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# Table of Contents

##### Executive Summary I

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##### Overview 1

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##### Introduction: Toward Citizen-Centric Government 2

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##### Communication for a Connected Society 3

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##### Communication Tools for a Connected Society 6

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##### Citizen-Connection Realities: Rising, but Uneven Access 9

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##### Governments as "Media One" Catalyst 11

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##### Changing Citizen-Government Relationships: Partners in Innovation 13

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##### Citizens as Co-Producers: Reducing Content and Usability Barriers 15

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##### Conclusion 18

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##### Appendix A: How To Move Forward A-1

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##### Appendix B: Voice Application Networks B-1

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##### Appendix C: XML C-1

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##### Appendix D: Collaborative Workspaces D-1

##### 

##### 

##### 

##### Resources

##### Executive Summary

The Internet and other information and communication technologies are
rapidly changing the way we work, learn, communicate with each other,
and conduct government. Societies around the world are embracing and
"bracing for" the myriad consequences and challenges posed by this
growing network of individual knowledge makers and traders. Businesses
scramble to use the Internet to increase productivity, boost exports,
and forge closer relationships with customers and suppliers.
Increasingly as businesses cope with a corporate workforce located
around the globe and dealing directly with millions of customers around
the globe, they realize that the value of communication skills probably
surpasses all others.

The Federal Government similarly seeks to create improvements in its
communications capabilities throughout its organizations by taking a
citizen-centric approach. This e-government approach is focused on
unifying islands of automation and simplifying business processes to
create an unbroken "information value chain."

The impetus behind the push towards e-government is simple. Governments,
like businesses, believe that well-conceived services using the multiple
delivery channels of the Internet are the best way to meet agency
missions. In addition, the growing use of interactive communication
technologies used in market research and collaborative work makes it
possible to communicate directly with people with disabilities, senior
citizens, and members of immigrant or isolated groups to foreclose on
access disparities due to inadequate designs.

The most publicly visible metric for e-government success will be
enfranchising all who want the opportunity to be involved in local civic
life in spite of a handicapping condition such as age, disability, or a
previously isolating difference. But the ultimate success of electronic
government depends on the ability of *all* consumers to take full
advantage of the opportunities offered by the government. A sound
e-government course will tip the market balance toward more commercial
offerings available to government and other organizations that are
designed for use by all people. As the Internet shifts from presenting
static information to dynamic and service-oriented applications, Federal
organizations that form active learning partnerships with state and
community leaders will tap the power of a citizen-centric approach.

This guide presents an emerging perspective of citizen-centric
government as driver for sound and timely implementation of three
promising enterprise tools: 1) voice application networks, 2) eXtensible
Markup Language (XML), and 3) collaborative Web space. Taken together
these tools and the corresponding state and local partnership forums
used to implement them will generate the conditions needed for expanded
civic and digital opportunities that meet public expectations for access
and equity. Today the unprecedented convergence of technologies only
raises the possibilities, and collaborations forged to extend digital
dividends to all Americans by local and federal participants will
increase the net value to society of the government's information value
chain by an order of magnitude.

**Overview**

The Enterprise Interoperability and Emerging Technology Committee of the
CIO Council has developed this guide, *Extending Digital Dividends:
Public Goods and Services that Work for All,* as a first step in
assisting public administrators in improving government-wide program
delivery decisions. The guide is designed to raise awareness of the
technological opportunities that exist for spanning the digital divide
and how they intersect with those segments of the American population
that are currently most underserved in terms of participating in a
citizen-centered e-government. To that end, the guide undertakes the
following activities:

-   Identifies those demographic groups that are disproportionately
    underserved by e-government and, in an effort to cultivate
    intervention strategies, presents information on the addressable
    issues that cut across those underserved markets;

-   Provides exemplars of successful e-government efforts to minimize
    digital disparities;

-   Highlights the opportunities that eXtensible Markup Language (XML)
    and its variants bring to Federal agencies to improve the delivery
    of government goods and services by its ability to repurpose and
    reuse information;

-   Provides background and reference information on those technology
    enhancements such as voice application networks, Web networks, and
    collaborative workspaces that are poised to offer forward-looking
    Federal programs the greatest value as they move to a more
    citizen-centered e-government; and

-   Identifies ways for public administrators to implement XML and other
    emerging technologies as the Federal Government sets in motion the
    transformation of a government centered around customer needs.

#### **Introduction: Toward Citizen-Centric Government**

The principles of government openness, equity, and accountability are
inherent in the democratic ideal---an informed citizenry is essential to
the democratic process; the more the American people know about
themselves in society, mediated by government, the better they will be
governed. This philosophy is embedded in the activities of most Federal
agencies through the many public information access requirements in
individual agency authorizing statutes. Both Congress and the President
have reinforced the importance of public information in recent years
through such mandates as the Government Paperwork Elimination Act, the
promulgation of procurement standards under Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act, and the Administration\'s vision of e-government. In
fact, government\'s very success is measured in its ability to provide
timely and useful information and services to all citizens. This
performance measure is derived from several factors, some of which grow
out of Congressional statutes or Administrative mandates, but all of
which support the ideal that an informed public is necessary to a
healthy democracy.

**E-government** is one of the five key elements in the President\'s
Management and Performance Plan. As highlighted in Office of Management
and Budget Memorandum 01-28[^1], the focus of current e-government
initiatives is on reforming the government so that it is results
oriented, market based, and citizen centered. The plan calls for linking
the current \"islands of automation\" that make it difficult to access
and derive the value of information contained in disparate databases.
This will be achieved by simplifying and unifying business processes to
maximize the benefit from technology. The movement towards e-government
and the power it holds to transform the delivery of goods and services
to the public is profound. The ultimate success of e-government depends
on the ability of *all* people to take advantage of the opportunities
offered by the government. Information provided electronically to only a
portion of the public will not gain public acceptance if that same
information cannot be made accessible to all citizens.

**Section 508** of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (found at
29 U.S.C. 794d) generally requires Federal agencies to ensure that their
procurement of electronic and information technology (EIT) takes into
account the needs of all people, including people with disabilities.
Doing so enhances the ability of Federal employees with disabilities to
have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to
that provided to others. Similarly, agency procurement of accessible EIT
enhances the ability of members of the public with disabilities who are
seeking information or services from a Federal agency to have access to
and use of information and data that is comparable to that provided to
others. These standards became enforceable on June 21, 2001.

**The Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA)**, P. L. 105-277, is
another important tool to improve customer service and government
efficiency through the use of information technology. GPEA requires
Federal agencies, by October 21, 2003, to allow individuals or entities
that deal with the agencies the option to submit information or transact
with the agency electronically, when practicable, and to maintain
records electronically, when practicable.

These policies taken together, along with the changing communications
opportunities afforded by technology, are setting the conditions for
better understanding of ways to learn how to continue to improve
delivery of services to underserved groups today.

# Communications for a Connected Society

The means by which Americans communicate with one another, either on the
job or in their personal lives, are changing. Traditional methods of
communicating in person, by phone or letter, are being augmented by the
Internet. Previously remote or unavailable information is at hand. For
example, architects are now exploring how to use direct two-way
communication of visual and spatial ideas with public officials,
clients, building users and ordinary citizens. In all economic growth
and development activities, the opportunity exists to communicate and
exchange information more effectively with more people. This
collaborative approach was the winning formula practiced by the
universities, scientists, and government officials who created the
Internet almost forty years ago.

##### Mutual, Two-way Communications

Community-building defines our national character for relating to one
another as observed by de Tocqueville---

*\"Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions
constantly form associations.*

*...In democratic countries the science of association is the mother of
science;*

*the progress of all the rest depends on the progress it has made.\"*

This drive to associate is also reflected in the introduction to the
1999 handbook entitled, *The Local News* *Handbook*, published by the
Readership Issues Committee of the American Society of Newspaper
Editors---

"When our readers and potential readers tell us, over and over, that
they want more,

and more local news, they are saying they want information and help to
live better,

they want to know what is going on around them and

they want to be a part of a community."

A community-building role for individuals continues to be discussed
throughout the handbook. One recommendation for news editors is to
better understand local issues through research into government
demographics and other data---to "tell the story" of the community
through civic "mapping" exercises. The report outlines ten dimensions of
local news, this is worth reviewing when thinking about how and why the
availability of government information products should be promoted in a
public information infrastructure.

##### What Does Customer-Centric Mean? Ten Dimensions of Local News that Matter to the Media 

[Proximity.]{.underline} Readers appreciate news about their immediate
community.

[Safety.]{.underline} People want to be safe in their communities and in
their homes.

[Utility.]{.underline} Successful media products conform to the users\'
daily activities and help advance them.

[Government.]{.underline} Citizens want to be engaged, to be more than
bystanders in civic life.

[Education]{.underline}. Interest and participation in improving local
schools is pervasive and growing.

[Spirituality.]{.underline} Not just resources for values and ethics,
churches are important assistance centers.

[Support.]{.underline} Americans volunteer in unprecedented numbers with
various organizations.

[Identity.]{.underline} People want to be part of a community.

[Recognition.]{.underline} Media confirms affirmation of high honor.

[Empowerment.]{.underline} Americans thrive on mobilizing and
organizing---it's part of our character.

The most important hurdle is whether the information products being
developed actually have demonstrable impact in real-life communities. As
people have access to more information, expectations are raised
regarding the quality of the content, as well its accessibility. In
fact, as shown in recent reports[^2], the public places a high value on
e-government\'s ability to hold the Federal government accountable, a
fact that is not likely to change as Internet usage continues to
increase.

##### Bridging Islands of Data Automation and Individual Separation 

For much of their understanding about utilizing Internet-based
technologies to improve service delivery, governments can look to the
best practices of businesses in the marketplace. Businesses know that
the loyalty of valuable customers must be continually earned. Knowing
how to focus on targeted market segments is the key to how services are
marketed and sold. Being supplied with this knowledge from business and
seeing what it looks like in practice, governments are halfway toward
charting a sound course.

