THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 21, 1995 TAG: 9508180135
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: The Gateway: Exploring the Computer World
SOURCE: BY TOM BOYER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
TOO OFTEN, computerized access to government information has been too pricey for ordinary folk.
Until recently, the only way to use your computer to check legislation in the Virginia General Assembly was a subscription service costing $100 a year plus $20 an hour - no problem for lobbyists and special interest groups, but not much help to students and casual users.
Just last month, though, a free alternative appeared on the Internet's World Wide Web, thanks to the General Assembly's computer programmers. Check it out by pointing your browser to http://www.state.va.us/dlas/welcome. htm
The General Assembly website lets you look up the full text of Virginia House and Senate legislation, summaries of what they were intended to do and history of committee and floor votes.
You can look up bills by their number, or search for them using an index by subject. You can look up all the bills sponsored by your favorite legislator. By early next year, your legislator's email address may be there as well. It's all well-designed and very easy to use.
The site, which is still being called a prototype, is the result of a resolution state legislators passed earlier this year. Joyce Gill, manager of user services for Legislative Automated Systems, said the site didn't even require an additional appropriation from taxpayers - the agency, using existing resources, transferred computerized information into Internet-compatible form.
The free service has its limits. You can't do keyword searches - for example, pulling up all bills with the world ``abortion.'' For the foreseeable future, you'll only be able to do that with the agency's subscription service.
The website will also be updated every 24 hours, while the subscription service gives you access to the bills as soon as they're put into the General Assembly's computer.
But it's a big step in the right direction. If you want the service to continue improve, the best way is to use it, then tell your legislator you'd like to see it continue to improve.
Other state agencies are increasingly posting useful information to the World Wide Web. Good sites include:
The state Council of Higher Education has posted information about colleges and universities at http://www.schev.edu
The Department of Transportation has posted highway construction projects at http://pratt.vtrc.virginia.edu/vdot. html
The Education Department has posted test score information by school division at http://pen1.pen.k12.va.us:80/
Anthology/VDOE MEMO: More computer columns and stories are available on the Extra page of
Pilot Online; see Page A2 for details. If you have ideas or comments for
The Gateway, contact Tom Boyer at boyer(AT)infi.net or 446-2362.
by CNB