Access to Information

Blacksburg Alert

Information junkies might think they've died and gone to heaven if they visit Blacksburg, Va. The city, which boasts that more than 85 percent of its citizens have Internet access in their homes, has built an automated alert system that sends all kinds of messages-from weather warnings to school and road closings-to citizens' e-mail accounts, telephones and fax machines.

Home to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg has long considered itself to be a standout among cities that use technology to deliver services to citizens. Overall, about 59 percent of Americans over age 18 go online from home, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. In September 2003, city managers got the idea to build Blacksburg Alert as a way to increase communications about the government's daily activities, says Steve Jones, Blacksburg's director of technology.

Jones convinced an old friend from high school, then working for a local tele-communications company, to donate the software needed to send out messages. Another company donated hardware. Citizens were encouraged to sign up for the service and choose what information they wanted to receive and how they wanted to receive it.

More than 2,000 subscribers are using the alert system and about 100 more sign up each month, says Heather Browning, Blacksburg's community relations manager. In the future, officials want to add satellite mapping that will allow them to notify particular neighborhoods about important events, Jones says.

WHAT IT IS

An electronic alert system that notifies citizens of breaking events.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Blacksburg Alert gives the city an easier and broader way of communicating with the public.

LESSON LEARNED

Citizens will take advantage of easy ways to access information.

Technical Data Knowledge Management

Libraries aboard Navy ships and submarines are jammed with tens of thousands of compact digital discs filled with technical information sailors need to operate their vessels. Keeping the libraries shipshape and up to date with frequent revisions is a major pain throughout the deployed fleet, except aboard the submarine USS Columbus.

While the rest of the Navy is stuck reading user manuals the old way, on paper or disk, the crew of the Columbus retrieves technical data from an Internet-based document manager. Columbus was the first Navy vessel to use the Technical Data Knowledge Management system developed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Carderock Division in Bethesda, Md.

TDKM snaps into existing Web portals and provides almost instant access to the freshest information at 30 percent less cost than paper- and disk-based systems. "It really is a major change in the way the Navy manages its technical data," says project leader Joseph Garner, head of Carderock's Technical Information Systems Division.

The $4 million prototype worked so well for the Columbus crew that the Navy decided to start putting the system in all its submarines in 2005.

WHAT IT IS

An Internet-based data management system.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

TDKM changes how the Navy manages technical documentation for ships and submarines.

LESSON LEARNED

Be willing to invest in a risky technology.