Click, beep, shazam! technology comes to the legislature.

• Author: Graff, Steve
• Position: Includes related articles

Hang on to your hat. Computers and telephones and video are merging to sweep us into a whole new world of programmable sights, sounds and information.

March 24, 1998. It's late, and the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee wants to finish up her long day. "Ralph," she says, "Get me information on what other states are doing about the recent federal Medicaid mandates. While you're at it, find out the status of the federal budget negotiations and the likely economic impact of the president's and Congress's budgets on the state budget."

"OK," Ralph answers. "That will take a few minutes. I'll let you know when I have it."

As the chairwoman reviews her committee meeting notes, Ralph's voice intrudes: "Excuse me, Sarah. According to the newswire a compromise on the federal budget was reached 20 minutes ago. Would you like the details?"

"No," she responds, "but cancel the budget analysis I asked for and do it with the figures from the compromise budget."

"OK," Ralph answers.

Two minutes later Ralph interrupts again. "I have the information you requested; how would you like it delivered?"

The legislator turns in her chair and addresses what looks like a photograph of her family on the wall behind her desk. "Budget analysis onscreen, print and store the Medicaid mandate information."

Suddenly, the picture of her family becomes a large chart of figures and graphs with a large red number $78,932,427, flashing at the top of the screen.

"Oh," she groans, "there goes our budget."

She continues, "Ralph, distribute the report to the committee members and schedule a meeting at the earliest possible time tomorrow."

After a pause of several seconds, Ralph responds, "The meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m., and Representative Jeffords will not be able to attend as he is out of town for the rest of the week."

"Thanks Ralph. That's all."

Is Ralph an incredibly efficient aide? No, Ralph is a computer like HAL in the movie 2001. In the future, computer "agents" like Ralph will be an interesting addition to the political landscape.

Although this scene portrays a legislator of the future, the technology she is working with either is available today or will be in the next few years. Computers are becoming indispensable tools for those needing to handle high volumes of information and for those with communication-intensive jobs. The promise of computers is finally being realized as a number of different technologies are married.

The revolution in information technology is evolving faster and faster. The combination of voice, data and video communications with stunning advances in computer technology is creating in entirely new dimension where communications and information processing and gathering are one.

The implications of this technology for legislatures are profound. And it is not a question of whether legislatures will adopt it; it is simply a question of when. Constituents will expect their government representatives to provide them with quick information, using communications methods to which they are accustomed. The technology also will permit legislators to exercise more active oversight of state government operations and expenditures as budget problems persist and the public continues to demand improved government services and less waste.

Probably the single most notable aspect of the new technology is the ability of computers to interpret spoken language, called, reasonably enough, voice recognition. It is already used in some limited applications, as in the recently announced AT&T operator-assistance project where collect calls will be made via a voice recognition system; major new uses, like voice-activated word processing, are promised.

The board variations in people's speech have made producing a universally usable system a tricky challenge. However, systems are emerging that can "learn" the speech of individuals. Not only do these systems recognize thousands of distinct commands, but they are also beginning to "understand" language as it is spoken. In order to do this, the programs filter out the extraneous elements of speech and reduce it to the key or content words. The systems then use these keywords to perform actions such as making a phone call, retrieving information, analyzing data or printing a document.

Although voice recognition will have an enormous impact on the way legislators and legislative staff use computers, an even more important development underlies this technology--extensive intelligent communications networks connecting myriad computers. When a user requests information, connections will be made automatically to computers almost anywhere that contain that information. This is already happening in many legislatures as users routinely receive (via the legislative information network) information that could be located on any of hundreds of...