The NSF Federal Web Consortium and the NSF Digital Government Research Program

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The NSF Federal Web Consortium and the NSF
Digital GovernmentResearch Program

• Lawrence E. Brandt
• Program Manager for Digital Government
• Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences
  and Engineering
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• lbrandt_at_nsf.gov
• http//www.cise.nsf.gov/eia/staff/lbrandt/

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Background - 1994 establishment of Federal Web
Consortium

• Collaboration with NCSA
• Software development - Initial focus on Mosaic
  browser, NCSA web server, and supporting
  technology, then Java and Habanero collaborative
  environment
• Tech transfer activities
• Direct to agencies - Single point of contact -
  technical consulting, Testing and fixing,
  Experimental browsers (voice activated, secure),
• To larger world - Staff to form Netscape, Source
  code licensed to Spyglass, then Microsoft, Server
  transformed to Apache (still current favorite),
  Browser source code free for non-commercial use
• Pro-active in larger Federal arena
• Workshops and Seminars
• Development of Federal web recommended practices
  - collaboration with OM B
• Funding - 100K/year per agency - average
  1M/year total

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1998 - Building on Success - Reformulation of
Consortium

• NSF Supercomputer Centers Program ----gt 150M per
  year Partnership for Advanced Computing
  Infrastructure (PACI)
• Consolidation
• Expansion
• Federal Consortium
• Expansion from NCSA-exclusive to NCSA and NPACI
• No longer supporting software development, but
  rather tech discovery and leverage
• New model

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New Consortium Model

• 3-pronged strategy
• PACI - variety of activities to create inflow to
  Consortium agencies
• Education/outreach - outflow to larger Federal
  arena through web site, tutorials, seminars,
  workshops, etc.
• Demonstration/testing of new technologies - NCSA
  Access Center in Arlington next door to NSF
• High-speed network access
• Visualization and virtual reality capabilities
• Collaboration tools - remote education and
  training
• FY2000 goal 10-15 actively engaged Federal
  members - 75K/year each provides base, ad hoc
  opportunities to create more focussed
  partnerships
• Strong linkage with Digital Government Program
• Opportunities to partner with other NSF/CISE
  programs
• The success of the Consortium model extrapolates
  to ...

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A Digital Government Vision

• The broad connection of Federal information
  services providers with the research communities,
  in an arena drawing heavily on the challenging
  and unique requirements of the Federal sector, to
  speed the development, deployment, and
  application of more advanced technologies into
  usable systems.
• See workshop report -
• Towards the Digital Government of the 21st
  Century
• URL http//www.isi.edu/nsf/final.html

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The Federal Scene

• NSF/CISE
• Supports research - individuals, large-scale
  centers, infrastructure - in the
  computer/information science arena (about
  300M/yr.)
• Peer Review Process - uniquely able to find best
  research projects
• Federal Government Partners
• Federal World-Wide Web Consortium
• Federal Information Services and Applications
  Council
• Presidents Government Information Technology
  Services Board
• Chief Information Officer Council

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NSTC CIC RD Subcommittee
WHITE HOUSE
Presidential Advisory Committee on High
Performance Computing and Communications,
Information Technology, and the Next Generation
Internet
Executive Office of the President Office of
Science and Tech. Policy
National Science and Technology Council
Committee on Tech.
NCO for Computing, Info., and Communications
Subcommittee on Computing, Information, and
Communications RD
Human Centered Sys. Working Group (HuCS) (NSF)
Education, Training, Human Resources Working
Group (ETHR) (NSF)
Federal Info. Services Applications Council (FISAC
) (NSF)
High End Computing and Computation Working
Group (HECC)
High Confidence Systems Working Group (HCS)
Large Scale Networking Working Group (LSN) (DOE,NS
F)
1) stimulate and foster migration of technology
from IT RD community to govt application
missions and information services communities,
and 2) identify challenges from applications to
the IT RD community
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Why Research and Federal Information Services?

• Govt is unique collector, maintainer, provider
  of information
• Govt is different from big business
• Security/privacy, Scale, Citizen as Customer,
  Ambiguous Bottom Line
• Often, Govt is behind best IT practices
• Legacy stovepipe systems, failed modernization
  efforts, antiquated infrastructure, inadequate
  workforce skills
• Expectations heightened - ubiquity of
  Web/Internet
• Difficulty of Federal IT strategic planning,
  procurement
• These result in interesting research opportunities

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Digital Govt Program Goals

• Foster research and collaboration between
  agencies, academia, industry
• Fund and demonstrate cross-agency cutting-edge
  applications, e.g.
• National Statistical Infrastructure
• Crisis Management
• Universal Access
• Geographical Information Systems
• Next Generation Internet
• Privacy

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Potential Digital Government Project Types

• New research
• Demonstrate enhancements of existing research
  technologies in Federal missions
• Pilot projects and testbeds
• Human resource exchange
• Planning grants, feasibility studies
• Workshops, digital magazines, other
  community-building, technology exchange, or
  clearinghouses

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Federal Participation

• Federal agency participants
• Help identify and energize important cross-agency
  service domains
• Contribute funds to the Program
• Aid in proposal development - matchmaking
• Aid in peer review
• Aid in post-award management and oversight
• Participate in proposals as performing partners
• Provide in-kind services collections, personnel

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Project Parameters(mandatory)

• Active participation and support of Federal
  agencies
• Domain that is primarily governmental in nature
  or govt requirements are unique
• Participation of domain experts (users,
  customers)
• For large projects
• Framework for software re-use and sharing
• Early and regular research product delivery
• Evaluation during and at end of project
• How will the project live on?

