Meeting Report: Japanese Municipal Officials Visit WATPA - October 29,
1997
It was my distinct personal pleasure to provide a "brief overview
of WATPA" to eight prefecture and city government officials from
Western Japan. This group is officially called the Civil Service Study
Team #6. As part of their 10-day look at municipal
government in the United States, they requested this meeting to
learn about WATPA's role in affecting local government Internet
policy and use.
The meeting was held October 29, 1997 at the Crowne Plaza - United
Nations Hotel in Manhattan. In addition to the eight Civil Service
Team members, an interpreter and a representative of the sponsoring
agency were present.
Loose-leaf resource books (in English) containing WATPA's Mission
Statement, descriptions of the creation and development of the
PathMaster website, the TRONCOMM cable television programs on the
impact and potential of internetworked local communities, excerpts
from WATPA's New York State Archives and Records Administration
grant application to build a county-wide online information
exchange, and descriptions of various print and online government
and community network resources were distributed to all attendees.
These 72-page books provided the basis for the morning's
discussion.
The "brief overview of WATPA" consumed about 90 minutes (including
translation) and was followed by a Question & Answer period. Among
the questions asked were these:
1) Does Local Government poll or survey the community before
developing a government website?
In reply, I stated that in our experience it was interested
local citizens who asked that local government provide such
services, going so far as to provide volunteers to aid in
their creation.
2) What is WATPA? How many members are there? How big is the
staff? What are WATPA's activities? How big is the budget?
I believe the Civil Service Study Team was surprised to learn
that WATPA is a grass-roots, volunteer organization that
offers its expertise freely to its clients. Our local
communities are fortunate to have an organization such as
WATPA who's members have expertise in Law, Internet Technology
and Services, Website design and development, Business,
Education, Government and Information. I explained the
working relationship that we enjoy with the Westchester
Library System. Then I reviewed our recent activities,
including the ongoing development of websites for local non-
profit agencies, the Westchester County Board of Legislators
Website and the provision of the Westchester League of Women
Voters Voter's Guide, and the Small Business/Web Seminar. I
explained that these resulted from the efforts of a relative
handful of dedicated volunteers operating on a very limited
budget. I think they were rightfully impressed. (I know I was;
sometimes it takes getting up before a room and reciting
accomplishments to clarify and reinforce for oneself all the
neat things WATPA has done as it approaches its 5th
Anniversary).
3) What would happen if a teacher posted a pupil's artwork
on the net?
This question initially baffled me for I didn't see this
as a problem. If an American student's work was selected
for prominent display, be it in the school or on the net,
most student's (and parents) would be flattered.
However, in Japan, such an act is considered an extreme
invasion of personal privacy, an intrusion on the
generally self-effacing societal characteristic found in
Japan. Once I grasped this, I made the point that the
same rules prevail in Cyberspace as in the "real" world -
if that teacher had committed such an act with a copier,
I presumed the teacher would be admonished. I suggested
then that the teacher should be similarly punished for
such an act involving the Internet.
This lead to some discussion of privacy and access
issues, acceptable use policy development, technological
fixes, the information trails left behind by credit-card
use, supermarket club cards and more recently, the E-Z
Pass issued by the MTA and Port Authority.
4) Do you have an example of an online government
transaction?
Many municipalities are making local government
information - agendas, minutes, schedules, official
directories, etc. - accessible to the public via their
home computers or via the Internet at the local library.
Not many communities are yet transacting business
electronically. Using the example of a Tree Removal
Permit, a home user can access the permit form, download
it, complete it but must then physically return it to
City Hall with a check for processing. This does save
the consumer of local government services an initial
visit to City Hall, but it is a long way from fulfilling
the promise of electronic government transactions.
5) What does WATPA want from Local Government?
Simply, WATPA wants electronic access to public
information. WATPA advocates the creation of new public
spaces electronically.
At this point, photos were taken, the Team was told that they
should keep and use the Resource Books, complements of WATPA, and
the speaker was embarrassed with two gifts of appreciation.
Bill Langham
WATPA Secretary