires
Federal agencies, by October 21, 2003, to allow individuals or entities that
deal with the agencies the option to submit information or transact with the
agency electronically, when practicable, and to maintain records electronically,
when practicable.
These policies taken together, along with
the changing communications opportunities afforded by technology, are setting
the conditions for better understanding of ways to learn how to continue to
improve delivery of services to underserved groups today.
The means by which Americans communicate
with one another, either on the job or in their personal lives, are
changing. Traditional methods of
communicating in person, by phone or letter, are being augmented by the
Internet. Previously remote or
unavailable information is at hand. For
example, architects are now exploring how to use direct two-way communication
of visual and spatial ideas with public officials, clients, building users and
ordinary citizens. In all economic
growth and development activities, the opportunity exists to communicate and
exchange information more effectively with more people. This collaborative approach was the winning
formula practiced by the universities, scientists, and government officials who
created the Internet almost forty years ago.
Community-building defines our national
character for relating to one another as observed by de Tocqueville—
"Americans
of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations.
…In
democratic countries the science of association is the mother of science;
the
progress of all the rest depends on the progress it has made."
This drive to associate is also reflected
in the introduction to the 1999 handbook entitled, The Local News Handbook,
published by the Readership Issues Committee of the American Society of
Newspaper Editors—
“When
our readers and potential readers tell us, over and over, that they want more,
and
more local news, they are saying they want information and help to live better,
they
want to know what is going on around them and
they
want to be a part of a community.”
A community-building role for individuals
continues to be discussed throughout the handbook. One recommendation for news editors is to
better understand local issues through research into government demographics
and other data—to “tell the story” of the community through civic “mapping”
exercises. The report outlines ten
dimensions of local news, this is worth reviewing when thinking about how and
why the availability of government information products should be promoted in a
public information infrastructure.
Proximity. Readers appreciate news about their immediate
community.
Safety.
People want to be safe in their
communities and in their homes.
Utility. Successful media products conform to the
users' daily activities and help advance them.
Government. Citizens want to be engaged, to be more than
bystanders in civic life.
Education. Interest and participation in improving local
schools is pervasive and growing.
Spirituality. Not just resources for values and ethics,
churches are important assistance centers.
Support. Americans volunteer in unprecedented numbers
with various organizations.
Identity. People want to be part of a community.
Recognition. Media confirms affirmation of high honor.
Empowerment.
Americans thrive on mobilizing and organizing—it’s part of our character.
The most important hurdle is whether the
information products being developed actually have demonstrable impact in
real-life communities. As people have
access to more information, expectations are raised regarding the quality of
the content, as well its accessibility.
In fact, as shown in recent reports[2], the public places a high value on
e-government's ability to hold the Federal government accountable, a fact that
is not likely to change as Internet usage continues to increase.
For much of their understanding about
utilizing Internet-based technologies to improve service delivery, governments
can look to the best practices of businesses in the marketplace. Businesses know that the loyalty of valuable
customers must be continually earned.
Knowing how to focus on targeted market segments is the key to how
services are marketed and sold. Being
supplied with this knowledge from business and seeing what it looks like in
practice, governments are halfway toward charting a sound course.
For the remaining points on the
socioeconomic compass, however, governments must work harder. They must turn to the best examples of public
management. How can all consumers be
served, not just represent targeted, profitable markets? The U.S. Census is an important resource for
gleaning the needs of those not normally targeted by businesses and marketing
plans. The 2000 Census is expected to
reveal that these citizens are growing at a faster rate than “mainstream”
market segments. Non-mainstream groups
include people with disabilities, people over 50, and people with English or
technical literacy deficits due to immigration or cultural isolation from
mainstream opportunities. Although
outpacing the growth rates of other demographic groups, these groups have
broadly been identified as least likely to be using the Internet. Limited income frequently increases the
likelihood that these groups will not use the Internet.
At this juncture, comparison of
government as business only falls short.
The short-term profit-optimizing strategies of business diverge from
public service strategies. Businesses
can choose to operate exclusively in new Internet space, and market exclusively
to preferred customers. Governments
cannot.
So what is the "digital
divide?" The divide arises out of
the unprecedented rate of adoption and reliance on digital methods of
communication in society. This rapid
societal dependence, by historical terms, is outpacing electronic
communications use by individuals and groups whose social network ties may
already be weak, due to other factors such as technical designs that restrict
usefulness by people with disabilities, cost and complexity, and
reading/technical literacy. But the
societal divide has been compounded by acceptance of digital content methods
that partition public information on disconnected “islands of automation.” Information formatted for one media or
platform cannot necessarily convert to another.
The value of this information to general society is also low relative to
its cost to maintain. It means that
those members of the public who today find reliance on the Internet to be
unsatisfactory, inconvenient, unaffordable, or unavailable do not have an
alternative to access useful information developed in their own city or region
even though it is available to any Internet user in the world. Communities cannot afford to remain at a
disadvantage while others benefit from electronic information sources.
But just as the Internet breaks
boundaries of time and distance, it breaks boundaries of conventional
thinking. Creative pioneers from the
previously almost invisible communities of people with disabilities, older
people, and people with education or cultural-related literacy deficits are
carefully stewarding the best of the old, familiar ways of communicating with
new ways made possible using unfamiliar technologies. Creativity and discipline emerging from the
mutual interests of associations of people with disabilities and innovating
companies, such as e-publishing in Open Forums, are charting a new course that
will enable Federal information to flow more quickly, easily, and equitably to
all people. These association-building
activities must be recognized by Federal online service efforts, so time and
effort is not wasted. Promising service
delivery technologies for both opening up information flow while structuring it
for optimal use include: 1) expansion of
the national telephone directory service using spoken language interaction; 2)
adoption of an open standard notation system [eXtensible Markup Language (XML)]
for digital content that supports easy transport among Internet, phone, and a
myriad of networked devices; and 3) Open Forums combining Web collaboration
space and face-to-face meetings that support deliberation and convening among
stakeholder groups. In particular, the
Open Forums are key to accelerating the structural social conventions needed to
realize the “connection-making” potential of these converging
capabilities. Without this open process,
another generation of separate “islands of automation” will be inevitable,
based on marketplace history.
Governments, universities, and businesses that support the conditions
for these forums to flourish, without try to own and control them, will soon
discover the innovation-diffusion power of this citizen-centric approach. Perhaps the by-product of the Internet—the
heightened power to build meaningful and transparent public associations—remains
today, as always, our core engine of economic growth.
Three promising Internet-based
technologies will be highlighted in this section and used as models in this
guide. Taken together and implemented
well by the emerging open consortiums over the next few years, they have the
potential to dramatically extend the reach, quality, and usefulness of public
information goods and services. They can
recast familiar, available information tools—including the telephone, radio,
books, TV, and newspapers—as transporting devices for more easily accessible
and up-to-date public content widely available due to open XML standards, and
that is inexpensive to render and authenticate in multiple forms. These technologies have the potential to
multiply benefits, by simplification and unification of information, if the
public forums are convened to secure the mutual commitments needed. These technologies will allow the government
to begin to close the digital divide by providing more information to such
underserved markets as persons with disabilities, those who are over 50, or who
those who are functionally illiterate
Voice Application Networks allow the same
dynamic information interactions developed for the Internet to be provided by
telephone. In response to a caller’s
spoken selection, up-to-date information is presented in a natural sounding
voice.
An example is Utah's new Traveler Advisory
Telephone and Internet system, developed in preparation for the 2002 Olympics,
that will integrate road weather conditions, accidents, congestion, and
construction activities into one system.
This system includes both a Web site and an interactive voice
recognition telephone system. By using
the dynamic information structure capability of XML (the next technology
highlighted in this guide and introduced below), current information is
continuously distributed to both services.
Those unfamiliar with the Internet or simply traveling can call the 511
abbreviated dialing code. Using a
natural sounding voice, the telephone system prompts the caller with
questions. Callers simply respond orally
to the questions and are provided the information they need. This connecting technology spans the digital
divide between the familiar phone and the sometimes unfamiliar Internet.
Voice Application Networks are maturing
in power and popular appeal just in time to be effectively used by localities
that are expanding the National N11 abbreviated dialing services. Today, 411 business directory services and
911 emergency services are most widely used by the general public. Soon more N11 numbers will become equally
known and available (see Appendix B).