For the remaining points on the socioeconomic compass, however,
governments must work harder. They must turn to the best examples of
public management. How can all consumers be served, not just represent
targeted, profitable markets? The U.S. Census is an important resource
for gleaning the needs of those not normally targeted by businesses and
marketing plans. The 2000 Census is expected to reveal that these
citizens are growing at a faster rate than "mainstream" market segments.
Non-mainstream groups include people with disabilities, people over 50,
and people with English or technical literacy deficits due to
immigration or cultural isolation from mainstream opportunities.
Although outpacing the growth rates of other demographic groups, these
groups have broadly been identified as least likely to be using the
Internet. Limited income frequently increases the likelihood that these
groups will not use the Internet.

At this juncture, comparison of government as business only falls short.
The short-term profit-optimizing strategies of business diverge from
public service strategies. Businesses can choose to operate exclusively
in new Internet space, and market exclusively to preferred customers.
Governments cannot.

##### Extending Digital Dividends by 360° 

So what is the \"digital divide?\" The divide arises out of the
unprecedented rate of adoption and reliance on digital methods of
communication in society. This rapid societal dependence, by historical
terms, is outpacing electronic communications use by individuals and
groups whose social network ties may already be weak, due to other
factors such as technical designs that restrict usefulness by people
with disabilities, cost and complexity, and reading/technical literacy.
But the societal divide has been compounded by acceptance of digital
content methods that partition public information on disconnected
"islands of automation." Information formatted for one media or platform
cannot necessarily convert to another. The value of this information to
general society is also low relative to its cost to maintain. It means
that those members of the public who today find reliance on the Internet
to be unsatisfactory, inconvenient, unaffordable, or unavailable do not
have an alternative to access useful information developed in their own
city or region even though it is available to any Internet user in the
world. Communities cannot afford to remain at a disadvantage while
others benefit from electronic information sources.

But just as the Internet breaks boundaries of time and distance, it
breaks boundaries of conventional thinking. Creative pioneers from the
previously almost invisible communities of people with disabilities,
older people, and people with education or cultural-related literacy
deficits are carefully stewarding the best of the old, familiar ways of
communicating with new ways made possible using unfamiliar technologies.
Creativity and discipline emerging from the mutual interests of
associations of people with disabilities and innovating companies, such
as e-publishing in Open Forums, are charting a new course that will
enable Federal information to flow more quickly, easily, and equitably
to all people. These association-building activities must be recognized
by Federal online service efforts, so time and effort is not wasted.
Promising service delivery technologies for both opening up information
flow while structuring it for optimal use include: 1) expansion of the
national telephone directory service using spoken language interaction;
2) adoption of an open standard notation system \[eXtensible Markup
Language (XML)\] for digital content that supports easy transport among
Internet, phone, and a myriad of networked devices; and 3) Open Forums
combining Web collaboration space and face-to-face meetings that support
deliberation and convening among stakeholder groups. In particular, the
Open Forums are key to accelerating the structural social conventions
needed to realize the "connection-making" potential of these converging
capabilities. Without this open process, another generation of separate
"islands of automation" will be inevitable, based on marketplace
history. Governments, universities, and businesses that support the
conditions for these forums to flourish, without try to own and control
them, will soon discover the innovation-diffusion power of this
citizen-centric approach. Perhaps the by-product of the Internet*---*the
heightened power to build meaningful and transparent public
associations*---*remains today, as always, our core engine of economic
growth.

# Communication Tools for a Connected Society

Three promising Internet-based technologies will be highlighted in this
section and used as models in this guide. Taken together and implemented
well by the emerging open consortiums over the next few years, they have
the potential to dramatically extend the reach, quality, and usefulness
of public information goods and services. They can recast familiar,
available information tools---including the telephone, radio, books, TV,
and newspapers---as transporting devices for more easily accessible and
up-to-date public content widely available due to open XML standards,
and that is inexpensive to render and authenticate in multiple forms.
These technologies have the potential to multiply benefits, by
simplification and unification of information, if the public forums are
convened to secure the mutual commitments needed. These technologies
will allow the government to begin to close the digital divide by
providing more information to such underserved markets as persons with
disabilities, those who are over 50, or who those who are functionally
illiterate

###### Voice Application Networks

Voice Application Networks allow the same dynamic information
interactions developed for the Internet to be provided by telephone. In
response to a caller's spoken selection, up-to-date information is
presented in a natural sounding voice.

An example is Utah\'s new Traveler Advisory Telephone and Internet
system, developed in preparation for the 2002 Olympics, that will
integrate road weather conditions, accidents, congestion, and
construction activities into one system. This system includes both a Web
site and an interactive voice recognition telephone system. By using the
dynamic information structure capability of XML (the next technology
highlighted in this guide and introduced below), current information is
continuously distributed to both services. Those unfamiliar with the
Internet or simply traveling can call the 511 abbreviated dialing code.
Using a natural sounding voice, the telephone system prompts the caller
with questions. Callers simply respond orally to the questions and are
provided the information they need. This connecting technology spans the
digital divide between the familiar phone and the sometimes unfamiliar
Internet.

Voice Application Networks are maturing in power and popular appeal just
in time to be effectively used by localities that are expanding the
National N11 abbreviated dialing services. Today, 411 business directory
services and 911 emergency services are most widely used by the general
public. Soon more N11 numbers will become equally known and available
(see Appendix B). This nationwide dialing system allows telephone users
to connect with service gateways throughout the country by dialing only
three digits. Below is an example of the 311 Non-Emergency Government
Services directory:

The City of Hampton, VA opened its 311 call center in September of 1999
to provide city residents with 24-hour-a-day, seven day a week access to
city services and information, ranging from reporting missed trash
collection to answering questions about the city budget.[^3] The service
has been very well received, and public satisfaction with the service
has been extremely high, with the call center receiving an average of
600 calls a day (May 2000).[^4] A likely next step would be along the
path that the state of Utah has taken: A well-designed Web site that is
XML-based and thus able to simplify and improve not one, but two
channels of information support, with all of the attendant benefits
associated with broad reach and redeployment of personnel.

eXtensible Markup Language (XML)

XML is a notation system for breaking down the islands of automation by
representing the underlying structure and meaning of electronic
information in an open and mutually agreed upon manner. This markup
language and its variants (e.g., VoiceXML and Wireless Markup Language)
are derived from the markup language (SMGL) used by electronic
publishers. XML can simplify and unify the sources of data to reduce the
burden of managing multiple sources of data. These same characteristics
allow information to be reused and multiple databases to be updated in a
distributed fashion, resulting in lower maintenance and greater value
derived from the multiple composite information views possible. Data is
maintainable and shareable through multiple channels, whether it is
accessed directly by the public or indirectly through state or local
governments who receive and then publish the information to their own
jurisdictions. The state of Utah example described above illustrates the
potential of XML.

The Michigan state legislature converted its compiled law to XML, which
makes it easier to offer the documents online in multiple formats (HTML
and PDF formats). This action not only helped state agencies to improve
the production and management of their legislative process, but also
enables the public to access documents without the need for a legal
researcher. At some point, the public will be able to see the
relationship between legislative actions and results of those actions
expressed in government records. Visitors can draw from different
sources to build their own customized output documents. More than 6,000
people use the system every day, with more than 43 million hits since
the system was launched two years ago.

The National Archives and Records Administration and the Government
Printing Office (GPO) are moving from SGML to XML. XML offers more tools
and web renderings. XML enables applications to: 1) mediate between two
disparate database;, 2) present different views of the same data to
different users; and 3) support intelligent agents that tailor
information discovery processes to the needs of individual users.
Agencies that submit documents to GPO receive a 35 percent discount for
submitting them in marked-up text. XML supports the philosophy that data
"belongs" to its creators, and distribution channels are best served by
a data format that does not bind the content to a particular vendor's
tools or platform.

An important XML story is how it is being employed to create Digital
Talking Books, which is highlighted in Section VII.

##### Collaborative Workspaces 

Collaborative workspaces, which combine the functionality of Internet
chat rooms with the document-storage capabilities of a knowledge
management system allow for the creation of more meaningful
partnerships, among state and local providers of government services,
community groups, businesses, non-profits, and the public. Businesses
are the most sophisticated users of collaborative workspaces, which are
important tools to manage customer and partner relationships. A good
example is the Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) described in Section
VII that includes traditional media publishers, electronic publishers,
hardware manufacturers, software developers, and various other
organizations, including disability organizations and access-technology
providers. The purpose of OEBF is to create and establish XML standards
for electronic book technology, and to promote this technology. OEBF
books produced by any publisher will be readable on any manufacturer's
OEBF-compliant device. The agreements necessary for cross-platform
compatibility are critical to success. All partners know that
independent islands of automation will fail.

A recent successful government use of collaborative workspaces was the
Environmental Protection Agency\'s (EPA) Online Dialogue held in July,
200 which was targeted at certain groups, including consumers,
environmental and advocacy groups, and minorities. EPA used the online
dialogue, which attracted 1,200 users, to gather comments on EPA\'s
draft public involvement policy. The dialogue was structured similarly
to an in-person meeting, starting each day in the morning with an online
posting of the daily topic, an introduction, and comments made by a
panel of experts. Approximately 100 to 200 messages were received each
day, subsequently summarized, and then sent to all of the participants.
While the dialogue did not replace the traditional Federal Register
publication and respective comment period, it did allow EPA another
venue in which to gather and share stakeholder comments.

With this brief introduction to the promising Internet-based
technologies with the greatest potential for changing interaction
quality between citizens and government generally, the remaining
sections of this guide will introduce the addressable challenges and
opportunities posed by the move to e-government in light of current
understanding of existing digital disparities.

#### **Citizen-Connection Realities: Rising, but Uneven Access**

As of August 2000, American families with an Internet connection had
risen to 41.5 percent of the population, with more than half of all
households owning computers, and 116.5 million Americans had been
on-line at some location. While it is predicted that by the time of this
writing recognizable gains in Internet usage will be seen again and more
than half of all Americans will be using the Internet, it is equally
clear then that almost half of the American population will not have
access to the Internet and the improved access to information that it
brings.

