The workshop began with small group discussions designed to elicit participants' impressions of government information systems as citizens, public managers, and researchers. Some common themes emerged from this discussion, including a desire to take advantage of technologies that provide one-stop- shopping, the lack of funding for government IT initiatives, resistance to cultural, organizational, and technical change among government organizations, and the general risk-averse nature of government. These discussions also pointed out the extensive involvement of non-governmental organizations in the delivery of public services and the difficulty of designing and delivering services that are of uniform quality in the face of a wide variety of local conditions.

Following this discussion, the workshop continued with presentations of government applications and academic research capabilities. The six government applications that were highlighted represented all levels of government, addressed a variety of government policy and management objectives, and had different levels of scope and complexity. Some of these programs use IT to help achieve single program objectives: the IRS e-file program, a Texas initiative to detect fraud and abuse in the Medicaid program, and a computerized statistical and monitoring program of the New York City Police Department. A second set of presentations focused on programs that cross the boundaries of organizations or levels of government: the Federal Geographic Data Committee and its National Spatial Data Infrastructure initiative, the Washington State Public Health Network, and the public community network of Santa Monica, CA. The research presentations covered the state-of-the art in four relevant areas: overarching issues of information and society, applied research commissioned by government agencies, trends in computer and information science research (including a summary of the initial workshop funded by the Digital Government initiative in May 1997), and trends in social science research that pertain to government use of IT.

Workshop participants also heard from Thomas Kalil, Director of Science and Technology for the National Economic Council, on Administration goals and initiatives relevant to the Digital Government Program. NSF Digital Government Program Officer Larry Brandt reviewed the goals of the program and outlined the nature of the proposals received in response to the first round of project solicitation in September 1998.