W. Russell Neuman
Annenberg Public Policy Center
University of Pennsylvania

This is a call for thinking outside of the box. The need to upgrade legacy information systems and human interface designs in government agencies is important, urgent, difficult work. It deserves the sustained and energetic support of the research community in computer science, statistics and the social sciences. In my view, however, there is a gap in the research agenda which moves considerably beyond the question of efficient conversion from legacy to modern information systems. If I am correct, such a gap might well be addressed with the support of the National Science Foundation. I'd term it -- the ultimate national challenge.

The function and scale of the federal government changed dramatically as we moved from the agricultural to the industrial age. By the third administration at the end of 18th century, the American federal bureaucracy had grown to over 600 full time-employees. The federal banking system had three employees. Not much of a bureaucracy yet, although some at the time argued we were already overstaffed. At the turn of this century, we face a very different scale and complexity of governance. I need not cite the statistics.

The function and scale of the federal government will change yet again as we move from the industrial to the information age. The problem, as we stand on the cusp of this transition, is that connecting stovepipe agencies and offices to the Internet may not be the right idea at all. It may prove to more like giving cellular phones to our pony express riders -- not a bad idea in itself, but perhaps we should be rethinking our equine assumptions about postal connectivity.

I will briefly describe why the self-interested demands of both agency personnel as well as private vendors and consultants is unlikely to move us very far outside of the box in thinking about reinventing government. I will make the case that the fields of political science, public administration and applied MIS are also paradigmatically challenged.

The social, economic and behavioral sciences are just beginning to utilize their scientific resources to address questions of functionality, efficiency and equity at the borders of the public and private spheres. Rather than lag behind, there might be an important opportunity for the NSF to draw out and nurture new lines of interdisciplinary inquiry applied to national challenges at the highest level.

I will put forward a matrix which contrasts a list of governmental functions and a set of generic properties characteristic of integrated digital systems. I will also posit a list of organizational initiatives on which new lines of inquiry might proceed.