IP: The SCAG Web Thing [bit prish but an interesting view djf]

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Government Use of the Web Moves Beyond Electronic Brochures
------------------------------------------------------------


One of the most socially interesting aspects of the Web is the
potential for improving how government agencies work with one another.
Improving coordination between agencies is a probably a good step
toward improving how governments listen to citizens at large, and one
government agency in Southern California is taking just such an
approach.


Although there are currently many government efforts on the Web,
most of them suffer from the same ills as many commercial Web sites:


o  They are uni-directional (we provide you with information, but
   we don't really care what *you* think, except perhaps via a simple
   mailto:)


o  They are static, containing lots of otherwise-printed material,
   but nothing that changes frequently


o  They provide online indexes and catalogs, but relatively little
   actual data is available online


In short, most government Web sites don't really *do* anything.  They
just *are*.  There are exceptions, of course, but by-and-large the
above generalizations hold.


At least one government agency seems to have the vision to try to push
beyond these simplistic pages and actually *do* something.  The
Southern California Association of Governments (known not-so-
affectionately as "SCAG") is using the Web to connect all 184 SoCal
cities and six counties with each other and with the public.


The executive director at SCAG, Mark Pisano, seems to understand that
the Web and similar technologies have the potential to fundamentally
change the way that governments follow, rather than lead, the people.
One professional at SCAG, Terry Bills, has the vision (or naivete) to
to try to get governments to use a Web-based toolset for
inter-government coordination and data sharing.  A side-effect would
be that ordinary citizens could then also use the same vehicle to
communicate with their local governments.


As part of a larger project to provide GIS tools to each local
government in the region, the project is also providing a set of
Web-based tools to help them access one another's planning
information, get new downloads of information from SCAG, and similar
activities.


What SCAG is doing seems to be unique among governments: they are
actively building a bi-directional, dynamic Web site with real data in
it.  Governments will be able to not just see what data is there, but
actually get to it.  Information flows will not just be to SCAG from
the local agencies and back, but also directly between local agencies.
And since all of the shared data will live on the Web with a minimal
security model (some data does, after all, need to be protected),
sharing data with non-local governments (e.g., state and federal
planning agencies like CalTrans and USDOT) is fully expected and
encouraged.


The project concept is very much in keeping with the Internet ethos of
multi-point, multidirectional, free-flowing data sharing.  Instead of
simply mapping their existing print and manual data sharing models
onto Web tools, the vision is to adopt as much of the cooperative
Internet style as possible.  But the project isn't complete yet, so
the real question is whether grand experiment will be able convert
(subvert?) the typical government "business as usual" bureaucracy.


Stay tuned.  The project is about to launch, and although there are
lots of government and private-sector folks who are ecstatic about
the possibilities, there are certainly a lot of scared bureaucrats
who are afraid of losing control.  It will be interesting to see
who wins.


for further info -- pan () naecker com