This nationwide dialing system allows telephone users to connect with
service gateways throughout the country by dialing only three digits. Below is an example of the 311 Non-Emergency
Government Services directory:
The City of Hampton, VA opened its 311
call center in September of 1999 to provide city residents with 24-hour-a-day,
seven day a week access to city services and information, ranging from
reporting missed trash collection to answering questions about the city budget.[3] The service has been very well received, and
public satisfaction with the service has been extremely high, with the call
center receiving an average of 600 calls a day (May 2000).[4] A likely next step would be along the path
that the state of Utah has taken: A
well-designed Web site that is XML-based and thus able to simplify and improve
not one, but two channels of information support, with all of the attendant
benefits associated with broad reach and redeployment of personnel.
eXtensible Markup Language (XML)
XML is a notation system for breaking
down the islands of automation by representing the underlying structure and
meaning of electronic information in an open and mutually agreed upon
manner. This markup language and its
variants (e.g., VoiceXML and Wireless Markup Language) are derived from the
markup language (SMGL) used by electronic publishers. XML can simplify and unify the sources of
data to reduce the burden of managing multiple sources of data. These same characteristics allow information
to be reused and multiple databases to be updated in a distributed fashion,
resulting in lower maintenance and greater value derived from the multiple
composite information views possible.
Data is maintainable and shareable through multiple channels, whether it
is accessed directly by the public or indirectly through state or local
governments who receive and then publish the information to their own
jurisdictions. The state of Utah example
described above illustrates the potential of XML.
The Michigan state legislature converted
its compiled law to XML, which makes it easier to offer the documents online in
multiple formats (HTML and PDF formats).
This action not only helped state agencies to improve the production and
management of their legislative process, but also enables the public to access
documents without the need for a legal researcher. At some point, the public will be able to see
the relationship between legislative actions and results of those actions
expressed in government records.
Visitors can draw from different sources to build their own customized
output documents. More than 6,000 people
use the system every day, with more than 43 million hits since the system was
launched two years ago.
The National Archives and Records
Administration and the Government Printing Office (GPO) are moving from SGML to
XML. XML offers more tools and web
renderings. XML enables applications
to: 1) mediate between two disparate
database;, 2) present different views of the same data to different users; and
3) support intelligent agents that tailor information discovery processes to
the needs of individual users. Agencies
that submit documents to GPO receive a 35 percent discount for submitting them
in marked-up text. XML supports the
philosophy that data “belongs” to its creators, and distribution channels are
best served by a data format that does not bind the content to a particular
vendor’s tools or platform.
An important XML story is how it is being
employed to create Digital Talking Books, which is highlighted in Section VII.
Collaborative workspaces, which combine
the functionality of Internet chat rooms with the document-storage capabilities
of a knowledge management system allow for the creation of more meaningful
partnerships, among state and local providers of government services, community
groups, businesses, non-profits, and the public. Businesses are the most sophisticated users
of collaborative workspaces, which are important tools to manage customer and
partner relationships. A good example is
the Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) described in Section VII that includes
traditional media publishers, electronic publishers, hardware manufacturers,
software developers, and various other organizations, including disability
organizations and access-technology providers.
The purpose of OEBF is to create and establish XML standards for
electronic book technology, and to promote this technology. OEBF books produced by any publisher will be
readable on any manufacturer’s OEBF-compliant device. The agreements necessary for cross-platform
compatibility are critical to success.
All partners know that independent islands of automation will fail.
A recent successful government use of
collaborative workspaces was the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Online
Dialogue held in July, 200 which was targeted at certain groups, including
consumers, environmental and advocacy groups, and minorities. EPA used the online dialogue, which attracted
1,200 users, to gather comments on EPA's draft public involvement policy. The dialogue was structured similarly to an
in-person meeting, starting each day in the morning with an online posting of
the daily topic, an introduction, and comments made by a panel of experts. Approximately 100 to 200 messages were received
each day, subsequently summarized, and then sent to all of the
participants. While the dialogue did not
replace the traditional Federal Register publication and respective comment
period, it did allow EPA another venue in which to gather and share stakeholder
comments.
With this brief introduction to the
promising Internet-based technologies with the greatest potential for changing
interaction quality between citizens and government generally, the remaining
sections of this guide will introduce the addressable challenges and
opportunities posed by the move to e-government in light of current
understanding of existing digital disparities.
As of August 2000, American families with
an Internet connection had risen to 41.5 percent of the population, with more
than half of all households owning computers, and 116.5 million Americans had
been on-line at some location. While it
is predicted that by the time of this writing recognizable gains in Internet
usage will be seen again and more than half of all Americans will be using the
Internet, it is equally clear then that almost half of the American population
will not have access to the Internet and the improved access to information
that it brings.
According to a Government Accounting
Office (GAO) study released in February 2001[5],
overall, Internet users tended to have higher household incomes, and more
education than the general U.S. population.
For example, Internet users were more likely than the general population
to be in a household with an income of $35,000 or more per year. Internet users over the age of 24 were also
significantly more likely to be college graduates or to have a graduate degree
than the general population.
Additionally, GAO's survey found that Internet users, compared with the
general U.S. population, represented a higher percentage of whites and a lower
percentage of African-Americans and Hispanics.
Other demographic findings showed that the proportion of men and women
online now mirror that of the general population, which suggests that women
have caught up in their use of Internet technology.
These statistics bring to light the idea
that the digital divide not only mirrors, but magnifies the divides existing in
society. The above trends are important
for understanding the scope of the challenge that an unbalanced and partitioned
society presents increasingly to our own country. The rapid pace of “islands of information
distribution” that are not connected, yet play a dominant role in determining
societal opportunities and access to vital knowledge, only exacerbates the
social distance between those who can tap the electronic information flow and
those who cannot. Societies cannot
passively, but in effect “ex-communicate,” individuals, allowing them to be
separated from effective communication and interaction in their community
because of digital disparities.
This guide asks how e-government services
today can mitigate the effects of digital disparities by accelerating
innovative diffusion of public information products and services that can be
shared widely at low cost. Quality
interaction issues of accessibility, usability, and usefulness can be
addressed. These issues cut across all
of the categories described next. Three
groups disproportionately affected are: Americans with disabilities, older
people without work experience in using computers, and people with English or
technical literacy limitations, compounded at times by both cultural or
geographic isolation and limited finances.
Americans with disabilities
are only half as likely as the populations at large to have access to the
Internet, ranking below any other category of people. While one quarter of Americans without a
disability have never used the Internet, close to two-thirds of disabled
Americans have not. The most serious
barriers to computer and Internet use are currently associated with visual
impairment or manual dexterity problems.
Deaf and hearing-impaired people have a much higher utilization rate,
but are at risk to be left out if multi-media practices fail to offer visually
presented text options for spoken information.
In terms of Internet use, the critical
differentiator for people over age 50 is current or previous workforce
participation. Individuals who did not
participate in the workforce had one of the lowest rates of Internet use at
less than 17 percent. However, the
statistic for workforce participants jumped to nearly 47 percent, still a
smaller percentage than other groups.
Functional reading literacy
represents a formidable challenge to millions of adults. It
is becoming a central prerequisite in
society. Only 4 percent of new jobs have
minimum requirements that can be met by people with the lowest levels of
literacy. Thirty percent of semiskilled
and unskilled workers and almost 40 percent of minority youth are
illiterate. Persons 25 years of age or
older who dropped out of high school only have a slight (12.7 percent) chance
of using the Internet as opposed to over three-quarters of adults with a
college education. Part of this fact is
due to income, but much is because Internet content is often complex and
developed primarily for use by the community that developed it.
The case can be made that if the vast
quantities of information gathered and maintained by the government were
delivered into the marketplace as knowledge products, the government would be
the biggest media conglomerate in the world.
XML-based protocols are beginning to open the channels for unparalleled
information distribution among multiple media, both familiar and
unfamiliar. This parallels the explosion
in access made possible when the particular hardware and software combination
used to access the Internet hardly mattered anymore. The measure of real success will be when
people with different media references due to device availability, technology
familiarity, or disability, will be able to easily manage how they receive
content, including by standard telephone.
Quality information that flows in this manner will allow individuals to
obtain the community information needed for individual and public action.
The media industry itself has struggled
to both create and protect new kinds of media products that profitably exploit
the intrinsic power of the Internet for micro-customization and delivery of
content. While the media industry can
remain successful in its mission without reaching all consumers, the government
cannot. Because government differs in
purpose and role from the private sector, it cannot succeed unless it reaches
everyone.
