Conference Co-chair Sharon Dawes (Center for Technology in Government, SUNY University at Albany) Conference Co-chair Eduard Hovy (DGRC, USC Information Sciences Institute) Program Chair Lois Delcambre (Oregon Health & Science University)
	It is a pleasure to welcome you to the Final Report and Proceedings of dg.o2004. dg.o is the national conference that brings together computer and social science researchers, government professionals, representatives of industry, and members of the public to discuss how research in information strategies, policies, and technologies can improve government operations and public services. This year we were very pleased to host one keynote talk and two keynote panels. Our opening keynote speaker on Monday morning was Keith Rhodes, chief technologist of the U.S. General Accounting Office and director of the Center for Technology and Engineering. His talk, entitled "Digital Government: How Does the Leviathan Tap Dance?" focuses on government's role and responsibility in a world where the digital and the physical are becoming increasingly indistinguishable. Our two keynote panels focused on the dramatic growth in research opportunities in digital government. On Tuesday morning, a panel of NSF program officers presented a strategic vision of the ever-evolving research landscape available to the digital government research community. On Wednesday morning, a panel organized by the European Commission Information Society Directorate presented e-government research programs and projects underway in European countries. This year we have introduced NSF Project Highlights as a distinct submission category to the dg.o conference. The Project Highlights serve to showcase NSF-funded digital government projects. Each project is summarized in the dg.o 2004 Proceedings and was presented at the conference, in either a concurrent program session or a poster session. The NSF Project Highlight presentations have been interspersed with accepted research papers and posters, all organized according to various application domains. In addition to the keynote and regular sessions on Monday, George Spix, chief architect in the Consumer Platforms Division of Microsoft addressed attendees at the luncheon. Informal Birds-of-a-Feather sessions took place on Monday afternoon. We had two poster and demonstration sessions, one on Monday evening and one on Tuesday afternoon. With these sessions, we continued our tradition of having posters and demos accompanied by informal conversation and good food. This has become a very successful venue to showcase the potential of digital government in a wide variety of areas and to encourage new research projects and partnerships. On Wednesday afternoon, we arranged several field trips for dg.o 2004 attendees including visits to the Boeing Corporation and the Seattle Police Department. (You may view a complete schedule here, or browse the proceedings by topic using the navigation menu above.) The dg.o conference has grown in both size and diversity as evidenced by our submissions this year, including 60 NSF Project Highlights, 20 posters, 26 demonstrations, 3 student research papers, 7 Birds-of-a-Feather sessions, and 39 regular research papers. Of these, 13 of the research papers and two of the student research papers were accepted, with an additional 14 research papers accepted as posters. The conference presentations featured both information and social science perspectives and contributions to pressing public sector challenges. We are most grateful to members of the Program Committee who carefully reviewed research papers and provided valuable feedback to the authors. The quality of the program reflects their talents and efforts. The dg.o 2004 Program Committee members included: Peggy Agouris, University of Maine Yigal Arens, Digital Government Research Center, USC/ISI Chaitan Baru, University of California San Diego Annie (Shirley) Becker, Northern Arizona University Rob Bertini, Portland State University Shawn Bowers, San Diego Supercomputer Center, UC, San Diego Jamie Callan, Carnegie Mellon University Hsinchun Chen, University of Arizona Judy Cushing, The Evergreen State College Sharon S. Dawes, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany/SUNY Lois Delcambre, Oregon Health & Science University (Chair) Jose Fortes, University of Florida Genevieve Giuliano, Digital Government Research Center, USC/ISI Mike Goodchild, University of California - Santa Barbara Jane Fountain, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Carol A. Hert, Syracuse University Eduard Hovy, Digital Government Research Center, USC/ISI Alan Karr, National Institute of Statistical Sciences Marianne Koch, School of Science & Engineering OGI/OHSU Kincho Law, Stanford University Gary Marchionini, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Juliet Musso, Digital Government Research Center, USC/ISI Charlie Rothwell, National Center for Health Statistics Stuart Shulman, Drake University Nicole Steckler, Management in Science & Technology Dept., OGI/OHSU Anthony Stefanidis, NCGIA, University of Maine Vassilis Tsotras, University of California, Riverside Paul Waddell, University of Washington Jim Costello (Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany/SUNY) did an excellent job providing technical support for the automated paper submission and review management system that was introduced with great success this year. Priscilla Rasmussen continued this year as our indispensable professional conference planner. The conference is generously supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. It is organized by the Digital Government Research Center, a joint center of the USC Information Sciences Institute and Columbia University. Planning and arranging the conference, including the conference program, was truly a team effort. We hope you enjoy the conference! Sharon Dawes, Conference Co-Chair Eduard Hovy, Conference Co-Chair Lois Delcambre, Program Chair Valerie Gregg, NSF Digital Government Program Liaison Yigal Arens, Finance Chair Mack Reed, Communications Chair