NSF plays matchmaker for e-gov

A new partnership between the National Science Foundation and academic computer

science researchers aims to improve online government services by bridging

gaps in research at federal, state and local agencies.

The partnership — a virtual organization known as dg.o (DigitalGovernment.Org) — builds an umbrella to keep dialogue on digital government active and avoid

duplication of efforts, according to Larry Brandt, NSF's program manager

for digital government. The dg.o consortium expands on the existing Digital

Government program led by NSF by helping academic researchers find the right

people in government.

"We're going to try to build a sort of dating service online," Brandt

said. He said he also hopes dg.o will help bring together government agencies

that wouldn't normally work together.

The partnership was announced this week at the dg.o 2000 workshop hosted

by the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute

and Columbia University Digital Government Research Center. The workshop

in Los Angeles highlighted NSF-funded research to enhance digital government.

Research areas will focus on information and data management, compiler

technologies, digital libraries, wireless technologies, human and computer

interfaces, computational modeling, and spatial data manipulation.