I believe that government sites on the Internet can be a great
access point for information that the public has had difficulty in
obtaining before the advent of the Internet. The fact that a site is a
"WEB" site does not seem to me to be of any consequence.
For instance, here in Washington State, there is a Washington
Legislative Gopher, available to those with Internet access, and
available through the terminals of many of the library systems around the
state (or through dial-in access to those library systems). That site
has information about the legislative process, about the legislators and
has copies of different versions of bills. The Revised Code of
Washington, the state's Constitution and ethics opinions are also
available.
Were this information to be provided through a Web site, the
layout would be different and one could jump with hypertext to the desired
information, but the information itself would be the same. I do not
believe that setting up the gopher and establishing a Web site results in
any significant difference in cost.
Web sites, with their graphical interfaces, look, well,
"friendlier" to the user and allow the user to go directly and quickly to
the desired product without getting lost in layers of menus. But that
look is not nearly so important as having the information available to a
wider audience, and it is those costs that are substantial in terms of
setting up the system and maintaining its currency and accuracy.
Are those costs worth it? My answer is yes. Before the
Wasington State Legislative gopher, I would need to rely, for the most
part, on news reports to learn about legislation pending before the
legislature in Olympia. If I wanted to learn what was happening on a
specific bill, I would have to hope that someone had mentioned a bill
number so I could call the (toll free) legislative hot line. When I got
through (competing with many other callers), I could ask for a copy of a
bill, but keeping up with amendments would be difficult.
Now, I can use my own computer or visit my local library branch and use
one of its terminals to visit the state legislative site and search myself
for all bills on a particular subject. I can look at versions of bills,
and can check and see what items are on the houses' calendars. The hot
line is still there and busy as always giving state residents wonderful
service. But now we have more options. If those government sites also
offer one a tour of the capitol, or a copy of the state song or a picture of
the state flower, I say great! None of those may interest me, but other
"visitors" to the site may have quite different but equally valid
information needs that might be met by other types of information.
I look forward to the day when all levels of government publish
their materials not only in permanent formats like paper, but also load
that information on the Internet. With a combination of traditional and
electronic formats, I believe the greatest number of people will be able
to find out how well our officials govern.
Nancy McMurrer Telephone: 206-543-7672
Reference Librarian FAX: 206-685-2165
Gallagher Law Library Internet: mcmurrer@u.washington.edu
University of Washington
1100 NE Campus Pkwy, JB-20
Seattle, WA 98105
On Wed, 9 Aug 1995, James Evans wrote:
> I'm writing an article about whether federal and state government Web
> pages offer anything substantial, or whether they are expensive toys
> that fail to deliver anything worthwhile to the Internet community. I
> would appreciate hearing from anyone who has an opinion or know some of
> the inside decision making that goes into establishing Web sites.
> Please e-mail me at jimevans@ix.netcom.com.
> James Evans
> SF Daily Journal
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:48:59 PST