States pushing harder on e-government


Also in the digital democracy category, Rhode Island drew plaudits for its use of tactile ballots to help blind voters, that can be read by the same optical scanning system as general ballots. Connecticut established a Campaign Finance Information System that allows citizens to access campaign reports based on candidates, political committees, and party affiliation. While the system also has features for political pros (such as filing registrations and reports), it is designed for use by ordinary citizens.

More IT for social services

Social services as well showed a sharp increase in IT applications by state governments. This area covers delivery of public-supported benefits using digital technologies, and includes such services as job placement and children's assistance. The findings showed 45 states have online job-search information, and 43 states use smart cards (credit cards with addressable intelligence, like a memory chip) for disbursing some or all of their benefits. Another 18 states make at least some of their benefits application forms available on the Web.

Nebraska, for example, has had for 10 years a statewide Nebraska Family Online Client User System (NFOCUS) that now manages 26 state welfare benefits programs. Each of the Nebraska's social service workers has access to the benefit, case, and vendor data in NFOCUS, which takes prospective clients through the application process, and test for eligibility. NFOCUS can run through the eligibility inquiry in about two hours, while paper-based systems often take weeks.

Another important development noted in the study is the adoption of digital signatures by a larger number of states. In 2000, 22 states recognized digital signatures, while in 2001, that number almost doubled to 39. Digital signatures assure the authenticity of the individuals in online communications or business transactions, and as a result, are an enabling technology that can help stimulate even more adoption of e-government.

Links:

Digital State 2001, full report, http://www.pff.org/publications/digitals...

The Progress & Freedom Foundation, http://www.pff.org/

Center for Digital Government, http://www.centerdigitalgov.com/

Digital signature initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium, http://www.w3.org/DSig/

The copyright of the article States pushing harder on e-government in Technology & U.S. Politics is owned by Alan Kotok. Permission to republish States pushing harder on e-government in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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