CTG - inetnys

The NYS Internet Services Testbed

Summary

Project started on Jan. 15, 1997 (Completed)

Government is all about information and service delivery. The World Wide Web, offering virtually unlimited access and almost instant feedback, seems perfectly suited for government work. By transcending time, place, and distance, the Web removes barriers that often hamper effective service. For these reasons, most government organizations are eager to use the Web to deliver services to citizens and to conduct internal business.

However, the Web abounds with examples of premature, ineffective attempts to take advantage of its power to communicate information. Developing a service delivery strategy that incorporates the World Wide Web is not simple, straightforward, or inexpensive.

Seven state and local agencies participated in a project to develop Web-based services for themselves, and developed a set of practical lessons about the WWW that would assist other public agencies to effectively use this powerful new medium.

The project resulted in a set of key management, technology, and policy lessons; six agency Web sites; and four practical tools available through the CTG Web site.

Scope of Work

However, the Web abounds with examples of premature, ineffective attempts to take advantage of its power to visualize and communicate information. Developing a service delivery strategy that incorporates the World Wide Web is neither simple, nor straightforward, nor inexpensive.

In late 1995, dozens of New York state and local government agencies identified a long list of learning objectives that became the agenda for the Internet Services Testbed Project at CTG. Over the first six months of 1996, the Center worked with seven state and local agencies to assess the feasibility, costs, and benefits of Web-based services. The agencies included:

Division of Housing & Community Renewal
Division of Military & Naval Affairs
Empire State Development
Governor's Traffic Safety Committee
Hamilton County
Office of Alcoholism & Substance Abuse Services
Office of Real Property Services

The project activities were focused in two areas. First, to develop, test, and evaluate prototype Web sites for each agency and to identify the technology, management, and policy barriers they encountered and the lessons they learned. Second, to develop practical tools based on the project experience that would assist other organizations in their efforts to provide Web-based services.

Six of the seven agencies successfully completed prototype Web sites during the project. Five sites were released on the Web by August of 1996, with the sixth following in January of 1997. The development and evaluation process uncovered a number of obstacles that the agencies worked to overcome. Those barriers and the key lessons learned are the main focus of this project report.

Press Releases & News Stories

Press Releases

Publications & Results

Guides

Reports

Lessons Learned

The project produced key lessons about defining, developing, and managing Web-based public services.

This is a new kind of service, not just a new technology. The ability to integrate services and information from many organizational units and programs means that WWW services need to be guided by enterprise-level strategies and managed by teams with a broad range of expertise.

A Web site is a dynamic public representation of an agency and its programs. It needs to be developed and managed as a major organization-wide initiative. Clearly defining the business needs that the Web service will support and its relationship to the overall agency mission is key to this eff

It is easy to underestimate the managerial and technical complexity of Web-based services. Complexity stems from several sources: a high degree of public visibility, rapidly changing technologies, the need for incremental and iterative development processes, and the tightly interwoven threads of policy, management, and technology concerns.

Web-based services can be expensive. Because it is easy to use, people often tend to underestimate the behind the scenes costs of developing an effective WWW service. Even the smallest projects demand substantial human, technical, and financial resources. Personnel and technical infrastructure costs tend to comprise the bulk of expenses.

Managing information content is the most fundamental and often the most difficult aspect of developing and managing a WWW site. This activity entails selecting content that satisfies a clear service objective and making it accessible to a well-defined intended audience. Often, existing information needs to be reformatted or "reengineered" to take advantage of the linkages, search features, and navigation aids that the Web provides. It is also usually necessary to maintain the same information in two or more formats for different audiences.

Effective Web-based services demand appropriate computing and communications infrastructure. The condition of an agency's existing infrastructure, especially on the desktop, can present a significant threshold barrier.

The use of the Web presents new policy issues and casts existing information policies (especially those related to access and intellectual property) in a new light. A clearly stated Internet service policy can help focus agency-wide efforts to create and manage this service. Both statewide and agency-level information policies need to be evaluated and refined in order to fully employ the data sharing and business transaction capabilities of the Web.

Security considerations are important, but manageable. The most common WWW applications (information and referral, downloading documents, e-mail forms, internal searches of a site) have few security risks. Other applications (such as providing public access to internal databases) entail major security concerns. However, rather than shy away from these applications, agencies should educate themselves about both the risks and tools for managing them.

Practically anything an agency needs to know about using the WWW or developing Web services is readily available on the Web itself. There are other sites, white papers, tutorials, style guides, discussion groups, software, indexes, and search tools that can assist agencies as they plan the development of their Web services.

Partners

Government Partners

New York State Archives and Records Administration
New York State Division of Military & Naval Affairs
New York State Empire State Development
New York State Governor's Traffic Safety Committee
New York State Office of Alcoholism & Substance Abuse Services
New York State Office of Real Property Services

Agency Partners

New York State Division of Housing & Community Renewal
Hamilton County and the NYS Performance Measurement, Reporting, and Improvement System Project

Corporate Partners

Digital Equipment Corporation, now known as Hewlett-Packard
Documentation Strategies, Inc.
EMI Communications Corporation, now known as Intermedia Communications [ Dead Link ]
Silicon Graphics
Sun Microsystems
Unified Technologies

Academic Partners

Zbigniew Kaniewski, Local Government Telecommunications Initiative, Hudson Valley Community College
Tony Pascarella, Local Government Telecommunications Initiative, Hudson Valley Community College
Dax Prather, University Business Systems, Finance & Business, University at Albany, SUNY
John Rohrbaugh, Professor, Department of Public Administration and Policy, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, SUNY
Center for Technology in Government
Donna Berlin, Internet Coordinator
Peter Bloniarz, Research Director
Sharon Dawes, Director
Ann DiCaterino, Manager, Project Support
Kai Larsen, Information Science Doctoral Program
Theresa Pardo, Project Coordinator

Funding Sources

This project was funded by a portion of CTG's New York State budget allocation plus in-kind contributions of professional services, hardware, software, and communications provided by the participating New York State agencies, University at Albany faculty members, and corporate partners.