There are a lot of hurdles and risks, and I think the government is appropriately taking its time and being somewhat cautious. I have heard a number of CIOs express tremendous interest in how they can use electronic commerce. I don't think they are as far along as industry is. Part of their job is to protect the public, and there are just too many risks now. They're taking it seriously.
Different agencies are in different places in terms of how well they're handling it.
I'm encouraged that the president came out with a number of aggressive plans. He set March 1999 as a deadline for all agencies to be year 2000-ready. The president is not only telling the U.S. government that this needs to be done. I think he's prodding industry, which also has a lot of problems. I'm very encouraged to see President Clinton speaking out.