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Examples ofOptional Project Elements

• Human-centered systems
• Participation by multiple sectors - academia,
  State/local govt, vendors, integrators, etc.
• Ability to scale
• Non-proprietary, platform-neutral technology
• Educational/training components
• Collaboration technologies

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Workshops/Studies

• Study (co-sponsor by NASA and NSF SBE) by
  National Academy of Sciences - Computer Science
  and Telecommunications Board
• Focus workshop on Crisis Management - Dec. 98
• Focus workshop on Federal Statistics - Feb. 99
• Final report on RD in Federal Info. Services in
  Fall 99
• Co-sponsored with Consortium
• GIS - July 98, report expected soon
• Social Science and State/local - October 98,
  report expected soon
• Typical workshop is 50-70 individuals
• Domain experts
• Federal staff
• Computer/information science researchers
• Intention is to make connections, establish
  dialog, define research agenda

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Digital Government Proposal Submission Status

• Program Solicitation
• Proposals received Sept. 1, due again June 1999
• Small planning/feasibility grants emphasized for
  first round
• Proposal Characteristics - 50 proposals under
  consideration - mostly University
• 28 planning/feasibility proposals (1.5M one
  time)
• 16 research proposals (11M/yr., total 41M)
• 4 workshops (0.2M one time)
• 2 other (training, program support) (1.5M/yr.)

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More Proposal Characteristics

• Domains represented
• 9 statistics
• 2 crisis management
• 7 spatial data
• 8 natural resources/environmental
• others include regulatory process, fraud
  detection in large databases, community planning,
  transportation
• Participating Agencies
• Census, BLS, EIA, NCHS, FEMA, US Coast Guard,
  NIMA, NCI, DOJ, NASA, NOAA, USGS, DOE, USDA, HUD,
  GSA, Federal Reserve Bank, NIST, NSA, OMB, EPA

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Even More Proposal Characteristics

• Technologies
• data integration
• visualization of statistical data (tabular)
• creation of metadata
• data mining
• program generation
• digital libraries
• human-computer interfaces
• Some technologies missing in current proposals
• high-performance networking
• high-speed computing
• educational technologies (but plenty of citizen
  connections)

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Review Process

• Two aspects -
• identify proposals with research excellence, then
  
• those with strong possibilities to improve Fed
  info services
• Complexity and tensions due to breadth of
  disciplines, multi-sector, short vs. long term
  payoff
• Reviewers from NSF, Universities, other research
  agencies, Federal CIO Council and GITS Board,
  mission agencies
• Review complete for all except 16 research
  proposals
• Final decisions for all 50 by March 15, 1999
• Plan on 4-6 planning/feasibility grants
• Statistical Graphics
• Distributed GIS image storage in field data
  collection
• Regulatory compliance reporting
• Geospatial ontology
• 1-2 others
• Negotiating with proposer for education/outreach
• Research proposals to be reviewed by panel in
  mid-February

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Funding

• FY99 funding availability
• 1.5M from CISE in hand
• 375K from Consortium members in hand, another
  3-400K expected
• Goal of 0.5-1M from other NSF
• Goal of 0.5 from IT Innovation Fund
• Goal of 1M from other research agencies
• Hope to reach 3-4M
• New Federal IT research initiative just announced
  by VP - http//library.whitehouse.gov/Week.cgi
• 28, 366M increase outside the envelope in
  FY2000, perhaps half to NSF
• Mosaic mentioned as part of justification
• Based on interim report by Presidents IT
  Advisory Council - see it at http//www.ccic.gov
  - strong Federal presence in report

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Lessons Learned and Random Thoughts

• Y2K preoccupies Federal agencies admin. arms
• Partnerships possible on program side
• Security is 2 concern
• Not thinking much beyond year 2000
• Planning horizon of most agencies is lt 1 year
• Systems integration, not research
• Impact of web, database, email making dialog
  possible
• Many Feds believe IT is the only thing on the
  horizon to deal with increasing expectations and
  decreasing staff
• VP Gore leadership matters
• Funds at non-research agencies have proven hard
  to find
• who do you want me to fire? or Im up to my -----
  in alligators
• Success takes continued attention and a thick
  skin (lots of rejections and passivity)
• DG could drive many interesting proposals if
  funding were available and domains were energized
• Be patient - think in terms of 5 years