The Pew Internet and American Life Project has a new survey Home Broadband Adoption 2008 (PDF, 31 pages) that says "Adoption stalls for low-income Americans even as many broadband users opt for premium services that give them more speed."

NextGov looks at the report in relation to e-government initiatives. (E-Government's Tough Nut, by Allan Holmes, Tech Insider NextGov, July 3, 2008.) Some of the problems for a government wanting to interact with citizens online is that many citizens cannot or will not be able to do so. The articles picks the relevant statistics from the Pew report: the percentage of low-income Americans who have a broadband Internet connection dropped from 28 percent to 25 percent; of those that use the slower dial-up connections, almost two-thirds said they had no desire to change to broadband; 27 percent of Americans have no Internet access, with most of those being either elderly or low-income; only 10 percent of the non-Internet users have any desire to become wired. As Holmes says:

These are the hard-core resisters - and there are millions of them. That means if government wants to move ahead with providing more electronic services - including services that may require faster and more robust connections that broadband provides - a large portion of Americans may just not care. And these resisters are exactly the demographics that government tends to serve.

Nextgov reports that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is free to reconnect itself to the Internet, thanks to a Washington D.C. District Court ruling earlier this month.

Interior allowed to reconnect to Internet, by Gautham Nagesh, Nextgov, May 21, 2008.

District Judge James Robertson granted on May 14 motions filed by [Deparment of the] Interior requesting that the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Office of Hearings and Appeals, the Office of the Special Trustee, and the Office of Historical Trust Accounting be allowed to reconnect their networks to the Internet.

The BIA network was ordered to shut down in 2001 amid accusations of poor data security in the ongoing Cobell v. Kempthorne class action case.

Security questions remain, however.

[Judge] Robertson acknowledged that Interior’s IT security may still be inadequate. “The congressional and inspector general reports indicating that the Interior Department, overall, continues to receive failing grades on its IT report card are troubling, but I have no authority to act in response to them, nor do I have any colorable suggestion that the declarations before me … were made in bad faith,” he wrote.

As of this writing, the BIA site has not been fully restored. According to Interior chief information officer Michael Howell, it is expected to take a couple of months for the BIA to reconnect.

-Brian Provenzale

Recent statistics released by the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) show that consumer satisfaction with federal government websites and e-government in general have fallen in the first quarter of 2008 as compared with the final quarter of 2007. The score represents the third quarter of decline in consumer satisfaction in a row and is the lowest level of consumer satisfaction with e-government websites in three years.

There are a couple of possible factors in the decline. Consumers seem to be dissatisfied that government websites are not evolving into more than information dumps. Consumers want to see government websites that allow them to do business online, to take care of required paperwork, and to control their experiences of the website -- which is something that many commercial websites allow, at least on a limited scale. So far, that is not happening with government websites as much as consumers expect.

Another factor: presidential candidates on the campaign trail are mentioning transparency in electronic government and improving citizens' experience of e-government either minimally or not at all. Consumers aren't getting the sense that e-government is a priority, or even a secondary interest, among any of the presidential candidates.

Not sure how many of you already know about this NextGov.com website, but I just found out about it and I think it's only been around for a year. It's a spin off of Government Executive.com and provides "coverage and commentary on the management of information technology in the federal government". I'm also enjoying their Tech Insider blog.

Take a look at NextGov's recently posted news article - "Public satisfaction with e-government lowest since 2005":

"The dip in scores is due to several factors, including uncertainty about the upcoming presidential election and administration transition...rather than reflecting an actual decline in service,...the dip in scores more likely reflects users' rising expectations. For the first time, government has to keep up with the private sector in terms of service levels. They are just not used to moving at the same pace, with the same focus and intensity as the private sector."

Have you visited FDA.gov lately? *swoon*

According to the FDA, they redesigned their home page because, "In a nutshell, we listened to you. We tested the usability of our Web site by asking our key audiences".

This site should serve as a model for other government agency websites to follow, in my humble opinion. The content avoids jargon and everything is structured in a way that makes it so easy to scan and find what you need.

While updating my Twitter account recently, I noticed that womenshealth.gov created their own Twitter account and added me to their network. Kudos to the government agencies who are jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon and getting their information out to the community!

That got me wondering what other government agencies have created Twitter accounts, so I did some hunting and found a previous FGI blog entry and an article from CNET News stating that NASA wants to tackle Web 2.0 initiatives in order to "save itself from turning into a dinosaur in the Internet age". It took awhile, but I finally found the official NASA Twitter account, which I stumbled upon via the NASA Edge website and their Twitter page.