According to a Government Accounting Office (GAO) study released in
February 2001[^5], overall, Internet users tended to have higher
household incomes, and more education than the general U.S. population.
For example, Internet users were more likely than the general population
to be in a household with an income of \$35,000 or more per year.
Internet users over the age of 24 were also significantly more likely to
be college graduates or to have a graduate degree than the general
population. Additionally, GAO\'s survey found that Internet users,
compared with the general U.S. population, represented a higher
percentage of whites and a lower percentage of African-Americans and
Hispanics. Other demographic findings showed that the proportion of men
and women online now mirror that of the general population, which
suggests that women have caught up in their use of Internet technology.

These statistics bring to light the idea that the digital divide not
only mirrors, but magnifies the divides existing in society. The above
trends are important for understanding the scope of the challenge that
an unbalanced and partitioned society presents increasingly to our own
country. The rapid pace of "islands of information distribution" that
are not connected, yet play a dominant role in determining societal
opportunities and access to vital knowledge, only exacerbates the social
distance between those who can tap the electronic information flow and
those who cannot. Societies cannot passively, but in effect
"ex-communicate," individuals, allowing them to be separated from
effective communication and interaction in their community because of
digital disparities.

##### Addressable Citizen-Connection Factors

This guide asks how e-government services today can mitigate the effects
of digital disparities by accelerating innovative diffusion of public
information products and services that can be shared widely at low cost.
Quality interaction issues of accessibility, usability, and usefulness
can be addressed. These issues cut across all of the categories
described next. Three groups disproportionately affected are: Americans
with disabilities, older people without work experience in using
computers, and people with English or technical literacy limitations,
compounded at times by both cultural or geographic isolation and limited
finances.

**Americans with disabilities** are only half as likely as the
populations at large to have access to the Internet, ranking below any
other category of people. While one quarter of Americans without a
disability have never used the Internet, close to two-thirds of disabled
Americans have not. The most serious barriers to computer and Internet
use are currently associated with visual impairment or manual dexterity
problems. Deaf and hearing-impaired people have a much higher
utilization rate, but are at risk to be left out if multi-media
practices fail to offer visually presented text options for spoken
information.

In terms of Internet use, the critical differentiator for **people over
age 50** is current or previous workforce participation. Individuals who
did not participate in the workforce had one of the lowest rates of
Internet use at less than 17 percent. However, the statistic for
workforce participants jumped to nearly 47 percent, still a smaller
percentage than other groups.

**Functional reading literacy** represents a formidable challenge to
millions of adults. It

is becoming a central prerequisite in society. Only 4 percent of new
jobs have minimum requirements that can be met by people with the lowest
levels of literacy. Thirty percent of semiskilled and unskilled workers
and almost 40 percent of minority youth are illiterate. Persons 25 years
of age or older who dropped out of high school only have a slight (12.7
percent) chance of using the Internet as opposed to over three-quarters
of adults with a college education. Part of this fact is due to income,
but much is because Internet content is often complex and developed
primarily for use by the community that developed it.

#### **Governments as "Media One" Catalysts**

The case can be made that if the vast quantities of information gathered
and maintained by the government were delivered into the marketplace as
knowledge products, the government would be the biggest media
conglomerate in the world. XML-based protocols are beginning to open the
channels for unparalleled information distribution among multiple media,
both familiar and unfamiliar. This parallels the explosion in access
made possible when the particular hardware and software combination used
to access the Internet hardly mattered anymore. The measure of real
success will be when people with different media references due to
device availability, technology familiarity, or disability, will be able
to easily manage how they receive content, including by standard
telephone. Quality information that flows in this manner will allow
individuals to obtain the community information needed for individual
and public action.

The media industry itself has struggled to both create and protect new
kinds of media products that profitably exploit the intrinsic power of
the Internet for micro-customization and delivery of content. While the
media industry can remain successful in its mission without reaching all
consumers, the government cannot. Because government differs in purpose
and role from the private sector, it cannot succeed unless it reaches
everyone.

The cultural and community relevance of government information is a very
difficult issue to tackle at the national level without partnerships.
Promoting local input and promoting control of information product
development requires skills and resources that many government agencies
do not currently possess. A review of 15 current Government Performance
and Results Act (GPRA) performance plans revealed that existing GPRA
departmental and programmatic goals are not focused on public
information service goals. This does not mean that important work on
public information services is not going on, all across the Federal
government. On the contrary, word of mouth indicates that for many
agencies, a great deal of work is in place and being developed, but
perhaps difficult for local efforts to access. Similarly, there are
aggregators of local innovations, but unlike the Centers for Disease
Control or Cooperative Agriculture Extension Service, there is no common
source or receiving point for current information on significant
development and diffusion activities. Following are just several
examples of content that community leaders consider relevant and useful:

-   Local job listings, including jobs requiring entry-level skills.

-   Local housing listings, including apartments with relatively low
    rents and homes in foreclosure.

-   Community information about neighborhood events, services,
    developments, places to go for family outings, and local schools.

Two examples will highlight the importance of local ability to combine
databases to make local content useful. The Neighborhood Knowledge of
Los Angeles has been operating for the past three years, and
DirectDisability.gov, sponsored by the Department of Labor, is getting
underway now.

Neighborhood Knowledge Los Angeles makes public information about Los
Angeles\' housing stock available that has been gathered from a variety
of agency sources. By mapping it to identifiable parcels throughout the
city, along with training at the local Community Development Center,
community development corporations, neighborhood groups, and private
citizens can participate in neighborhood preservation and development
efforts. By making previously inaccessible information readily
available, people can make better business decisions and be better
neighbors and citizens. Even multi-family housing inspectors with
pen-based computers can track code violations as easily as Hertz cars
and FedEx packages.

DisabilityDirect.gov is a project of the Department of Labor's Office of
Disability Employment Policy and is associated with the Administration's
New Freedom Initiative. It will be a portal to local information of
interest to people with disabilities and their families such as
federally funded transportation, job programs, and services in their
hometowns. It will mirror, link, and extend model local and state sites
that already provide this information through federal grants. Content
control and approval will reside with authorized state, county, and
local officials through a virtual private network. This loose coupling
of well-structured XML-based information from multiple municipalities
provides templates for easy replication among participating
jurisdictions, and invites citizens and officials to make service
comparisons across a state or region that provide momentum for continued
improvements. In the future, it could serve as an accountability measure
for results being achieved from more block-grant decisions. Because the
information will be using agreed-upon XML schemas, it can be dynamically
interchangeable with a 211 directory service application. For example,
an individual could find out when an accessible bus is due at his/her
stop by entering a street address. This information would be available
by the Internet or by phone, similar to the Utah Traveler Advisory
Telephone and Internet system described in Section III. One of the most
developed service directories, beyond 911 and 411, is 711.

For roughly half of the American public that currently does not have
access to the Internet, similar opportunities exist. If creativity and
discipline are applied by the government's community and industry
partners, government information can become readily available through
multiple distribution modes, including existing means such as the
standard telephone and newspapers. A central challenge is how to open up
the design process so that the development circle includes not only
technical experts, but local community leaders and ordinary citizens who
can draw upon their diverse cultural and local knowledge to create
information products that Americans care about. As collaborative
partnerships form, we can expect to see more valuable information
products that express both the technical flexibility of XML and the
creative results that can only arise from constructive tension of
multiple views, unified by shared purpose.

#### **Changing Citizen-Government Relationships: Partners in Innovation**

A Neighborhood Knowledge effort like that of Los Angeles could add a
Voice Applications Network to its existing XML-based repository and Web
collaboration space. This simple three-part formula now accommodates
access by everyone. Providing this information through the National N11
directory service as a 311 service (non-emergency government service)
would support not only Los Angeles residents, but make it likely that
other communities could easily learn about this innovation. Deaf persons
and even Spanish-speaking deaf persons would be able to access this
information through the existing 711 Telecommunications Relay Service.
Even the project plan could be available in XML, making replication
simple, with no need to re-invent the XML schema or acquire the database
itself. This addresses seven of the ten customer-centric dimensions that
matter most to people. The Web collaboration would enable focused
improvement activities by city to city-based exchanges.

This is the beginning of what citizen-centric government looks like in a
digital information age:

-   **Responsive**---releasing the hidden value of existing information
    in a simple, powerful manner that is usable by all and led by local
    creativity and discipline which forges open "improvement forums" on
    behalf of the whole community.

-   **Expansive**---creating the conditions that support local
    creativity and ease of diffusion to other interested communities
    throughout the country.

-   **Reflective**---learning how to be catalyst and convener, but not
    controller of the information value chain.

##### Locally Developed Innovations, Nationally Transportable Due to Standards

On a smaller scale, but similar in power and simplicity, is one of many
initiatives of the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia. In 1998, the Blacksburg
Electronic Village assisted the Voluntary Action Center to put its
master list online. The master list contains about 250 social service
and volunteer agencies that assist local social workers, church groups,
and other volunteer agencies in matching people in need with the right
organizations. The list was expensive to maintain, in high demand, and
difficult to update. On-line it can be accessed and searched from any
Web browser or printed as a hard copy. A personal digital assistant
version is available for people periodically away from convenient
Internet access. Imagine adding the Voice Application Network to this
system. The circle of potential volunteers now expands to include people
without web access who can work from their homes to augment busy call
centers, for instance. With 211 capability, more local people can find
needed services more easily while non-local people can find out about
the system and decide what parts of it they would like to replicate
Multiply the time, convenience, safety, air quality, and fuel-saving
benefits daily from all the people who are now driving on the roads
every day, or waiting for public transportation services in all 70,000
municipalities in the country, as they search from office to office to
find and transact the services needed by families, friends, or
themselves.

The Internet-based protocols that opened the channels for unparalleled
information exchange among people globally are also being extended in
many forward-looking settings to just help neighbors be neighbors again.
Increasingly, information defines the structure of organizations and not
the other way around. This is the transformative power that confounds
current logic. The defining characteristic is interdependence across
hierarchy, geography, institution, and level of government.
Interdependence defies traditional management for which old telephone
and document service strategies were well-suited, and requires us to
think and work together in new ways. As the Internet shifts from
presenting static information to providing dynamic and service-oriented
applications, Federal agencies that connect to this power of improved
service are creating a citizen-centric government. This partnership in
innovation has the potential not only to improve effectiveness and
efficiency of government service delivery, but also to enhance the very
society that government upholds.