The cultural and community relevance of
government information is a very difficult issue to tackle at the national
level without partnerships. Promoting
local input and promoting control of information product development requires
skills and resources that many government agencies do not currently
possess. A review of 15 current
Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) performance plans revealed that
existing GPRA departmental and programmatic goals are not focused on public
information service goals. This does not
mean that important work on public information services is not going on, all
across the Federal government. On the
contrary, word of mouth indicates that for many agencies, a great deal of work
is in place and being developed, but perhaps difficult for local efforts to
access. Similarly, there are aggregators
of local innovations, but unlike the Centers for Disease Control or Cooperative
Agriculture Extension Service, there is no common source or receiving point for
current information on significant development and diffusion activities. Following are just several examples of
content that community leaders consider relevant and useful:
·
Local job listings, including jobs
requiring entry-level skills.
·
Local housing listings, including
apartments with relatively low rents and homes in foreclosure.
·
Community information about
neighborhood events, services, developments, places to go for family outings,
and local schools.
Two examples will highlight the
importance of local ability to combine databases to make local content
useful. The Neighborhood Knowledge of
Los Angeles has been operating for the past three years, and
DirectDisability.gov, sponsored by the Department of Labor, is getting underway
now.
Neighborhood Knowledge Los Angeles makes
public information about Los Angeles' housing stock available that has been
gathered from a variety of agency sources.
By mapping it to identifiable parcels throughout the city, along with
training at the local Community Development Center, community development
corporations, neighborhood groups, and private citizens can participate in
neighborhood preservation and development efforts. By making previously inaccessible information
readily available, people can make better business decisions and be better
neighbors and citizens. Even
multi-family housing inspectors with pen-based computers can track code
violations as easily as Hertz cars and FedEx packages.
DisabilityDirect.gov is a project of the
Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy and is associated
with the Administration’s New Freedom Initiative. It will be a portal to local information of interest
to people with disabilities and their families such as federally funded
transportation, job programs, and services in their hometowns. It will mirror, link, and extend model local
and state sites that already provide this information through federal grants. Content control and approval will reside with
authorized state, county, and local officials through a virtual private
network. This loose coupling of
well-structured XML-based information from multiple municipalities provides
templates for easy replication among participating jurisdictions, and invites
citizens and officials to make service comparisons across a state or region
that provide momentum for continued improvements. In the future, it could serve as an
accountability measure for results being achieved from more block-grant
decisions. Because the information will
be using agreed-upon XML schemas, it can be dynamically interchangeable with a
211 directory service application. For
example, an individual could find out when an accessible bus is due at his/her
stop by entering a street address. This
information would be available by the Internet or by phone, similar to the Utah
Traveler Advisory Telephone and Internet system described in Section III. One of the most developed service directories,
beyond 911 and 411, is 711.
For roughly half of the American public
that currently does not have access to the Internet, similar opportunities
exist. If creativity and discipline are
applied by the government’s community and industry partners, government
information can become readily available through multiple distribution modes,
including existing means such as the standard telephone and newspapers. A central challenge is how to open up the
design process so that the development circle includes not only technical
experts, but local community leaders and ordinary citizens who can draw upon
their diverse cultural and local knowledge to create information products that
Americans care about. As collaborative partnerships
form, we can expect to see more valuable information products that express both
the technical flexibility of XML and the creative results that can only arise
from constructive tension of multiple views, unified by shared purpose.
A Neighborhood Knowledge effort like that
of Los Angeles could add a Voice Applications Network to its existing XML-based
repository and Web collaboration space.
This simple three-part formula now accommodates access by everyone. Providing this information through the
National N11 directory service as a 311 service (non-emergency government
service) would support not only Los Angeles residents, but make it likely that
other communities could easily learn about this innovation. Deaf persons and even Spanish-speaking deaf
persons would be able to access this information through the existing 711
Telecommunications Relay Service. Even
the project plan could be available in XML, making replication simple, with no
need to re-invent the XML schema or acquire the database itself. This addresses seven of the ten
customer-centric dimensions that matter most to people. The Web collaboration would enable focused
improvement activities by city to city-based exchanges.
This is the beginning of what
citizen-centric government looks like in a digital information age:
·
Responsive—releasing
the hidden value of existing information in a simple, powerful manner that is
usable by all and led by local creativity and discipline which forges open
“improvement forums” on behalf of the whole community.
·
Expansive—creating
the conditions that support local creativity and ease of diffusion to other
interested communities throughout the country.
·
Reflective—learning
how to be catalyst and convener, but not controller of the information value
chain.
On a smaller scale, but similar in power
and simplicity, is one of many initiatives of the Town of Blacksburg,
Virginia. In 1998, the Blacksburg Electronic
Village assisted the Voluntary Action Center to put its master list
online. The master list contains about
250 social service and volunteer agencies that assist local social workers,
church groups, and other volunteer agencies in matching people in need with the
right organizations. The list was
expensive to maintain, in high demand, and difficult to update. On-line it can be accessed and searched from
any Web browser or printed as a hard copy.
A personal digital assistant version is available for people
periodically away from convenient Internet access. Imagine adding the Voice Application Network
to this system. The circle of potential
volunteers now expands to include people without web access who can work from
their homes to augment busy call centers, for instance. With 211 capability, more local people can
find needed services more easily while non-local people can find out about the
system and decide what parts of it they would like to replicate Multiply the time, convenience, safety, air
quality, and fuel-saving benefits daily from all the people who are now driving
on the roads every day, or waiting for public transportation services in all
70,000 municipalities in the country, as they search from office to office to
find and transact the services needed by families, friends, or themselves.
The Internet-based protocols that opened
the channels for unparalleled information exchange among people globally are
also being extended in many forward-looking settings to just help neighbors be
neighbors again. Increasingly,
information defines the structure of organizations and not the other way
around. This is the transformative power
that confounds current logic. The
defining characteristic is interdependence across hierarchy, geography, institution,
and level of government. Interdependence
defies traditional management for which old telephone and document service
strategies were well-suited, and requires us to think and work together in new
ways. As the Internet shifts from
presenting static information to providing dynamic and service-oriented
applications, Federal agencies that connect to this power of improved service
are creating a citizen-centric government.
This partnership in innovation has the potential not only to improve
effectiveness and efficiency of government service delivery, but also to
enhance the very society that government upholds.
Citizen-centered government will be a
powerful stimulus to user-centered design, automatically addressing a wider
range of individual abilities, skills, requirements, and preferences in more
settings. In fact, government's very
success is measured in its ability to provide timely and useful information and
services to all citizens. This will in
turn identify and remedy the islands of automation where information is
imprisoned by file types and software incompatibilities that prevent it from
being interwoven when needed. These are
the islands of automation that need to be simplified and unified. The measure of this unification will be increased
service satisfaction expressed by people who will now be able to connect with
one another in business and social settings where previously they were stranded
“on street corners” because their preferences for devices and data could not be
interwoven into the settings where they chose to interact. Good technical design eliminates isolation
effects at all levels of data, device, system, individual, and organizations.
Good organizational design also enables a
balanced interdependence among government officials, citizens, associations,
universities, and businesses in much the same way as our Cooperative
Agricultural Extension Service formed the right balance over its 140-year
history. The Extension Service is reported
to be the world’s most successful change agency. The agricultural revolution is the primary
evidence of its success, with a dramatic increase in U.S. farm productivity in
the decades following World War II. It
is the most admired and copied around the world. Funds for extension services in the U.S. come
from federal (40 percent), state (40 percent) and county government (20
percent) sources. The model is an
interdependent set of assumptions, principles, and organizational structures
for diffusing results of agricultural research to farmers in the U.S.
The
service's model offers a glimpse of the potential for a similar “Technology
Infrastructure Extension Service” (TIES) that is informally appearing as
separate community test beds and improvement networks to address local and
regional problems. In order to solve
real problems, the circle of participation has widened. Increasingly, new people from new settings
and using different technologies are gathering to achieve the creativity
demanded by complex problems. Successful
problem formulation and resolution can only be achieved if these teams can form
easily and engage in effective communication and information exchange. When groups are stuck "continuously
rigging the ship" because their tools don't talk, they fail. When different people with a diversity of
computers can interact like pick-up jazz players, and make good “music,” they
will succeed.
