Information Technology Research, Innovation, and E-Government (2002) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 Technology Levers
3 Technology Levers
Pages 61-87
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From page 61... ...
These devices, used to tabulate results of the 1890 census, led to the ubiquitous use of punched cards as a medium for input, output, and storage for several decades. After World War II, with the advent of larger computers, demanding government missions including national defense, gathering and analyzing statistical data, and operating the Social Security system prompted substantial federal R&D on both hardware and software.
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From page 62... ...
initiative was created in the early 1990s to help address "grand challenge" applications in areas of government interest such as health, education, libraries, and crisis management, and to accelerate innovation in critical supporting information technologies. The history of federally funded IT research shows that problems motivated by government needs, such as networking and parallel processing, when suitably framed in a well-designed research program have proved to have wide commercial application (as evidenced by the Internet, distributed transaction processing, and data mining)
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From page 63... ...
2 examined the payoff and key lessons learned from federal investment in computing research. The study concluded that this broad and sustained federal support profoundly affected the development of computer technology and ultimately led to numerous commercially successful applications.
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From page 64... ...
The NSF Digital Government program is positioned to undertake research in all three categories, forming alliances with mission users in order to identify requirements more concretely, provide access to data and subject-matter experts, and provide potential for early validation of innovative concepts. SOME E-GOVERNMENT RESEARCH AREAS The research areas discussed in the following subsections are drawn from the committee's detailed studies of crisis management and federal statistics, as well as from its less-intensive explorations of other government application domains, reviews of the literature on government IT,
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From page 65... ...
These caveats notwithstanding, the committee intends the compilation of topics presented below to be useful to those seeking to stimulate innovative projects, solicit proposals from researchers, or engage operational government agencies in IT research. Information Management Government applications present significant challenges for information-management technology.
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From page 66... ...
Government systems also provide direct support for diverse users and applications including, for example, commonly required transactions at local, state, and federal levels; requests for information about people and property; requests for historical information (including information retained in official archives) ; requests for statistical information; researcher requests for various types of information; and governmentworker requests.
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From page 67... ...
; · Providing effective access to multilingual information, including
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From page 68... ...
With respect to semantic issues, there is less progress, though the XML standard at least enables communities to "speak" a standardized language in addressing semantic issues. Standardization of the metadata describing the format of databases can be achieved through agreement on XML DTDs (document type definitions, which are formal descriptions of what can appear in a document and how documents are structured)
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From page 69... ...
Common ontologies facilitate semantically meaningful integration of data from diverse information sources. Efforts to agree on standard data descriptions, which are more a matter of implementation than of research, should not be confused with work aimed at developing and merging ontologies for describing content, as well as at tools for ontology building and sharing.
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From page 70... ...
as well as techniques for the data mining of less-structured text data and more complex multimedia data sources.4 The wealth of data in government information systems presents an attractive opportunity for developing new data-mining techniques, though it will be important to differentiate among user groups. Statisticians or social scientists seeking to explore patterns in demographic data will have a different set of needs from those of nonexperts.
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From page 71... ...
Where some users have low skills and/or little experience, for example, systems that have a high tolerance for human error are likely to be especially valuable. One particular HCI problem is that of finding, understanding, using, and integrating information of the diverse types found in the multitude of government information sources.
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From page 72... ...
For example, in crisis management, it is especially important that systems be able to support users in carrying out nonroutine tasks and facilitate working in unplanned, ad hoc situations. In the case of statistical data, variability in the public's statistical literacy poses a particular challenge to effective presentation of federal statistical data.
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From page 73... ...
Looking to the longer term, further research on wireless technologies offers the potential for improved performance; and in the area of fiber optics, research could provide designs and architectures with lower deployment costs. The complex economic, implementation, and public policy issues associated with provision of broadband Internet access to residences have constrained deployment more than the state of the technology has.6 In contrast to the more routine government functions, domains such 6See CSTB, NRC.
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From page 74... ...
