Web aids business, service delivery

The World Wide Web offers governments an effective universal interface for delivering services and for conducting business, according to a recent project completed at the Center for Technology in Government at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Albany.

The project, which dealt specifically with the state of New York, set out to answer whether a government could currently use the Web as a universal interface for delivering all or most services to citizens and for conducting business within and among state and local agencies. The answer to both questions is a qualified “yes.”

The project report backs the Web on the grounds that tools available today can customize information search and presentation; extend the classroom into the living room; bring an office to a worker located in any remote location; extend the life of expensive legacy systems; and enhance our ability to collaborate across time and space. However, the project team qualifies its conclusion because not every person or organization has the know-how, infrastructure or specific tools to take equal advantage of all these capabilities.

The team that worked on the project included government, academic and corporate partners who together conducted a wide range of reviews and experiments within four services: information dissemination, business applications, group collaboration and education and training. Numerous concepts and capabilities were investigated in each area through an evaluation of existing applications, the development of prototypes and a search for best practices. In each case, technical feasibility was demonstrated using commercially available tools. Although limitations were encountered in nearly every instance, none was so severe that the capability could not be effectively implemented.

In the information dissemination and group collaboration areas, the project team reported activities and results by completing a standard template consisting of a series of technical and reference questions answered for each application investigated. In the business applications and education and training service areas, case studies report the results and implications.

Information dissemination capabilities investigated included concept searching, Web agents, client-side processing, “cookies,” streaming and virtual reality. These tools make it possible for information search and presentation to be personalized for a specific user. They also take advantage of the intelligence available on the desktop to gather and integrate information from many locations, in different formats and media.

Business applications covered two complex areas: the transition of a major nationwide database, America’s Job Bank, from a mainframe to a Web-based application; and the development of a prototype Web front-end linked to an existing database application at SUNY. Both case studies discuss the strategies and options that organizations need to consider when embarking on Web-legacy projects.

Group collaboration reviews involved a look at capabilities such as white-boarding, net-based meetings and calendars. These tools allow greater participation in decision making by removing time and location as prerequisites for participation.

Educational services reviewed included both Web-based academic programs, such as SUNY’s Learning Network, and professional training applications that were developed at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and the U.S. Department of Energy. These cases illustrate how the Web can be used to implement learner-centered models of education.

For more information, visit CTG’s Web site at: http://www.ctg.albany.edu.