Kiosk program fades as group forms
The Office of Personnel Management is phasing out one of the federal government's largest computer kiosk programs
The Office of Personnel Management is phasing out one of the federal government's largest computer kiosk programs just as a group has formed to promote interagency kiosk efforts.
The Interagency Kiosk Forum met for the first time last week, bringing together officials from more than two dozen federal organizations.
The group is forming just as OPM confirmed that it is phasing out its USAJobs touch-screen computer kiosk network, which provided access to federal job listings. OPM officials did not have a count of the agency's kiosks, but others knowledgeable about the program say there were more than 250 machines, which are located in federal buildings and at some colleges and universities.
Less than 4 percent of visits to USA-Jobs were from the kiosks. Most people access the site via the World Wide Web, an OPM official said.
Some of the kiosks are 10 years old and difficult to maintain, according to the spokesman. Unlike modern kiosks, the OPM machines do not have Internet connections and have to use dial-up connections to update their data, which is a time-consuming process.
OPM officials who attended the Interagency Kiosk Forum meeting said they are investigating replacing the program. The forum is still hammering out its goals — the group just agreed on an official name last week — but the initial idea is to foster cooperation among agencies.
"The future of kiosks does not reside in having citizens entering malls and being assaulted by 15 different kiosks" for different agencies, said Sam Gallagher, deputy Web manager at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Gallagher, who also works on the HUD Next Door kiosk program (pictured at left), spearheaded the interagency group.
The group formed a committee that will create an inventory of federal kiosks and how they are used.
Some agencies use kiosks extensively, some have only tested such programs and others do not have any kiosks but joined the group in the hopes of teaming with other agencies.
Dorobek is a freelance writer based in Arlington, Va.
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