This
signifies that the right balance has been struck between 1) the social,
technical, and notational elements that need to be "held in common";
and 2) those elements of the whole system that must remain open to infinite
variation and interpretation. Finding
this balance is also central to achieving both the open-source and proprietary
advantage needed for a sustainable public electronic infrastructure. As methodologies for evaluation in community
test beds mature, they should yield the highest returns achievable by the
scientific method—a focused inquiry balanced by the right tension between
creativity and discipline.
The final section of this guide will
emphasize the emerging Federal role as catalyst and convener in linking the
islands of civic innovation that have been emerging in our communities with the
public information they need to be successful.
This is an emerging role, with the potential to rival in importance the
recognized Federal leadership associated with the establishment of the
Cooperative Agriculture Extension Service.
The real-world examples for this unfolding
scenario were gathered during five Universal Access Expedition Workshops
conducted between April and July 2001 at the National Science Foundation in
Ballston, Virginia.
This section will reinforce how new
association-building roles and relationships are enabling at-risk citizens at
risk, government, businesses, non-profits, and professional associations to
work together in new ways. It will
demonstrate how the potential of the three technologies identified in this
guide and reviewed below, can contribute significantly to extending the value
of these innovation partnerships and in turn, the reach of public information:
·
National directory services using
spoken language interaction;
·
Digital content with XML tags; and
·
Open Forums combining Web collaboration
space and face-to-face meetings.
This section will also demonstrate how
learning from seniors, people with disabilities, and people with limited
English language and literacy skills can shape the direction of e-government
activities in important areas, such as public health information. Most importantly, it highlights the early,
informal formation of an open TIES model, similar to our current “world class”
Cooperative Agricultural Extension Service, with a set of assumptions,
principles, and organizational structures for diffusing the results of
community test beds.
It is estimated that by 2005, electronic
book publishing will comprise 10 percent of all consumer book sales. This is based on the expectation of open
XML-based standards—any book, anytime, anywhere, for anyone. Because of Internet communications and a
light touch by the National Institute of Standards, two international
groups—the Digital Audio-based Information System (DAISY) Consortium and the
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)—along with the National Information Standards
Organization (NISO) are now integrating specifications that reflect the best
practices from the world of publishing with the best practices from blind readers
for navigating structured information.
What began as independent efforts by researchers, librarians, computer
scientists, and publishers, came together over a series of face-to-face
meetings augmented by a collaborative Web space repository of drafts,
agreements, and communications.
Today, only 10 percent of published books
are available in formats that can be read by blind and vision-impaired
individuals. Soon, a single
product—employing a single electronic book format—will be the norm for e-books. They will be attractive to and usable by all
readers, whatever the readers’ preferred medium. A potentially “divided digital” world became
simplified and unified because new partners were able to see the value that
each partner contributed, and recognized the lesser value of creating separate
products. This is an important “best
practice” from business that agencies need to adopt. Organizations focusing on reducing functional
illiteracy may find the e-books that can now “talk” if desired, because of
vision-impaired reader specifications, the best possible technology for
assisting adults who want to learn to read.
The encoded content is independent of its
rendering medium. It can be delivered on
CD-ROM or DVD for reading in inexpensive players as easy to operate as walkman
radios, or over the Internet, or even over a touch-tone phone. A DVD today can hold 400 pounds or 2 million
pages of information. The encoded
content can range from audio recordings of human narrators to quality,
machine-generated speech. The player
connected to a TV (including headsets, if desired) would present a reader with
a controllable display of text, available in large fonts if desired, with each
word highlighted as it is spoken. It
would also serve as a powerful adult reading tool, offering current magazines,
newspapers, and books as content in the privacy of a home setting.
The power of XML and forward-looking
forums have laid the groundwork for preventing a costly islands of automation
approach, which would be likely to fail in the marketplace, while squandering
the economic development opportunities of all communities who anticipated being
served well by its potential.
The 4-H inter-generational and community
partnerships already described in the Administration’s accomplishments of its
first 100 days is now getting ready to exploit e-book capabilities. This program is the 4-H CyberSeniors/CyberTeens
program. Originating in Maine, 3,500
seniors have been taught by high school students in five northeastern states
how to access Internet information by computer.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture-sponsored 4-H Youth Technology Team
in Virginia, the Arlington County Cooperative Extension Service, Virginia Tech
University, and the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA) have now
joined together as the project grows and deepens into other areas. The Seniors.gov portion of the government’s
Firstgov portal is also interested.
Building upon success in bridging digital and generational divisions,
the new Arlington County, Virginia setting presents the challenge of adapting
the curriculum and outreach efforts to address a wide range of language
literacy and cultural diversity issues.
Simultaneously, the partnership is formulating a CyberHealth
Initiative. Health information is the
topic of greatest interest to seniors using the Internet. The partners are beginning to team with the
National Library of Medicine, the federal organization recognized as the
premier provider of health information in the world and a model user of
XML. A number of medical research
centers are also planning to participate.
Longitudinal data on the relationship between health training and health
behaviors is anticipated for as many as 50,000 people based on the current
growth rate of the program. The
participants from the NRTA teach students how to teach. In addition, they are discussing with local
community leaders what technologies, approaches and adaptations are needed to
make to the proven curriculum used by English-speaking and -reading
participants usable and effective for seniors and students from other
linguistic backgrounds. An upcoming
Universal Access Workshop will host guest experts on digital talking books,
national directory services using spoken language interaction, linguistic and
cultural competence in health care from the Office of Minority Health, and
university researchers, among others, to explore these issues in support of the
4-H CyberSeniors/CyberTeens Initiative.
The Initiative has the full backing of the Arlington County Council and
represents its most visible community improvement effort to address digital
disparities. All participants realize
that thousands of community settings within easy communications reach of the
4-H Extension Service and the NRTA networks will soon be learning from and
building on the efforts of the pioneering multi-lingual, cyber-health
initiatives being explored in Arlington County today.
It is not difficult to imagine five years
from now that a cadre of healthier seniors are not only spokespersons for the
health and social benefits of this program but also informed cyber-citizens, willing
and able to serve as information society stewards in their own
communities. This has already occurred
in Blacksburg, Virginia where seniors were some of the most enthusiastic and
innovative users of the Blacksburg Electronic Village. Their site is one of the most active in town
and they are recognized as early innovators, willing to try new things.
With 40 percent of health care costs
attributable to the management of information, engaged seniors brought into the
digital age by neighborhood teens could provide ongoing, credible insights to
improvements aimed at spanning “islands of automation.” As citizen stewards, they could help mitigate
the risks of finding more economical solutions that balance the transport of
XML-based medical records on the Internet with the safeguards of privacy and
security that the public expects. This
will likely happen in the “Digital Dividends Extension Service” forums that
will continue to form in response to local and regional needs.
These forums, in a manner similar to the
Cooperative Agricultural Extension Service, tap federal, state, and local
infrastructure resources while advancing the best practices of the Open Forums
originated by business consortiums after the tremendous success of e-books. The Open Forums are characterized by
transparency and openness and are now being applied to a variety of digital
society and enterprise sustainability issues.
The results of the forums improved markedly when the civic-centric goal
of the Administration in 2001 raised the sights of forum members to continue to
add a greater range of different perspectives and views. Paradoxically, community leaders from
previously underserved and undervalued market segments (including immigrants from
diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds) repeatedly offered bold and fresh
insights that contributed to better risk mitigation, credible commitments, and
foresight in contracting that improved service delivery not only in local
communities, but also in the global market.
Conclusion
A new
citizen-centric perspective is emerging as a driver to bridge the islands of
automation that today partition and limit the government’s ability to making
information and services accessible to citizens. This citizen-centric perspective suggests
that by learning from and valuing the market experience of people who are most
vulnerable in society, we will have a better litmus test to identify emergent
technologies with the greatest potential for building a robust and sustainable
civic infrastructure. In order for whole
communities to succeed in the future, they must become interdependent upon
shared communications and information processes that accommodate broad
differences among all their members and among other communities. When societal technologies are insufficiently
flexible to accommodate connection-making activities among all their members,
the whole of society is adversely affected.
As
accommodating difference becomes the new competitive marketplace strategy,
government’s catalytic role in the formation of Open Forums to improve
communities is strategic and mirrors the role of the Cooperative Agricultural
Extension Service, recognized “world class” change agent for the last
revolution, the agricultural revolution.
