Moderator: Considering the continuing problem of the digital divide, what means, other than the Internet, should we be promoting to give people better access to information? In a related question, what do you think should be done to make people more aware of government information and services on the Internet?

Ari Schwartz: At CDT, we look at the digital divide the other way around. We focus more on how to get people who don't have access to understand how the Internet works and how to get public access to it. Recently we have seen the gap closing to some degree, but the literacy gap has not closed as much as we would like. But it really has to be an important issue, especially in light of how more services are moving online.

In terms of getting greater awareness of what's out there, that becomes much more difficult in the budget situation governments are in right now. We need innovative ways to get the information out there because it is so much cheaper to access information services online for both the government and the citizen. There should be a push to get people to use these systems to make them more worthwhile.