October 2, 1998 - Great Stops for Travelers on the Information Highway If you're like most Americans, you don't necessarily know which government agency has the service or information you need. In fact, many agencies may serve similar customers or have similar categories of information. That means looking is just that much harder.

One of the most customer-friendly trends in the evolution of government web sites, is the collaboration of numerous federal agencies to create Federal One-Stop websites. For example, more than 70 agencies produce statistics of interest to the public. The Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy developed FedStat to provide easy access to the full range of statistics and information produced by these agencies for public use. People love it.

In another example, 17 federal agencies, led by the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, partnered with seven associations that represent state and local government employees. They created a site, the US State & Local Gateway, to link to federal information of interest to that audience. "There is such a need for this service," wrote Connie Revell, with the Oregon Option. "It is nearly impossible to find federal information displayed the way we need it. We can use department homepages, but we end up searching for hours and sometimes we fail to find what we're looking for."