FEDERAL
INTRODUCTION
"Virtual communities emerged from a surprising intersection of humanity and technology. When ubiquity of the world telecommunications network is combined with the information-structuring and storing capabilities of computers, a new communication medium becomes possible.... Computers, modems, and communication networks furnish the technological infrastructure of computer-mediated communication (CMC); cyberspace is the conceptual space where words and human relationships, data and wealth and power are manifested by people using CMC technology; virtual communities are cultural aggregations that emerge when enough people bump into each other often enough in cyberspace."
"We do everything people do when people get together, but we do it with words on computer screens, leaving our bodies behind...Human behaviour in cyberspace, as we can observe it and participate in it today, is going to be a crucially important factor. The ways in which people use CMC always will be rooted in human needs, not hardware or software." Howard Rheingold, Editor Whole Earth Review, June, 1992
The emerging technologies and super, seamless data highways' infrastructure, now being developed in the United States, with the same plans for Canada, and in other areas such as the EC, New Zealand and Singapore, means more and more people are going to be involved on these highways. Prior to the super highways this inner world of cyberspace had been the domain of particular types of people such as academics, hackers, techies and intellectuals attracted to these formats. Now, the potential exists to reach out and create whole new virtual communities; the possibilities for new forms of communications and usages are going to be endless when this infrastructure takes hold.
While the phraseology driving this whole venture refers to the super data "highways" it is a bit of a misnomer as they are not highways as we have traditionally understood them. People will not come on and off at random; they will not be mediums to get from point A to B; they will not be universal, in the sense of public pathways for all to use, but rather we will see disparate entities emerge that will have the same networks and technologies. Their shape and function will vary enormously. The term "environmental electronic modules" is perhaps more appropriate. However, for the purposes of consistency and debate the terms "information highway" or "information infrastructure", shall be used.
In the past year the media has been flooded with the plans of the private sector and the US Federal government to build the new super information highways. Suddenly, within a short span of two years, the public has come to realize the enormity of the range of the new technologies and what they can do. Each day brings some new introduction of the improvement of some existing technology or a new invention or innovation. The nineties will quite possibly see the introduction of not only more technologies than have ever been invented in the past, but more social change in a shorter time period, than has ever been witnessed in history.
We have all heard of virtual reality-a tool that started as a method for the defence industry to better their capacity to fight in the air, on land and on the seas. Visors for pilots to seek out enemy aircraft or see ahead to land formations have now become playthings of the many. At a recent national convention of carnival and fair owners the major display was the usages virtuaL reality will be put to in the playgrounds of America.
That is simply one technology, though it is going to radically change the entertainment world. The purveyors of virtual reality eventually want to see their medium replace both television and film.
There are other more stunning developments. The building of the super electronic information highways is going to create more opportunities for the entrepreneur, and, especially, for the current large private corporations that are building them. Just as cottage industries sprung up after the building of the national freeways in the United States and Canada, so it shall be with the new information highways. Multimedia is going to enhance the learning process as well as bring improved and better services to everyone.
Interactive TV, the convergences of the telephone, telecommunications outlets, the computer and the TV, linked with a fibre optics network and satellite technology, is changing the very nature of how we live as a society. The new highways will create electronic shopping malls, which we will be able to easily visit from the comfort of our home; it will create virtual communities, where people can visit each other on the networks, without ever personally meeting. The imaginative uses to which these new technologies will be put will be boundless.
Through teleconferencing, with multimedia capability, scientists, doctors and every kind of professional, will be able to consult from remote areas, far from each other. An operation will be conducted, in, say, Toronto, with ongoing consultation from a professional colleague in Houston, Texas. Traditional ways of conducting our lives are about to undergo quite a radical change.
Home shopping will become interactive. On the shopping network you may see an item you like but want to look at it in a different shape or color. With the key punch pad that will be supplied, by the owners of these networks, you will simply punch in the request and what you request will pop up onto the screen. You will be able to rent a movie from home, instantaneously, not wait for a scheduled time. Again, a menu will offer you a variety of films. You punch in your order into the key pad and the move will appear. These are just two small examples of the thousands of choices that are about to come. Whole ways of doing business will be offered to us, including engaging in our transactions with government from the comfort of our home or office.
Despite all these development the hardware for these services are proceeding with care. Aware that the public taste can be fickle, Hewlett Packard in San Jose, California, recently conducted an in-depth survey to determine if there was a demand for Interactive-TV out there. Four thousand consumers nationwide were interviewed. The results were a tentative yes.
Hewlett Packard (H-P) want to build much of the hardware for the advanced cable systems that will carry all these new services. A San Francisco firm, American Lives Inc., found there was a strong potential market across the country for such services provided the right services are offered. The survey results showed they needed to start slow and small. H-P themselves found that the core market, at the moment, for these services, represent about 14 million of the 100 million American households. The fact that their surveys turned up such positive figures about the acceptance of what Interactive TV services has to offer, is probably a signal consumers will take to the changes coming.
However, they did find some daunting barriers in the form of consumer anxiety about what these new technologies will bring. Consumers expressed fears about losing their privacy, about falling into impulse buying and their children falling into even longer hours of watching `empty TV programs'. Those conducting the survey say that if the companies providing these services do not take this into account, then the potential market could possibly fall flat on its face. Cost is also a factor, with the survey results showing people overestimating what they could possibly afford, to receive these services. Another result showed that consumers would pay only 50 cents to a dollar more than they currently pay for renting videos, for movies on demand through their cable system.
It is apparent that the Interactive systems are going to go ahead but the cost factor could be an initial barrier. It could possibly be like the early days of colour TV. Very expensive for those few who could afford it but as the demand grew, and mass production of colour TVs became possible, then the price dropped. It appears that the new interactive services will go through a similar transition but, in a short period of time, become almost universally accepted, thus dropping the cost of services.
This chapter presents a snapshot of change that is engulfing the United States. What happens there will have a direct impact on Canada not only because of our close trading relationship but because of our very proximity to the world's super power.
It is not possible, in the ambit of one restricted study such as this, to cover all that is occurring in the United States, as there is such a diversity of change in both technology and policy going on all the time. This chapter is not about the technologies themselves but rather looks at the National Information Information Infrastructure at the Federal level, including the role of both the government and the private sector. In addition to this, some views expressed by the various policy bodies, both in government and public interest groups, are expressed, on the impacts expected from these technological developments. The chapter also looks at the changing nature of records in electronic environments. At the beginning of this study it was anticipated that the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) in Washington, D.C., would be releasing their "Electronic Delivery of Services in Government". This was an overview study that took place between 1992 and early 1993. It was to have been released in September, 1993, but as of this writing, in early November, has not been. Thus, an update on proposed plans for the delivery services, as is to be outlined in the OTA report, is not forthcoming.
