Ohio's GILS is notable for its combination of a locator service with a web-based records management application. As excellent points of comparison, Illinois and Rhode Island are introducing GILS more oriented towards library practices. The primary issues that came up for discussion were metadata standards, software applications, project management, and archiving resources. The last meant different things to the different professions in attendance. The Oregon State Library manages a state GILS listserv which provides useful information on developments in the field.
Plans are underway for a third meeting next spring.
In December 1999, the Texas Department of Information Resources submitted a report on state portal initiatives to the Texas Electronic Government Task Force. To further that end, it commissioned a survey and analysis of what other state governments were doing. Sixteen states received and responded to the short questionnaire, which focused on e-government and particularly on its costs and benefits. The report is a very useful snapshot of the disparate approaches states are taking to the use of the Internet as a gateway to government services and information. Little information is available about the real costs at both the enterprise and agency levels of states' e-government initiatives.