The U.S. Department of State created a dipnote Twitter account for alerting users to new posts on their DIPNOTE Blog.

Many non-profit organizations, such as the American Red Cross, created "tweet" alerts during the recent tornado outbreaks in the south.

The Sunlight Foundation is "tweeting" public laws as they are signed.

And of course, FGI is on Twitter as well!

Even Presidential candidates like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton update their Twitter accounts. I can't find one for John McCain, but it looks like Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul joined the Twitter bandwagon too.

If you find any other government agencies using Twitter, please post a comment to let everyone know.

Yesterday, ALA submitted a statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing, "E-Government 2.0: Improving Innovation, Collaboration, and Access", addressing the critical yet unacknowledged role public libraries play in delivering E-government services to the American people. Witnesses included:

• Karen S. Evans, Administrator, Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology , Office of Management and Budget (PDF)
• John Lewis Needham, Manager, Public Sector Content Partnerships , Google, Inc. (PDF)
• Ari Schwartz, Deputy Director , Center for Democracy and Technology (PDF)
• Jimmy Wales, Founder , Wikipedia (PDF)

All of the witnesses had interesting things to say, and Schwartz's testimony included mention of a just-released report from the CDT and OMB Watch called, "Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Important Government Information Cannot Be Found Through Commercial Search Engines."

I really hope that the committee members hear both the great advantages that e-government can have for citizens AND the great need for much more financial support to public libraries and other organizations on the front line of e-government services. The great fallacy of new Web technologies and social media is that these tools will allow governments, libraries and other public service organizations to save money and cut physical service points. YES, e-government helps get services into citizens' hands, BUT these new technologies also necessitate MORE spending on public service points. What agencies (and libraries) seem to think is that if they have a Web service, then they don't need a physical service. But, like IM in libraries, you can't just cut hours of your service point. Instead, you need MORE staff to be able to handle the Web service and the inevitable increase in service requests (both in-person and online).

ALA statement on e-government (PDF)

"Libraries strongly support the E-government Act, since it has enhanced access to government information. However, since its enactment, public libraries are often the only organizations that can help individuals interact with government agencies and access E-government services...

Libraries have a critical role in E-Government not only as portals to access, but also organizing and categorizing information and providing the necessary tools and expertise to provide community service. Librarians provide the front line reference service that informs the public how to access and evaluate government information through both physical and virtual collections and how to train people in the use of electronic resources. Libraries help the public become information literate...

Public libraries are open to taking on the challenge of E-government initiatives, yet the library community has seen little collaboration or support from federal agencies for the significant increase in services public libraries provide on their behalf...

-- Lynne Bradley, Director of ALA's Office of Government Relations

Analysis of e-Government from the Taubman Center for Public Policy, Brown University at www.insidepolitics.org/egovt07int.pdf.

I recently posted the following two items on the Government Information Division blog:

• FARA Database Online... Soon
• USA.gov Revamps Its Site Layout

New data from the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index shows that e-government websites rate 73.4 points out of 100 in customer satisfaction. Stephen Barr noted in today's "Federal Diary" column in the Washington Post, "Comparable private-sector scores were higher, ranging from 76.5 to 80."

Barr discussed the survey with Larry Freed, CEO of the website consulting company ForeSee Results. Freed said while government sites are under budgetary and legislative constraints, they should strive to make the information on their sites easier for the public to locate.

Among the agencies that received high marks in the survey were the IRS, the CDC, and two Social Security Administration websites.

My time as blogger of the month is almost through, so I'm going to end with a quote from a section of the EPA's Climate Change Kids Site called, "So What's the Big Deal?"

"It is important to understand that scientists don't know for sure what climate change will bring. Some changes brought about by climate change will be good. If you live in a very cool climate, warmer temperatures might be welcome. Days and nights could be more comfortable and people in the area may be able to grow different and better crops than they could before. But it is also true that changes in some places will not be very good at all."

One of my classmates pointed this gem out.

Peggy Garvin reported on the SLA Government Information Division blog that the Office of Management and Budget launched FedSpending.gov this past week.

"The website is intended to provide a searchable database of federal grants, contracts, loans, and other spending. This initial version fulfills a requirement in the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (PL 109-282), known as FFATA."

The site is sparse right now, but it does have a PDF copy of the FFATA and its implementation schedule.

The OMB has been using e-government websites as a method of providing transparency, as seen with ExpectMore.gov and Results.gov.

