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The U.S. government is one of the largest buyers of technology products and services in the world, and a newly enacted e-government initiative promises to both expand and fine tune how Uncle Sam spends money on technology.

This is the second of a three-part series exploring transformational changes in government IT practices. Part one looked at the changing role of the public-sector CIO. This piece examines the 24 E-Government initiatives currently underway and administered by the General Services Administration (GSA). These initiatives bear watching because of the impact they may have on the internal workings of government as well as on the delivery of government services to end-users (i.e. citizens).

Computer-savvy citizens want to work with municipal governments via the Internet and some towns and cities are allowing them to do just that. Ocean City plans to accept online payments in the very near future.

The resort is one of a growing number of municipalities that see online interaction as a public service for its residents and property owners.

Hagerstown, with a population of about 30,000, is on the front line of providing e-government solutions, said Scott Nicewarner, information technology manager for Hagerstown.

US Government websites reacted sluggishly to the country's loss of power

An army of bloggers outmanoeuvred the US federal government during the country's power cut, providing updated reports on the crisis when official websites were still preparing their response.

Overall citizen satisfaction with government Web sites reached new levels during the last four months, as the aggregate government score nudged ahead of the private sector mark for goods and services in the third quarter of 2005.

A 1.2 percent growth in the satisfaction index - from 72.6 to 73.5 - represents a 3.2 percent increase from September 2004 and is at an all-time high. The cumulative nongovernment scores for goods and services measured by the index averaged out at 73.1.