Members of society can now become engaged, frontier co-developers of the
future forms and functions of societal technologies. Open Forums, with transparent Internet
records for accountability, are the new frontier innovation places that thrive
within the creative tension between social capital and individual capital
creation. This is where the best
innovations emerge. Innovations from
engaged citizens in frontier Open Forums move from the edge to the center of
society the most rapidly.
This social
risk management approach effectively accommodates and augments the differences
that really matter to societies and keeps them in balance as the solid ground
of shared understanding sometimes “quakes under their feet” from the shifting
plates of competing futures. As the
national citizen-centric agenda aligns e-government with civil rights and
intellectual property rights, previously hidden advantages are appearing. Providing choice in the mode of information
representation is breaking down barriers to interaction and communication far
beyond benefits accruing to people with disabilities.
Maria
Sanchez, a recently arrived immigrant from Guatemala, is in trouble. She has had a low-grade fever for a week that
shows no sign of abating, and her hands and feet are swelling. She thinks she may be pregnant. She does not know what to do. Maria makes a tenuous living as a household
domestic, so she can’t afford a doctor.
Because she is not a legal resident, she is afraid to seek government assistance.
On
the way home from Sunday mass, Maria picks up a free copy of the local Spanish
language newspaper and a notice catches her attention. Promising confidential help for recent
immigrants, it lists a telephone number.
After thinking it over for a couple of days she goes to a phone booth
and dials the number.
A
computer voice asks her in Spanish if she wants to speak Spanish. “Si,” she replies and the voice asks her to
speak her zip code. “Dos, dos, dos, uno,
cuatro,” she answers. The voice continues
in Spanish, “Are you in Fairfax County, Virginia?” “Si.”
Although the voice on the phone is computerized, it seems quite natural
and is comforting.
Maria
is given a brief list of services to choose from. To select a service she simply needs to speak
its name. “Health.” “…brought to you by your local pharmacy.”
replies the system. She is informed that
there are two clinics nearby to which she can go for assistance, and one
pharmacy. She can also be turned over to
an operator to make an appointment at that moment if she would like. Maria declines, but accepts an offer to learn
about more local services. The system
tells her that there are lay social workers at the nearby St. Ignatius
church—her parish.
The
next evening Maria visits St. Ignatius and meets Luz Alcantara, a St. Ignatius
parishioner involved in the church’s community ministry program. Luz invites Maria into her office and listens
to her problems. While Maria talks, Luz
enters information into her computer using a Web site designed for use by lay
social service intermediaries and developed jointly by the county government
and a local paper. By entering in the
key elements of Maria’s case, Luz is presented with care options and is prompted
to ask Maria other questions about her case.
A
new strain of staph infection has been reported by the county public health
office, the symptoms of which match Maria’s.
A map appears on Luz’s screen showing the locations of the reported
cases. The incident clusters overlap
Maria’s neighborhood. Based on Maria’s
demographic profile, the system also prompts Luz to ask about other possible
health issues, including the possible pregnancy that Maria, embarrassed, admits
to. Luz urges Maria to set up a clinic
appointment at once, which they do together.
The
system also provides links to local food banks, job referral agencies, English
language training, and housing referral agencies—all resources available within
two miles of Maria’s home. Luz prints
out the information, which is also presented in map form, and hands it to
Maria. Luz takes Maria’s hand on her way
out the door and says, “I’ll look for you in mass next Sunday.”
When
Maria is gone Luz picks up the phone and calls the county public health office
to discuss the case. Darrel Washington
listens carefully and confirms that Luz has taken the correct action. “We’re learning a lot about the infection
pathways on this disease,” he says.
“Your help in referring cases is making a real contribution to getting
it under control. We’re seeing a much
faster drop-off in cases this year than before we launched the digital
community health adviser project.”
If
after reading this guide, you wish to improve the way your agency and/or
program delivers information to citizens, customers, and stakeholders, here are
a number of useful resources focusing on the relevant communities of practice:
electronic government, communications, and partnerships for innovation. Needless to say, you will have to run the
hurdles associated with government procurement; we’ve included a checklist.
The Council for Excellence in Government
(http://www.excelgov.org/) has published a blueprint entitled “E-Government,
the next American Revolution” that can be viewed or downloaded at http://www.excelgov.org/techcon/egovex/ebluprint.htm. The Council brought together leaders from
both government and industry in the preparation of this report. Sharon Dawes and her Center for Technology in
Government at SUNY/Albany has been at the forefront of e-government for
years. The Center’s website is
http://www.ctg.albany.edu/, and http://www.ctg.albany.edu/egov/results.html will bring you to articles, reports, and
guidebooks from “E-Government: Creating
Tools of the Trade” from her applied research program. The Ford Innovations program is explained at www.innovations.harvard.edu.
The seminal work done by Everett M. Rogers, author of The
Diffusion of Innovation brought us the concepts of “radical innovator” and
“early adopter,” but little in-depth understanding of his insights. An outline of the book can be found at http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/j/l/jll191/knowledgebase/innovation/rogers.htm. Opening communications is the simplest first
step in understanding the mental models and stances among stakeholders and
customers that pull an organization forward or hold it back. The Federal
Communicators Network was started in 1996, and has 800 members on its listserv,
and reaches another 2000 people. FCN can
be reached at http://www.fcn.gov.
The Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council has been
laying the foundation for the coordinated introduction of e-government products
and services. The CIO Council website is
at http://www.cio.gov/.
This guide is the work of the Universal Access Working Group
chartered under the Council’s Enterprise Interoperability and Emerging
Technology (EIEIT) Committee. The
Universal Access Expedition Workshop notes are at www.ncsa.coracle.edu.
The EIEIT website that supports government progress in XML is at http://www.xml.gov/. The EIEIT website that supports knowledge
management is at http://www.km.gov. The E-government Committee of the CIO Council
supports Firstgov, the portal to online Federal information and services and
increasingly state and local governments as well: www.firstgov.gov. The E-government Committee also sponsors the
Section 508 Executive Steering Group.
Details of this significant Federal IT Accessibility Initiative are at http://www.section508.gov/.
The Federal Information Management Community Adds
Established Structures for Lasting Value
There is a continuing need to extend to all government information
the information content management disciplines that govern the operations of
the National Technical Information Service, the Government Printing Office, the
National Archives and Records Administration, the Library of Congress, and the
Federal Depository Libraries.
http://www.nclis.gov/govt/assess/
Other
The
news community (print and broadcast) is following developments in XML at http://www.xmlnews.org. The World Wide Web Consortium has a website
at http://www.w3.org. They track XML developments at
ww.w3.org/xml.
The International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet
can be found at http://www.icdri.org. Government Executive magazine has been
tracking the implementation of the Government Performance and Results Act at http://www.govexec.com/gpra. Federal employees and agencies interested in
customer service can find out more at http://www.customerservice.gov.
The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) in OMB maintains
an acquisition reform network that is captured at http://www.arnet.gov.
R
Be sure that your
staff is current with the resources listed above, and working with OMB and the
CIO Council on the coordinated e-government blueprint formulated by the
Administration. This will assure that
you are at “the leading edge, not the bleeding edge” of the hard and soft
technologies and unified metadata efforts.
R
Try to improve, not
replace, existing information dissemination efforts. In fact, celebrate their successes. As Machiavelli said, “the innovator has for
enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm
defenders in those who may do well under the new.” During market research, turn to the
associations and pilot initiatives identified in this guide, particularly
associations with the expertise to evaluate the competing 508 approaches.
R
Take the time to be
sure that your Congressional committees, your political leadership, your budget
office and your CIO are on board.
R
Work out the approval,
acquisition, development, and implementation schedules that will make your project
a success.
R
Check-in, early and
often, with your CIO’s office and your XML Working Group representative. This will help keep you in step with the
Federal IT Architecture plan, reducing your risk of a closed solution that
stagnates the flow of information to its intended settings, jeopardizing
usefulness.
R
Consider using formal
project management tracking systems to meet your deadlines. Almost all contractors do, but too few
government agencies have invested the time and staff needed. See http://www.pmi.org.
R
Focus on making
visible the requirements of the underserved groups identified in this guide, is
the most important source of power you have to validate and reward true federal
marketplace innovations that uniquely matter to citizens.
R
If you can get your
project integrated into your agency’s GPRA goals, and if you measure success in
part by using the American Customer Service Index system, you will have more
high level support. Follow the sound recommendation
of the US National Commission on Libraries and Information Science to render
GPRA date elements in XML.
