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Gartner Hosts "e-Government" Seminar Series in the Capitol
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WASHINGTON, D.C., October 3, 2000 — Gartner Group, Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB) kicked-off its Capitol Hill "e-Government" Seminar Series today in Washington, DC. The first seminar in the series, entitled "How to Leverage the Power of 'G'", was held at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Special guest speakers Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), as well as Reps. Connie Morella (R-MD), Ed Markey (D-MA), Asa Hutchinson (R-AK) and Jim Turner (D-TX) expressed their support and made comments on the e-transformation process to more than 100 audience members gathered for the Seminar. The Members' remarks were followed by a panel discussion on how to manage e-Government issues.
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"The Internet is going to change the face of American politics, I hope," said Sen. McCain, Chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The Internet played a valuable role in McCain's 1999 bid for the U.S. presidency, he remarked. His presidential website was extremely useful in raising contributions from supporters and for collecting signatures. McCain was able to raise $1 million through his website in the 24 hours following the New Hampshire primary, most of that amount qualifying for matching funds, which meant he raised a total over $2 million. In his attempt to get on the Virginia ballot, McCain succeeded in getting 17,000 signatures in three days by downloading the ballots and reaching his 1,000 volunteers through the Internet. McCain also remarked that the Internet is allowing candidates to reach out directly to citizens, which in turn is diminishing the power of special interests and the use of 'soft-money' contributions.
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During the proceedings, Gartner CEO Michael Fleisher also announced the release of the company's Special Survey Report, entitled "The Digital Divide and American Society", which measures the extent and severity of the digital divide in the U.S. One of the key recommendations the authors of the Report make is to increase home access to the Internet as a way to bridge the socio-economic gap between digital "haves" and "have-nots". The Report, which is available at
www.gartner.com, outlines the state-by-state status of the digital divide in the U.S.
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Following the announcement of the Report's findings, a distinguished group of panelists were asked numerous questions on the e-government and e-transformation. The panelists were John Geyer, SVP, Gartner (Moderator); Stephen Goldsmith, Executive Chairman, Netgov.com and former Mayor of Indianapolis; French Caldwell, Gartner Research Director; Mark Smolenski, Gartner Analyst and author of the Digital Divide Report; Dave Rendall, Principal of Rendall Associates, a Gartner company; and Neil Irwin, a reporter for The Washington Post on e-Government issues.
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PANEL CONCLUSIONS
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The panel came to some of the following conclusions:
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Mark Smolenski: One of our national priorities should be to make Internet access available in every home. This will allow all citizens to benefit from the New Economy created by the Internet, thereby narrowing the digital divide. Similarly, Smolenski added that ubiquitous Internet access in the home will narrow the 'experience gap' he identified in the Gartner Digital Divide Report.
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David Rendall: Echoing Smolenski's remarks, Rendall focused on high-speed, high-quality broadband Internet access as a national priority. He also offered a sober assessment of the problem areas with the Internet that still need to be addressed, including privacy, taxation, and reliability.
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Stephen Goldsmith: Governments at the federal, state and local levels must set high goals and priorities for delivering e-Government-related services to citizens, and they need to hold public agencies accountable. For example, during his term as Mayor of Indianapolis, he set (and achieved) a goal of adding two new web-based services a month.
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French Caldwell: The federal government must set Internet-based standards for the establishment and delivery of e-Government services, and they must give full support for inter-agency collaboration.
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Neil Irwin: Publicly-available documents and information created and disseminated by the government should be more accessible and open. Further, the turnaround time at which information is collected, processed and then made available (e.g., public testimony, agency records, etc.) needs to be shortened drastically if the information is going to be relevant and useful to citizens.
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KEY STATISTICS
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The main purpose of the panel discussion was to address the question of what needs to be done to implement and manage e-government initiatives. Here are some of the key recommendations and statistics cited by the panel:
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The Big Picture:
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- By 2003, more than 60 percent of government agencies in developed countries will allow citizens to conduct some form of electronic remote transaction.
- Beyond 2005, strategic solutions are needed to address erosion of the tax base due to telecommuting and online selling, a governmental crisis in developed countries due to a retiring workforce, and socioeconomic disruption due to a digital divide that keeps some sectors of the population outside the Internet economy.
- By 2005, OECD governments will provide new means for citizens to participate in activities such as rule- and regulation-making, the development of legislation and judicial action that affect their own governance.
- Gartner analysts project spending for e-government (including federal, state and local) will grow from $1.5 billion in 2000 to more than $6.2 billion by 2005. This expenditure is for e-business-related hardware, software, and internal and external service.
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The Federal Workforce Crisis:
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- According to Gartner, an impending federal workforce crisis is a major reason for pursuing e-government strategies. The average age of the typical federal worker is 47.5 years old and increasing by a half a year every 18 months. "That means by 2008, almost half the current federal workforce will be gone," said Gartner research director French Caldwell, "and there's no one to replace them - Generation X was frozen out of public service by downsizing and hiring freezes, and Generation Y doesn't want to work for government."
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To attract the Generation Y workers, particularly those with the technology skills for e-government, Caldwell called on government to move much more quickly with advanced Internet enabled electronic workplaces that feel more like a collaborative, creative studio, rather than the top-down command and control environment common to government today. According to Caldwell, these knowledge workplaces are the kind of environment where younger workers are comfortable and productive. "If government agencies cling to a traditional view of management, public sector employees and public service will, by 2008, face an increased risk of becoming obsolete," Caldwell added.
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About Gartner
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www.techrepublic.com) is the leading online destination developed exclusively for IT professionals by IT professionals. Gartner, founded in 1979 and headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, achieved fiscal 1999 revenues of $734 million. Gartner's 4,000 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants, are in more than 80 locations worldwide. For more information about Gartner's industry-leading products and services, please visit us on the Web at www.gartner.com.
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