The second part of the chapter looks at the State of California, one of the most advanced states in terms of its developments and applications. In the State of Iowa plans are afoot to build a 2600 mile electronic highway, making it the most wired state in all the United States. Plans had been made to visit there to conduct research on their developments for this study, but this was cancelled due to the recent extensive flooding in the State, including the capitol. However, a visit was made to California and the results are reported here.
THE NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE
When President Clinton announced earlier this year the building of the "Data Highways", the rush towards the completion of the super highways, or the Information Infrastructure, was on. This single event, coupled with the activities in the private sector, where the telecommunications and cable companies are building and enhancing their fibre optics networks, put the US in the lead not only in North America, but worldwide. It is these developments that are concentrated upon in this chapter, as the building of the highways is going to effect the way of life at every level of society's existence. That includes government.
A specific trend that has emerged quite sharply, in the process of doing this study, is that no matter the activity of a government agency, these technological changes, with the super, high speed highways that are coming with them, will impact on everyone. The changes to come will be universal in their impact. So no matter the activity, whether it be running an archive, collecting statistics, evolving social policy, administering an unemployment insurance program, paying out social benefits, administering foreign policy programs or agricultural programs in the country, getting information into the schools, or dispensing information from the library, the information highways and the resultant technologies are going to impact on government activity.
Everyone is going to have to be ready for the changes to come. People will need to begin to learn ways to adjust, adapt and find new methods of administering their programs. This is not something that has come to be universally recognized but recognition will dawn once these highways are up and running.
The United States' Government's policy of involvement and investment in the super data highways, holds some invaluable lessons for Canada. President Clinton's announcement that the federal government will make a modest investment in the new highways is part of their high tech and highly political telecommunications policy. The underlying premise of the policy is that such investment will stimulate major investment from the private sector (which it has done) and result in a huge economic payoff. All parties expect this to occur as well as giving a good boost to American's competitiveness and technological developments.
The Clinton Administration, prepared for this policy by the work of Vice-President Gore when he was a Senator, and the vision he developed of the role of technology in today's society, see this as a parallel to the building of the interstate highways earlier in the century. Except it is information, in its multitude of new forms, that will travel on this highway. President Clinton sees this as mapping the path for a new era of technology driven by state of the art information networks.
In a TV interview, at the time of the announcement of the policy, Vice-President Gore said that: "The existence of a premier information marketplace in the United States will give our companies and our citizens an advantage in worldwide competition." The current price tag for this investment is currently US$ 2 billion over the next five years. Half of this will go towards finding better ways for professionals in education, medicine, manufacturing and other key fields to find better ways to use computer networks. The other $1 billion would go towards grants to help schools, libraries and other public institutions link up to the existing 10,000 computer networks that are already hooked up worldwide.
However, despite these plans there are still major issues to be worked out between the telecommunications' companies and the cable companies as to who exactly would be sharing these highways. The Clinton administration has yet to make any decision in this regard though the situation is being looked at closely. The issue came to a head after the announcement by Bell Operating Companies that over the next seven years they would be prepared to spend over US$125 billion building a grid of information highways. However, they stated they would only do so if Washington let them into the current US$20 billion annual cable TV market. They want to deliver services down the phone line that are currently the domain of the cable companies. New software technology now makes this possible.
Peggy Laramie, spokesperson for the National Cable TV Association, responded to the Bell proposal, arguing that the proposed network should not be solely the domain of the phone companies. "We think, " she said, " the best approach to creating an electronic superhighway is one that relies on multiple networks, not just a single network." She pointed out that cable wires, which pass about 95% of American homes, could be upgraded for the envisioned services, for about $20 billion. Whatever the outcome of this ongoing debate, the fact remains the highway is being built.
An author, in the publication Transnational Data and Communications Report, published by Russell Pipe in Amsterdam, commenting on the new data superhighway in the May,1993 issue wrote:
"The question remains what the government's role will be in the new networks. The regional Bells want Congress to repeal the 1984 statutory ban preventing them from entering the cable television programming business. The cable and long-distance industries also are preparing to offer local telephone service over cable television wires and through wireless personal communication devices. This jumble of competing telecommunications industries, rapid technological change and high-stakes lobbying wars has left Congress reluctant to enact anything but minimal changes to the nation's 60-year old telecommunications policy. Nevertheless, lawmakers and administration officials, including Vice-President Gore, are optimistic that... there will be a break in the impasse in the telecommunications policy in the 103rd Congress."
A national information highway linking businesses, institutions, and ultimately private homes through high-speed fibre-optic cable promises to become a machine for economic growth in a global market increasingly dependent on information, computer advocates contend in recently published testimony and reports. Apple Computer Inc.'s President, John Sculley, has estimated that an integrated network would help create a US$ 3.5 trillion market.
Others hold similar views. Said Brian Kushner, a vice president of the Microelectronic and Computer Technology Corporation, a consortium of computer companies, in the same article. "With leadership and guidance from the government ...companies will be encouraged to invest even faster, services will be available sooner and our nation will emerge a dominant player on the world stage."
However, while the investment plans are being made to go ahead with the network, the problem remains of the actual coordination of the strategy to implement this. For the moment the agencies are involved in turf wars and a labyrinth of processes that do not allow for the coordination of the funds for the computer networks. Even these problems will undoubtedly be surmounted because of the strong determination to build these networks. Coupled with this is the fact the private sector are rushing ahead with their own construction. While governments usually are slow to react, in this instance they will undoubtedly get caught up in the tidal wave of change.
THE INFORMATION HIGHWAYS -WHO SHALL OWN THEM?
Debate in the United States has been robust concerning the proposed highways. A whole range of issues have been raised as to who shall actually benefit from the highways. There are concerns over the growing potential for even greater invasions of privacy than new exist. Some express disgust with the whole concept proclaiming that the millions of more bytes of information that will flow across the seamless electronic networks will just be more garbage, more inane entertainment or shopping opportunities. This camp see the highways as high tech junk depots. Then there are those who envision the emergence of a new world, one in which all of society will benefit, if we built it to serve all the people and get it right from the start.