R
Finally, never forget
the Law of Contracting: “Good, cheap, fast—you can have any two you want.” Patience is always a virtue.
Voice Application Networks (VANs)
represent an important new tool for government to use to reach many of the
groups currently underserved by government goods and services. This new generation of telephone technology
allows users to access spoken information VoiceXML via existing telephone lines
and equipment using voice-activated applications. The new applications are based on VoiceXML,
and deliver the required information through a combination of programmable
interactive voice response (IVR) and speech recognition. The same information provided on a web site
can be navigated by voice using the telephone, provided that the file structure
is XML. Advancements in this technology
means that the voices that callers hear over the telephone are quite natural
sounding and easy to interact with. In
addition, advances in voice acoustics analysis have allowed providers to build
highly sensitive recognition models that are able to account for such things as
regional accents and dialects. As shown
earlier and again below, there exist several good examples of its use in
government today, especially in the 511 (traffic conditions) abbreviated
dialing arena. With telephone
penetration at near 100% this enhancement has the potential to readily reach
underserved groups due to familiarity, availability and usability by people
with limited print literacy or technology literacy.
N11, also known as abbreviated dialing,
is the nation-wide dialing system that allows telephone users to connect with
service gateways throughout the country by dialing only three digits. The N11 coding scheme was developed and
extended based on research that indicated a substantially higher rate of use of
three digit codes among telephone subscribers than of traditional seven-digit
numbers, even when those numbers were the same throughout (example:
333-3333).
The current status of the eight N11 codes
are as follows:
211: Assigned
for community information and referral services
311: Assigned
nationwide for non-emergency police and other government services
411:
Unassigned, but used virtually nationwide by carriers for directory assistance
511: Assigned
for traffic and transportation information
611:
Unassigned, but used broadly by carriers for repair service
711: Assigned
nationwide for access to Telecommunications Relay Services
811:
Unassigned, but used by local exchanged carriers for business office use
911:
Unassigned, but used nationwide for emergency services
The implementation work being done around
the country on the N11 services shows how needed content can be provided to
individuals who do not have access to computer equipment, but can use
telephones effectively. This approach
also addresses access problems of mobile users.
The use of 711 today greatly extends the ease of communications between
individuals with and without hearing or speech limitations. There is great potential in this technology
for closing the digital divide, and government program managers need to make
themselves aware of the possibilities for structuring public information
resources for use through service gateways or through interactive voice
recognition or navigation systems.
Two examples of the successful use of the
N11 technology are Hampton, VA and Atlanta, GA.
The City of Hampton, VA opened its 311 call center in September of 1999,
to provide city residents with 24 hour a day, seven day a week access to city
services and information, ranging from reporting missed trash collection to
answering questions about the city budget.[6]
The service has been very well received, and public satisfaction with the
service has been extremely high, with the call center receiving an average of
600 calls a day (May 2000).[7]
The N11 technology has also been
successfully employed in Atlanta, GA, since 1997 when the United Way created a
211 referral service. The 211 service
provides a free 24-hour telephone information and referral line staffed by trained
referral agents who connect callers to a database of more than 2000
resources. Through this service, callers
are matched with social services, volunteer opportunities, donations
opportunities, and civic and neighborhood organizations. Prior to operating the 211 referral service,
United Way of Atlanta offered a similar service using the standard 7-digit
calling number called First Call for Help.
Since switching to the 3-digit abbreviated calling number and expanding
service, call volume has increased by more than 300 percent.
Appendix C:
XML
eXtensible
Markup Language (XML)[8]
is the starting point for many of the Internet- and voice-based technologies
that can be used to improve access to government goods and services and
therefore can alleviate many of the barriers to receipt of government
information caused by the digital divide.
XML itself is a notation system for representing the underlying
structure and meaning of electronic information. This system, and its variants (e.g., VoiceXML
and Wireless Markup Language), can play an important role both in providing
goods and services directly to the public (e.g., through the use of such tools
as voice recognition network services or text-based materials on the Internet)
as well as in managing the actual data upon which the public information is
based. XML can simplify and unify the
sources of data to reduce the burden of managing multiple sources of data. These same characteristics allow information
to be reused and databases to be consolidated resulting in lower maintenance
and usage costs. Data that is managed
once can then be shared through multiple channels, whether it is shared
directly with the public by the Federal Government or is shared with a state or
local government who then publishes the information to its own local
communities.
Many industries and scientific
disciplines are already using XML to exchange information across platforms and
applications. Because XML separates data
from presentation, XML users can extract only the data needed. The implications are enormous for massive
manuals, project schedules, etc. on the web that would be overwhelmingly
complex, if the specific information needed couldn’t be extracted quickly and
easily. Previously information exchange
among systems was difficult, because unlike ASCII, fundamentally different
forms of data representation were employed.
XML could be used to describe all the objects, services, documents and
organizations needed to complete a project.
“Because data about these attributes is divorced from the program used
to create it, information is no longer imprisoned by file types, software
incompatibilities that prevent it from being interwoven when needed. These are the islands of automation that need
to be simplified and unified.
eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a
promising notation system for representing the underlying structure and meaning
of electronic information, whether it be data, text, or sound. It goes beyond the presentation descriptions
for formatting, linking, and display options offered by HTML. XML enables flexible operations on content
originating from a variety of different operating platforms and applications.
To an organization, good use of XML in a sound enterprise architecture enables
the “law of diminishing costs per information unit.” It permits scaling up operations to meet
growing information exchange needs with disparate partners on a scale not
previously imaginable, where benefits vastly outweigh additional per unit
costs. XML could describe all the relevant
documents, services, and organizations involved in a national integrated
services program. As data becomes
independent from its source program using XML, information is no longer
imprisoned by file types and software incompatibility.
XML functions by employing markers, or
tags, that accompany the electronic data in agreed upon ways. These tags, and the structures that govern
them, mean that XML can simplify and unify the sources of data to reduce the
burden of managing multiple sources of data.
These same characteristics allow information to be reused, databases to
be consolidated, and disparate data bases to be accessed resulting in lower
maintenance and usage costs. Data that
is managed once can then be accessed through multiple channels, whether it is
shared directly with the public by the Federal government or is shared with a
state or local government who then publishes the information to its own local
communities.
It is important to note that in order for
a Federal agency to take full advantage of XML and its data reuse and
repurposing capabilities it must first establish a “vocabulary” for the
information it is going to share, and then it must organize that vocabulary in
an approved manner. Several national and
international organizations have evolved to facilitate the efficient use of XML
data.[9] These organizations and the standards that
have been established ensure that the information managed in an XML format
bears the increasingly important characteristics and attributes of a well-formed
record: reliability, authenticity, integrity, and usability.[10] Complying with these standards when
implementing XML-based solutions will assist Federal agencies in not only in
sharing information more efficiently but also in promoting the sharing of quality
information.
As part of the
National Library of Medicine’s (NML) project to modernize its computer systems,
NLM has chosen XML as the new tagged format for disseminating the bibliographic
citation data associated with MEDLINE, its premier bibliographic database of
medical science information. This decision strengthens NLM’s commitment to
distribute its journal citation data in a format that is widely described and,
therefore, familiar to many in the information industry, especially in the
Internet Web environment.
Choosing XML as
the data format was a natural extension of NLM’s use of XML to receive
bibliographic data electronically from publishers because of XML's ability to
support other character sets.. This was
particularly important to NLM because XML supports the universal character sets
used by the medical community to specify selected diacritical marks, an
important consideration for the worldwide nature of MEDLINE data.
The Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) has developed a customized version of XML for use
with EDGAR, the SEC’s Web-enabled electronic information filing and data
management system. The information filed
in the EDGAR system is designed to contain only the minimal set of XML data
needed by the server, thereby maximizing “Reduced Content Filing.” The benefits of reduced content are two-fold,
and can greatly enhance the effectiveness of the EDGAR system. First, the smaller files that result require
less bandwidth for upload and, therefore, upload quicker. Second, the files can be processed and filed
more rapidly since all of the graphical content has been removed from the
reduced file.