Citizen-centered government will be a powerful stimulus to user-centered
design, automatically addressing a wider range of individual abilities,
skills, requirements, and preferences in more settings. In fact,
government\'s very success is measured in its ability to provide timely
and useful information and services to all citizens. This will in turn
identify and remedy the islands of automation where information is
imprisoned by file types and software incompatibilities that prevent it
from being interwoven when needed. These are the islands of automation
that need to be simplified and unified. The measure of this unification
will be increased service satisfaction expressed by people who will now
be able to connect with one another in business and social settings
where previously they were stranded "on street corners" because their
preferences for devices and data could not be interwoven into the
settings where they chose to interact. Good technical design eliminates
isolation effects at all levels of data, device, system, individual, and
organizations.

Good organizational design also enables a balanced interdependence among
government officials, citizens, associations, universities, and
businesses in much the same way as our Cooperative Agricultural
Extension Service formed the right balance over its 140-year history.
The Extension Service is reported to be the world's most successful
change agency. The agricultural revolution is the primary evidence of
its success, with a dramatic increase in U.S. farm productivity in the
decades following World War II. It is the most admired and copied around
the world. Funds for extension services in the U.S. come from federal
(40 percent), state (40 percent) and county government (20 percent)
sources. The model is an interdependent set of assumptions, principles,
and organizational structures for diffusing results of agricultural
research to farmers in the U.S.

The service\'s model offers a glimpse of the potential for a similar
"Technology Infrastructure Extension Service" (TIES) that is informally
appearing as separate community test beds and improvement networks to
address local and regional problems. In order to solve real problems,
the circle of participation has widened. Increasingly, new people from
new settings and using different technologies are gathering to achieve
the creativity demanded by complex problems. Successful problem
formulation and resolution can only be achieved if these teams can form
easily and engage in effective communication and information exchange.
When groups are stuck \"continuously rigging the ship\" because their
tools don\'t talk, they fail. When different people with a diversity of
computers can interact like pick-up jazz players, and make good "music,"
they will succeed.

This signifies that the right balance has been struck between 1) the
social, technical, and notational elements that need to be \"held in
common\"; and 2) those elements of the whole system that must remain
open to infinite variation and interpretation. Finding this balance is
also central to achieving both the open-source and proprietary advantage
needed for a sustainable public electronic infrastructure. As
methodologies for evaluation in community test beds mature, they should
yield the highest returns achievable by the scientific method---a
focused inquiry balanced by the right tension between creativity and
discipline.

#### **Citizens as Co-Producers: Reducing Content and Usability Barriers**

The final section of this guide will emphasize the emerging Federal role
as catalyst and convener in linking the islands of civic innovation that
have been emerging in our communities with the public information they
need to be successful. This is an emerging role, with the potential to
rival in importance the recognized Federal leadership associated with
the establishment of the Cooperative Agriculture Extension Service.

The real-world examples for this unfolding scenario were gathered during
five Universal Access Expedition Workshops conducted between April and
July 2001 at the National Science Foundation in Ballston, Virginia.

This section will reinforce how new association-building roles and
relationships are enabling at-risk citizens at risk, government,
businesses, non-profits, and professional associations to work together
in new ways. It will demonstrate how the potential of the three
technologies identified in this guide and reviewed below, can contribute
significantly to extending the value of these innovation partnerships
and in turn, the reach of public information:

-   National directory services using spoken language interaction;

-   Digital content with XML tags; and

-   Open Forums combining Web collaboration space and face-to-face
    meetings.

This section will also demonstrate how learning from seniors, people
with disabilities, and people with limited English language and literacy
skills can shape the direction of e-government activities in important
areas, such as public health information. Most importantly, it
highlights the early, informal formation of an open TIES model, similar
to our current "world class" Cooperative Agricultural Extension Service,
with a set of assumptions, principles, and organizational structures for
diffusing the results of community test beds.

##### Part 1: Digital Talking Books Emerging from Open Forums

It is estimated that by 2005, electronic book publishing will comprise
10 percent of all consumer book sales. This is based on the expectation
of open XML-based standards---any book, anytime, anywhere, for anyone.
Because of Internet communications and a light touch by the National
Institute of Standards, two international groups---the Digital
Audio-based Information System (DAISY) Consortium and the Open
Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)---along with the National Information
Standards Organization (NISO) are now integrating specifications that
reflect the best practices from the world of publishing with the best
practices from blind readers for navigating structured information. What
began as independent efforts by researchers, librarians, computer
scientists, and publishers, came together over a series of face-to-face
meetings augmented by a collaborative Web space repository of drafts,
agreements, and communications.

Today, only 10 percent of published books are available in formats that
can be read by blind and vision-impaired individuals. Soon, a single
product---employing a single electronic book format---will be the norm
for e-books. They will be attractive to and usable by all readers,
whatever the readers' preferred medium. A potentially "divided digital"
world became simplified and unified because new partners were able to
see the value that each partner contributed, and recognized the lesser
value of creating separate products. This is an important "best
practice" from business that agencies need to adopt. Organizations
focusing on reducing functional illiteracy may find the e-books that can
now "talk" if desired, because of vision-impaired reader specifications,
the best possible technology for assisting adults who want to learn to
read.

The encoded content is independent of its rendering medium. It can be
delivered on CD-ROM or DVD for reading in inexpensive players as easy to
operate as walkman radios, or over the Internet, or even over a
touch-tone phone. A DVD today can hold 400 pounds or 2 million pages of
information. The encoded content can range from audio recordings of
human narrators to quality, machine-generated speech. The player
connected to a TV (including headsets, if desired) would present a
reader with a controllable display of text, available in large fonts if
desired, with each word highlighted as it is spoken. It would also serve
as a powerful adult reading tool, offering current magazines,
newspapers, and books as content in the privacy of a home setting.

The power of XML and forward-looking forums have laid the groundwork for
preventing a costly islands of automation approach, which would be
likely to fail in the marketplace, while squandering the economic
development opportunities of all communities who anticipated being
served well by its potential.

##### Part 2: Readying the Power of the 4-H Extension Service to Transfer Innovations

The 4-H inter-generational and community partnerships already described
in the Administration's accomplishments of its first 100 days is now
getting ready to exploit e-book capabilities. This program is the 4-H
CyberSeniors/CyberTeens program. Originating in Maine, 3,500 seniors
have been taught by high school students in five northeastern states how
to access Internet information by computer. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture-sponsored 4-H Youth Technology Team in Virginia, the
Arlington County Cooperative Extension Service, Virginia Tech
University, and the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA) have
now joined together as the project grows and deepens into other areas.
The Seniors.gov portion of the government's Firstgov portal is also
interested. Building upon success in bridging digital and generational
divisions, the new Arlington County, Virginia setting presents the
challenge of adapting the curriculum and outreach efforts to address a
wide range of language literacy and cultural diversity issues.
Simultaneously, the partnership is formulating a CyberHealth Initiative.
Health information is the topic of greatest interest to seniors using
the Internet. The partners are beginning to team with the National
Library of Medicine, the federal organization recognized as the premier
provider of health information in the world and a model user of XML. A
number of medical research centers are also planning to participate.
Longitudinal data on the relationship between health training and health
behaviors is anticipated for as many as 50,000 people based on the
current growth rate of the program. The participants from the NRTA teach
students how to teach. In addition, they are discussing with local
community leaders what technologies, approaches and adaptations are
needed to make to the proven curriculum used by English-speaking and
-reading participants usable and effective for seniors and students from
other linguistic backgrounds. An upcoming Universal Access Workshop will
host guest experts on digital talking books, national directory services
using spoken language interaction, linguistic and cultural competence in
health care from the Office of Minority Health, and university
researchers, among others, to explore these issues in support of the 4-H
CyberSeniors/CyberTeens Initiative. The Initiative has the full backing
of the Arlington County Council and represents its most visible
community improvement effort to address digital disparities. All
participants realize that thousands of community settings within easy
communications reach of the 4-H Extension Service and the NRTA networks
will soon be learning from and building on the efforts of the pioneering
multi-lingual, cyber-health initiatives being explored in Arlington
County today.

##### Part 3: Seniors as Co-Producers: Reducing Content and Usability Barriers

It is not difficult to imagine five years from now that a cadre of
healthier seniors are not only spokespersons for the health and social
benefits of this program but also informed cyber-citizens, willing and
able to serve as information society stewards in their own communities.
This has already occurred in Blacksburg, Virginia where seniors were
some of the most enthusiastic and innovative users of the Blacksburg
Electronic Village. Their site is one of the most active in town and
they are recognized as early innovators, willing to try new things.

With 40 percent of health care costs attributable to the management of
information, engaged seniors brought into the digital age by
neighborhood teens could provide ongoing, credible insights to
improvements aimed at spanning "islands of automation." As citizen
stewards, they could help mitigate the risks of finding more economical
solutions that balance the transport of XML-based medical records on the
Internet with the safeguards of privacy and security that the public
expects. This will likely happen in the "Digital Dividends Extension
Service" forums that will continue to form in response to local and
regional needs.

These forums, in a manner similar to the Cooperative Agricultural
Extension Service, tap federal, state, and local infrastructure
resources while advancing the best practices of the Open Forums
originated by business consortiums after the tremendous success of
e-books. The Open Forums are characterized by transparency and openness
and are now being applied to a variety of digital society and enterprise
sustainability issues. The results of the forums improved markedly when
the civic-centric goal of the Administration in 2001 raised the sights
of forum members to continue to add a greater range of different
perspectives and views. Paradoxically, community leaders from previously
underserved and undervalued market segments (including immigrants from
diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds) repeatedly offered bold and
fresh insights that contributed to better risk mitigation, credible
commitments, and foresight in contracting that improved service delivery
not only in local communities, but also in the global market.

**Conclusion**

A new citizen-centric perspective is emerging as a driver to bridge the
islands of automation that today partition and limit the government's
ability to making information and services accessible to citizens. This
citizen-centric perspective suggests that by learning from and valuing
the market experience of people who are most vulnerable in society, we
will have a better litmus test to identify emergent technologies with
the greatest potential for building a robust and sustainable civic
infrastructure. In order for whole communities to succeed in the future,
they must become interdependent upon shared communications and
information processes that accommodate broad differences among all their
members and among other communities. When societal technologies are
insufficiently flexible to accommodate connection-making activities
among all their members, the whole of society is adversely affected.