Other issues are over who shall be the benefactors and how shall the costs be distributed. Will there be winners and losers in this high stakes game? More fundamental to all of these issues, which appear peripheral by comparison, is whether these networks will remain democratic. Will there be a further distinction of the lines between those who have access and those who do not? Between those who can take advantage of the technology and those who are too illiterate and poor to do so? How will this knowledge be shared or will it be simply for the technological literate?
Mitchell Kapor, the Founder of Lotus 1,2, 3 and, currently, the co-founder and Chair of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, expressed many concerns about these technological developments in the July/August, 1993 edition of Wired, in an article entitled: "Where is the Digital highway Really Heading? The Case for a Jeffersonian Information Policy." The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a public interest organization dedicated to realizing the democratic potential of a new computer and communications media.
He argues that the super highways, for the broad masses, will be delayed over arguments over who shall own what and what should go on it. These disagreements will run through both the public and private sectors. But he sees the vision articulated by the pioneers of the networks, those who have been living and communicating in cyberspace, being realized, despite the gridlock caused by the disagreements.
He says that "life in cyberspace is often conducted in primitive, frontier conditions, but it is a life which, at its best, is more egalitarian than elitist, and more decentralized than hierarchical. It serves individuals and communities, not mass audiences, and it is extraordinarily multi-faceted in the purpose to which it is put. "In fact, life in cyberspace seems to be shaping up exactly like Thomas Jefferson would have wanted: founded on the primacy of individual liberty and a commitment to pluralism, diversity, and community."
While he agrees that the obstacles to the building of the National Information Infrastructure will be overcome, with the necessary agreements between government and business forged, what he worries about is that "crucial doubts remain as to whether the re-wiring of America will result in Jeffersonian networks promoting the openness, freedom, and diversity that is the true promise of this technology."
He goes on to write about the possible worst case scenario of these new networks. "...we could wind up with networks that have the principal effect of fostering addiction to a new generation of electronic narcotics (glitzy, interactive multimedia successors to Nintendo and MTV); their principal themes revolving around instant gratification through sex, violence, or sexual violence; their uses and content determined by mega-corporations pushing mindless consumption of things we don't need and aren't good for us."
The comment is ironical, in a sense, because it sounds itself like an elitist statement arguing that it will take strong leadership to ensure that it does not reach this mindless state. A note of cynicism is detected through predicting dire usages, and the worst possible scenario, rather than a belief that new innovations find their own mark in a society. However, given the mindlessness of much of our current technology within society, the argument is well taken. And the point about leadership is particularly appreciated as it will take this and informed debate about the choices we as a society want to make. He does ask: "What could prevent such a fate? The purveyors of network services could simply decide that a business strategy that encourages the widest variety of content sources and originators will dramatically increase network usage. A few pennies per transaction will eventually add up to billions of dollars in revenue."
He points out the three main areas of consensus, regarding these networks, that has been reached between business, government and the public interest groups.
"Private, not public: The private sector, not the government, will build and operate the NII. Despite extensive reports to the contrary, the government's role will be limited to funding research, leading experiments with ultra-high speed networks, helping promote standards, and protecting the public interest in privacy, freedom of speech, and other areas. Telephone companies and cable television operators, not the government, will be the principal carriers of traffic into the home.
"A hybrid Net: Networks that reach into the home will be hybrids of the fiber-optic cable and existing copper wire and coaxial cable used by telephone and cable television companies. Fiber-optic cables will be used in the major arteries and portions of the distribution system, while existing copper and coaxial cable will be used in the last hundred yards. To achieve a broadband network capable of delivering high quality video, voice, and data, it is both unnecessary and too expensive to replace the last segment into the home with fibre optics.
"Video driven: In the near term, the principal business opportunity driving investment in a broadband network is the delivery of movies on demand to the home. Government regulators are trying to orchestrate an overall path towards less regulation and more competition in bringing this key competitive service to the home. More broadly, both cable and telephone companies want a piece of other network services such as voice telephony, video conferencing, and database access."
As to the debate over reaching the Jeffersonian ideal of a true democracy, as a result of the new highways, there are two views to be considered. Kapor says the optimist would argue that the networks will create new opportunities because the private sector companies will be aware it is to their advantage to present the greatest diversity of content in no matter what form. Also, the optimist would argue that the architecture being developed is conducive to openness. "If adopted as a guiding principle," writes Kapor, "openness as exemplified by the personal computer and the Internet, can be a driver of prosperity and diversity in any new market." On the other hand, the pessimist will argue that the owners and operators of broadband networks will never willingly give up control over the terms of access, use and content. He believes that the solution lies "somewhere between the optimist's and the pessimist's views. Optimism, combined with vigilance and a commitment to seek government intervention for redress of private enterprise's failures, is the best prescription for coping with the NII's uncertain future. Organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation are committed to developing detailed public policy recommendations and political strategies necessary to close the gap between optimism and emerging reality. But before the government commits to any policy, it must first arm itself with an understanding of the situation at hand."
In describing ways to reach the Jeffersonian ideal in this new environment emerging, he sees the Internet, "...in its fundamental architecture and, increasingly, in its policies, ...as an ideal example of an open network. It is an interactive medium based on two-way communications, where people can fluidly shift from position of listener to that of speaker, from role of consumer to that of provider. The public switched telephone network, on the other hand, is substantially closed in its architecture, but, by virtue of being common carriers, telcos are required to be open in access, use and content. And cable systems have no such obligation, they exercise very tight control over both content and use.
"The Jeffersonian option requires a commitment to openness in all its dimensions. We should be paying attention to issues of openness today because while it is easy to build openness into networks, it is difficult to keep it after the fact." He says that policy makers need to ask themselves these key questions before committing to any one path:
1)Who has access to the network? Is it affordable?
2) Who can put content onto the system?
3) Will novel uses of the network be allowed to develop?
4) Where do services originate? and,
5) Will system specifications and interfaces be publicly available and defined in an open process?
In conclusion, he states: "The Jeffersonian ideal-a system that promotes grass-roots democracy, diversity of users and manufacturers, true communications among the people, and all the dazzling goodies of home shopping, movies on demand, teleconferencing, and cheap, instant databases - is composed of high end bandwidth, an open architecture, and distributed two-way switching. It's our choice to make. Let's not blow it."
