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Capitol View
MAKE this edition of the state Legislature the year when the lawmakers meet the Internet. Getting lost in the digital age
It was this time last year that Governing magazine reported the results of a nationwide survey of the states. It was another one of those articles that put Hawaii at the bottom of the information technology heap.
Hawaii's grade was "F."
"Hawaii does ask for a cost-benefit analysis of new projects, but since there is little or no review of the effort, they're pretty much just paper exercises," the magazine said.
Sen. David Ige, the Legislature's chief computer nerd, who actually builds computers in his office, agrees Hawaii has had more than its share of bad grades. He points out that the public schools get high marks for their fiber optics network and other work, but state and county governments deserve their poor marks.
At one level, this computer stuff is really complicated. If you didn't ace algebra in the 8th grade, a lot of this is going to pass you by. As a personal aside, it is well recognized that journalists became journalists because of their inability to master high school algebra.
If much of the process and planning for computers and the Internet is daunting, the results and applying them are simple.
Much of the paper we shuffle today won't be around tomorrow. We are likely to still be reading and writing as much or even more than in the past. We just won't be putting it on the shelf or tucking it in a file cabinet when we get up.
This is happening very quickly, faster than records went out and CDs came in.
On the Internet, the saying goes, a year is only seven months long, but the Legislature is dealing with a government that thinks a high-tech decision is whether or not to get a lateral filing system.
For leaders such as Ige, it is all troublesome.
"I keep asking, 'Why not, where are you headed and what big plans do you have?' " he says.
From talking to state managers, Ige thinks most know what has to be done but "they are frustrated in getting the attention of higher-ups."
The Internet, e-commerce, America Online, Microsoft, hundreds of powerful computer makers along with all those who can do algebra, whip out a business plan and sell poi in Cleveland are not waiting for someone to listen to Ige.
THE Associated Press reported this week that across the country state legislatures are having to deal with the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act.
Supporters say it provides a universal legal standard for the new technology industry.
Opponents warn that it could be used by huge computer companies to dictate standards of behavior through computing.
This becomes more and more important, as commerce becomes more and more digital.
If Hawaii is moving to the Internet all it is buying is solutions off the shelf. The state hopes to wrap up a contract with a mainland provider to bring more government services to the Internet. Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris has a crude interactive section on the city web site, but both are operating much like mainland sites were in 1995.
All this is compounded by the thousands of state and county jobs that five years from now will be dead-end dinosaur jobs because they involved moving paper from one spot to another.
The Internet won't care if Hawaii sinks into a 20th-century tar pit while the modern economies move forward.
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He can be reached by e-mail at rborreca@pixi.com