Subscribe to the Free Print Edition!
Celebrating 25 Years

GCN Home > August 14, 2000 issue

INTERNAUT

Here are 13 steps to take toward building a digital government

Digital government means more than posting information on the Internet or exchanging data in electronic format. True digital government means making a commitment to change the way agencies interact with the public.

With that in mind, I’d like to present a digital government manifesto for leaders who want to change the way data flows through federal, state and local agencies. Some points are controversial but, taken together, they’d make a far-reaching difference in the way government services flow to citizens.

• All government employees should have e-mail addresses.

Yes, there has been progress here, especially at the federal level, but some regional offices still share e-mail addresses, and many workers in low-level roles don’t have e-mail because they don’t need it. Some don’t work at desks or have computers.

Every employee has a job to do, however, and that means communicating. E-mail, whether on your desk or in your hand, is one of the best ways to communicate.

• All government forms should be available online in a suitable format for filling out and submitting via Web browser.

Paper forms won’t vanish anytime soon, so agencies must integrate the paper data collection process into automated systems. They should set up a way to notify the public when electronic versions of forms become available.

• All government documents should be online.

Whether internal or external, government data should be stored in electronic format for easy sharing. Key information within documents should be tagged to ease Internet searches and Extensible Markup Language sharing.

• All databases should have a Web interface for remote searching.

Of course security and intranet controls must be in place for nonpublic databases, but physical proximity to the database should not be a controlling factor for access.

• Paperwork reduction efforts should focus on Web services and elimination of redundant paper transfers.

• When possible, citizens should have a single point of contact for the agency they interact with most.

• A framework should be established for document authentication via standardized digital signatures and for confirmation of document transfers.

• Government overseers should set up metrics to track how much agencies improve their services by migrating to digital format.

Best-practices lists are essential at the agency level as well as on a broad, governmentwide scale. The metrics and lists should be reviewed quarterly to encourage updates and refinement.

• Clear audit trails are essential for online transactions so that hand-offs can be confirmed, time stamps reviewed and funds accounted for.

Because moving toward digital government, and a digital society in general, will leave some people behind, government needs to make a commitment to improve the skill level of all citizens. That means establishing some degree of public Web access through libraries and kiosks. It means giving teachers the tools they need to show kids and others how to use the Internet. It means equipping each teacher’s desk with a computer. Only when teachers use computers for everything from grading homework to launching maps, graphs and videos for classroom viewing will they feel comfortable enough with the technology themselves to enrich students’ learning.



GCN Popup