Thus, the debate will continue in the ensuing years to determine if the evolution of these networks will be democratic in form and content, as Mitch Kapor worries about, or will it be a monopoly jamming more crass commercialism down our collective throats? This reflects another side of the debate over these super highways and what they mean to different people. Paul Peters of the Coalition for Networked Information in Washington, D.C., says the debate over what the new National Information Infrastructure should accomplish is broken down into four different categories. There are those who believe it should be:
1) For research and education;
2) A new infrastructure that can be used to fulfill a vision of the role of government in the 21st century. This is the predominant view held by Vice-President Al Gore and his followers;
3) Social control-in which a new world can be constructed for the betterment of all society-this is a view held by many academics, intellectuals and public interest groups who see this as a way to shape society into an ideal state fitting the needs of all Mankind. (A scenario least likely to emerge);
4) A retail paradise.
The latter certainly mirrors the aims of those who are building the networks whereas the first three scenarios reflect the hopes and dreams of those enmeshed in the debate about what kind of future technology will bring us. Their hope is to at least be able to exert some control over the direction it will take. What all of this mirrors is the fact there is an extensive debate going on as to the exact nature of these highways and the kinds of impacts that can be expected. The very idea of such a bold initiative, which with a technological stroke of magnitude is going to change our world so completely, has evoked imaginative debate.
The very concept of a NII appears to have raised the expectations of individuals who see in it the spectre of a newer and better society. In some respects the NII is becoming the hope of the future, a new goal and purpose to which Americans can aspire. This vast project is acting as a catalyst to revitalize some of the original elements of the American dream.
Robert Veeder, of the Information Policy Branch of the Office of Management and Budget, thinks that the NII will initially start off being controlled by the private sector, with support from the government. He sees them putting it into the marketplace but what will have to eventually evolve are a set of rights and responsibilities of the users themselves. From this a national information policy is eventually going to be needed as he has no doubt that the network itself will become a vehicle for the delivery of government services. For example, there are already many means of getting services from the government, such as the electronic filing of tax. This is becoming so high tech that eventually the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) believe they will be in a position to be able to actually electronically do the annual tax forms for about 30% of all American wage earners. Based on stored, income data there is a segment of the population who have set deductions yearly. Based on information filed from employers regarding the percentage for tax and an individual's salary, the IRS can then automatically process the tax forms saving the individual the time to fill out the forms and file them. Even these activities could eventually flow through the new super information highways.
The possibilities presented by the proposed super highway, which will be a two way interactive communications network, hold endless possibilities. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency is currently experimenting with the idea of collecting sensitive environmental reports from across the country and then working out how to make this information broadly available to those whom it effects. The Census Bureau is experimenting with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) information collection of retail transactions for their retail census. The technology is there to make this current and up to date. Such instantaneous analysis has invaluable benefit for those tracking economic indicators or those analyzing the retail business sector in the country.
Rob Veeder sees the National Information Network as the backbone for all of these and other services. As a result they will need to be even more sensitive to such issues as privacy and security. For example, once the government starts opening up their data bases to society at large by going on-line then their are fundamental security issues such as ensuring confidential, sensitive or personal information is not released. Systems will need to be in place to keep out the hackers who want to go deeper into the system than they are allowed.
There has already been one spill over effect as a result of the combination of two events. The first was the announcement of the government's support of the NII and, secondly, the release of the report on Re-Inventing Government. The latter had a section regarding IT. In turn, that section recommended the establishment of a Data Protection Board to ensure the privacy of Americans. As a result of this an ad hoc Committee on Privacy has been formed, consisting of members from OMB, the Office of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services, the Pentagon and other departments. They have already held informal hearings with expert testimony from privacy officials. This was done in the Fall, 1993. Legislation to monitor the private sector and to improve the Federal Privacy Act is now expected sometime in the Spring, 1994. Driving this debate are two other important debates. The first is the whole question of security and how to ensure the continuing integrity of the data; additionally, there is the problem that once people are allowed onto government highways it becomes important to ensure those coming in enter only where permitted. While we loosely use the term "open systems", this does not mean all systems are open. Fueling the debate further is the debate over the clipper chip. This piece of technology would allow the government access to any system in the country that is hooked up to any electronic highways. Law Enforcement, especially the FBI, claim they need it in their continuing war against crime. The opponents to the Clipper Chip argue it represents it is a basic infringement on people's privacy and will place far too much power in the hands of government to be able to surveil the whole population.
Another aspect of the debate regarding the information super highway is the whole question of costs. An abiding worry of all the public interest groups is the cost of accessing information on these data highways. It is conceivable that the cost of information could end up being far too high for the majority of citizens. This debate has been ongoing since the creation of electronic records. For example, OMB has a cost recovery policy only for the sale of government information. This is much different than at many of the local and state levels of government where information has been seen as a resource. However, even at these levels change is occurring as both legislators and the courts in some states, such as Florida, are questioning the philosophy of user fees with a profit margin.
This is not the space to cover the whole range of this complicated debate. The overriding consensus of the public interest groups interviewed for this study is that if you are to empower the citizenry then access to the services have to be:
1) user friendly;
2) aimed at the needs of the user; and
3) available at cost for non-commercial usages.
REINVENTING GOVERNMENT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Information technology is going to play a major role in the Reinventing Government program announced by President Clinton and Vice-President Gore in the Fall of 1993. It is seen as an essential ingredient in the whole way government will do business in the future.
Laurence Bernosky,is the Director of the Center for Information Management at the National Academy of Public Administration in Washington, D.C. The National Academy sponsored, in April, 1993, a forum on "The Role of Information Technology in Reinventing Government."
At this gathering a group of 45 participants, who call themselves the National Council of Information Executives, met to formulate and develop a set of information management and technology recommendations. These contributed directly to Vice-President Gore's Reinventing Government initiative. The recommendations were developed using PC-based interactive meeting technology (i.e., groupware) that permitted all participants to develop comments and review one another's input on-line. This resulted in a report called the Information Government.
There were four major goals the forum attempted to achieve. These were:
The Information Government Report summarized their findings as follows:
"Vision 2010: Information Integrates the Nation.
"The council foresaw broad major benefits to the "customer" from a reengineered information management process. These benefits included:
As a result of these conclusions, as to the way they saw the role of Information Technology, they made the following recommendations, of what they termed their "eight action items."
