May 24-26, 2004 Seattle, Washington
5th Annual National Conference on Digital Government Research:
New Challenges and Opportunities

The National Science Foundation and the Digital Government Research Center (DGRC) invite you to submit to dg.o2004, the 5th annual conference on digital government research. This year, we focus on:

• reflecting on the practical aspects and unique opportunities presented by digital government research projects, projects that are inter-disciplinary with the collaboration of government partners,
• highlighting the breadth and depth of current digital government projects, and
• exploring the nature of digital government research as a new and growing research area.

Digital government research is interdisciplinary and multi-sector, with a focus on research at the intersections of computer and information sciences, IT-related social, political, and behavioral sciences, and the problems and missions of government agencies. Correspondingly, the conference attracts researchers in the varied disciplines, government agencies representatives, policy specialists, business experts, representatives from the software industry, and members of the public.

New for dg.o 2004:

• A new type of submission - Project Highlight - for active NSF Digital Government projects to describe their accomplishments, success stories, broader impact, challenges/barriers, and research value.
• A longer format for formal research papers where the best papers will be considered for inclusion in either a special issue of an existing scholarly journal or for a possible new Digital Government Research Journal currently under discussion. We encourage submission of papers that advance the emerging field of digital government research.

Note: We expect to invite the best submissions in all categories to an NSF Digital Government workshop, to be held in the Washington, D.C. area following the conference.

Formal research papers, posters, demonstrations, and proposals for Birds-of-a-Feather discussion groups may address any aspect of digital government research, including but not limited to the following:

IT-Enabled Government Operations:

• Integration of Data and Services
• IT Adoption in Government
• Evaluation of IT Adoption in Government
• Interoperable Data, Networks and Architectures
• Long Term Preservation and Archiving of Government Information
• Security, Privacy, and Information Assurance

• Universal Access to Information and Services
• Privacy and trust
• Transparency and usability
• Public participation in democratic processes

• Geographic Information Systems
• Semantic Web
• The Grid
• Modalities, Multimedia Interfaces, and HCI
• Trust, Confidentiality, Ownership, Reliability
• Large Scale Data and Information Acquisition and Management
• Software Engineering of Large-Scale Government Projects
• Technology Transition
• Collaboration Tools
• Interoperable Data, Networks and Architectures
• Long Term Preservation and Archiving of Government Information
• Security, Privacy, and Information Assurance

• Public Policy Issues and Impacts
• Organizational and Management Issues
• Digital Democracy and Governance
• Impact of More Transparent and Understandable Government Processes and Decision-Making

• Electronic Grants Administration
• Environmental Management
• Electronic Rulemaking
• National and International Digital Government Efforts and Cooperation
• Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement
• Crisis Management and Emergency Response
• Federal Statistics
• Health and human services

For inspiration and guidance in drafting successful papers and proposals for the 2004 conference, you may wish to consult proceedings from past dg.o conferences available on the web at:
http://www.digitalgovernment.org/archive/library/dgo2003

You may also consult Digital Government-funded projects at: http://www.digitalgovernment.org/ProjectSearch?commonName=a&action=all

POINTS OF CONTACT

General Conference Chairs:
Sharon Dawes (CTG, University at Albany): sdawes@ctg.albany.edu
Eduard Hovy (USC/ISI and DGRC): hovy@isi.edu

Program Chair:
Lois Delcambre (OGI/OHSU): lmd@cse.ogi.edu

Financial Chair:
Yigal Arens (USC/ISI and DGRC): arens@isi.edu

Government Liaison:
Valerie Gregg (NSF): vgregg@nsf.gov

Communications:
Mack Reed (USC/ISI and DGRC): mack@isi.edu

VENUE

This year the conference will take place in Seattle, Washington. For more information consult: http://www.dgrc.org/dgo2004/venue/

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Method: This year the online submission system must be used for all formal research papers, posters, system demos, project highlights and Birds-of-a-Feather proposals. After submission, you will be able to use the system to track the progress of your paper through the review process, and to read comments made by the reviewers upon acceptance or rejection of your submission by the program committee.

Timing: The system will be accessible January 16, 2004 to February 6, 2004 at this address: http://www.ctg.albany.edu/conference/dgo/ All submissions must be made via this system. We will not accept early or late submissions or revisions. NO EXCEPTIONS.

If your research paper, poster, demonstration, project highlight, or Birds-of-a-Feather proposal is accepted for the conference, you will be granted access to the system once again. You must make final revisions based on the recommendations of the reviewers and the program committee. Finally, you must submit a camera-ready copy of your work to the online submission system.

