Internet

Ryan and McClure (1995) report on the perceptions and views of 67 government officials and contractors who had or were about to embark on the development of Internet services. The group participated in a Strategic Information Resources Management Seminar entitled “Building and Managing Government Internet Services.” Survey instruments were implemented to identify key issues and concerns about the building and managing of government Internet services. The following issues were identified by the respondents: technical challenges; including security, encryption, and document integrity; data quality and organization; cost and funding issues; moving the barriers created by bureaucracy; integrating Internet services with agency mission and function; developing external partners with non-governmental organizations and the commercial sector; understanding and communicating with users; evaluation criteria for extensiveness, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and usefulness; personnel and training needs; and federal or agency policy adjustments. The respondents also identified the strategic benefits to their agency that had resulted thus far from the provision of government services over the Internet including improved communication, coordination, and collaboration; wider dissemination of information; and enhanced agency profile.

Expert Systems

Expert systems have been developed and used to support a diversity of government operations. Van de Donk and Snellen (1989) discuss the development and introduction of knowledge-based systems in public administration. Three types of knowledge-based systems: handling systems, advisory systems, and expert systems are examined in terms of the functions of public administration as derived from political, legal, technical-scientific, and economic rationales. Bourcier (1989) describes the main features of MAIRILOG and BRUITLOG, expert systems developed for the mayoral and municipal offices of Paris. She discusses how the systems work as well as evaluation methods and methodological problems. Coursey et al. (1993) describe an expert system, the Intelligent Waste Stream Advisory System (IWSAS), that provides phone survey assistance in the collection of information from small quantity generators of waste in New Jersey. The system facilitated the completion of 252 surveys and contributed to the understanding of factors influencing waste generation.

Group decision support and cooperative work systems

Group process is a critical component of government planning and policy making. The Delphi Method, Nominal Group Technique, and Social Judgment Analysis are identified by Reagan and Rohrbaugh (1990) as decision processes that have been developed to increase the quality of group decision or commitments to decisions once they have been made. They indicate that with the increased availability of Group Decision Support Systems, organizations are expected to invest substantial resources in new information technology to support the work of teams and expert groups. Further as the number and variety of group processes and supporting technologies increases, identifying the most appropriate methods and technologies will become more difficult. They suggest the Competing Values Approach as a mechanism for evaluating group decision process and provide an example of its use. Many private sector and government organizations are choosing to use computerized decision support systems or automated group decision support systems to facilitate decision making and planning. These technologies facilitate decision making through the use of automated decision support models. Research has focused on the factors that influence the degree to which these systems are effective. For example, Nunamaker et al. (1988) discuss principles of group processes and the hardware and software features of computer-aided deliberation. They discuss findings from their group decision support system research with respect to such factors as anonymity of participation, facility design, need for multiple public screens, use of knowledge and databases, communication network speed, methodological approach, and software design.

Kraemer and King (1988) indicate that technology to support cooperative work and group decision making has grown out of three traditions: computer-based communications, computer-based information service provision, and computer-based decision support. Their paper provides an overview of group decision support systems (GDSSs) that support group work and evaluates experiences with such systems. They indicate that progress has been slower than originally expected due to shortcomings in the available technologies, insufficient integration with various components of the computing “package,” and an incomplete understanding of the nature of group decision making. They conclude however, that the field shows promise in the area of tool creation to aid group decision making and in the development of mechanisms to support the study of group decision making dynamics.