Having set out these recommendations the council then proposed a series of actions and seed projects. Specifically, they said, the nation should:
The Council concluded their report by saying that the nation's leaders must foster the support of the information management community and endorse its initiatives.
As to the eventual effect on government, the point of the usage if IT, says Laurence Bornosky, is to more with less economic resources. This is a refrain repeated by governments everywhere. But achieving the goal is another matter.
At this point we are in a transition period moving from the paper to the electronic world. But there is a conflict within the culture of government itself that runs counter to the attempts to move to an IT infrastructure.
There are a number of steps to follow to get IT implemented within government and across the country. The first problem, says Bernosky, is to get an agency to effectively comply with IT policies. The next goal will then be to get a number of agencies to think together, to achieve universal applications.
The National Academy of Public Administration has acted as a catalyst to work to get the architecture built that will harmonize the exchange of information and services at the Federal, State and Municipal level. This is an important function, as in an electronic environment there needs to be a two way flow of information between all levels of governments. To achieve this it is important to set up the national information architecture and infrastructure. This includes the rules for such structures, such as the data standards, to ensure this can happen. This is now ongoing so that information can get shared.
THE CHANGING NATURE OF RECORDS IN ELECTRONIC FORMATS
During the 1992 Federal Elections in the United States, a Senatorial Candidate in Louisiana, addressing a group of educators and students, eloquently claimed that within a few short years any student in the nation would be able to sit at a terminal in their school and tap into any document in the Library of Congress. He proudly claimed that this meant the knowledge of America would be open to all students. Professionals at the Library of Congress received the news with chuckles, knowing full well that less than 1% of their records are in electronic format. Also, their on-line capacity is limited by lack of funds. The concept of an electronic National Library, with students happily coming on line to draw on the fountain of knowledge, is an ideal for a very distant future.
That is not to say the the discussions are not deep and serious on the issues. Jane Bortnick Griffith, Chief of the Science Policy Research Division of the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, very much recognizes the changes that are coming. She says one of the key areas they are focussing on is now to get access to information no matter where it is. This remote access becomes important as the question of accessibility is increasingly being asked. Technology, in creating the concept of real time, such as exists on all the networks, is creating high expectations. Whereas ten years ago people might have been satisfied to patiently wait in a line at a library and browse on a book shelf, they will now increasingly expect an instantaneous response to their quest. They will want to tap into a computer and be told either where a certain book or document can be found or to read it there in the screen.
Another issue, says Jane Griffith, is there is an enormous amount of material in paper format. The question then becomes not only what should we convert to electronic formats but what can we afford to convert. There are a multitude of questions that arise with this conversion problem: how do we pay? how shall it be indexed? how do we provide access? how do we make it available? and, perhaps, most importantly: what should be made available?
There is a growing awareness in the whole archival, librarian and records management community, that look and think about these issues, of how these electronic structures are radically changing the concepts of access, storage and availability of records. Jane Griffith sees the role of librarians in the future to be that of knowledge navigators. However, despite all the technological changes it is clear that people are still very firmly wedded to paper.
Even if the changes are made to electronic formats people still come back to the paper world. This could change with the next generation who have grown up in an information technology world. To them the keyboard and the screen will be as familiar and as natural apart of their working life as the pen and paper was to previous generations.
Another concern of this community is the storage capacity of these new technologies, such as CD-ROM, and the question of how much deterioration there will be over time. The arguments here are similar to those made by the British Library. The concern is very much to ensure a life span that spreads over thousands and thousands of years. This is crucial for an archivists, the keepers of history. The abiding question here is not only CD-ROM but software. They must wrestle with the question of different and non-compatible softwares. How do you deal with changing software or types that will deteriorate. With software constantly changing how will readers up in the future have access to the knowledge? This leads to the next question: What kind of media will you want for your archival copy?
There is even a more basic policy issue for the Library of Congress: What constitutes a government record? And that lies at the core of this whole debate whether it be email you are discussing, electronic memos, electronic notebooks of well known public figures or a host of other formats. With time the whole nature of society and how we absorb and impart knowledge will change because of Information Technology and the other new technologies now creating our infrastructure. It is too early for most of us to pin point these changes. The records community is trying to prepare for the momentous change that is about to come.
We may not be out of the paper world but increasingly records are becoming electronic in format. Like other historical processes the IT infrastructure will drastically escalate to a point when we will suddenly find ourselves in a new electronic world. This will not be a short process as our new technologies have built into them, by their very nature, a rapid acceleration process. The electronic records debate is immediate and urgent and the Library of Congress is well aware of this fact of history now facing them.
In a recent move the House of Representatives' Committee on House Administration, recently proposed an amendment to pending legislation to move the Government Printing Office (GPO) from the legislative to the Executive Branch. However, as part of this move, the functions of information dissemination, currently exercised by the GPO, would be transferred to the Library of Congress. The House Rules Committee then changed the recommendation to keep the GPO under the Legislature but approved the transfer to the Library of Congress. This is now expected to be passed and implemented in 1994.
In a joint statement, issued after the House Rules Committee approved the measure, Representative Charlie Rose, Chairman of the House Administration Committee, stated, "The Committee amendment preserves and enhances the traditional role of the Congress as disseminator of government information to the public, while allowing the executive branch maximum control over publishing, and procurement of publishing, for the executive and judicial branches of government". The move Congress is a strong signal of the importance politicians are now putting on the electronic dissemination of government information. By the beginning of next year, the GPO hopes to have a prototype information locator service and Internet access to the Congressional Record and Federal Register using a Wide Area Information Server (WAIS), according to a report in the Electronic Information Newsletter in December, 1993.
All these and many other developments indicate the rapidity of the movement to not only electronic storage of records by the dissemination of information in electronic format. This will undoubtedly be the major issue for archivists, librarians and records managers for the rest of this decade and early into the next century.
CONCLUSIONS
The lessons learned from the Federal Government's attempts to implement IT in Washington are similar to what is happening in other countries, including Canada. As with other jurisdictions attempting to build IT infrastructures and universal policies for the delivery of electronic services there are many barriers. One of the major problems is a lack of a single, coordinating agency that can develop and implement these strategies across the Federal government and the country.
In the United States there is no co-ordinating agency orchestrating these desired IT changes. The result is many agencies doing their own programs while others are slow to respond. It is recognized that you can't simply tell people to automate. To effect change it is necessary to have an universal strategic plan with clearly stated goals which all agencies can work towards achieving together. This is obviously missing.