In a first step
toward the use of XML to facilitate the reuse and repurposing of its legal
documents, the U.S. House of Representatives, under
the direction of the Senate Committee on Rules and
Administration and the House Committee on
Administration, the Secretary of State, and the Clerk of the House have worked together with
the Library of Congress and the Government
Printing Office to create Document Type Definition files (DTDs). The DTDs agreed upon by these groups
determine the vocabularies that are specific to Congress. The XML vocabularies are important
because they specify the definitions for Congress' data
element as well as the data attributes for the terms that Congress uses in its
work. The DTD also specifies how that
vocabulary and the terms it contains can be used and how they relate to each
other. This structure ensures
that all parties who will use the data have the same understanding of the
data. This process for setting up a data
structure is similar to the metadata cataloguing (or tagging) of library books
known as the Dewey Decimal System which has supported library collection
management and resource discovery for decades.
Internet-based collaborative workspaces
are one of the best tools available to government program managers who are
looking to create innovative e-government projects that will help close the
digital divide. As noted in E-Government Best Practices: An Implementation Manual[11],
innovative e-government projects exhibit several common characteristics,
including a focus on: public-private partnerships, alliances with stakeholders,
interagency cooperation, and end-users.
These characteristics, all of which show an openness to accommodating
difference, are inherently citizen-centric, and fit naturally within the
current e-government mandates.
Collaborative workspaces can play a
successful role in fostering an end-user focus by providing government program
managers with the virtual spaces in which to build public-private partnerships
and stakeholder alliances as well as to enhance interagency cooperation. Collaborative workspaces do this by combining
the functionality of Internet chat rooms with the document storage capabilities
of a knowledge management system. These
spaces also allow the government to interact with a broader segment of the
public, many of whom are currently the most underserved in terms of government
goods and services. This interaction can
help both entities by allowing the underserved to become partners in innovation
with the government and help it identify news tools and technologies to provide
greater access to information.
Collaborative workspaces support real time
communication between multiple participants over the Internet. While each collaborative workspace should be
designed to meet the specific needs of the group that it will support, there
are elements common to many collaborative spaces[12],
these include:
·
An
Internet home page,
·
An
on-line discussion space,
·
An
area for posting questions,
·
A
list of contacts,
·
A
knowledge management system for document storage, and
·
Shared
space for simultaneous collaboration or virtual meetings.
Depending upon the needs of users, technology may be
used to allow users joint access to specific files within each user’s hard
drive. In this way, documents can be
reviewed and edited as a team, although individual users may be miles apart
from each other. Logins and passwords
are used in many of these spaces to ensure secure access to the designated
workspace, and new users can be introduced into the workspace by receiving a
personal invitation and login information from an existing user. Users may create multiple workspaces to
address a variety of topics or to communicate with a specific set of
participants. Users can also use a
shared calendar and discussion space.
The use of collaborative workspaces is
beneficial to both government and business.
From a practical standpoint, collaborative workspaces can help
organizations reduce travel expenses while allowing high quality communication
between on-site employees and telecommuters or traveling employees. Business meetings can be made more efficient
with the inclusion of participants from around the world, while encouraging the
free exchange of information and ideas from any number of participants in real
time. Most importantly, collaborative
workspaces offer the government an opportunity to interact with stakeholders
who for a variety of reasons might not be able to share their experiences or
expertise with the government in a traditional meeting setting.
General Information on
the Digital Divide and Accessibility Issues—
1.
Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 4th Edition, Free Press, New York City, NY, 1995
2.
Susan Brummel Turnbull, People with Disabilities and the NII:
Breaking Down Barriers, Building Choice, September 1994, http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/coca/nii.htm
3.
Cynthia Waddell, The Growing Digital Divide in Access for
People with Disabilities: Overcoming
Barriers to Participation in the Digital Economy, May 1999, http://www.icdri.org/cynthia_waddell.htm
4.
E-Government: The Next American Revolution,
Hart-Teeter for the Council for Excellence in Government, September 2000
5.
GovExec.Com, GPRA Results, http://www.govexec.com/results/index.htm
6.
National Council on Disability, The Accessible Future, June 21, 2001, http://www.ncd.gov
7.
The Markle Foundation, Toward a Framework for Internet
Accountability, July 2001. http://www.markle.org
8.
The
Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice,
Senator Bob Kerrey & Representative Johnny Isakson, December 2000
9.
The President’s Information
Technology Advisory Committee, Digital
Libraries: Universal Access to Human Knowledge, February 2001, http://www.itrd.gov
10.
The President’s Information
Technology Advisory Committee, Resolving
the Digital Divide: Information, Access, and Opportunity, February 2000, http://www.itrd.gov
11.
The President’s Information
Technology Advisory Committee, Transforming
Access to Government Through Information Technology, September 2000, http://www.itrd.gov
12.
The President’s Information
Technology Advisory Committee, Transforming
Health Care Through Information Technology, February 2001, http://www.itrd.gov
13.
U.S. General Services
Administration, An Inventory of Federal
e-Government Initiatives, http://policyworks.gov/intergov
14.
U.S. General Services
Administration OIS Newsletter, Online
Access to Government Information, http://www.itrd.gov
15.
The White House, Office of the
Press Secretary, Use of Information
Technology to Improve our Society, Memorandum for the heads of executive
departments and agencies, December
17, 1999
1.
U.S. Department of Commerce,
National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Economic
Statistics Administration, Falling
Through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion, October 2000
2.
U.S. Department of Commerce,
Census Bureau, Census 2000, 2001
3.
U.S. General Accounting Office, Telecommunications: Characteristics and Choices of Internet Users,
February 2001, GAO-01-345.
4.
U.S. Government Working Group on
Electronic Commerce, Leadership for the
New Millennium—Delivering on Digital Progress and Prosperity, 3rd
Annual Report, 2000
1.
Meet Your Mayor…Online,
June 4, 2001, http://www.fcw.com/civic/articles/2001/jun/civ-feature1-06-01.asp
2.
Bringing
the Barriers of Telehealth to Underserved Populations: Barriers and
Opportunities, workshop report of the Center for Public
Service Communications, Friends of the National Library of Medicine, sponsored
by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, July, 1998
3.
Dial
211 to Find or Give Help—Reinventing Access to Community Resources,
Alliance of Information & Referral Systems, 1998, http://www.airs.org/211/211e_packet.htm
4.
Frequently Asked Questions,
211.Org—A National Initiative to Link People with Community Services, http://www.211.org/FAQ.asp
5.
“311 Customer Call Center Was Just
What Hampton Residents Ordered,” Virginia
Town & City, Virginia Municipal League, Vol. 35, No. 9, September 2000,
http://www.vml.org/VTC/VTC3509-3.html
6.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Division of Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Relay North Carolina, http://dsdhh.dhhs.state.nc.us/relaync.htm
7.
U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development, Neighborhood Networks, Centers Cast Their Nets and Garner Partners,
http://www.hud.gov/nnw/resourcesforcenters/nnwnewsbrief99summer.html
8.
U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development, Neighborhood Networks,
About Neighborhood Networks, http://www.hud.gov/nnw/nnwaboutnn.html
9.
U.S. Federal Communications Commission, The
Disabilities Rights Office, Consumers’
Guide to Telecommunications Relay Service, http://www.fcc.gov/cib/dro/trs/text_con_trs.html
10.
U.S. Federal Communications
Commission, FCC Consumer Fact, Consumer Information Bureau, Telecommunications Relay Service, http://www.fcc.gov/cib/cdtac/trs_factseet.html
11.
U.S. General Services
Administration, Federal Technology Service, Federal
Relay Service, http://www.fts.gsa.gov/frs/enhance.htm
12.
Alliance of Information &
Referral Systems, http://www.airs.org
13.
http://www.fcc.gov/cib/dro/trs/dial7-91.html
14.
http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/447084.asp
15.
http://www.innovations.havard.edu/Semifinalists/2001/2001mgmtandgov.htm
16.
http://www.fcc.goc/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2000/db0721/nrc00036a.html
17.
http://www.uswcorp.com/USWCMainPages/PressRel/pre69.htm
GPEA—
1.
U.S. Office of Management and
Budget, Executive Office of the President, Implementation of the Government
Paperwork Elimination Act—Procedures and Guidance, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/gpea2.html
Technologies/Tools—
1.
James E. Grunig, Managing Public Relations, Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1984, pgs 21-27
2.
On-Line
Content for Low-Income and Underserved Americans: The Digital Divide’s New
Frontier, http://www.childrenspartnership.org/pub/low_income
3.
The Federal
Communicators Network, http://www.fcn.gov
4.
