Executive Summary
What is
E-Government?
E-Government
Strategy
State and Local E-Government
Washington State
Overview:
The levels of government that the average citizen interacts with on a daily basis are the state, county and city levels. Some of the greatest challenges to information sharing amongst the different levels are the stovepipes that exist within each layer. Each level has its own functional area, and in the age of E-government each must share that information freely in order to create a truly integrated and interactive government. All states use e-government to varying degrees. Comparatively, Washington State has established a presence on the web that is among the most advanced and interactive in the nation.
Discussion:
The drive towards e-government in the state of Washington is led by the Department of Information Services which was established in 1987. The role of the DIS is to provide state employees with the knowledge, tools, and foundation upon which they can build a truly interactive digital government. It has created a fiber-optically connected intranet which connects 1100 sites statewide and provides high speed voice, video and data communications amongst agencies. This intranet is anchored by two data centers and the entire network is scaleable. A Digital Government Applications Academy was created to train state government employees and bring agencies together to collaborate and transform state bureaucracy from an inward focus to being outwardly focused. Washington State�s official website is called Access Washington; its purpose is to bring online government to the citizens of the state. Among those services available are: Unclaimed Property and Money; Renew vehicle/boat license tabs and finally Unemployment Insurance.
Analysis:
The DIS site is impressive not only in scope but also in usability. The home page is simple and uncluttered; leading one to immediately select from the options on the left side of the screen, those options being: Our Role, Tools, and Services which is also known as the Technology Mall. Access Washington, is a bit cluttered but fairly user friendly. The first section one notices on the home page is the Ask George search engine which allows citizens to ask a question in plain English and get an answer. When asked a simple question, such as �How do I reserve a campsite in a state park� it quickly referred me to the State Parks Department. However, when a more complicated question was asked, it had some difficulty, confusing the City of Shoreline with shoreline management problems which are the purview of the Department of Ecology.
The most commonly used links are the unclaimed property site, renewal of vehicle license tabs, and unemployment security. The site also allows for the conversion of the text to 7 different languages, however, this feature was down at the time of this writing.
Recommendations:
The recommendation for the State of Washington is to enable greater interactivity, eliminate the need for submission of hard copy forms, simplify the home page and pursue an online voting initiative.
Links:
Access Washington http://access.wa.gov/
Ask George http://access.wa.gov/search/index.aspx
Unclaimed Property and money http://ucp.dor.wa.gov/default.asp?link=FIF
Renew vehicle/boat license tabs https://wws2.wa.gov/dol/vehtabs/
Unemployment Insurance http://www.wa.gov/esd/ui/icapp/start.htm