Vice President Gore Announces Access America Online Magazine

Washington, DC Vice President Gore announced today a new online magazine featuring stories about a rapidly growing electronic government. The new site, Access America Online Magazine, is found at http://www.accessamerica.gov.

"I am proud of how federal workers are using information technology to put American citizens in immediate touch with their government and its services," Vice President Gore said. "Information technology enables us to rethink and reinvent the way government works."

Vice President Gore's 1997 report, "Access America: Reengineering Through Information Technology," captured his vision of using information technology to deliver government services to Americans and to increase government productivity. Today's announcement of the online magazine follows the recent announcements of Access America for Seniors and Access America for Students, the first two in a series of online services for citizen groups.

The new online magazine website, which began as a prototype last October, is organized around the 18 topics in the Access America report. Written in plain language ó another Gore program ó the new online magazine now has dozens of illustrated stories featuring federal, state, local, and intergovernmental websites and telecommunication initiatives. New stories are added every Monday. Stories include:

• General Services Administrationís one-stop WEB FORMS site http://www.accessamerica.gov/docs/infrastructure_5.html has hundreds of federal public use forms that people can fill in, print, e-mail or fax directly from the Internet.
• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporationís online database http://www.accessamerica.gov/docs/services_pension.html allows people to search for lost or forgotten pensions.
• Occupational Safety and Health Administrationís online "intelligent" Hazard Awareness Advisor http://www.accessamerica.gov/docs/expertadvisor.html allows business owners and their employees to identify workplace hazards.
• Commerce Departmentís "real time" video technology program http://www.accessamerica.gov/docs/tea.html allows small and minority-owned businesses to negotiate product distribution agreements with foreign companies.
• State Departmentís new, more secure passport http://www.accessamerica.gov/docs/passport.html features a computer-generated photo and an anti-counterfeiting data page.
• The Customs Service and Census Bureauís joint voluntary electronic filing program http://www.accessamerica.gov/docs/exporting_exp21c.html replaces the manually produced, hand delivered declaration that exporters have used since the last century.

The online magazine is sponsored by the Government Information Technology Services Board in partnership with the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, the Chief Information Officers Council, and the Federal Communicators Network.

Note to government agencies: Send your stories or links to pat.wood@npr.gov or pat.smith@gsa.gov.