As accommodating difference becomes the new competitive marketplace
strategy, government's catalytic role in the formation of Open Forums to
improve communities is strategic and mirrors the role of the Cooperative
Agricultural Extension Service, recognized "world class" change agent
for the last revolution, the agricultural revolution. Members of society
can now become engaged, frontier co-developers of the future forms and
functions of societal technologies. Open Forums, with transparent
Internet records for accountability, are the new frontier innovation
places that thrive within the creative tension between social capital
and individual capital creation. This is where the best innovations
emerge. Innovations from engaged citizens in frontier Open Forums move
from the edge to the center of society the most rapidly.

This social risk management approach effectively accommodates and
augments the differences that really matter to societies and keeps them
in balance as the solid ground of shared understanding sometimes "quakes
under their feet" from the shifting plates of competing futures. As the
national citizen-centric agenda aligns e-government with civil rights
and intellectual property rights, previously hidden advantages are
appearing. Providing choice in the mode of information representation is
breaking down barriers to interaction and communication far beyond
benefits accruing to people with disabilities.

##### The Potential for Broad Benefits is Within Our Sights...

*Maria Sanchez, a recently arrived immigrant from Guatemala, is in
trouble. She has had a low-grade fever for a week that shows no sign of
abating, and her hands and feet are swelling. She thinks she may be
pregnant. She does not know what to do. Maria makes a tenuous living as
a household domestic, so she can't afford a doctor. Because she is not a
legal resident, she is afraid to seek government assistance.*

*On the way home from Sunday mass, Maria picks up a free copy of the
local Spanish language newspaper and a notice catches her attention.
Promising confidential help for recent immigrants, it lists a telephone
number. After thinking it over for a couple of days she goes to a phone
booth and dials the number.*

*A computer voice asks her in Spanish if she wants to speak Spanish.
"Si," she replies and the voice asks her to speak her zip code. "Dos,
dos, dos, uno, cuatro," she answers. The voice continues in Spanish,
"Are you in Fairfax County, Virginia?" "Si." Although the voice on the
phone is computerized, it seems quite natural and is comforting.*

*Maria is given a brief list of services to choose from. To select a
service she simply needs to speak its name. "Health." "...brought to you
by your local pharmacy." replies the system. She is informed that there
are two clinics nearby to which she can go for assistance, and one
pharmacy. She can also be turned over to an operator to make an
appointment at that moment if she would like. Maria declines, but
accepts an offer to learn about more local services. The system tells
her that there are lay social workers at the nearby St. Ignatius
church---her parish.*

*The next evening Maria visits St. Ignatius and meets Luz Alcantara, a
St. Ignatius parishioner involved in the church's community ministry
program. Luz invites Maria into her office and listens to her problems.
While Maria talks, Luz enters information into her computer using a Web
site designed for use by lay social service intermediaries and developed
jointly by the county government and a local paper. By entering in the
key elements of Maria's case, Luz is presented with care options and is
prompted to ask Maria other questions about her case.*

*A new strain of staph infection has been reported by the county public
health office, the symptoms of which match Maria's. A map appears on
Luz's screen showing the locations of the reported cases. The incident
clusters overlap Maria's neighborhood. Based on Maria's demographic
profile, the system also prompts Luz to ask about other possible health
issues, including the possible pregnancy that Maria, embarrassed, admits
to. Luz urges Maria to set up a clinic appointment at once, which they
do together.*

*The system also provides links to local food banks, job referral
agencies, English language training, and housing referral agencies---all
resources available within two miles of Maria's home. Luz prints out the
information, which is also presented in map form, and hands it to Maria.
Luz takes Maria's hand on her way out the door and says, "I'll look for
you in mass next Sunday."*

*When Maria is gone Luz picks up the phone and calls the county public
health office to discuss the case. Darrel Washington listens carefully
and confirms that Luz has taken the correct action. "We're learning a
lot about the infection pathways on this disease," he says. "Your help
in referring cases is making a real contribution to getting it under
control. We're seeing a much faster drop-off in cases this year than
before we launched the digital community health adviser project."*

# Appendix A: How To Move Forward

# Additional Resources

If after reading this guide, you wish to improve the way your agency
and/or program delivers information to citizens, customers, and
stakeholders, here are a number of useful resources focusing on the
relevant communities of practice: electronic government, communications,
and partnerships for innovation. Needless to say, you will have to run
the hurdles associated with government procurement; we've included a
checklist.

## Civic Society Initiatives Toward Electronic Government

The Council for Excellence in Government (http://www.excelgov.org/) has
published a blueprint entitled "E-Government, the next American
Revolution" that can be viewed or downloaded at
<http://www.excelgov.org/techcon/egovex/ebluprint.htm>. The Council
brought together leaders from both government and industry in the
preparation of this report. Sharon Dawes and her Center for Technology
in Government at SUNY/Albany has been at the forefront of e-government
for years. The Center's website is http://www.ctg.albany.edu/, and
<http://www.ctg.albany.edu/egov/results.html> will bring you to
articles, reports, and guidebooks from "E-Government: Creating Tools of
the Trade" from her applied research program. The Ford Innovations
program is explained at
[www.innovations.harvard.edu](http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/).

## The Communications Community Guides the Civic Dialogue 

The seminal work done by Everett M. Rogers, author of The Diffusion of
Innovation brought us the concepts of "radical innovator" and "early
adopter," but little in-depth understanding of his insights. An outline
of the book can be found at
<http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/j/l/jll191/knowledgebase/innovation/rogers.htm>.
Opening communications is the simplest first step in understanding the
mental models and stances among stakeholders and customers that pull an
organization forward or hold it back. The Federal Communicators Network
was started in 1996, and has 800 members on its listserv, and reaches
another 2000 people. FCN can be reached at
[http://www.fcn.gov](http://www.fcn.gov/).

## The Federal Information Technology Community Joins In

The Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council has been laying the
foundation for the coordinated introduction of e-government products and
services. The CIO Council website is at <http://www.cio.gov/>.

This guide is the work of the Universal Access Working Group chartered
under the Council's Enterprise Interoperability and Emerging Technology
(EIEIT) Committee. The Universal Access Expedition Workshop notes are at
[www.ncsa.coracle.edu](http://www.ncsa.coracle.edu/).

The EIEIT website that supports government progress in XML is at
<http://www.xml.gov/>. The EIEIT website that supports knowledge
management is at [http://www.km.gov](http://www.km.gov/). The
E-government Committee of the CIO Council supports Firstgov, the portal
to online Federal information and services and increasingly state and
local governments as well: [www.firstgov.gov](http://www.firstgov.gov/).
The E-government Committee also sponsors the Section 508 Executive
Steering Group. Details of this significant Federal IT Accessibility
Initiative are at <http://www.section508.gov/>.

The Federal Information Management Community Adds Established Structures
for Lasting Value

There is a continuing need to extend to all government information the
information content management disciplines that govern the operations of
the National Technical Information Service, the Government Printing
Office, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Library of
Congress, and the Federal Depository Libraries.

<http://www.nclis.gov/govt/assess/>

*Other*

The news community (print and broadcast) is following developments in
XML at [http://www.xmlnews.org](http://www.xmlnews.org/). The World Wide
Web Consortium has a website at [http://www.w3.org](http://www.w3.org/).
They track XML developments at ww.w3.org/xml.

The International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet can be
found at [http://www.icdri.org](http://www.icdri.org/). Government
Executive magazine has been tracking the implementation of the
Government Performance and Results Act at <http://www.govexec.com/gpra>.
Federal employees and agencies interested in customer service can find
out more at
[http://www.customerservice.gov](http://www.customerservice.gov/).

## Government Procurement

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) in OMB maintains an
acquisition reform network that is captured at
[http://www.arnet.gov](http://www.arnet.gov/).

# Creating Conditions for Future Public Goods and Services You Care About---Checklist

-   Be sure that your staff is current with the resources listed above,
    and working with OMB and the CIO Council on the coordinated
    e-government blueprint formulated by the Administration. This will
    assure that you are at "the leading edge, not the bleeding edge" of
    the hard and soft technologies and unified metadata efforts.

-   Try to improve, not replace, existing information dissemination
    efforts. In fact, celebrate their successes. As Machiavelli said,
    "the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under
    the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well
    under the new." During market research, turn to the associations and
    pilot initiatives identified in this guide, particularly
    associations with the expertise to evaluate the competing 508
    approaches.

-   Take the time to be sure that your Congressional committees, your
    political leadership, your budget office and your CIO are on board.

-   Work out the approval, acquisition, development, and implementation
    schedules that will make your project a success.

-   Check-in, early and often, with your CIO's office and your XML
    Working Group representative. This will help keep you in step with
    the Federal IT Architecture plan, reducing your risk of a closed
    solution that stagnates the flow of information to its intended
    settings, jeopardizing usefulness.

-   Consider using formal project management tracking systems to meet
    your deadlines. Almost all contractors do, but too few government
    agencies have invested the time and staff needed. See
    [http://www.pmi.org](http://www.pmi.org/).

-   Focus on making visible the requirements of the underserved groups
    identified in this guide, is the most important source of power you
    have to validate and reward true federal marketplace innovations
    that uniquely matter to citizens.

-   If you can get your project integrated into your agency's GPRA
    goals, and if you measure success in part by using the American
    Customer Service Index system, you will have more high level
    support. Follow the sound recommendation of the US National
    Commission on Libraries and Information Science to render GPRA date
    elements in XML.

-   Finally, never forget the Law of Contracting: "Good, cheap,
    fast---you can have any two you want." Patience is always a virtue.

## Appendix B: Voice Application Networks

Voice Application Networks (VANs) represent an important new tool for
government to use to reach many of the groups currently underserved by
government goods and services. This new generation of telephone
technology allows users to access spoken information VoiceXML via
existing telephone lines and equipment using voice-activated
applications. The new applications are based on VoiceXML, and deliver
the required information through a combination of programmable
interactive voice response (IVR) and speech recognition. The same
information provided on a web site can be navigated by voice using the
telephone, provided that the file structure is XML. Advancements in this
technology means that the voices that callers hear over the telephone
are quite natural sounding and easy to interact with. In addition,
advances in voice acoustics analysis have allowed providers to build
highly sensitive recognition models that are able to account for such
things as regional accents and dialects. As shown earlier and again
below, there exist several good examples of its use in government today,
especially in the 511 (traffic conditions) abbreviated dialing arena.
With telephone penetration at near 100% this enhancement has the
potential to readily reach underserved groups due to familiarity,
availability and usability by people with limited print literacy or
technology literacy.

