About the Recreation One-Stop Initiative
Recreation One-Stop is one of the E-Government initiatives in the President's Management Agenda to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and customer service of the recreation programs.
The Recreation One-Stop initiative is intended to enhance customer satisfaction with recreational experiences on public lands. It will improve access to recreation-related information generated by the Federal government, streamline the systems used to manage that information, and increase the sharing of recreation-related information among government and non-government organizations. The investment will include the procurement of a new contract to integrate the separate National Park Reservation Service and National Reservation Recreation Service with the Recreation.gov website.
The two major goals of the initiative are to provide:
1) a customer-friendly recreation portal (Recreation.gov) with information for planning visits to Federal recreation sites and making campground/tour reservations
2) consistent information about Federal recreation areas via different "channels" (databases, websites, and publications), by standardizing data and interfacing recreation-related computer systems
The scope of the project has been clarified significantly compared to the initial planning, as a result of stakeholder meetings in 2002 and a Clinger-Cohen memo at the end of that year. Expected results now include:
- dramatic improvement in consistency, accuracy, and timeliness of recreation data that is available to the public
- more-seamless experience for customers planning trips and making reservations for Federal facilities
- lower costs for the travel/tourism industry and organizations managing recreation facilities
- implementation of "e-gov" objectives by interfacing/integrating systems for planning trips, announcing events, making reservations, paying fees, disseminating information for maps/publications, etc.
Deliverables will include:
- National Recreation Reservation Service (NRRS), with an interagency recreation portal (Recreation.gov) providing campground/tour reservation services and trip planning information for Federal recreation sites
- Recreation Information Data Base (RIDB), a warehouse of information about Federal recreation sites with the ability to export that data to state tourism portals, recreation-related businesses in the private sector, etc.
- Data standards for recreation-related information (including RecML)
- Blueprints for interfacing different recreation-related computer systems, based on the Federal Enterprise Architecture
National Recreation Reservation Service (NRRS)
The interagency recreation portal at Recreation.gov will consolidate the "legacy" Recreation.gov, ReserveUSA.com, and reservations.nps.gov applications to offer a single point of access to information about Federal recreational opportunities and reservations. The recreation portal will provide a comprehensive source of information about thousands of Federal recreation opportunities. Information about recreation opportunities on Federal lands will be displayed based on the interests of the customer, not centered on the agency providing the recreation opportunity.
Through the National Recreation Reservation Service (NRRS), people planning a trip will be able to:
- Discover which parks, forests, lakes, museums, and other recreation sites managed by Federal agencies are located near a particular area and/or offer a specific recreational activity (or combination of activities, such as hunting and camping within 20 miles of a particular lake)
- Use interactive maps for trip planning activities to locate specific recreation sites managed by Federal agencies. Other areas of trip planning information may include potential weather conditions, elevation, and distance to desirable features (public lands, trails, streams/lakes, roads, museums, campgrounds, etc.)
- Identify the schedule of planned events and the operating status of recreation sites managed by Federal agencies (especially in fire season and during floods)
- Determine the entrance fees and use fees for individual recreation sites managed by Federal agencies, and calculate the costs of a trip to visit multiple sites
- Make recreation-related reservations for use of Federal sites via one shopping cart
- Provide a user-friendly contact center for customers to make reservations and obtain information about facilities and activities in the NRRS
- Potential enhancements may include Federal pass sales, other types of recreation-related sales, and permits
- Make inquiries for planning trips and dealing with transactions for recreation sites managed by Federal agencies
The recreation portal provided by the NRRS will be the Federal retail outlet for citizens looking for information about Federal recreation sites. The scope of the NRRS is limited to recreation sites managed by Federal agencies. The recreation portal will be designed to handle all aspects of a reservation at a Federal site, but to encourage customers planning a trip to explore other websites with more-detailed information about recreation opportunities. Except for reservations at Federal facilities, the interagency portal will provide just a "snack" of information, and point to other sources for customers to get the "full meal." The portal is not intended to provide an all-inclusive, one-stop shopping service that would replace non-governmental portals. That goal would lead to unnecessary competition with the many other systems and websites designed for tourism and travel planning.
Recreation Information Data Base (RIDB)
The Recreation Information Data Base (RIDB) is a warehouse of public domain data about recreation sites managed by Federal agencies. It will implement state-of-the-art technology to share data with other databases, websites, search engines, publications, etc., serving as an authoritative source of accurate, up-to-date information about Federal recreation facilities. RIDB will disseminate reliable, up-to-date information to other organizations so customers can find consistent information about Federal recreation sites, no matter what portals or publications they use.
Data standards for recreation-related information
Data standards will streamline the sharing of recreation-related data among Federal, state, tribal, local, and non-government organizations, by establishing common definitions for recreation-related terms such as "campground." The initial voluntary data standard, RecML, involved state and local agencies and was adopted through the Government Without Boundaries initiative. Federal agencies will standardize additional data elements as part of the implementation of the NRRS and RIDB, so consistent data can be provided to the public about Federal recreation areas and facilities.
Blueprints for interfacing different recreation-related computer systems
An inventory and analysis of recreation-related systems will allow Federal agencies to plan the replacement of existing ("as is") systems. Duplication of effort (and cost) will be eliminated, by developing short-term and long-term migration plans to consolidate or interface different systems. The migration plans will require blueprints for changing existing systems and/or creating new ("to be") systems, so different projects led by different organizations at different times can complete the migration over time. These blueprints will be consistent, because they will be based on the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA). That effort, led by the Office of Management and Budget, classifies the major activities performed by Federal agencies so computer systems supporting those activities can be synchronized.
Blueprints will be developed and implemented by the partner agencies, with interagency coordination before making changes to the NRRS and RIDB. Within the Department of the Interior, the Investment Review Board has approved the Recreation Modernization Blueprint, so there is a clear management decision on the schedule to migrate specific systems from the "as is" to the "to be" state.
The NRRS and the RIDB are in the Recreational Resource Management and Tourism component of the Natural Resources line of business, in the Services For Citizens business. Detailed documentation is available at http://www.doi.gov/ocio/architecture/
For more details,
see:
- Expanded
Electronic Government
(President's
Management Agenda)
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