Despite these obstacles the National Information Infrastructure is being built. It is an evolutionary process that will grow in the years to come and take on different shapes as it is built. It is what will come from this, and how it can be used, that is causing the most debate. The products that will come from this, in the immediate future, is not what is being debated here. The core issues are how the NII will be used and the social impact this will have on individual citizens and the country as a whole.
CALIFORNIA
AN IT MODEL FOR THE DELIVERY OF SERVICES
The State of California is briefly looked at here because it has been considered innovative pioneers, in terms of IT. It has probably received more visitors from around the world, who come to look at their IT applications, than any other state.
They have a reputation not just for their applications and their vision of how technology can be an effective tool for the implementation of IT, but for the strategies they have evolved. They understood early on the need to prepare for the explosion in technologies, and how they will be used by the public. In addition to this, they are practicing public/private sector ventures both to achieve their aims as a government and for fiscal reasons.
INFO/CALIFORNIA
InfoCal, referred to as the "single face to government", refers to an information kiosk. It is a joint project developed by IBM and the State of California. There are currently only twenty-one kiosks located around the state but the funds have become available this year for one hundred more. These are to be installed in January,1994. InfoCal is the state's showcase system which has attracted a lot of attention. The eventual plans for this system is to make it widely available to as many Californians as possible.
InfoCal was first deployed on October 23,1992 by the Health and Welfare Data Agency (who continue to be responsible for the system). In the beginning it provided phone booth size kiosks at 15 locations throughout Sacramento and San Diego counties. Kiosks were later added in Los Angeles County.
The kiosks use multi-media computer technology to provide information, in either English or Spanish. It offers information on 91 different Government programs and services which cover a wide variety of programs. Examples given, by those running InfoCal, are:
The Employment Development Department (EDD) provides information daily on available jobs. This portion of the system is called "Job Match", and a person can query for available jobs by region as well as pre-register, thus making this an interactive system. The pre-register process captures information from the user either by key-entry or by use of the drivers license reader. A small receipt with this information on it is printed and can be taken to an EDD Office allowing priority service.
Implementation of the Department of Health Services (DHS) "birth certificate" process through the kiosks began this year. The service allows a person to identify and have mailed to them a birth certificate abstract. Access to the system is on-line through dedicated phone lines to the Health and Welfare Data Centre. Payments are made and received through the VISA or MASTER CARD banking network, utilizing "acquirer service" from Vital Chek. Each kiosk contains a card reader for this purpose. It is expected that this system will work well. Currently, to get one's birth certificate, other than through the Kiosk, it is necessary to actually go to Sacramento to receive a copy. A $3 charge to the regular $12 fee for the birth certificate is added if the person requests it through the Kiosk. Officials expect this to do very well because of the time and cost it now takes to get a birth certificate. Officials said that public acceptance was better than expected. According to the Advanced Technology Report for Info/California, "public acceptance was better than expected. Between the implementation until May 14,1992, 36,217 non-trivial tasks have been performed on all fifteen kiosks (in operation as of that date). Total contact including trivial tasks (user views only introductory menus) was 66,332". Interestingly enough, sessions run outside of normal government office hours (7am-5pm) were 58% of the total. Spanish was selected 19% of the time to view and to listen to a session.
The following responses from non-trivial users, according to the Report, revealed:
By June 28,1993 the kiosks had far exceeded usage and expectations. By this date there had been a total of 243,276 user sessions of 21 kiosks from the time of implementation. The evaluations done in 1993 revealed the same responses as those found the year before.
The topics most often viewed were Job Search, Student Aid, State Parks and Beaches, Drivers License and the California State University System."
In these first months of operation IBM absorbed US$1,542,650 of the operational costs plus $3,000,000 in development costs and the Health and Welfare Data Centre costs amounted to $354,000. Initial evaluation of the usage of Kiosks determined that the public found the kiosk network useful.
Plans are now being developed to extend the application of Info/Cal beyond just its information kiosk format.
Russ Bohart is the head of the Health and Welfare Data Centre, and the man responsible for Info/Cal. He confirmed that not only is there a wide acceptance of the system, as shown by the statistics for the first two years of usage, but that the users want more from the kiosks. There are plans in development to do this. But they will not just be putting more onto InfoCal (and adding 100 in the near future and placing them throughout all of California) but will be looking for new ways to deliver these services in much wider, more easily accessible and efficient ways.
While it is true that 80 to 90% of the respondents to their evaluation forms on the InfoCal system said that the kiosks were easy to use, Russ Bohart believes that what they are building is a dinosaur. The reason for this? Because of all the emerging, new technologies, the coming Information Infrastructure and multimedia.
These technologies are creating new expectations in users. They expect that when something is wanted by them it should be instantaneously available; it is a demand technology generates. So, in reality where they want to deliver these services is wherever it is most convenient for the user - whether it be the home, the office or the mall.
For example, within the California government itself, they want to put InfoCal into the e-mail system. In this way, whenever an employee has some transaction with another part of government, whether it be getting a birth certificate, renewing a driver's license or inquiring about a social security benefit or even a transaction with the bank, it can be done right from the work station. This is another example of the merging of public and private sector functions; that is to say, the bank transaction is a private sector function whereas the others are public sector programs. But both will use the same technological carriers in the future.
Plans to extend Info/Cal in this way are only at the planning stage but do show how they want to move beyond just the kiosk itself and apply the software that runs the program to other mediums. There is discussion on how to get the private sector to install Info/Cal into their companies to encourage employees to engage in transactions with governments from their place of work rather than going physically to the government office.
The Health and Welfare Data Centre have being having conversations with private companies encouraging them to put Info/Cal into their companies. Such a system, would then give their employees access to all the services offered by government. This could represent a gigantic savings to employers as this would cut out the amount of time employees have to take off to go and do some essential function. Paying a water bill, filling out a required form for property tax, applying for benefits, whatever the function it can be done right from the company location.
Originally, the idea had been to put the kiosks in the lobbies of office buildings. But even that requires employees taking time to go and use the system. What Bohart is now proposing is that the Info/Cal software be developed to go right into the office computers either as part of the company's LAN (local area network), part of the e-mail system or a separate piece of software. Whatever the system, it would radically change how government interacts with its citizens. One side effect would be the considerably less number of people needed for across the counter services. While part of the plan includes using Interactive TV to enable the customer to dial in and then get a government employee on screen to give further assistance for a query, the number of people needed would decline rapidly.