General Literature on Diffusion of
Innovation, http://www.comsoft.org/oopsla98mid/hist_of_tran_2ot/tsld003.htm
1.
Sharon Dawes, E-Government: Creating Tools of the Trade,
Center for Technology in Government, http://www.ctg.albany.edu/, and http://www.ctg.albany.edu/egov/results.html
2.
Jerry Mechling, Eight Imperatives for Leaders in a Networked
World, JFK School,
3.
Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 4th Edition, Free Press, New York City, NY, 1995
(outline—http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/j/l/jll191/knowledgebase/innovation/rogers.htm)
4.
The Council for Excellence in
Government, E-Government, the Next
American Revolution, http://www.excelgov.org/techcon/egovex/ebluprint.htm
5.
The Federal IT
Accessibility Initiative, Section
508 of the Rehabilitation Act, http://www.section508.gov/
6.
Ford
Innovations Program, New $50m Ford Innovations in Government Program, Harvard
University, www.innovations.harvard.edu
7.
Chief Information Officers
Council, http://cio.gov/
8.
CustomerService.Gov, The Federal
Government's Customer Service Web Site, http://www.customerservice.gov
9.
The Federal
Communicators Network, www.fcn.org
10.
General
Literature on Diffusion of Innovation, http://www.comsoft.org/oopsla98mid/hist_of_tran_2ot/tsld003.htm
11.
GovExec.Com, GPRA & Results, http://www.govexec.com/gpra
12.
The
International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet, http://www.icdri.org
13.
KM.Gov,
Knowledge Management in the Federal Government, http://www.km.gov/
14.
Office
of Federal Procurement Policy, Acquisition Reform Network, http://www.arnet.gov
15.
Project
Management Institute, http://www.pmi.org
16.
U.S. General Services
Administration, Federal, State, and Local Governments Portal, http://www.firstgov.gov
17.
U.S. General Services
Administration, Information Technology Policy, http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov
18.
The World Wide Web
Consortium, Extensible Markup Language (XML), www.w3.org/xml
19.
XML.Gov, Government
Progress in XML, http://www.xml.gov/
20.
XMLNews.Org, XML and
the News Industry, http://www.xmlnews.org
1.
“311 Customer Call Center Was Just
What Hampton Residents Ordered,” Virginia
Town & City, Virginia Municipal League, Vol. 35, No. 9, September 2000,
http://www.vml.org/VTC/VTC3509-3.html
2.
http://www.innovations.havard.edu/Semifinalists/2001/2001mgmtandgov.htm
1.
Richard Anderson, Mark Birbeck,
et. al., Professional XML, Wrox
Press, Ltd., 2000
2.
Neil Bradley, The XSL Companion, Addison-Wesley, 2000
3.
Robin Cover, The XML Cover Pages, http://www.oasis-open.org/cover
4.
Khun Yee Fung, XSLT Working with XML and HTML,
Addison-Wesley, 2001
5.
Michael Kay, XSLT Programmer’s Reference, 2nd Edition, Wrox Press, Ltd., 2001
6.
Kevin Williams, et. al., Professional XML Databases, Wrox Press,
Ltd., 2000
7.
The
Basic Semantic Repository, Intelligent Commercial And
Research Information Systems, http://icaris.org/icaris/bsr.html
8.
The Business of VoiceXML,”
VoiceXML Forum, Speech Technology
Magazine, July/August, http://www.voicexml.org
9.
Semantic
Web Activity: Resource Description Framework, The World Wide Web Consortium, Extensible Markup Language
(XML), http://www.w3.org/RDF
10.
XML
Accessibility Guidelines, The
World Wide Web Consortium, Extensible Markup Language (XML), http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/xmlgl
11.
XML
Topic Maps, XTM TopicMaps.Org, http://www.topicmaps.org
12.
Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare, The Knowledgebase—Australia's
Health, Community Services and Housing Metadata Registry, http://meteor.aihw.gov.au/
13.
O’Reilly XML.Com: XML
From the Inside Out, http://www.xml.com
14.
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, Environmental Data Registry, http://www.epa.gov/edr
15.
The World Wide Web
Consortium, Extensible Markup Language
(XML), www.w3.org/xml
16.
XML.Gov, Government Progress in XML, http://www.xml.gov/
17.
XML.Org—The XML Industry Portal, Latest Industry News, http://www.xml.org
18.
Biztalk.Org, http://www.biztalk.org
19.
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, http://dublincore.org
20.
IEEE Intelligent Transportation
Systems Data Registry, http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/its/
21.
IMS Global Learning
Consortium, Inc., http://www.imsproject.org/
1.
Allison Lee, Design of Social Interfaces to Collaborative Workspaces, a position
paper for Changing Places Workshop
2.
Prof. David Darcy, E-Government Best Practices: An Implementation Manual, a study
commissioned by the U.S. General Services Administration, May 2001, http://egov.gov/professional_development.htm
3.
Chuck Newman, Considering the Color-Blind, http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/08/newman/
4.
Ben Shneiderman, Universal Usability in Practice, http://www.otal.umd.edu/UUPractice/
5.
Ben Shneiderman, A Universal Usability Policy Statement for
Web Sites, http://www.universalusability.org
6.
Etienne Wegner, Supporting Communities of Practice, A survey
of Community-Oriented Technologies, Draft Version 1.3, March 2001, found at
http://www.ewenger.com/tech.
7.
Information based on interviews
with Bartimaeus Group and the American Council for the Blind, American Council
of the Blind, http://www.acb.org
8.
Bartimaeus Group—National
Providers of Adaptive Hardware, Software, Training and 508 Compliance
Assessment, http://www.bartsite.com/
9.
The Children’s Partnership, http://childrenspartnership.org/
10.
National Federation of the Blind, http://www.nfb.org
11.
Poynter.Org—Everything You Need to
be a Better Journalist, http://www.poynter.org/
12.
Reading
Effectiveness Tool, Clear Language and Design, http://www.eastendliteracy.on.ca/clearlanguageanddesign/readingeffectivenesstool/start.htm
13.
Screen
Magnification, Technical Glossary, The Adaptive
Technology Resource Centre, http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc/reference/tech/scmag.html
14.
Screen
Readers, Technical Glossary, The Adaptive
Technology Resource Centre, http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc/reference/tech/scread.html
15.
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,35074,00.html
16.
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0521/cov_508rev_05_21_01.asp
[1]
See http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda/m01-28.html.
[2]
"E-Government: The Next American
Revolution," prepared by Hart-Teeter for the Council for Excellence in
Government, September 2000.
[3]
http://www.innovations.havard.edu/Semifinalists/2001/2001mgmtandgov.htm
[4]
http://www.vml.org/VTC/VTC3509-3.html
[5]
"Telecommunications:
Characteristics and Choices of Internet Users," U.S. General
Accounting Office, February 2001, GAO-01-345.
[6] http://www.innovations.havard.edu/Semifinalists/2001/2001mgmtandgov.htm
[7] http://www.vml.org/VTC/VTC3509-3.html
[8]
Technical background information on XML may be found in the references
section. In addition, WWW.XML.gov hosts
the latest efforts of the XML Working Group whose charge is to accelerate,
facilitate and catalyze the effective and appropriate implementation of XML
technology in the information systems and planning of the Federal Government.
[9]
See WWW.XML.gov and WWW.W3.org for more information on XML standards.
[10]
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) host technical committees that collaborate in
worldwide standardization efforts such as information technology. ISO/IEC 11179 describes how data elements
should be documented. This
documentation, when done well and managed in a Data Element Registry,
simplifies data location and retrieval, even from disparate databases and makes
it easier to send and receive data via electronic communications. The guidance on the formulation and
maintenance of discrete data element descriptions and semantic content
(metadata) supports users to ensure that they formulate data elements in a
consistent, standard manner. It also provides
guidance in establishing a data element registry, such as EPA’s Environmental
Data Registry (EDR), which catalogs EPA’s information resources and provides a
registry of standard data elements. The
EDR vocabularies are designed to promote efficient sharing of environmental
information among EPA, states, tribes, and other information trading
partners.
[11] Prof. David Darcy, E-Government Best Practices: An
Implementation Manual, a study commissioned by GSA, May 2001,
http://egov.gov/professional_development.htm.
[12] Etienne Wegner, Supporting Communities of Practice, A survey of Community-Oriented Technologies, Draft Version 1.3, March 2001, found at http://www.ewenger.com/tech.