Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Feds should weigh user readiness, comfort level before deploying new wireless/mobile technologies

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 03:15:48 -0500

Report urges
government to wade into wireless

By Vandana Sinha
GCN Staff

12/16/02

Secure wireless devices have plenty of potential federal users,
but first agencies must weigh their willingness to
 embrace the technology, according to a pair of professors who
have surveyed more than 200 federal workers.

"User technology readiness plays an important role in determining
whether to go for immediate deployment of wireless/mobile
technology and in determining the strategy for deployment," noted
Ai-Mei Chang, a systems management professor at the National
Defense University, and P.K. Kannan, a marketing associate
professor at the University of Maryland.

Agencies should launch wireless pilots, they said in a new report,
Preparing for Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Government, (
http://endowment.pwcglobal.com/pdfs/Chang_report.pdf ) sponsored
by the IBM Endowment for The Business of Government. The first
steps should include assessing employee readiness for wireless
integration, training workers and budgeting for these products use
as part of an agency's long-term strategy, the report recommended.

The report suggested using a technology readiness index, a metric
that measures employees' optimism against their distrust of
technology, and their tendency for innovation against their
discomfort with new technology. Based on the authors' survey, the
report said high levels of optimism and innovation paralleled high
levels of discomfort.

Chang and Kannan recommended that agencies encourage employees to
use wireless devices in their personal lives to become more
comfortable with them. Agencies also should provide training
classes and create peer support groups in which tech-savvy
employees can walk their less-technical colleagues through
wireless use.

Agencies should start with simple applications, such as mobile
e-mail, before venturing into projects that demand interagency
collaboration, the report said. Meanwhile, the authors called on
wireless vendors to address the high-cost, interoperability, and
inadequate security and privacy issues related to enterprisewide
wireless use.

If agencies do not begin launching wireless technologies, they
will lose out on significant data-sharing possibilities with one
another, the public and industry, the report concluded.

"The coming decade is clearly the era of e-government," it said.
"Societies in each city, state and country are increasingly
interconnected, and citizens and customers who have experienced
the improvements and efficiency that the Internet facilitates are
demanding more from their governments."

 http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/mobile_wireless/20698-1.html

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