While the idea of Info/Cal into every work station in the state is very much in its nascent stage, and a long way from implementation, it is very much an idea that could take off simply because it relies on a multitude of technologies rather than just on kiosks. Russ Bohart would eventually like to see InfoCal, in some form or another, in every home in the state.
Of the 91 segments currently in the kiosk system all services can be delivered through the kiosk rather than over the counter. The only exception are construction blueprints from municipal and county governments; these you have to go and get from the designated office. But everything else can be done from the kiosk. The range of services and applications gets wider as it is developed. For example, in the kiosk program there is now a video clip on child abuse, on how to detect it and how to report it. People can get instantaneous information on such things as how to get a student loan and where the applications can be made, information on environmental issues and the judiciary. Applications for permits for house renovations can be made right at the kiosk with the necessary information entered and then approval sent to the individual. There is no need to trudge down to City Hall and stand in line waiting to fill out the forms.
Others now want to come into the system. Libraries want to come on-line to put information there not just on the library system but have Info/Cal in the library for people to use. The Federal government is negotiating with the State to put on the benefits to Veterans. The system can be used now to enroll children in school on-line, by determining to which district they belong and then providing the appropriate information on where they live. They will then be told what child there school will need to enroll in and the applicant fills in the information from the kiosk.
They are constantly upgrading the system, working to make it more and more user friendly and interactive. When entering the system the user can go through three menus quickly to get to the system they want.
One example of interactive usages is going to be the information they will be putting onto the system this year, in regards to nursing homes. It will contain basic information of what nursing homes can be found in the district, what kind of home it is and other essentials an individual might want answered to determine the best place to put their parent. To determine what the nursing home is like, it will contain such basic information as the latest licensing and inspection reports. The individual can ask questions like this and go as deep into the system as they need to determine what is best for he/she.
Plans such as this raise new issues as InfoCal, if and when it grows to offering all the types of services it wants to, will become an increasingly bigger and bigger information network. This raises a question of the integrity of data. It means that each agency will be responsible for the information they out into the system. In the case of the nursing home scenario, for example, it will mean the agency who reports on the homes will have to ensure the accuracy of the data they are putting on the system. A bad report based on erroneous, false or misleading information could have serious consequences.
What is making Info/Cal a success is the high degree of co-operation developing between government agencies in the State. What they all agree with right now is that at this stage in time the place they need to be in are the shopping malls, as this affords the widest and easiest access. Of course, this in itself brings its own problems as in huge malls the operators only want one in the whole mall, so the strategic placing of the kiosk becomes a key factor.
Program managers across government are also beginning to see the wide possibilities of being able to deliver far more services than envisioned in the past. Once the managers see a demonstration of the possibilities of the system, you see an extreme paradigm shift in the thinking of the individual, says Bohart.
He sees InfoCal of the future, as an entrepreneurial service which will be run as a fee for service. It is essentially not just a cost recovery service but one which will generate income and provide for development money.
In addition, he sees, as stated above, new and innovative ways to use InfoCal. The reason for this is there are so many new technologies developing which is making the user smarter and smarter. The good entrepreneur is going to have to keep up with these changes. As the private sector turns to more and more electronic networks to deliver their services, especially when the National Information Infrastructure is up and running, the more the public is going to expect that government services are delivered electronically. He gave the example of Macy's, the giant department store in the US, which has just opened an electronic shopping network. More and more we are seeing such services. It makes economic sense. For example, one day there were $29,000 worth of scarves sold in one minute. This illustrates the great profit potential for the private sector company who goes in this direction but also for the government which can deliver a service efficiently and significantly recoup costs (where fees are applicable) which will then subsidize services which are traditionally free.
The latter is important as one point that consistently arises is that the public expect free services in return for their tax dollar. Of course, a future answer to this could be that with lower taxes, because of electronic delivery of services, and other usages of technology, the citizen would pay for services only. If it really did mean lower taxes paid by the average individual then this could be quite workable, as resistance to paying a fee would be low.
Bohart believes that the passage of federal legislation, which guaranteed universal access to all citizens, in response to the needs of the disabled and handicapped, actually was the catalyst for the delivery of better services overall. As agencies were forced to determine ways to be able to deliver services to all, it became evident to them that such barriers could be overcome, especially through creative usages of technology itself. Such interfaces of the technology is going to serve to speed the process for technological implementation in regards to a host of services right across government.
What they are looking at now is a cost effectiveness program to make the system pay for itself. For example, they will charge the user by the frame for the delivery of a service and feel the consumer will pay if it is a convenience. As of January, 1994 there will be 100 more kiosks in operation, placed throughout California, and, for this reason, they want to expand the usage of the system.
Many ideas are now being looked at and developed. One in progress is consulting with agencies in Sacramento to determine the possibility of developing a one stop frame in the kiosk for the change of address. In other words, when an individual moves he/she would come to the kiosk, enter the change, and it would then register with all agencies that the individual's name and address etc. would be found. They believe this is something they could add a convenience fee, as individuals would appreciate a service which would eliminate a lot of paper work for the user. The system would then pay for itself. For example, in the case of getting a birth certificate, the individual currently has to pay $12 for the certificate but, as shown above, has to come to Sacramento to get it. For a simple $3 more, the convenience fee, the individual can then get it shipped to his/her home or printed off the kiosk by paying this small extra amount. Where California officials have a basic difference of opinion with the Federal government on how to run such systems is the latter believes such services should be free. The State of California sees such services as Info/Cal, or whatever shape it may take in the future, as a utility service which has a price attached to it.
USING TECHNOLOGY TO GET PEOPLE BACK TO WORK
Bob Garcia, of the State Employment Development Department, said they are using InfoCal to not only put information into the kiosks for state and employment benefits but also for job opportunities. Such information on jobs is put into the system daily with updates and deletions as needed. They want to offer a whole range of services to do away with across the counter services.
One of their field projects is to provide general information on how to apply for jobs and what agencies to go to to seek employment. One project they are experimenting with is to provide an interactive service in which the individual can not only pull out information but enter queries for further information or to get questions answered about job opportunities. While some of the information on jobs will be pre-recorded some will also be interactive.
