Molly O'Neill isn't afraid to try new things in her efforts to use advanced technology to achieve the goals of EPA. She proved it at EPA's National Environmental Information Symposium in St. Louis last November.

To explore the use of collaborative technology to access and share environmental data, she and the renowned Bill Ruckelshaus, the agency's first administrator, challenged the 600 participants to share their best information, resources, and ideas via a wiki with the people working to restore Puget Sound in Washington State. And they gave the conferees only 36 hours to do it.

Home to 4 million people, the Puget Sound region, near Seattle, has suffered ecological damage from the demands of humans and wildlife on freshwater sources. Last year, Ruckelshaus was tapped to lead the State's massive effort to clean up the Sound by 2020, when the area is set to gain another 1.4 million residents. His Puget Sound Leadership Council is charged with crafting a restoration plan by Sept. 1.

The tight timeframe called for an exercise in extremely accelerated collaboration. Giving the attendees no advance warning "was a bit risky," and participation could have been low, O'Neill said. But she was reluctant to pass up this opportunity to reach a large community of people from EPA and other federal agencies, states, and the private sector. O'Neill wanted to do something innovative and different at the Symposium to mobilize as much environmental knowledge as possible. The project combined content with speed.

The gamble paid off. Participants posted 175 contributions to the wiki, which generated more than 17,000 page views. This included data from a variety of federal agencies, new applications, and many ideas for future opportunities. But this was just one of the ways to share information. Contributors could also complete and upload a form, send an e-mail, or call in the information. Interestingly-nobody phoned.

Spearheading collaborative projects is not new for O'Neill. Before coming to EPA in December 2006, she was the State Director of the National Environmental Information Exchange Network at the Environmental Council of the States, a data-sharing partnership among the 50 states, EPA, and tribal nations. There, she helped develop the largest government web services network to convey data between the states and EPA electronically. The Exchange Network can make data available in real time to help scientists and managers make policy decisions. It was a project ahead of its time and helped influence the federal government's move towards more service-based architectures. She received a Federal 100 Award in 2004 in recognition of her leadership on the Exchange Network.

That experience, coupled with her work as an environmental biologist and her 14-year career as an IT consultant, prepared O'Neill to tackle dual roles at EPA. As CIO, she is responsible for technology; as Assistant Administrator for the Office of Environmental Information, she has a policy role. Her consulting experience gave her practice in asking tough questions and makes her more willing to try new things, O'Neill says. "I spend a lot of my time focusing on how EPA can provide information to the public and how EPA itself can function best with all the right information at our fingertips - all, of course, within a safe and secure infrastructure."

Her job requires reaching out to the public and other government entities to advance EPA's mission to protect human health and the environment, and O'Neill works closely with other federal agencies and with state, local, and tribal governments. "Today's problems require collaboration among many organizations," O'Neill says. "The agency must treat environmental information as a strategic asset, finding ways to partner with those that support EPA's mission, organize vast resources for better access and sharing, and leverage technologies to support these activities."

Security concerns--a top IT issue at EPA and number one priority for O'Neill--keep her busy trying to stay one step ahead of the ever-changing threats. "We need to be adaptive to change, keep abreast of the newest tools, and work with our other federal partners on this challenge." As security needs are evolving, the role of IT at EPA is moving away from large storage databases and hard-coded solutions, to services-based solutions. Under O'Neill, EPA is moving toward collaboration and common enabling services around enterprise tools.

Although she has been a government CIO for only a year, O'Neill co-chairs the Federal CIO Council's influential Architecture and Infrastructure Committee, which brings CIOs together to identify ways to improve government use of IT and institute real data sharing among federal agencies. She is excited about the potential for leveraging the committee's work products, such as the Data Reference Model and the Practical Guide to Service Oriented Architecture. "Architecting our systems and data for sharing is one of the most important things the Federal CIO community can do for our individual agencies, as well as for the public interest," she says.

O'Neill is concerned about the "digital divide" that separates the generations working together at EPA. "Our workforce is more than just 22-to-30 year-olds, so we need to support many ways of communicating and collaborating between the 'digital natives' (those who have been involved with IT tools all their young lives) while supporting the needs of earlier generations, the 'digital immigrants!'"

She wants to make the EPA Office of Environmental Information more "customer-service friendly" in the next 12 months. Although the Office is less than 10 years old, she sees the opportunity to use technology to deliver meaningful information to EPA's diverse audiences (which range from school children doing their homework to senior academics) in the ways they prefer to receive it. Right now, O'Neill is working to wrap up final planning for a national dialogue on enhancing access to environmental information, which is set to launch in February to provide audiences with the information they need.

