In a push to make its services more accessible, the city of New York has set up sample interactive kiosks made by three different companies, and is waiting for user feedback to decide which version to install throughout Manhattan and the four other boroughs.
On Staten Island, however, users would be hard put to choose, as all three machines are rarely in working order at once.
So far, New York's CityAccess project, an effort launched last July to put everything from dog licenses to passport orders online, has been characterized by poor design and tardiness.
North Communications' Info New York kiosk, for example, offers up one-way interactivity, heading straight for the wallet. Ask this cyber civil servant for a map of Manhattan, and it prints the address and phone number of a Rand-McNally store on 57th Street. Navigating the touch-screen further generates an exhortation to pay parking tickets.
The massive SmartStreet kiosk from ObjectSoft presents a standard html-style intranet with information on government agencies, but its audio information is drowned out by a loud, looped StreetSmart infomercial video starring thespian Tony Randall.
Meanwhile, the CityAccess Web site beckons "CityAccess is coming to your neighborhood!!!! Look for our full deployment in September 1995!" Not only did it miss the deadline, but the city could not be reached to comment on when, if ever, this full deployment would take place - or what the project involved.
Interactive government information terminals have been championed by high-tech better-government groups like Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility and Public Technology Inc., for several years, and have been used for every municipal purpose from tourism to voter registration. At last count, more than 500 American municipalities had put up Web sites, but only a few cities, most notably San Diego, Phoenix, and Portland, Oregon, have extended their online components into the city streets.
CityAccess is not the first high-tech project undertaken by Mayor Rudoph Guiliani - previous efforts include the digital voice messages now installed in taxicabs - but it is the most ambitious. The city of New York hopes convenient kiosk payments will increase revenue by providing a place to pay parking fines, real estate taxes, and license fees. The company chosen may opt to include advertisements or promotional spots to offset costs.
