Frequently Asked Questions about
"Welcome to the White House: An Interactive Citizens' Handbook"

What is it?

It is an interactive citizens' handbook that is available on the Internet, a network of computer networks that is used by people in over 150 countries. It uses a service on the Internet called the World Wide Web (WWW), which gives people the ability to share documents that not only contain text but also include graphics, photos, sound, and video.

What can you do with it?

The service has four principal functions:
  1. It allows users to link to all online resources made available by U.S. government agencies, as well as a subject index to government information and other ways of finding it. All Cabinet-level agencies are providing public information this way, as well as most of the independent agencies and commissions.
  2. It lets people view electronic photo albums, some of which include audio segments. Examples include highlights of the President's first year and a half in office, the inaugural celebration, and virtual tours of the White House and the Old Executive Office Building.
  3. It provides an enhanced interface for sending electronic mail to the President and Vice President, which improves the handling and analysis of e-mail and the ability to gather information from incoming messages.
  4. It indexes all White House publications so that finding and retrieving documents is made easier.

How does it work?

Using software such as Mosaic (distributed for free by the Federally-supported National Center for Supercomputing Applications), people with a communicating computer and an Internet connection are able access the World Wide Web. Mosaic and the WWW provide an easy-to-use graphical interface for the Internet by allowing words and images to be used as direct links to additional information on related topics. Simply by "clicking" on a linked word or image, a user can retrieve and display new files and information effortlessly, without learning commands.

Why is the White House doing this?

It was developed to improve the way the Federal government uses the Internet to communicate and interact with the American people. It enriches the government information available to citizens, businesses, schools, libraries, and other institutions. It provides a single point of access to all the government information and services that are available on the Internet. The service demonstrates real progress in improving the National Information Infrastructure by showing the government is using information technology to make itself more understandable to the public. It can help promote interaction and participation with citizens by offering government agencies a method to present their missions and programs.

Who will have access to it?

Of the 20 million or so who have access to the Internet, currently several million Americans have access to Mosaic and the World Wide Web. Most universities are connected to the Internet as are an increasing number of public schools, libraries, local governments, and other public institutions and non-profit organizations. Because it makes the Internet significantly easier to use, the WWW is the fastest-growing service on the Internet, with traffic growing an average of 27% per month. However, since many people have access to the Internet but not at a level that supports Mosaic and other graphical browsers, the service has been designed to work very well with Lynx and other popular text-based browsers. We are working on a CD-ROM version and showed the prototype of public access kiosk version at the service's rollout. People without computers can call the Federal Information Center at 800-347-1997, which has access to Welcome to the White House as well as other sources of information for helping citizens.

What about Americans with disabilities?

Services on the WWW also are accessible with software that does not display graphics, so they can be used with Braille readers and voice-generation devices. The White House service has been specially designed to facilitate access by people with text-only software.

Who is working on this?

The project team includes the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the Office of Media Affairs, the National Economic Council, the Office of the Counselor to the President, the Office of Correspondence and Presidential Messages, and the Office of Administration. Please contact David Lytel at OSTP (456-6037), Jock Gill at Media Affairs (456-5660), Lynda Rathbone in the Office of the Counselor to the President (456-2000), or Tom Kalil at the National Economic Council (456-2802), with any additional questions.

What is the address of the service on the Internet?

As of 20 October 1994 it will be at http://www.whitehouse.gov.

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To comment on this service: feedback@www.whitehouse.gov