The Paperwork Reduction Act requires agencies to limit the burden of information collection they place on the public, while the Federal Advisory Committee Act places restrictions on meetings, which can include Web conferencing. When Hurricane Floyd swept up the East Coast in September, it knocked out electronic and telephone service to the Mint's Customer Care Center in Lanham, Md., for nearly 24 hours. During that time, about 1,300 orders placed through the Mint Web site were accidentally erased, and then a back-up system didn't work as it was supposed to. The weakness was corrected, so the error will never occur again, Mint Director Diehl promises. Plus, he says, the public recognizes that the Web is still experiencing growing pains.
People understand that Web commerce is new and growing extraordinarily fast.
The consensus among federal managers running successful Web sites is that the Internet is a way to bring people closer to their agencies. So they make a point of finding out what customers want and then find a way to give it to them.