Electronic Government: Opportunities and Challenges Facing the FirstGov Web Gateway

摘要

FirstGov represents a significant achievement in that an important and previously unavailable capability-searching the entire government's web pages-was rapidly and successfully put into place. Now come the larger issues of how to sustain the site as a permanent feature of the federal government and how to expand it to take on greater significance. We see four important issues for the FirstGov Board of Directors as this effort moves forward. Managing site security for FirstGov.gov needs to be improved; assessing and acting upon information in the Fed-Search database that might facilitate malicious activity; issues about private-sector sponsorship need to be addressed; and plans for the future need to be developed and communicated. An overall management plan for FirstGov.gov would be a useful vehicle for setting expectations regarding what general functions are likely to be achievable for FirstGov in the near term, how the site will be managed on an ongoing basis, and how progress toward the larger goals set forth in the President's December 1999 memorandum will be measured. The plan would also likely go a long way in allaying concerns about coordinating the security of FirstGov and its information and verifying that site security is maintained on an ongoing basis. Such a plan would be subject to continual revision and need not be an impediment to the adoption of creative, unanticipated new approaches.