It's nearly as daunting a task as the one Bill Ruckelshaus faced in 1970, when President Nixon appointed him to lead the federal government's first significant effort to bring federal resources to bear to protect the country's natural environment. Hopefully, EPA will find now, as it did then, that many things are possible if you bring the right people and the right technology together with a lot of good ideas, a sense of urgency, and incredible energy to tackle a hugely complex problem.

An interim rule published December 26 in the Federal Register seeks to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation by requiring use of the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) when purchasing desktops, notebooks/laptops, and monitors, as called for in a January 2007 Executive Order.

EPEAT is designed to help purchasers evaluate, compare, and select products based on environmental features. It has a set of performance criteria for product design and offers manufacturers recognition for efforts to reduce the environmental impact of their products. Comments are due by February 25.

OFPP proposed policy letter. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy issued guidance on green purchasing policies and strategies December 28. The proposal requires agencies to identify opportunities for and give preference to:

• Alternative fuels, alternative fuel vehicles and hybrids
• Bio-based products
• Energy Star ® and Federal Energy Management Program-designated products
• Environmentally preferable products and services
• Electronics registered on the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool
• Low or no toxic or hazardous chemicals, materials, or products
• Non-ozone depleting substances
• Recycled-content and/or remanufactured products
• Renewable energy
• Water-efficient products

The proposed letter also requires that agencies:

• Consider mandatory and preferred sources for obtaining green products and services first, and then consider other sources if their needs can't be met.
• Implement automatic substitution policies for purchasing functionally equivalent green products and services in place of non-green products and services ordered through central supply agencies.
• Include requirements and preferences for using green products in all new service contracts and in existing contracts as they are recompeted, modified, or extended.
• Discuss responsibilities for accurate, complete, and timely reporting.

Central supply agencies should supply designated green products and phase out competing non-green products in catalogs and online ordering systems. Comments are due by February 26.

OMB reminded agencies with Windows Operating Systems that they have until February 1 to adopt the Federal Desktop Core Configuration.

OMB also reminded CIOs and Chief Acquisition Officers to use competition and maintain vendor-neutral capital planning and control procedures when acquiring IT. "Effective use of competition reduces poor contract execution and yields better value at lower prices," the December 19 memo states.

OMB Circulars A-11, A-130, and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) offer guidance on information technology investment decisions. The documents are intentionally IT and vendor neutral.

Also, brand name or equal purchase descriptions should be used only when it is considered advantageous or necessary to meet agency needs, the Appropriate Use of Brand Name or Equal Purchase Descriptions states.

Part 39 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation will be revised to require agencies to include appropriate IT security policies and requirements, including those published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology when acquiring IT.

Forty percent of Americans would prefer to access government documents on the Internet, compared to 31% who prefer to receive the documents through the mail, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project that surveyed 2,796 adults between June 27 and September 4, 2007. Nineteen percent would want to pick up the document at a government office and six percent said they would go to a local library to pick it up.

The survey "How People Use the Internet, Libraries, and Government Agencies When They Need Help," looked at how people use a variety of government and other information sources to help them address common problems, such as making a decision about school financing or dealing with a tax matter.

The survey found more people (58%) turned to the Internet than to any other source of information--including experts, family members, government agencies or libraries--to resolve a problem.

Other major findings:

• Sixty-five percent of those who turned to the government for information to address a problem were very successful, compared to 64% who went to the library, and 63% who used the Internet.
• Fifty-eight percent contacted a branch of government within the last year.
• How people chose to contact the government depended on the type of problem. People would prefer to use the Internet to learn about government programs, but they would prefer to call about personal tax questions.

The annual report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) showed citizen satisfaction with federal government websites is eight percent higher than satisfaction with the overall federal government services. E-government satisfaction scored a 73.4 (out of a possible of 100) while federal government satisfaction scored a 67.8. Both scores are lower than the private sector's score of 74.

In 2007, 20% of measured government websites scored 80 or higher; 28% scored below 70. "Although there is great potential, delivery of government services online is a mixed success," the report states.

Responding to citizen complaints offline in a timely and effective manner can have a large impact on overall customer satisfaction. The ACSI score for citizens whose complaints were handled well was 67. The satisfaction score dropped to 28 when citizens' complaints went unresolved.

The United Nations' E-Government Survey Report for 2008 ranked the United States first in its E-Participation Index and fourth in its E-Government Readiness Index. E-Government readiness evaluates how governments apply information and communication technologies. E-Participation evaluates the extent to which governments proactively solicit citizen input. The United Nations' survey assessed the e-government readiness of 192 member countries, based on website assessment, telecommunication infrastructure, and human resource endowment. In 2005, the U.S. was number one in Readiness.

