Digital government program emphasizes partnership

Signal, Aug 2000 by Houghtaling, Pamela A

A structure is now in place for the National Science Foundation's many digital government partnerships and activities. Named dg.o, it serves as a resource for government agencies, university researchers and private industry. "We're aiming to create partnerships that haven't existed before," says Larry Brandt, National Science Foundation program manager for digital government.

"Information technology is so critical to the strategic vision of every agency," he continues. "The agencies need to be there making their needs known as the technologies are invented. One way to be at the cutting edge is to partner with universities."

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is finishing its second year of awards to university researchers. In the first year, 50 proposals were received. That number went up to 60 the following year. Agencies can collaborate with NSF and provide funding of their own, which can include contributions of data, staff and other in-kind resources. In fiscal year 99, the budget for the NSF program was $2.2 million. Additional funding by other agencies brought the total to $3.8 million. The current budget has been increased to $5.5 million.

Currently, some 18 active research grants are available, which provide between $150,000 to $500,000 a year for three years. Smaller grants are made for workshops and planning proposals. Brandt stresses the role of community building activities, such as workshops, as a means of furthering research. Interested university and government people can suggest relevant topics for workshops to him.

A national workshop, dg.o2000, was held a few months ago in Los Angeles. Sponsored by the digital government research center, the workshop included presentations on NSF-funded research in information technology and was attended by a diverse group of researchers and government representatives. The University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute and Columbia University's department of computer science jointly operate the center, which was formed to conduct applied research on computer-related issues applicable to government functions. The goal is to develop pilot systems as part of every research effort, says Yigal Arens, the center's co-director and chair of dg.o2000.

Brandt notes that his program is attracting some of the best researchers in the academic community. Some are computer scientists or specialists in government-related areas, such as urban planning or biodiversity. He explains that government is a good place to do research because it presents real-world problems. Also, much of the data is public and therefore available for researchers to use.

One big problem concerns access to government statistical data. There is a substantial amount of legacy data all across the government in systems that weren't built to interrelate. There's also the issue of differing definitions of terms, which interferes with cross-agency access to data. What is a "family" or "regular gasoline?" Also, how does an agency compute averages and for what time period? All of this complicates finding the right information for any number of purposes by a wide variety of individuals-from statisticians and policymakers to the general public.

"Why should the customer care what the organization chart of the federal government looks like?" asks Brandt. "A person should be able to approach the government from a service perspective."

Through two NSF grants, the digital government research center is conducting research on the collection and dissemination of statistical data. Researchers have been working with the Bureau of the Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, and the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration. One grant is aimed at improving the process of creating surveys-the basis for data collection. The larger one is looking at simplifying dissemination, which involves integrating data from multiple sources, creating and understanding terminology, and designing user interfaces. According to Arens, the plan is to put a system on the Web that will allow people to make sensible queries and understand the results.

"It is important for people to know that the huge potential of communications over the Internet has not been fully realized," Arens states. "This huge potential is going to mean a fundamental change in the way government and citizens interact. We're just seeing the beginning."

Virtual Government first reported on the NSF digital government initiative in June 1998. The digital government Web site is located at: http://diggov.org/about /index.cfm.