e/EVERYTHING!

How Interior can capitalize on the power
of the Internet was the major focus of the
Information Technology Conference 2000

By Joe Carriero

DENVER, Colorado--It's Monday morning, June 9, 2003. Jane is logging on Nutrition.gov to help plan the family meals for the week. Tomorrow, her husband, George, will access Agriculture.gov for information on caring for his tomato garden. On Wednesday, their son, Elroy, will research astronauts in Careers.gov for a school report. On Thursday, daughter Judy will complete a survey about her bird-watching activities in Biology.gov. And on Friday, the entire Jetson family will interact with Recreation.gov to reserve a campsite and plan their vacation at Yellowstone National Park.

Unlike the comic Jetsons, this family can't rocket to the moon, work on Jupiter, or play on Neptune. But they are taking advantage of the Federal Government's commitment to e/Everything--using the Internet to get information, plan activities, provide their opinions, and interact with the government.

E/business is accelerating--with serious implications for everyone, in and out of government. With the information revolution, our customers, the citizens of this country, now expect and demand better and faster service. They have a growing demand for e/Everything.

To meet these demands, Interior--like other businesses--must adapt. This was the message communicated loud and clear at the Department's IT Conference in Denver, from Oct. 29 to Nov. 2, 2000.

How do we, at Interior, change our business practices to better serve our customers and meet the growing demand for e/Everything? How do we transform our programs and processes to integrate e/Business into our systems? How do our agencies keep up with the accelerating rate of change? How do we find the funds to accomplish the e/Government that our customers expect?

Conference presenters and participants focused on these issues and more. They discussed Interior's global IT strategy, proposed new policies for storing and making information available to the public, and talked about the need for security and protecting the rights of individuals.

Daryl White, Interior's chief information officer, emphasized that Interior agencies need to collaborate on a comprehensive strategy. "To meet the growing demand for e/Everything requires a blueprint for aligning information technology with our diverse missions," White said. "The growing demand for e/Everything requires policies for managing change in how we store and make information available to the public."

"This growing demand also requires web solutions that balance technology with individual rights, services that provide the bandwidth to meet users' needs, and IT security," White added.

One of the foundations for making e/Everything a reality is enterprise architecture, a planning process that applies engineering and architectural principles to the design of an organization--and to the information technology systems in that organization. Using enterprise architecture, known as EA, organizations can better design their systems to handle what conference presenter John Zachman called the "unprecedented increases in complexity and rate of change."

Zachman, an EA pioneer and evangelist, calls the process indispensable. "In 1993, the body of knowledge in the world doubled every three years; in 2003 the body of knowledge will double every six months," Zachman said. "We are the generation that has witnessed the transition from the Industrial Era to the Information Era, which began around 1980 and will extend through 2020."

Doug Garnand, system administrator for the National Park Service's Air Resources Division, firmly believes that government agencies need to invest in planning a comprehensive, integrated e/Everything program. "I see using Zachman's enterprise architecture framework or something similar as our best shot at evolving from our stovepipe information systems and inconsistent data," Garnand said. "We need truly integrated information systems aligned with our agency's mission."

Garnand also believes that integrated information systems will be difficult to get. "The challenges are enormous, particularly given the decentralized structure and culture of our agencies. But Zachman's thoughts on the challenges and realities of coping with complexity and change in the enterprise are invaluable," he said.

Comprehensive strategies must extend beyond individual agencies, Garnand added. "We need integrated information and services our customers can use." Not surprisingly, much of the conference focused on customer service.

"It seems that we need to change the image of government from department oriented to customer service oriented," noted Diane Knudson, a computer specialist who develops websites for the Fish and Wildlife Service's Region 2. "The experts emphasized again and again that departments need to work together to present information to the public," said Knudson. "Websites like Firstgov.gov and Recreation.gov are good examples of these collective efforts."

Mark Foreman, of IBM's Global Business Strategies, called e/Government "the next American revolution, and spoke about applying e/Commerce techniques to deliver products and services--to align the goals of an organization with the needs of its customers.

"By more than a 5-to-1 margin, the public anticipates that the impact of e/Government will be positive," he noted. Foreman strongly encourages taking the customer's viewpoint. His steps to success include identifying and focusing on your most important customers, consolidating all the information you have for these customers, and transforming your business processes, making it easier for customers. Foreman stressed that Interior must move quickly to thrive in this new environment.

How does the Department translate these goals into reality? Providing the Jetsons--and all our citizens--the e/Everything they need to thrive in this Information Age will not be cheap. Unfortunately, funds to develop adequate information technology programs are scarce. Day-to-day priorities may not yet include the comprehensive strategies needed to develop information technology infrastructure, translate information to effective online formats, and work with other agencies to integrate information.

Lately, in her office at the Denver Federal Center, Reclamation Writer-Editor Deena Larsen has been designing more and more websites. However, she is resigned to the funding limits on her efforts. "My group wants to work with other agencies to develop an integrated NEPA website where writers, planners, and the public can access guidelines, project status, prior reports, and links to other resources," said Larsen. "This site would help agencies work with our customers for effective NEPA processes. Unfortunately, the funds to pay for my time on this and other valuable sites just aren't available."

Larsen's lament reflects just one of the many challenges Interior and other federal agencies will continue to face, playing catchup in the digital age. The 2000 information technology conference gave us a good look at these challenges and a glimpse of the future.

"It was one of the best IT conferences in years," said Garnand. "I particularly appreciated the emphasis on strategic information technology planning. The need to get information technology aligned with the missions of the agencies was stated repeatedly--something the IT world and senior management need to take seriously."