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Format: All submissions must be in .pdf format, 11 point font, in a serif font such as Times New Roman or Palatino, with 1 inch margin, all around. Submissions must not exceed the maximum number of pages for each type of submission, as indicated below. Please use no page numbers. Paper headers should be incorporated onto the first page of text rather than on a separate cover page. Paper titles need not include the words "System Demonstration," "Project Highlight" or other category labels, but should consist of the paper's title and authors, and their institutions and email addresses.

Research papers (maximum of 10 pages)
. These report innovative Digital Government research results, in the form of a formal scholarly paper. Relevance to digital government should be made explicit. Authors must identify the research topic(s) being addressed by the paper to assist the program committee in the review process.

Student research papers (maximum of 10 pages).
Research papers on any aspect of digital government that are authored by students alone should be submitted to the Student Session, which will be chaired by a student. Papers accompanied by system demonstrations are particularly welcomed; in this case, please submit both a paper and a demo submission. Student papers will be evaluated by the students organizing the student session and activities. The session will also include time for a discussion of typical graduate student issues.

Demonstrations (maximum of 2 pages) of digital government projects.
One of the highlights of dg.o conferences is the demonstration sessions, held in special sessions to the accompaniment of good food. We invite short papers outlining a system demo. We encourage demos that accompany papers or project highlights (in which case, please submit both a system demo description and a paper or project highlight). Each demo station will have a table, an easel, and Internet access.

Posters (maximum of 2 pages) of digital government projects.
Posters are meant to describe research contributions less substantial or complete than those described in research papers.

Poster guidelines for the conference:
Posters that are to be presented at the conference poster sessions should measure approximately 36" x 48."

Birds-of-a-Feather proposals (maximum of 2 pages) about a topic of general interest.
We invite short descriptions of themes for the Birds-of-a-Feather session, a set of roundtable discussions about relevant topics. This session serves to introduce people and support the formation of nationwide communities of people with like interests.

NEW THIS YEAR:

1. Project title
2. Types of collaboration with government partner (e.g., through cost-sharing, direct support, advice and feedback) and with other closely related grants
3. Scientific research objective
4. Accomplishments
5. Management structure for the project, including government partners
6. Collaboration examples and success stories
7. Broad impact
8. Challenges/barriers
9. Research value when working in DG domain
10. Recommendations for improving DG program

All project highlights (in the form of a 2-page paper, as described above) will be included in the proceedings. The original PowerPoint submission will be reviewed:

1. to provide suggestions for improvement
2. to determine how the project highlight is to be included in the dg.o 2004 Conference Program, and
3. to evaluate whether the project will be invited for presentation at the proposed NSF Digital Government Research workshop to be held following the d.go 2004 conference. The Project Highlight PowerPoint file must be submitted by February 6, 2004.

REVIEWING AND DEADLINE DETAILS

Reviewing:
Review of all submissions will be performed by the Program Committee.

Program Committee

• Peggy Agouris, University of Maine
• Yigal Arens, University of Southern California
• Chaitan Baru, University of California San Diego
• Annie (Shirley) Becker, Northern Arizona University
• Rob Bertini, Portland State University
• Shawn Bowers, San Diego Supercomputer Center, UC, San Diego
• Jamie Callan, Carnegie Mellon University
• Hsinchun Chen, University of Arizona
• Judy Cushing, The Evergreen State College
• Sharon S. Dawes, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany/SUNY
• Lois Delcambre, Oregon Health & Science University
• Jose Fortes, University of Florida
• Genevieve Giuliano, University of Southern California
• Mike Goodchild, University of California - Santa Barbara
• Jane Fountain, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
• Carol A. Hert, Syracuse University
• Eduard Hovy, Digital Government Research Center, USC Information Sciences Institute
• Alan Karr, National Institute of Statistical Sciences
• Marianne Koch, OGI School of Science & Engineering/OHSU
• Kincho Law, Stanford University
• Gary Marchionini, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Sudarshan Murthy, Oregon Health & Science University
• Juliet Musso, University of Southern California
• Charlie Rothwell, National Center for Health Statistics
• Stuart Shulman, Drake University
• Nicole Steckler, Management in Science & Technology Dept., OGI/OHSU
• Anthony Stefanidis, NCGIA, University of Maine
• Vassilis Tsotras, University of California, Riverside
• Paul Waddell, University of Washington

Important Dates

INQUIRIES

For up-to-date conference information please visit the conference Web site at http://www.dgrc.org/dgo2004/.
For detailed inquiries please contact the appropriate person (see Points of Contact above) or send an e-mail to dg.02004info@dgrc.org