The Future of Digital Government
Thomas Kalil White House Nat’l Economic Council May 16, 2000 thomas_kalil@opd.eop.gov
Digital government goals Efficiency (more with less) New and better ways of meeting public policy goals using IT Openness and transparency Better and more legitimate decisionmaking, more democratic Stimulate innovation through gov’t as user
Drivers for digital government Increased access to Internet Rising public expectations from ecommerce experience (e.g. one click ordering, tracking my FedEx package) Increased functionality (e.g. authentication) Reinventing Government
Obstacles and barriers Shortage of technical expertise at decision-making level in gov’t Shortage of technical talent at working level Difficulty of cross-agency collaboration Budget constraints Risk-reward ratio for innovation
Recent developments in IT policy Digital divide initiative IT R&D Critical infrastructure protection E-commerce December 1999 executive orders on egovernment and e-society G-7/G-8
Digital divide/digital opportunity President’s “Call To Action” President’s Trip Budget Initiatives
$100 million for Community Tech. Centers $2 billion in tax incentives $150 million to train all new teachers $50 million for “home access” $45 million for Tech. Opportunities Program
Digital divide/digital opportunity I believe that the computer and the Internet give us a chance to move more people out of poverty more quickly than at any time in all of human history.
-- President Clinton, April 4, 2000
Digital divide/digital opportunity What applications would help empower low-income individuals & communities?
Adult literacy, GED equivalence Skills for starting own business
How will these applications get created? Could we bring the economics of software (0 marginal cost) to social services?
Information Technology for 21st Century
$600 million increase in IT research proposed for FY2001 Responds to recommendation of PITAC, emphasis on long-term, high-risk research Huge response from academic community to NSF solicitation Exciting proposals from DARPA for “BioFutures” and “Beyond Silicon”
Enabling technology centers Fund research and education at intersection between IT and application domains
applied R&D testbeds education and training community building
Critical Infrastructure Protection Securing government systems Increasing R&D Reviewing adequacy of “cyber-crime” laws Creation of cyber-corps Encouraging private sector sharing of information on threats, best practices
E-commerce Privacy Internet Taxation Digital Signatures Broadband Competition policy and B2B Intellectual property Database legislation
E-government directive Organize information and services around topic, not agency Top 500 forms online E-procurement Privacy policies Agency e-mail addresses for public comment
E-government directive Online voting study by NSF Electronic benefits Use of public key technology Agency strategy for use of Internet including:
partnerships with research community training rewarding innovation
Possible next steps Identify some concrete partnerships between agencies and research community
Environmental monitoring and distributed sensors Geospatial information
White paper contest (LANL/open source) Pot of money for cross-agency initiatives