Illinois takes the lead in Web use

By Ellen Almer
January 03, 2002

Bringing up the rear with a 49th-place ranking a mere three years ago, Illinois has tied for first place in this year's survey of states' integration of digital technologies into government services.
The fourth annual Digital State Survey, conducted by the Progress and Freedom Foundation and the Center for Digital Government, found that Illinois and Kansas tied for doing the best job of integrating the Internet into government practices such as filing tax returns and permit applications and conducting elections.

The study, released Wednesday, measured the use of digital technologies in eight areas including law enforcement and the courts, e-commerce/business regulation, education and social services.

The survey found that Illinois, with a score of 91.8 out of 100, was especially advanced in the area of law enforcement, allowing citizens to easily retrieve information related to vehicle license plates, arrest warrants and criminal history from government Web sites.

The state was also top-ranked in the education category because it provides a high-speed Internet connection to more than 5,560 schools, colleges and universities, libraries, museums and local and state governments, making it the largest such state network in the nation.

Chief Technology Officer Mary Reynolds said Illinois progressed from 49th place in 1998 to first place this year because of Gov. George Ryan's "insistence on being innovative" with technology.

"He said, 'We've got to use technology in a smarter way, and provide these services in a better way across all agencies,' and that's what we did," Ms. Reynolds said. "But we realize that getting a good ranking is one thing; we can't just sit still and expect to keep it, though."

She said plans for 2002 include fuller deployment of digital signatures. The technology eases the process of filing online forms requiring signatures, because it allows users to file one signature that can then be applied to any number of online forms.