## 

## N11 Speed Dialing for Help and Services

N11, also known as abbreviated dialing, is the nation-wide dialing
system that allows telephone users to connect with service gateways
throughout the country by dialing only three digits. The N11 coding
scheme was developed and extended based on research that indicated a
substantially higher rate of use of three digit codes among telephone
subscribers than of traditional seven-digit numbers, even when those
numbers were the same throughout (example: 333-3333).

The current status of the eight N11 codes are as follows:

> 211: Assigned for community information and referral services
>
> 311: Assigned nationwide for non-emergency police and other government
> services
>
> 411: Unassigned, but used virtually nationwide by carriers for
> directory assistance
>
> 511: Assigned for traffic and transportation information
>
> 611: Unassigned, but used broadly by carriers for repair service
>
> 711: Assigned nationwide for access to Telecommunications Relay
> Services
>
> 811: Unassigned, but used by local exchanged carriers for business
> office use
>
> 911: Unassigned, but used nationwide for emergency services

### 

### Digital Divide Potential

The implementation work being done around the country on the N11
services shows how needed content can be provided to individuals who do
not have access to computer equipment, but can use telephones
effectively. This approach also addresses access problems of mobile
users. The use of 711 today greatly extends the ease of communications
between individuals with and without hearing or speech limitations.
There is great potential in this technology for closing the digital
divide, and government program managers need to make themselves aware of
the possibilities for structuring public information resources for use
through service gateways or through interactive voice recognition or
navigation systems.

##### *City of Hampton, VA*

Two examples of the successful use of the N11 technology are Hampton, VA
and Atlanta, GA. The City of Hampton, VA opened its 311 call center in
September of 1999, to provide city residents with 24 hour a day, seven
day a week access to city services and information, ranging from
reporting missed trash collection to answering questions about the city
budget.[^6] The service has been very well received, and public
satisfaction with the service has been extremely high, with the call
center receiving an average of 600 calls a day (May 2000).[^7]

#### 

#### United Way of Atlanta, GA

The N11 technology has also been successfully employed in Atlanta, GA,
since 1997 when the United Way created a 211 referral service. The 211
service provides a free 24-hour telephone information and referral line
staffed by trained referral agents who connect callers to a database of
more than 2000 resources. Through this service, callers are matched with
social services, volunteer opportunities, donations opportunities, and
civic and neighborhood organizations. Prior to operating the 211
referral service, United Way of Atlanta offered a similar service using
the standard 7-digit calling number called First Call for Help. Since
switching to the 3-digit abbreviated calling number and expanding
service, call volume has increased by more than 300 percent.

**Appendix C: XML**

eXtensible Markup Language (XML)[^8] is the starting point for many of
the Internet- and voice-based technologies that can be used to improve
access to government goods and services and therefore can alleviate many
of the barriers to receipt of government information caused by the
digital divide. XML itself is a notation system for representing the
underlying structure and meaning of electronic information. This system,
and its variants (e.g., VoiceXML and Wireless Markup Language), can play
an important role both in providing goods and services directly to the
public (e.g., through the use of such tools as voice recognition network
services or text-based materials on the Internet) as well as in managing
the actual data upon which the public information is based. XML can
simplify and unify the sources of data to reduce the burden of managing
multiple sources of data. These same characteristics allow information
to be reused and databases to be consolidated resulting in lower
maintenance and usage costs. Data that is managed once can then be
shared through multiple channels, whether it is shared directly with the
public by the Federal Government or is shared with a state or local
government who then publishes the information to its own local
communities.

Many industries and scientific disciplines are already using XML to
exchange information across platforms and applications. Because XML
separates data from presentation, XML users can extract only the data
needed. The implications are enormous for massive manuals, project
schedules, etc. on the web that would be overwhelmingly complex, if the
specific information needed couldn't be extracted quickly and easily.
Previously information exchange among systems was difficult, because
unlike ASCII, fundamentally different forms of data representation were
employed. XML could be used to describe all the objects, services,
documents and organizations needed to complete a project. "Because data
about these attributes is divorced from the program used to create it,
information is no longer imprisoned by file types, software
incompatibilities that prevent it from being interwoven when needed.
These are the islands of automation that need to be simplified and
unified.

eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a promising notation system for
representing the underlying structure and meaning of electronic
information, whether it be data, text, or sound. It goes beyond the
presentation descriptions for formatting, linking, and display options
offered by HTML. XML enables flexible operations on content originating
from a variety of different operating platforms and applications. To an
organization, good use of XML in a sound enterprise architecture enables
the "law of diminishing costs per information unit." It permits scaling
up operations to meet growing information exchange needs with disparate
partners on a scale not previously imaginable, where benefits vastly
outweigh additional per unit costs. XML could describe all the relevant
documents, services, and organizations involved in a national integrated
services program. As data becomes independent from its source program
using XML, information is no longer imprisoned by file types and
software incompatibility.

XML functions by employing markers, or tags, that accompany the
electronic data in agreed upon ways. These tags, and the structures that
govern them, mean that XML can simplify and unify the sources of data to
reduce the burden of managing multiple sources of data. These same
characteristics allow information to be reused, databases to be
consolidated, and disparate data bases to be accessed resulting in lower
maintenance and usage costs. Data that is managed once can then be
accessed through multiple channels, whether it is shared directly with
the public by the Federal government or is shared with a state or local
government who then publishes the information to its own local
communities.

It is important to note that in order for a Federal agency to take full
advantage of XML and its data reuse and repurposing capabilities it must
first establish a "vocabulary" for the information it is going to share,
and then it must organize that vocabulary in an approved manner. Several
national and international organizations have evolved to facilitate the
efficient use of XML data.[^9] These organizations and the standards
that have been established ensure that the information managed in an XML
format bears the increasingly important characteristics and attributes
of a well-formed record: reliability, authenticity, integrity, and
usability.[^10] Complying with these standards when implementing
XML-based solutions will assist Federal agencies in not only in sharing
information more efficiently but also in promoting the sharing of
quality information.

##### Some Government Examples

#### National Library of Medicine

As part of the National Library of Medicine's (NML) project to modernize
its computer systems, NLM has chosen XML as the new tagged format for
disseminating the bibliographic citation data associated with MEDLINE,
its premier bibliographic database of medical science information. This
decision strengthens NLM's commitment to distribute its journal citation
data in a format that is widely described and, therefore, familiar to
many in the information industry, especially in the Internet Web
environment.

Choosing XML as the data format was a natural extension of NLM's use of
XML to receive bibliographic data electronically from publishers because
of XML\'s ability to support other character sets.. This was
particularly important to NLM because XML supports the universal
character sets used by the medical community to specify selected
diacritical marks, an important consideration for the worldwide nature
of MEDLINE data.

#### Securities and Exchange Commission

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has developed a customized
version of XML for use with EDGAR, the SEC's Web-enabled electronic
information filing and data management system. The information filed in
the EDGAR system is designed to contain only the minimal set of XML data
needed by the server, thereby maximizing "Reduced Content Filing." The
benefits of reduced content are two-fold, and can greatly enhance the
effectiveness of the EDGAR system. First, the smaller files that result
require less bandwidth for upload and, therefore, upload quicker.
Second, the files can be processed and filed more rapidly since all of
the graphical content has been removed from the reduced file.

#### U.S. House of Representatives

In a first step toward the use of XML to facilitate the reuse and
repurposing of its legal documents, the U.S. House of Representatives,
under the direction of the [Senate Committee on Rules and
Administration](http://rules.senate.gov/) and the [House Committee on
Administration](http://www.house.gov/cha/), the Secretary of State, and
the [Clerk of the House](http://clerk.house.gov/) have worked together
with the [Library of Congress](http://www.loc.gov/) and the Government
Printing Office to create Document Type Definition files (DTDs). The
DTDs agreed upon by these groups determine the vocabularies that are
specific to Congress. The XML vocabularies are important because they
specify the definitions for Congress\' data element as well as the data
attributes for the terms that Congress uses in its work. The DTD also
specifies how that vocabulary and the terms it contains can be used and
how they relate to each other. This structure ensures that all parties
who will use the data have the same understanding of the data. This
process for setting up a data structure is similar to the metadata
cataloguing (or tagging) of library books known as the Dewey Decimal
System which has supported library collection management and resource
discovery for decades.

# Appendix D: Collaborative Workspaces

Internet-based collaborative workspaces are one of the best tools
available to government program managers who are looking to create
innovative e-government projects that will help close the digital
divide. As noted in *E-Government Best Practices: An Implementation
Manual*[^11], innovative e-government projects exhibit several common
characteristics, including a focus on: public-private partnerships,
alliances with stakeholders, interagency cooperation, and end-users.
These characteristics, all of which show an openness to accommodating
difference, are inherently citizen-centric, and fit naturally within the
current e-government mandates.

Collaborative workspaces can play a successful role in fostering an
end-user focus by providing government program managers with the virtual
spaces in which to build public-private partnerships and stakeholder
alliances as well as to enhance interagency cooperation. Collaborative
workspaces do this by combining the functionality of Internet chat rooms
with the document storage capabilities of a knowledge management system.
These spaces also allow the government to interact with a broader
segment of the public, many of whom are currently the most underserved
in terms of government goods and services. This interaction can help
both entities by allowing the underserved to become partners in
innovation with the government and help it identify news tools and
technologies to provide greater access to information.

##### Designing Collaborative Workspaces

Collaborative workspaces support real time communication between
multiple participants over the Internet. While each collaborative
workspace should be designed to meet the specific needs of the group
that it will support, there are elements common to many collaborative
spaces[^12], these include:

-   An Internet home page,

-   An on-line discussion space,

-   An area for posting questions,

-   A list of contacts,

-   A knowledge management system for document storage, and

-   Shared space for simultaneous collaboration or virtual meetings.