This year's focus in the report, From E-Government to Connected Governance, was on e-government initiatives directed at improving operational efficiency through integration of back-office functions. The report found three key variables in the delivery of back-office functions: people, processes, and technology required. The success or failure of e-gov initiatives was based on the ability to change public service cultures, motivate public service employees to new ways of working, address concerns of trade unions, and provide adequately skilled and competent management and leadership.

The top five countries on the E-Government Readiness Index were Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the United States, and the Netherlands. The top five countries on the E-Participation Index were the United States, the Republic of Korea, Denmark, France, and Australia.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology issued a draft Guide for Assessing the Security Controls in Federal Information Systems (SP 800-53A) that provides assessment procedures for all security goals in amended SP 800-53 and guidance on building effective security assessment plans.

The final draft publication includes:

• Updated assessment procedures based on NIST Special Publication 800-53, Revision 2 (including industrial control system information)
• A reorganization and streamlining of the material in chapters one through three to provide greater clarity in describing the components of an assessment procedure and how the components are used within the context of a security assessment plan
• Minor modifications to the assessment method definitions in Appendix D
• A streamlined assessment procedure format in Appendix F for expressing assessment objectives, methods, and objects
• A specific assignment of designators to assessment methods to indicate applicability to low-impact, moderate-impact, and high-impact information systems, respectively
• Relocating the Risk Management Framework to NIST Special Publication 800-39 (Initial Public Draft), Managing Risk from Information Systems: An Organizational Perspective.

Comments will be accepted until January 31. E-mailed comments should be sent to sec-cert@nist.gov. Final publication of SP 800-53A is due in March.

The GSA Center for Intergovernmental Solutions provides the Federal/State Issues Alert series on emerging issues for quick reference by busy managers.

Why is E-Discovery Important to Government Managers?

• Amendments to the Federal Rules for Civil Procedure took effect in December 2006, potentially making available in civil discovery any "electronically stored information," in effect all information stored in electronic form on computers and other devices.
• The revision of the federal procedural rules raises the demand for accountability and performance requirements for government agencies to manage their electronically stored information in some situations beyond the baseline federal recordkeeping requirements.
• Government agencies are at risk of litigation involving electronically stored information that is discoverable as though it were stored on paper. This means agencies that may be parties to a lawsuit may find themselves with new responsibilities for preserving, identifying, cataloging, and producing all digital information for potential judicial proceedings.
• The new rules for retention of electronically stored information should be put into operation through application of best practices to all electronic media including online, near-line, and off-line systems.

What is E-Discovery?

• Electronic discovery or e-discovery refers to the process in which electronic data is sought, located, secured, and searched with the intent of using it as evidence in a court proceeding.
• In the process of electronic discovery, data of all types can serve as evidence, including most prominently, e-mail, word processing, other desktop applications, voice mail, instant messaging, Web pages, intranets, databases, proprietary applications, various forms of log or audit information, and metadata.
• E-discovery also includes many sources of electronically stored information, including that coming from network servers, local drives, CD ROMs, floppy disks, laptops, PDAs, backup tapes, external hard drives, cell phones, and other various forms of electronic storage.

What Are Some Key E-Discovery Drivers to Pay Attention To?

• The new federal rules require that parties discuss preservation, formatting, and access issues at the outset of litigation, in turn requiring government agencies to get better "intellectual control" over what electronic systems they run and how they operate.
• Judges and party litigants increasingly expect government agencies to establish protocols and procedures for quickly putting into place litigation "holds" that preserve electronic evidence considered to be relevant or material to particular actions.
• Courts will not hesitate to impose sanctions on agencies if there is a perception that the agencies have not acted reasonably in accommodating e-discovery demands in particular contexts.

What Are the Emerging Issues in the E-Discovery Area?

• Agencies that still rely on hard copy formats for official recordkeeping purposes under legacy schedules may be under increasing scrutiny to explain why electronic versions of documents are not also recoverable in a "native" or proprietary format. In general, agencies probably need to move to some form of electronic recordkeeping and archiving solutions. Otherwise, they could potentially be at legal risk if they are unable to produce relevant documents in response to e-discovery demands.
• Agencies will need "SWAT teams" of key players (including from legal, IT, and records management shops), responsible for preserving and producing documents in response to litigation.
• Agencies are facing exponential increases in the volume of electronically stored information that might be accessed in litigation. Accordingly, best practices in this area should include creative thinking about search strategies for finding relevant documents (including consideration of the use of sampling and concept searching to supplement traditional keyword searches).
• Agencies can expect to see greater oversight on how they manage electronically stored information outside purely litigation contexts as well, including from elected representatives, watchdog agencies (e.g., the federal OMB and GAO), Inspectors General, and others.

