Public Access Web Information Systems : Lessons from the Internet Edgar Project

The Internet and the Web Information Systems (WIS) create new channels for communicationsbetween governments, corporations and individuals. Governments collect, generate anddisseminate vast amounts of information. In a market driven and democratic society, thisinformation is vital to enhance the trust of citizens in their government and institutions, andcritical to individual and organizational decision-making. This paper describes lessons learnedfrom the quot;EDGAR on the Internetquot; (EOI) project, an early demonstration web informationsystem (WIS) for disseminating corporate disclosure documents filed with the U.S. Securitiesand Exchange Commission (SEC). Building on our experience with this system, and theemerging impact of the Internet on the market for disclosure documents, we provide guidelinesfor governments and information vendors to effectively adopt and adapt to web-enabledinnovations for data dissemination