In the Fall of 1993, they set up three pilot projects in California, one of them in the San Francisco area, which will have both pre-recorded messages on jobs information as well as an interactive service to call in to not only ask questions but to send information directly to the computer. The latter task could be done by an employment office or company looking to fill a position, as well as by a government agency. They are also considering the idea of taking applications over the phone but this is uncertain at the moment. The point here is they want to use the technology to enhance an important service - getting the unemployed back to work.
All officials interviewed recognized the changing nature of the state and the multilingual fabric with over 100 languages identified in the state. However, as they cannot deal with them all they have identified three main languages that are essential to offer in the kiosks-English, Spanish and Chinese.
What will determine the go ahead for the overall employment program is how much work is involved, how many employees will be needed, in the start up, to do the task and its overall feasibility. Bob Garcia sees that it will work and is an effective use of IT which will mean less across the counter services. They understand that this is going to mean a decrease in jobs, in this sector in government, but is a necessity in order to use technology to better deliver service to individuals. Not only is it cost efficient it is easier for the user who is trying to get a job.
However, the biggest problem all of the planners of Info/Cal programs are witnessing is internal; the problem is to get managers themselves to come around to the idea of the new technologies and the benefit to their programs. As with all new ideas, there are a few with the vision while the majority resist change. In the end, it could be technology that forces the change. Whatever the result, it is the human factor that will determine the speed with which these programs become effective across all the agencies.
Smart card technology has been considered by the State but there are many problems ranging from the security aspects, getting people to memorize their PIN numbers and, also, the loss of the cards by the individuals who use them. The cards are expensive to replace. For these reasons, the State has been slow to move on smart cards though this could change as they are open to many options when it comes to all the new technologies. This is a time of flux because there are so many technological developments coming so fast.
Another opinion, about Info/Cal, is that perhaps it should have originally been a merger of public and private sector options and services (as is the case with Teleview in Singapore). This is an option still available for the future and might come to fruition if the idea to put the kiosk software into every work station possible comes to be. Another possibility is when the Information Infrastructure comes into existence, and if the Television becomes the medium for full delivery of all services, then the public and private sector offering of services on one system could merge. This is something for the demands of the consumer and the market place to determine in the future.
STRATEGIES, IMPLEMENTATIONS AND THE FUTURE:
ELECTRONIC DELIVERY OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES IN CALIFORNIA
Steve Kolodney is the Director of the Office of Information Technology in the State of California. He has been responsible for much of the innovative uses of technology in the State. He has held this position for many years.
He says that the current climate of fiscal restraint leads to the possibilities of developing new and creative ideas for the usage of IT.
With diminishing funds throughout the State, because of the serious recession in California, the high rate of unemployment and the lowered tax base combined with the fact California's Constitution requires that the budget be balanced every year, it means new ways must be found to: 1) new methods to use less to continue to deliver services and efficient administration; 2) new ways to pay for services.
This move towards finding new funding sources to fund new developments means they are moving to transactional based activities.
For example, one across the board system is being developed to efficiently collect taxes. The new system, which will also involve the private sector and use the SSN (social security number) as the identifier, will allow them to collect taxes directly from people's bank accounts. At the moment the tax system is not integrated so it allows taxes owed to fall through the cracks. It is estimated that the new linkage system will allow them to generate as much as $62 million in revenue in the first year of operation.
This is just one example of how the fiscal climate is going to generate new ideas for the delivery of services, of which Info/Cal is going to play a large part (and is already doing so, as indicated above in the description of what has been done to date and what is planned).
Another system they are going on-line with, a project being developed in the near future, relates to the environment. They are going to map all elements of resources in the state, such as endangered species, wetlands, and other environmental information and then make it available through a wide variety of sources. It will be carried through the libraries and on a host of systems such as Compuserve and Internet. This will be a remote service for people who vitally need such environmental information. A fee for service, while small, could still be charged. It could possibly be done in conjunction with the Federal government. There are many models of the remote delivery of systems, of which the kiosk is one.
He agrees with others that InfoCal is quickly becoming outmoded, as a service delivery system, in its present format. It is one step towards an even more personal connection that the user will want. But, he says, the InfoCal kiosk has served a valuable purpose. It has: 1) shown people (both the user and the government manager) the importance of electronic delivery of a service; and 2) it starts to build the infrastructure, for which the kiosk has proven to be an important intermediary step.
He agrees that there is no certainty what exact technology will emerge, that people will prefer or want to use over other technologies. It is understood that the television is going to become an important medium in the new interactive services rushing into our lives. The new infrastructure is going to make all this technology more personal, in the sense of personalized services. How the technology of demand emerges will depend on how the infrastructure will shape itself in the future. That is something that cannot be accurately predicted at the moment, though many are trying to guess what it will be.
He says that at this stage they already know they are going to need a personal ID infrastructure (because of the sheer amounts of information that will now flow across these highways). What they know is they are going to need some form of a technological infrastructure for the delivery of services simply because technology is the future.
He said they realized years ago that the important part of their job would be to put an infrastructure there, so that in the future, options would be available. For example, all drivers' licenses in the state now have magnetic, machine readable stripes, which gives out the basic information about the owner. The development of this started years ago, and is taking a long time to complete, because in California the citizen only has to renew the license every twelve years. This means it has been a long evolution but now they are close to a situation where every citizen in the state has this new driver's license. As a personal identifier it may or may not play a role in future delivery of services, says Steve Kolodney, but it is there in the event it is needed. As a planning device it has proven invaluable because it is a form of a technology infrastructure which you have now put into everyone's hands.
Governments, by their nature, always take a long time to put in infrastructures but still have the responsibility to put them there, no matter how fast the technological changes are. Steve Kolodney commented that it is their obligation, as state officials responsible for technological innovation, to put the infrastructure there so that people can derive and develop new applications.
At the heart of all these changes in technology that are emerging, says Steve Kolodney, is that we meed to prepare for the basic changes that are coming. As the paved highways and railroads of the past created new communities and cottage industries so will the electronic highways that are now spanning the globe.
California is doing what it can to prepare for the future, including engaging in public and private sector ventures to find new and innovative ways to deliver their services. Like all governments they are faced with old practices of the past meeting startling new methods generated by technology. The basic strength of the developments in California is they are preparing themselves for all eventualities and constantly seeking new ways to use technology to better services to the citizen. Their philosophy is to be client driven. They perceive the citizen as a client who needs to be satisfied and the way to do this is to constantly upgrade the service and ensure their needs are met. In this way they will satisfy their mandate as a government and also see a financial return.
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