Additional Information:

• Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (December 1, 2006)
• The Sedona Principles, Second Edition, Best Practices Recommendations and Principles for Addressing Electronic Document Production (2007), www.thesedonaconference.org (detailed white paper on meeting e-discovery obligations, updated to incorporate new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, latest case law, plus appendices providing additional references).
• Electronic Records Management and Digital Preservation: Protecting the Knowledge Assets of State Government Enterprise, Part 1: Background Principles and Action for State CIOs, NASCIO (May 2007)
• Electronic Records Management and Digital Preservation: Protecting the Knowledge Assets of State Government Enterprise, Part 2: Economic, Legal and organizational Issues, NASCIO (July 2007)
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) guidance on e-records and e-recordkeeping, www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/
• George L. Paul and Jason R. Baron, Information Inflation: Can the Legal System Adapt, Richmond Journal of Law and Technology http://law.richmond.edu/jolt/v13i3/article10.pdf

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the completion of the REAL ID final rule January 11. REAL ID requires a standard format for state-issued drivers' licenses.

As long as states indicate they intend to begin complying, they will have until December 31, 2009, to upgrade the security of their license systems to include a check for lawful status of all applicants and ensure illegal aliens cannot obtain REAL ID licenses.

Citizens will need these compliant licenses to enter federal facilities, board airplanes, and enter nuclear power plants.

By December 1, 2014, all individuals under age 50 should be issued the compliant licenses. States have until December 1, 2017, to issue the licenses to those over 50.

DHS is making $360 million available to assist states with REAL ID implementation. Eighty million dollars will be available in the form of REAL ID grants. Another $280 million will be available in general funding through the Homeland Security Grant Program.

REAL ID requires:

• Information and security features in each card
• Proof of the identity and U.S. citizenship or legal status of the applicant
• Verification of the source documents provided by the applicant
• Security standards for the offices that issue licenses and identification cards.

The National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council (eC3) presented the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the State of California, and the State of Washington the eC3 2007 Excellence Awards at its Annual Conference on December 4, 2007.

Massachusetts's Enterprise Invoice Management Services won the "Excellence in Administrative or Financial Transformation" category. California's The California State On-Line Query (CalSOLQ) won the "Excellence in Government Transformation Using Technology" category. Washington's The State of Washington, Digital Archives won the "Excellence in Using Technology for the Preservation of Information" category.

• The Interagency Resources Management Conference is accepting applications for individuals and teams for its IRMCO Awards until February 8.
• USA Services is accepting nomination submissions for its Citizen Service Award until February 15.
• The CIO Council is accepting nominations for its Leadership Awards until March 3.
• The Web Managers Advisory Council will be accepting nominations for its Web Content Best Practices Award from January 22 until March 7.

Also available in pdf 396 kb

Collaborative Expedition Workshop: Transcending Socio-Cultural Boundaries in Virtual Work Settings: Creative Collaboration Efforts at the Intersection of Law and Public Policy
Arlington, VA
January 29

GOVERNING Outlook in the States and Localities 2008
Washington, DC
January 29-30

IPv6: The Future for Dynamic Networks
Washington, DC
February 13

Collaborative Expedition Workshop: Using Business Narratives for High Performance and Innovation
Arlington, VA
February 19

Federal Networks 2008
McLean, VA
February 20-21

AFCEA Homeland Security Conference 2008
Washington, DC
February 27-28

Collaborative Expedition Workshop: Broadening Public Participation: Toward Stakeholder-Centered Science and Services in the Public Realm
Arlington, VA
March 18

ACT/IAC 2008 Technology Leadership Conference (formerly Western Conference)
San Diego, CA
March 25-27

FOSE 2008
Washington, DC
April 1-3

IRMCO 2008
Cambridge, MD
April 13-16

GSA Expo
Anaheim, CA
April 22-24

Federal Virtual Worlds Expo: Implementing the Future
Washington, DC
April 24-25

The 9th Annual Knowledge Management Conference and Exhibition
Washington, DC
April 28-29

Government Web Managers 2-Day Conference & Best Practice Awards Ceremony
Arlington, VA
May 5-6

Council of State Governments Spring Conference
Lexington, KY
May 29-June 1

ACT/IAC Management of Change Conference
Norfolk, VA
June 8-10

GEIA Vision Conference
Springfield, VA
October 22-23

Executive Leadership Conference
Colonial Williamsburg, VA
October 26-28

Council of State Governments Annual Conference
Omaha, NE
December 4-7

Comments: We welcome your feedback.

Please send your comments, concerns, complaints and questions to dotgovbuzz@gsa.gov.

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The DotGov Buzz is produced by the following individuals in the GSA Office of Citizen Services and Communications:

Darlene Meskell
Andrea Noce
Anne Hartzell
Bryant Jones.