As the Star-Bulletin's Richard Borreca reported in September, the Hawaii Legislature was once in the forefront of communications technology with its ACCESS/legislative information services. The information contained in that system is still of considerable value. The system itself, however, is now outdated and painfully slow to access, adding irony to the system's name.
The Legislature also relies on the antiquated SHADOW computer system, a proprietary system that is, in the opinion of many users in the Legislature, increasingly unadaptable to current advances in technology. Again, while the SHADOW system was at one time useful and appropriate, the Legislature has failed to keep pace with changes in modern technology. In addition to being tied down to an archaic system, the state pays thousands of dollars annually for consultant services to maintain this dinosaur.
There are several things the Legislature can do to improve its accessibility:
Convert the current ACCESS system to a more accessible format on the Internet.
Establish web sites for both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Continue to add new information to the Legislature's home pages, including easy access to voting records.
Allow citizens to "subscribe" to pieces of legislation on-line. When a bill has been amended or a hearing is scheduled, automatically e-mail the subscriber.
Place the Hawaii Revised Statutes on-line in an easily researchable format. Then continually update those statutes to ensure that the most recent version of Hawaii's laws are always available
Replace the SHADOW system with a non-proprietary, open system that is more adaptable to changes in technology. By acquiring the system itself, the state can obtain additional services through the competitive bidding process, rather than through the use of sole-source contracts, resulting in potentially substantial savings.
Many state legislatures already have established home pages on the Internet. It's about time the Hawaii Legislature joined their ranks. Earlier this year, the Legislature authorized the appropriation of $70,000 to do just that - to fund the equipment and operations of the Legislative Internet Project - to place the ACCESS system on the Internet. (Act 174, Session Laws of Hawaii 1996, section 9.)
Section 10 of that law established the Joint Legislative Access Committee, in part to review the operations of the Legislative Internet Project. That committee should move quickly to convert the Legislature's Internal electronic system to a public Internet system before the 1997 legislative session.
There are already some bright spots in the picture. One outstanding example is the Legislative Reference Bureau library's home page, which is accessible at http://www.hawaii.gov/lrb/llb.html. That web site contains information about the Legislature, offering browsers access to LRB reports and studies as well as a connection to other important Hawaii state web sites, databases and search engines.
The Hawaii Legislature has a continuing obligation to Hawaii's citizens to ensure open access to the legislative process. That obligation did not cease upon the creation of the ACCESS system. The state's citizens expect more from their elected representatives.
Today's advances in communications technology allow us to achieve increased access without additional exorbitant outlays. The Legislature must remain sufficiently flexible to take advantage of these changes or risk being accused of being Luddites. The potential is there. Let's meet that challenge.