The US Government Enters The Digital Age????

Confronting Digital Age Head-On:
GPO Aims to Secure All Government Documents Online

Three trucks, carrying hundreds of copies of the president's proposed federal budget, left the Government Printing Office one morning early last month and headed for House and Senate office buildings. For several days, about 100 GPO employees had worked to print the 352-page document and 2,000 pages of accompanying material.

Distributing the budget plan -- a total of 8,500 copies of it -- is one of the biggest events of the year for the printing office, but it is also becoming something of an anachronism for the 192-year-old organization.

For most of U.S. history, any government agency that needed to print many copies of a document went to the GPO. Now, about half of government documents go straight online, forcing the printing agency to find new ways to make itself relevant in an increasingly paperless world. But questions of security, privacy and authenticity have confronted the GPO leadership as it has sought to get up to date in the digital age.

"We are determined that we are going to put every single [government] document on the Web," said GPO chief Bruce R. James, the nation's public printer.

Inside the GPO's 1.5 million-square-foot headquarters across from Union Station, scratched floors, paint-peeled walls and pockets of empty space suggest a warehouse of a bygone era -- not quite the industrial character of 1860 when Congress acquired the site, but certainly not the cutting-edge design of a modern enterprise.

But then, there are signs of change.

Steve LeBlanc, operations manager of the new security and intelligent documents unit, showcases a nearly $1 million printing press called the Heidelberg Speedmaster that can print 13,000 sheets per hour in full color.

Ted Priebe, assistant chief of staff for digital conversion services, oversees the conversion of government documents into digital media that can be accessed for decades to come.

Elsewhere, Lisa LaPlant, a program manager in authentication initiatives, demonstrates how the printing office is trying to tag digital government documents -- in "portable document format"-- so users will know that the documents have not been altered.

The initiatives are part of two projects James launched to refocus the agency on 21st-century challenges after taking the GPO post in late 2002: the Future Digital System; and the secure and intelligent documents unit.

Bringing the GPO to a completely online format would save millions of dollars, thousands of trees, and allow access to government research, documentation and legal matters for almost all Americans.