In 1997, the Social Security Administration pulled down an online service that allowed people to access their earnings history and Social Security benefits after news reports indicated how anyone with easily obtainable information could access someone else's Social Security account. In November, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics inadvertently posted part of its closely guarded jobs report on the Internet a day before the report's scheduled release, giving investors an early chance to make investments based on the information. The Office of Personnel Management does not have a unique identification for federal Webmasters and therefore does not know how many Webmasters are employed by agencies or how many federal Web sites are in operation. The Federal Webmasters Forum, a group formed in 1996 for Webmasters to discuss Internet-related issues, also does not know the exact number of Webmasters and Web sites. Unlike other government job classifications that are usually tightly structured, many of today's Webmasters were techies who were exploring Internet technology before introducing the technology to their agencies, said Rich Kellett, co-chairman of the Webmasters forum.
Some training is available.
Michael Balk, course director of the institute, has trained 480 Webmasters since the program started. But only about 1 percent of his class members have a degree or educational background related to Web technology, he said. They just get thrown into it. Alice Alexander, the part-time Web manager for the Transportation Department, said she has attended one conference about the Web, but she must be creative to find help in areas in which she has no expertise. One of her recent projects has been to develop a business plan for the DOT Web site, but she has not been able to find anyone in DOT who has experience planning Internet services.