Also, it would be useful to develop interfaces that allow the combined deployment of private and public infrastructure, thereby permitting crisis responders to exploit whatever infrastructure elements are available. In any case, efforts should not be confined solely to improving the infrastructure.
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From page 75... ...
Increasingly widespread deployment, as well as the use of always-on broadband Internet, wireless data, and similar new communications technologies, present additional opportunities for providing this kind of service. Information Systems Security Government applications of IT often center on the management of records about individuals and businesses.
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From page 76... ...
Authentication can also be accomplished through the use of an authentication protocol sometimes based on the use of a private encryption key, known only to the named individual, together with a certificate issued by a trusted third party that associates the encryption key with the user's identity (digital signatures are one example of this form of authentication)
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From page 77... ...
In fact, many security breaches result from either the misapplication of security policies, or the use of security policies that are not appropriate in particular contexts. Writing correct policy requires a thorough understanding of how a system is to be used and how it is not supposed to be used.
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From page 78... ...
Audit mechanisms will be of particular importance for any exception policies that are used by emergency workers or by others with authority to override normal access protections. For someone with exception access, knowledge that his or her use could be scrutinized helps deter abuse of such access.
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From page 79... ...
In addition to enhancing its own transaction-support capabilities, the government has an opportunity to promote the development and use of common transaction mechanisms to widen access to government-supported services. Citizens would then be able to select a third-party intermediary acting on their behalf to aggregate information from different government services or to run software on their local computers for direct access.
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From page 80... ...
would also enable citizens and businesses to overcome this problem by using software that directly connects their own applications running on personal computers with government services. A number of technical issues are related to achieving this "lightweight" capability, however.
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From page 81... ...
The committee notes, as others have, that the government can play a leading role in promoting certain aspects of e-commerce and e-business, especially where the government is in a unique position to support the deployment of certain technologies, or where specific government services may be leveraged to improve the effectiveness of these technologies. Such opportunities include the following: ties; · Government as a certification authority or licenser of such authori· Government as a leading player in deployment of other security technologies, such as smart cards; and · Government as a standards adopter.
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From page 82... ...
Modeling-research areas relevant to government applications include these: · Underlying mathematical theory, including mathematical system theory, sequential dynamical systems, combinatorial and dynamical graph theory, and algorithm theory; · Statistical theory and methods in areas such as statistical analysis of computer-based-simulation experimentation and modeling, statistical analysis of dynamical systems, and integration of statistical decision theory with cognitive action analyses; · Computational methods, including optimal representations for high-performance coupled system architectures and learning and adaptive systems methods; and · Because sensor data provide critical input to models and simulations, techniques for fusion of sensor data and model output, reconfigurable sensor architectures, and adaptive online data acquisition. Software Technologies Nearly all major information technology systems in government are "software-intensive" in the sense that the principal design risks relate to the capability to produce effective and reliable software.
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From page 83... ...
This includes adoption of commercial components such as mainstream commercial operating systems and office "productivity" tools, as well as of opensource components such as the Linux operating system, the Apache Web server (which is the dominant server in use today) , and the Mozilla Web browser.
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From page 84... ...
In addition to these systemsengineering issues, research must address operational engineering issues such as how errors are corrected, how security breaches are detected and remedied, and how backups or other robustness measures are executed. A research program including case studies of particular systems and methodology research on architecture, techniques, and tools could help address the difficult technical (and nontechnical)
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From page 85... ...
Compared to infrastructure elements such as basic networking or relational database capabilities, which are more mature, Middleware has continued to evolve at a rapid pace. Its importance notwithstanding, Middleware has, historically, not been an area where com ?
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From page 86... ...
That is, research needs to be done to understand in a precise way the interplay of system design decisions, changes to business practices, changes in the operating environment, characteristics of the user population, and organizational outcomes. These issues become very significant when joint efforts are undertaken involving multiple organizations in order to deliver an aggregated service for a particular customer segment.
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From page 87... ...
· Understanding how to use e-government strategically as part of overall government service delivery. Research could help shed light on how specific technology capabilities relate to a broader strategy for how people interact with government.
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