§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will make a statement on CCTA's participation in the electronic on-line meetings "People and their Governments", organised by the US Administration. [24598]
§ Mr. Horam"People and Their Governments in the Information Age" was a two-week electronic on-line conference, held on 1 to 14 May, organised by the US Administration using the world-wide web and the Internet. The purpose of the conference was to garner public opinion on the use of information technology by federal, state and local governments.
I am delighted to report that CCTA, the Government centre for information systems, was the only non-American organisation specifically invited to participate. It did so by establishing an Internet mailbox to facilitate United Kingdom contributions, to be consolidated into a single response.
In the UK we have had collaborative open groups established on the Internet for the past six months, allowing users to contribute to discussions on a wide range of topics relating to the Government's use of information superhighways. We are exploring ways in which the participation in these debates can be widened.