Breaking the Boundaries

obert Hirsch has always loved nature, so he's fortunate that he gets to work with the intricate details of the environment every day. As the U.S. Geological Survey's associate director for water, Hirsch manages the collection of data about water levels and quality in streams, creeks and rivers across the country. Whether you're a kayaker looking for the peak time to hit the rapids, or a civil engineer studying the environmental impact of building a hydroelectric power plant, you'll want to talk to the experts in Hirsch's office.

For years, to answer those people's questions, USGS researchers had to cull through more than a century of paper re- cords on America's waterways. Every state also maintained its own water data system, which added to the information flow.

Researchers were swamped. They wanted a way to answer questions more quickly, or even better, to put the information they had in the hands of those who needed it. But there was no single place that housed all of USGS' data and the states' as well. So, Hirsch's office built one.

The National Water Information System, accessible on the World Wide Web, is now the quickest and easiest way to get U.S. water data, whether you're looking for statistics from yesterday or from 1902. The site is one of 10 winners of the 2002 Grace Hopper Government Technology Leadership Award, and the story of how it came to be reflects the spirit of innovation that makes all this year's honorees exceptional.

To win a "Gracie," as the awards have come to be known, an agency or organization must show why its idea challenged conventional thinking about a problem and how it used technology to solve it in a new way. At USGS, researchers looked at the state of their records and asked, why can't we organize this information differently? They created a system unlike any other in the country. Each of this year's winners asked that same question: Why not? As a result, they left the mark of progress on their organizations or the constituents they serve.

The winners' daring carries on the reputation of the Gracie's namesake, Navy Rear Adm. Grace Hopper. The oldest active duty officer in the history of the service before her retirement in 1986, Hopper's gutsiness was contagious. Her peers were inspired by her love of shunning the conventional. (She used to set her clock to run backwards to encourage radical behavior.) Hopper was thinking outside the proverbial box long before doing so became a cliché that few people put into practice.

Hopper died in 1992 at age 85, and to honor her and the work she inspired, the Academy for Government Technology Leadership recognizes excellence this year in the following six categories:

• Contributing to advances in homeland security or the war on terrorism.
• Improving services to citizens and enterprises.
• Breaking down barriers between government organizations.
• Demonstrating leadership in addressing privacy and security concerns.
• Providing citizens and individuals with useful access to government information.
• Increasing public participation in governance, specifically the electoral or regulatory process.

In addition to this year's Gracie recipients, the judges commended previous winners for continuing to expand and improve their projects. Some of the 2001 winners were finalists again this year.

The Gracies will be presented at a reception in Washington on Dec. 3. Government Executive and the Academy would like to thank CACI, CDW Government Inc., GovWorks, PeopleSoft, Potomac Forum Ltd., Veridian and Visa USA for sponsoring that event.