The latter site is geared towards federal employees and aims to show how well government agencies are performing in relation to the President's Management Agenda. It's kind of a strange site, though. One of the boxes on the front page is entitled, "Don't You Agree? Apply to You?" This reminds me of a subject heading from a Nigerian scam email for some reason.

I find the rating system for the Executive Branch Management Scorecard a bit silly:

• Green for success,
• Yellow for mixed results, and
• Red for unsatisfactory.

The ratings are given for each agency at its highest level. This is understandable, but a classmate of mine pointed out that you're not seeing how divisions of the agencies are performing. If you work for the IRS, you're only seeing how the Treasury Department is doing on the whole. If you work for the USCIS, you're only seeing how Homeland Security is performing. (Or not performing, if you look at the PDF of the December 2006 scorecard.)

I don't know how much guidance each division receives on how to improve or maintain their scores, though. If you have any insights on this, please feel free to comment.

James Jacobs commented on the post I published on e-government. He said:

"Evidently (and I haven't checked on this so this is purely an anecdote!), libraries are beginning to be seen as e-govt resources. Good you say, but the worry comes in when librarians are more and more expected to help their patrons fill out the govt forms that they've downloaded from library public computers. In other words, librarians are being seen as defacto public information officers."

From the discussion on this subject that I had in one of my classes, I think what James is saying is true. I'm not a public librarian, so I am basing this opinion off of what I heard my class. My professor, Paul Jaeger, co-wrote an article in Library Journal last year on this subject. He and his co-authors took a poll of librarians to investigate the growing reliance on libraries as an e-gov source. From the article:

"So, as libraries become valuable community access points to e-government services and resources, especially in post-hurricane emergency relief, their efforts as agents of e-government represent an unfunded mandate. The library community must respond with better training and education. However, government agencies that both fund libraries and rely on them for their public access computing and Internet access also must provide greater support." (Bertot 35)

Here is the citation for the article: Bertot, John Carlo, et al. "Drafted: I Want You to Deliver E-Government." Library Journal 131.14 (15 Aug. 2006): pp.34-39.

I am in a class about e-government this semester. In our second meeting, our professor showed us the excellent eGovernment Resource Centre. This website from the government of Victoria, Australia has compiled a large directory of e-government websites and news links. You can browse by topical groupings or just browse through an A to Z index. In addition, the site offers RSS feeds that provide such information as new resources for government web designers and site updates as they happen. I find the Daily Digest feed particularly useful, and I will occasionally link to stories I've found there, such as the one about ExpectMore.gov in my previous post. 

Thanks to the blog BiblioTICando con humor (blog bibliotecario por Diana Rodríguez), I became aware of this paper about eGovernment in Argentina: Gobierno Electronico: donde esta parada la Argentina? by Paula Nahirnak. IF I understand this paper correctly, it has some very interesting things to say. I say IF because my understanding of it is formed by my approximate 5th grade Spanish level plus hints from Google Translate. So, if any fluent Spanish speakers would look over this six page document and let me know if I've gone wrong, I'd be grateful. The paper appears to focus on the delivery of government services and information by Argentina's provincal government. A year and a half ago the provinces were given a decree by the central government to undertake electronic activities. For reasons I can't translate well enough to understand, the authors of the article graded provinces by how well these four classes of information were web posted:

1. Information regarding provincal debt.
2. Provincial budgetary law.
3. Information about the budget.
4. Information about tax collection.

From a table it looks like performance in these categories significantly improved from 2002 to 2006, and especially after 2005. The article also references a 2005 article, Global E-Government 2005 by Darrell M. West and from what I can tell, Argentina ranted with countries like Spain, Lithuania, Korea, Iraq(!), Romania and a few others. What I find really fascinating about the article, again if I understand it correctly, is that I'm not sure who this electronic information is actually for. Page five of the article has a chart of public employees by province who have access to computer equipment. Even the top rated area, the capital of Buenos Aries, only 51% of the government's own workers have access to computers! The median for the country seems to be 26.7%. So almost three quarters of Argentina's government workers cannot access the web posted information from their employer. On the last page of the article is a table expressing access to home Internet connections in terms of people to one Internet connection. The capital again wins out with "just" five people per Internet connection. Nationwide average is 26 people per Internet connection and in the NEA y Litoral province, there are 83 people for every home Internet connection. So I don't think most people at home could get much out of Argentina's drive to put government information and services on the Web. Perhaps their citizens are going to libraries. But as I've said, this is MY reading. If you have a better one, please let us know in comments. But it does look like the digital divide is hard at work all over the planet. So how do we help the 30% or so of Americans here at home w/o Internet access get their government information?