Depending upon the needs of users, technology may be used to allow users
joint access to specific files within each user's hard drive. In this
way, documents can be reviewed and edited as a team, although individual
users may be miles apart from each other. Logins and passwords are used
in many of these spaces to ensure secure access to the designated
workspace, and new users can be introduced into the workspace by
receiving a personal invitation and login information from an existing
user. Users may create multiple workspaces to address a variety of
topics or to communicate with a specific set of participants. Users can
also use a shared calendar and discussion space.

# Collaborative Workspaces Have Many Benefits

The use of collaborative workspaces is beneficial to both government and
business. From a practical standpoint, collaborative workspaces can help
organizations reduce travel expenses while allowing high quality
communication between on-site employees and telecommuters or traveling
employees. Business meetings can be made more efficient with the
inclusion of participants from around the world, while encouraging the
free exchange of information and ideas from any number of participants
in real time. Most importantly, collaborative workspaces offer the
government an opportunity to interact with stakeholders who for a
variety of reasons might not be able to share their experiences or
expertise with the government in a traditional meeting setting.

# Resources

General Information on the Digital Divide and Accessibility Issues---

1.  Everett M. Rogers, *Diffusion of Innovations*, 4th Edition, Free
    Press, New York City, NY, 1995

2.  Susan Brummel Turnbull, *People with Disabilities and the NII:
    Breaking Down Barriers, Building Choice*, September 1994,
    [*http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/coca/nii.htm*](http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/coca/nii.htm)

3.  Cynthia Waddell, *The Growing Digital Divide in Access for People
    with Disabilities: Overcoming Barriers to Participation in the
    Digital Economy*, May 1999,
    [*http://www.icdri.org/cynthia_waddell.htm*](http://www.icdri.org/cynthia_waddell.htm)

4.  *E-Government: The Next American Revolution*, Hart-Teeter for the
    Council for Excellence in Government, September 2000

5.  GovExec.Com, *GPRA Results*,
    [*http://www.govexec.com/results/index.htm*](http://www.govexec.com/results/index.htm)

6.  National Council on Disability, *The Accessible Future*, June 21,
    2001, http://[www.ncd.gov](http://www.ncd.gov/)

7.  The Markle Foundation, *Toward a Framework for Internet
    Accountability*, July 2001.
    [*http://www.markle.org*](http://www.markle.org/)

8.  *The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to
    Practice*, Senator Bob Kerrey & Representative Johnny Isakson,
    December 2000

9.  The President's Information Technology Advisory Committee, *Digital
    Libraries: Universal Access to Human Knowledge*, February 2001,
    [*http://www.itrd.gov*](http://www.itrd.gov/)

10. The President's Information Technology Advisory Committee,
    *Resolving the Digital Divide: Information, Access, and
    Opportunity*, February 2000,
    [*http://www.itrd.gov*](http://www.itrd.gov/)

11. The President's Information Technology Advisory Committee,
    *Transforming Access to Government Through Information Technology*,
    September 2000, [*http://www.itrd.gov*](http://www.itrd.gov/)

12. The President's Information Technology Advisory Committee,
    *Transforming Health Care Through Information Technology*, February
    2001, [*http://www.itrd.gov*](http://www.itrd.gov/)

13. U.S. General Services Administration, *An Inventory of Federal
    e-Government Initiatives*,
    [*http://policyworks.gov/intergov*](http://policyworks.gov/intergov)

14. U.S. General Services Administration OIS Newsletter, *Online Access
    to Government Information*,
    [*http://www.itrd.gov*](http://www.itrd.gov/)

15. The White House, Office of the Press Secretary*, Use of Information
    Technology to Improve our Society*, Memorandum for the heads of
    executive departments and agencies, December 17, 1999

# Digital Divide Statistics---

1.  U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and
    Information Administration and the Economic Statistics
    Administration*, Falling Through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion,*
    October 2000

2.  U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau*, Census 2000*, 2001

3.  U.S. General Accounting Office, *Telecommunications: Characteristics
    and Choices of Internet Users*, February 2001, GAO-01-345.

4.  U.S. Government Working Group on Electronic Commerce, *Leadership
    for the New Millennium---Delivering on Digital Progress and
    Prosperity*, 3^rd^ Annual Report, 2000

# Case Studies---

1.  John Stein Monroe, *Meet Your Mayor...Online,* June 4, 2001,
    [*http://www.fcw.com/civic/articles/2001/jun/civ-feature1-06-01.asp*](http://www.fcw.com/civic/articles/2001/jun/civ-feature1-06-01.asp)

2.  *Bringing the Barriers of Telehealth to Underserved Populations:
    Barriers and Opportunities,* workshop report of the Center for
    Public Service Communications, Friends of the National Library of
    Medicine, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, July,
    1998

3.  *Dial 211 to Find or Give Help---Reinventing Access to Community
    Resources*, Alliance of Information & Referral Systems, 1998,
    [*http://www.airs.org/211/211e_packet.htm*](http://www.airs.org/211/211e_packet.htm)

4.  Frequently Asked Questions, 211.Org---A National Initiative to Link
    People with Community Services,
    [*http://www.211.org/FAQ.asp*](http://www.211.org/FAQ.asp)

5.  "311 Customer Call Center Was Just What Hampton Residents Ordered,"
    *Virginia Town & City,* Virginia Municipal League, Vol. 35, No. 9,
    September 2000,
    [*http://www.vml.org/VTC/VTC3509-3.html*](http://www.vml.org/VTC/VTC3509-3.html)

6.  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Services
    for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, *Relay North Carolina*,
    [*http://dsdhh.dhhs.state.nc.us/relaync.htm*](http://dsdhh.dhhs.state.nc.us/relaync.htm)

7.  U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Neighborhood
    Networks, *Centers Cast Their Nets and Garner Partners*,
    *<http://www.hud.gov/nnw/resourcesforcenters/nnwnewsbrief99summer.html>*

8.  U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Neighborhood
    Networks*, About Neighborhood Networks*,
    [*http://www.hud.gov/nnw/nnwaboutnn.html*](http://www.hud.gov/nnw/nnwaboutnn.html)

9.  U.S. Federal Communications Commission, The Disabilities Rights
    Office, *Consumers' Guide to Telecommunications Relay Service*,
    [*http://www.fcc.gov/cib/dro/trs/text_con_trs.html*](http://www.fcc.gov/cib/dro/trs/text_con_trs.html)

10. U.S. Federal Communications Commission, FCC Consumer Fact, Consumer
    Information Bureau, *Telecommunications Relay Service*,
    [*http://www.fcc.gov/cib/cdtac/trs_factseet.html*](http://www.fcc.gov/cib/cdtac/trs_factsheet.html)

11. U.S. General Services Administration, Federal Technology Service,
    *Federal Relay Service*,
    [*http://www.fts.gsa.gov/frs/enhance.htm*](http://www.fts.gsa.gov/frs/enhance.htm)

12. Alliance of Information & Referral Systems,
    [*http://www.airs.org*](http://www.airs.org/)

13. [*http://www.fcc.gov/cib/dro/trs/dial7-91.html*](http://www.fcc.gov/cib/dro/trs/dial7-91.html)

14. [*http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/447084.asp*](http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/447084.asp)

15. [*http://www.innovations.havard.edu/Semifinalists/2001/2001mgmtandgov.htm*](http://www.innovations.havard.edu/Semifinalists/2001/2001mgmtandgov.htm)

16. [*http://www.fcc.goc/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2000/db0721/nrc00036a.html*](http://www.fcc.goc/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2000/db0721/nrc00036a.html)

17. [*http://www.uswcorp.com/USWCMainPages/PressRel/pre69.htm*](http://www.uswcorp.com/USWCMainPages/PressRel/pre69.htm)

GPEA---

1.  U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the
    President, Implementation of the Government Paperwork Elimination
    Act---Procedures and Guidance,
    [*http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/gpea2.html*](http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/gpea2.html)

Technologies/Tools---

1.  Tony Shipley and John Gill, *Call Barred? Inclusive Design of
    Wireless*, Royal National Institute for the Blind
    [*www.tiresias.org/phoneability/wireless.htm*](http://www.tiresias.org/phoneability/wireless.htm)

2.  Closed Captioning Regulations,
    [*http://www.fcc.gov/cib/dro/caption.html*](http://www.fcc.gov/cib/dro/caption.html)

3.  National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research,
    *User-Friendly Materials and Alternative Formats*,
    [*http://www.ncddr.org/du/products/ufm/ufm.html*](http://www.ncddr.org/du/products/ufm/ufm.html)

# Communication---

1.  James E. Grunig, *Managing Public Relations*, Holt, Rinehart and
    Winston, Inc., 1984, pgs 21-27

2.  *On-Line Content for Low-Income and Underserved Americans: The
    Digital Divide's New Frontier,
    <http://www.childrenspartnership.org/pub/low_income>*

3.  The Federal Communicators Network,
    [*http://www.fcn.gov*](http://www.fcn.gov/)

4.  General Literature on Diffusion of Innovation,
    [*http://www.comsoft.org/oopsla98mid/hist_of_tran_2ot/tsld003.htm*](http://www.comsoft.org/oopsla98mid/hist_of_tran_2ot/tsld003.htm)

## Appendix A: How To Move Forward---

1.  Sharon Dawes, *E-Government: Creating Tools of the Trade*, Center
    for Technology in Government, http://www.ctg.albany.edu/, and
    [*http://www.ctg.albany.edu/egov/results.html*](http://www.ctg.albany.edu/egov/results.html)

2.  Jerry Mechling, *Eight Imperatives for Leaders in a Networked
    World*, JFK School,

3.  Everett M. Rogers, *Diffusion of Innovations*, 4th Edition, Free
    Press, New York City, NY, 1995
    (outline---*<http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/j/l/jll191/knowledgebase/innovation/rogers.htm>)*

4.  The Council for Excellence in Government, *E-Government, the Next
    American Revolution*,
    [*http://www.excelgov.org/techcon/egovex/ebluprint.htm*](http://www.excelgov.org/techcon/egovex/ebluprint.htm)

5.  The Federal IT Accessibility Initiative, *Section 508 of the
    Rehabilitation Act*,
    [*http://www.section508.gov/*](http://www.section508.gov/)

