Digital Government

Returning government to the people of Washington State

The combined effort of dozens of state agencies, boards and commissions has resulted in an unprecedented achievement for 2000 - for the third consecutive year, Washington was named the nation's digital state by the Progress and Freedom Foundation and the Center for Digital Government.

Washington leads the country in using technology to help citizens participate I the democratic process, achieve lifetime learning, receive public assistance, complete business transactions and get helpful information. On the inside of our digital government, technology works to make routine business processes faster and more efficient. The net result is a transformed government that is truly at the service of its owners: the people of Washington.

Digital government establishes a new community of on-line services, giving citizens and businesses the information and services they want - when and where they want them.

The Access Washington^TM Internet portal offers hundreds of information services and dozens of interactive applications for the people of Washington at access.wa.gov. Since its launch in 1998, citizen use of Access Washington has increased nearly 500 percent, with an average of one million users logging on every month.

The coming year will bring even more services to this powerful Internet resource, including a secure government-to-business gateway called Transact Washington^TM and a "plain English" search function called Ask George^TM.

Digital Government benefits everyone, even people who cannot or choose not to use computers. The state is helping people bypass long lines by filling more routine service and information requests over the Internet. Office lines for face-to-face services get shorter when government can service more routine needs on-line.

Washington's ability to deliver stat3e government information and services using technology is more widespread and consistent than nay other state, and agencies are working to build more groundbreaking ways to transform business processes and serve citizens on-line.

Washington's strong, enterprise-wide use of technology is also significant because it represents voluntary participation in digital government efforts by virtually every state agency. No organization is required to undertake digital government initiatives - they are choosing to work together so that citizens and businesses can interact with a unified, customer-centric on-line state government.

Learn more about digital government at the following Web sites:

Department of Information Services: www.wa.gov/dis
Digital government in Washington State: www.wa.gov/dis/e-gov