Web based e-government data distribution

The US government and its agencies have a mandate to disseminate information on their operations for public use. Two such agencies are the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency. These agencies have an e-government directive, requiring them to provide historically collected electronic information to the general public and other agencies, organizations or businesses having legitimate uses for their databases. The three most important concepts for e-government data distribution are data preparation, presentation and data management. Unfortunately many of today's Web based information systems put presentation before content, and content before design. All three aspects are of equal importance and should receive equal attention. This paper discusses four Web based data distribution models, protocols, services and policies, with varying levels of complexity, being developed to allow the general information on water quality assessment, watershed health and fisheries assessment in the New England region.