Indian Affairs launches new web site, updates technology

 

Connecting state and local government leaders

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has launched a new web site to better serve constituents, and is at work on an internal portal to enhance collaboration among BIA employees as well as with other government agencies.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has launched a new Web site to better serve constituents, and is at work on an internal portal to enhance collaboration among BIA employees as well as with other government agencies.

The new site, www.IndianAffairs.gov, was launched Oct. 19, and the internal portal is slated to debut in December, according to BIA officials speaking at the Oracle Federal Forum in Washington.

BIA, which is part of the Interior Department, reconnected to the Internet last summer after being off the global network from 2001 to 2008 due to a legal case.

Members of BIA’s development team were “working like maniacs before last summer to get ready to be back on the Internet,” said Al Foster, acting chief information officer at BIA. Foster and his team members spoke during a session titled “Engaging Citizens” that focused on how to create communications with users inside and people outside of organizations.

BIA had an older site prior to being ordered by a federal judge to shut it down. The development team set up a site quickly after being reconnected using the Hypertext Markup Language. They found that there were all of these “other little sites that had popped up over the years,” said Chaeny Emanavin, usability design lead at BIA. “We had all of these sites that were wandering around that needed to be integrated,” which required pulling legacy data into the new environment, he said.

However, for the most part, the development team could start from scratch and not be hampered by a lot of legacy systems because the agency had been off the Internet for seven years, Emanavin said. BIA wanted to develop a portal that was built on a standard platform and flexible, had a robust enterprise search engine and could support secure single sign-on capabilities.

With the help of consultants from systems integrator Mythics, an Oracle partner, BIA’s team implemented Oracle’s Fusion Middleware to build the external and forthcoming internal Web portal. Fusion consists of a suite of Oracle software tools including Oracle Universal Content Management (UCM), Oracle Identity Management, Oracle WebCenter Spaces and Oracle Secure Enterprise Search.

BIA chose Oracle because at the core the agency is an Oracle shop using the company’s databases and data modeling tools. However, the Fusion suite is also integrated and lets developers use standard programs and languages such as Java, Java Script, HTML and CSS, Emanavin said.

With Oracle UCM, BIA has a single, data repository that can securely provide information to the external web site and to the intranet. When the agency has the ability to launch an extranet, it will let people securely see internal applications, for example, the status of their applications to bring land into the Indian Trust Fund, Emanavin explained.

On the Internet side, BIA is using Oracle Web Content Management, which has a tool named Site Studio, because it has a built-in content management system. Content managers have an easy interface to change text on the site. They click on a button, a text editor pops up and they can quickly change content, he added.

For the internal portal, BIA is using Oracle WebCenter Spaces because it is much more flexible and lets developers integrate legacy and new applications.

The agency is using the Dublin Core metadata implementation, which is being suggested by agencies such as the Library of Congress as a standard, uniform way to tag content. “So if you plug into another agency, bureau or department then you can find your information easily as well,” Emanavin said. Together Dublin Core and Oracle Secure Enterprise Search offers “a very powerful natural language search and machine readable [solution that] really satisfies the computer and human need,” he said.

The Fusion tools will give BIA the ability to deploy better communication tools such as dashboards, blogs and wikis to set up a knowledge sharing community. Such a community will connect help people find experts in given areas and preserve knowledge as people retire, he said.

Technology Revolution

“We [at BIA] are really in the midst of a technology revolution,” Foster said. He noted that technology change has been quietly underway at the agency for two years.

In addition to the reconnection to the Internet, BIA’s network has undergone massive upgrades and security improvements, he said.

Also, BIA is overhauling the IT infrastructure in all the Bureau of Indian Education schools located in 23 states. “They don’t have standard e-mail and desktop configurations.”

BIA is also undergoing an e-mail system migration from IBM’s Lotus Notes to Microsoft’s Exchange Server. After that migration is completed BIA will host the e-mail system for the Office of the Secretary of the Interior Department, Foster said.

BIA has 10,000 employees who handle issues ranging from education, financial management, health, law enforcement, and management of dams. There are 40,000 students in BIA's school system, more than 560 tribal organizations to interact with and two million Indians who are members of registered tribes. Add to this the 70,000 employees of Interior and you can see that the agency has a very substantial base of individuals it has to provide services to and with whom it must communicate, Foster said.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.