6.  Ford Innovations Program, New \$50m Ford Innovations in Government
    Program, Harvard University,
    [**www.innovations.harvard.edu**](http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/)

7.  Chief Information Officers Council,
    [*http://cio.gov/*](http://cio.gov/)

8.  CustomerService.Gov, The Federal Government\'s Customer Service Web
    Site,
    [*http://www.customerservice.gov*](http://www.customerservice.gov/)

9.  The Federal Communicators Network,
    [*www.fcn.org*](http://www.fcn.org/)

10. General Literature on Diffusion of Innovation,
    [**http://www.comsoft.org/oopsla98mid/hist_of_tran_2ot/tsld003.htm**](http://www.comsoft.org/oopsla98mid/hist_of_tran_2ot/tsld003.htm)

11. GovExec.Com, GPRA & Results,
    [*http://www.govexec.com/gpra*](http://www.govexec.com/gpra)

12. The International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet,
    [**http://www.icdri.org**](http://www.icdri.org/)

13. KM.Gov, Knowledge Management in the Federal Government,
    [**http://www.km.gov/**](http://www.km.gov/)

14. Office of Federal Procurement Policy, Acquisition Reform Network,
    [**http://www.arnet.gov**](http://www.arnet.gov/)

15. Project Management Institute,
    [**http://www.pmi.org**](http://www.pmi.org/)

16. U.S. General Services Administration, Federal, State, and Local
    Governments Portal,
    *http://[www.firstgov.gov](http://www.firstgov.gov/)*

17. U.S. General Services Administration, Information Technology Policy,
    [*http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov*](http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/)

18. The World Wide Web Consortium, Extensible Markup Language (XML),
    [*www.w3.org/xml*](http://www.w3.org/xml)

19. XML.Gov, Government Progress in XML,
    [*http://www.xml.gov/*](http://www.xml.gov/)

20. XMLNews.Org, XML and the News Industry,
    [*http://www.xmlnews.org*](http://www.xmlnews.org/)

# Appendix B: Voice Applications---

1.  "311 Customer Call Center Was Just What Hampton Residents Ordered,"
    *Virginia Town & City,* Virginia Municipal League, Vol. 35, No. 9,
    September 2000,
    [*http://www.vml.org/VTC/VTC3509-3.html*](http://www.vml.org/VTC/VTC3509-3.html)

2.  [*http://www.innovations.havard.edu/Semifinalists/2001/2001mgmtandgov.htm*](http://www.innovations.havard.edu/Semifinalists/2001/2001mgmtandgov.htm)

# Appendix C: XML---

1.  Richard Anderson, Mark Birbeck, et. al., *Professional XML*, Wrox
    Press, Ltd., 2000

2.  Neil Bradley, *The XSL Companion*, Addison-Wesley, 2000

3.  Robin Cover, *The XML Cover Pages*,
    [*http://www.oasis-open.org/cover*](http://www.oasis-open.org/cover )

4.  Khun Yee Fung, *XSLT Working with XML and HTML*, Addison-Wesley,
    2001

5.  Michael Kay, *XSLT Programmer's Reference, 2^nd^ Edition,* Wrox
    Press, Ltd., 2001

6.  Kevin Williams, et. al., *Professional XML Databases*, Wrox Press,
    Ltd., 2000

7.  *The Basic Semantic Repository*, Intelligent Commercial And Research
    Information Systems,
    [*http://icaris.org/icaris/bsr.html*](http://icaris.org/icaris/bsr.html)

8.  The Business of VoiceXML," VoiceXML Forum, *Speech Technology
    Magazine*, July/August,
    [*http://www.voicexml.org*](http://www.voicexml.org/)

9.  *Semantic Web Activity: Resource Description Framework*, The World
    Wide Web Consortium, Extensible Markup Language (XML),
    [*http://www.w3.org/RDF*](http://www.w3.org/RDF)

10. *XML Accessibility Guidelines*, The World Wide Web Consortium,
    Extensible Markup Language (XML),
    [*http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/xmlgl*](http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/xmlgl)

11. *XML Topic Maps*, XTM TopicMaps.Org,
    [*http://www.topicmaps.org*](http://www.topicmaps.org/)

12. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, *The
    Knowledgebase---Australia\'s Health, Community Services and Housing
    Metadata Registry*,
    [*http://meteor.aihw.gov.au/*](http://meteor.aihw.gov.au/)

13. O'Reilly XML.Com: *XML From the Inside Out*,
    [*http://www.xml.com*](http://www.xml.com/)

14. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, *Environmental Data Registry*,
    [*http://www.epa.gov/edr*](http://www.epa.gov/edr)

15. The World Wide Web Consortium, *Extensible Markup Language (XML),*
    [*www.w3.org/xml*](http://www.w3.org/xml)

16. XML.Gov, *Government Progress in XML*,
    [*http://www.xml.gov/*](http://www.xml.gov/)

17. XML.Org---The XML Industry Portal, *Latest Industry News*,
    [*http://www.xml.org*](http://www.xml.org/)

18. Biztalk.Org, [*http://www.biztalk.org*](http://www.biztalk.org/)

19. Dublin Core Metadata Initiative,
    [*http://dublincore.org*](http://dublincore.org/)

20. IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Data Registry,
    [*http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/its/*](http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/its/)

21. IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc.,
    [*http://www.imsproject.org/*](http://www.imsproject.org/)

# Appendix D: Web/Collaborative Workspace---

1.  Allison Lee, *Design of Social Interfaces to Collaborative
    Workspaces*, a position paper for Changing Places Workshop

2.  Prof. David Darcy, *E-Government Best Practices: An Implementation
    Manual*, a study commissioned by the U.S. General Services
    Administration, May 2001,
    [*http://egov.gov/professional_development.htm*](http://egov.gov/professional_development.htm)

3.  Chuck Newman, *Considering the Color-Blind*,
    [*http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/08/newman/*](http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/08/newman/)

4.  Ben Shneiderman, *Universal Usability in Practice,*
    [*http://www.otal.umd.edu/UUPractice/*](http://www.otal.umd.edu/UUPractice/)

5.  Ben Shneiderman, *A Universal Usability Policy Statement for Web
    Sites*,
    [*http://www.universalusability.org*](http://www.universalusability.org/)

6.  Etienne Wegner, *Supporting Communities of Practice, A survey of
    Community-Oriented Technologies*, Draft Version 1.3, March 2001,
    found at <http://www.ewenger.com/tech>.

7.  Information based on interviews with Bartimaeus Group and the
    American Council for the Blind, American Council of the Blind,
    [*http://www.acb.org*](http://www.acb.org/)

8.  Bartimaeus Group---National Providers of Adaptive Hardware,
    Software, Training and 508 Compliance Assessment,
    *<http://www.bartsite.com/>*

9.  The Children's Partnership, http://childrenspartnership.org/

10. National Federation of the Blind,
    *[http://www.nfb.org](http://www.nfb.org/)*

11. Poynter.Org---Everything You Need to be a Better Journalist,
    *<http://www.poynter.org/>*

12. *Reading Effectiveness Tool*, Clear Language and Design,
    [*http://www.eastendliteracy.on.ca/clearlanguageanddesign/readingeffectivenesstool/start.htm*](http://www.eastendliteracy.on.ca/clearlanguageanddesign/readingeffectivenesstool/start.htm)

13. *Screen Magnification*, Technical Glossary, The Adaptive Technology
    Resource Centre,
    [*http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc/reference/tech/scmag.html*](http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc/reference/tech/scmag.html)

14. *Screen Readers*, Technical Glossary, The Adaptive Technology
    Resource Centre,
    [*http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc/reference/tech/scread.html*](http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc/reference/tech/scread.html)

15. [*http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,35074,00.html*](http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,35074,00.html)

16. [*http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0521/cov_508rev_05_21_01.asp*](http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0521/cov_508rev_05_21_01.asp)

[^1]: See http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda/m01-28.html.

[^2]: \"E-Government: The Next American Revolution,\" prepared by
    Hart-Teeter for the Council for Excellence in Government, September
    2000.

[^3]: http://www.innovations.havard.edu/Semifinalists/2001/2001mgmtandgov.htm

[^4]: http://www.vml.org/VTC/VTC3509-3.html

[^5]: \"Telecommunications: Characteristics and Choices of Internet
    Users,\" U.S. General Accounting Office, February 2001, GAO-01-345.

[^6]: *http://www.innovations.havard.edu/Semifinalists/2001/2001mgmtandgov.htm*

[^7]: *http://www.vml.org/VTC/VTC3509-3.html*

[^8]: Technical background information on XML may be found in the
    references section. In addition, WWW.XML.gov hosts the latest
    efforts of the XML Working Group whose charge is to accelerate,
    facilitate and catalyze the effective and appropriate implementation
    of XML technology in the information systems and planning of the
    Federal Government.

[^9]: See [WWW.XML.gov](http://WWW.XML.gov/) and
    [WWW.W3.org](http://WWW.W3.org/) for more information on XML
    standards.

[^10]: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the
    International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) host technical
    committees that collaborate in worldwide standardization efforts
    such as information technology. ISO/IEC 11179 describes how data
    elements should be documented. This documentation, when done well
    and managed in a Data Element Registry, simplifies data location and
    retrieval, even from disparate databases and makes it easier to send
    and receive data via electronic communications. The guidance on the
    formulation and maintenance of discrete data element descriptions
    and semantic content (metadata) supports users to ensure that they
    formulate data elements in a consistent, standard manner. It also
    provides guidance in establishing a data element registry, such as
    EPA's Environmental Data Registry (EDR), which catalogs EPA's
    information resources and provides a registry of standard data
    elements. The EDR vocabularies are designed to promote efficient
    sharing of environmental information among EPA, states, tribes, and
    other information trading partners.

[^11]: Prof. David Darcy, *E-Government Best Practices: An
    Implementation Manual*, a study commissioned by GSA, May 2001,
    http://egov.gov/professional_development.htm.

[^12]: Etienne Wegner, *Supporting Communities of Practice, A survey of
    Community-Oriented Technologies*, Draft Version 1.3, March 2001,
    found at <http://www.ewenger.com/tech>.