SCN: Washington wiring up to become America's first cyberstate

[Brian High]

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Washington wiring up to become America's first cyberstate

   Copyright ) 2000 Nando Media
   Copyright ) 2000 Christian Science Monitor Service

   By DEAN PATON, The Christian Science Monitor

   SEATTLE (June 28, 2000 12:06 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -
   Every workday morning, as millions of Americans commute to their jobs,
   a growing number of Seattleites are avoiding the traffic, George
   Jetson-style.

   While pouring their orange juice, they turn on their computers and
   call up www.smarttrek.com, a real-time map of the major traffic
   arteries in and out of the city. At 8:15 a.m., both bridges across
   Lake Washington are pulsing red - the indicator of bad traffic - and
   so they begin work at the kitchen table.

   By 8:37 a.m., when the sensors embedded in the roadway detect fewer
   vehicles per minute, the red changes to yellow or even green -
   indicators that traffic has lessened - and so these Emerald City
   residents grab their last bites of toast and choose the least
   congested routes to the office.

   With technologies like this changing the way everyday citizens perform
   even the most mundane tasks, Washington is fast becoming the nation's
   first cyberstate. In part because of the climate fostered by Microsoft
   and the high-tech industry, in part because of its progressive
   heritage, and catalyzed by Gary Locke, its technophile governor,
   Washington is spending millions of dollars digitizing everything from
   the way businesses pay taxes to the way school principals shape
   classroom environments.

   Last year, in its landmark report on the New Economy, the Progressive
   Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., ranked Washington state No. 1 in
   digital governance, No. 2 in technology applied to schools and No. 2
   in digital economic indicators.

   "We're trying to be as innovative as we can - to create a state
   government that's more cost effective, but also more convenient for
   citizens," explains David Danner, executive policy adviser to Locke.
   "Technology allows us to do that."

   Or, as the governor is fond of saying, the state wants to get people
   who are in lines online.

   Budding entrepreneurs, for example, can apply for and receive all
   necessary licenses with just a few keystrokes. Once the business has
   cash flow, they can pay all fees and taxes online as well. Indeed,
   Washington was the first state to implement digital-signature
   legislation, allowing people to sign documents online.

   Since 1996, the state has spent about $60 million to install what it
   calls the K-20 Network, a commitment that has brought high-speed data
   infrastructure to all of the state's 286 school districts, all
   universities, all two-year colleges and eventually, all Washington
   libraries.

   According to Danner, "Even the smallest school districts will have at
   least one T-1 line" - a high-capacity Internet connection capable of
   carrying 24 telephone lines or their equivalent.

   "We want all the students in Washington to have access to resources so
   that they can get the skills they need," he adds. "If a student in
   Forks, Wash., wants to study Russian, he can't do it. Except that with
   this network, he can. Online."

   Alongside the K-20 Network is the Smart Tools Academy, a program
   funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Its aim is to
   help all of Washington's school administrators use new technologies
   more effectively in their classrooms.

   "It's a four-day residential training program for superintendents and
   principals," explains Marty Smith, volunteer chair of Smart Tools
   Academy and a Seattle attorney. "We've trained over a thousand to date
   and have 18 sessions that we're running this summer to train the
   balance of them, about 2,000 total."

   Besides cost savings and better public access, there is another reason
   for Washington's evolution from ecotopia to digitopia: the need to
   keep up with the demands of a sped-up society, used to faster
   computers, cellular phones and overnight delivery.

   "We are seeing a change in people's expectations - in how quickly they
   want things done," says Lee Cheatam, executive director of the
   Washington Technology Center, a nonprofit group funded partly by the
   state and dedicated to exploring electronic futures.

   "There's just a difference in the way people expect to communicate,"
   he says.

   The virtual bricks and mortar of the digital state of Washington are
   being tamped into place rapidly. Locke has already convinced the
   legislature to expand advanced telecommunications systems into rural
   areas, which account for much of the state.

   Now public utility districts and rural port districts may form
   partnerships with private enterprise in order to bring down the costs
   of such infrastructure and make it accessible to the hinterland
   residents and businesses.

   And on June 22, Washington contracted with a Virginia-based technology
   firm to create an electronic shopping mall that permits agencies
   statewide to purchase everything from telephones to paper clips to
   tires at lower prices.

   "We really want to capture time - precious staff time - and redirect
   it to frontline services," says Marsha Tadano Long, director of the
   Washington State Department of General Administration.


    Copyright ) 2000 Nando Media




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