Walter Fox McKeithen is seated before a large, round insignia bearing what appears to be a poorly drawn pelican. It's hard to know because I'm looking at it on the Internet. The pelican is portrayed on the Great Seal of the State of Louisiana, and Mr. McKeithen is its keeper. The seal, not the pelican.

Secretary of State McKeithen came to my attention because the three AS/400s under his care are providing some unusual and innovative services to his constituents. In Louisiana, the Secretary of State's office is responsible for, among other things, qualifying candidates and overseeing elections, safeguarding the state's cultural artifacts and historical records, and regulating business practices. These functions both expel and ingest vast quantities of data, and, in the Internet, McKeithen saw a means of sharing it with the electorate.

Under McKeithen's leadership, Wayne McAlpine, information systems manager for the Department of State, undertook the challenge. His flagship system was an AS/400 model 320. To it, McAlpine added an AS/400 40S, and, with the help of Webmaster extraordinaire Avery Sloan, created a complex array of functions that reveal more about the state of Louisiana than I ever thought I'd care to know.

The Web site is indexed in six broad groupings and can be viewed at http://www. sec.state.la.us. "Administration" functions appear first, but we'll get to them later.

"All Around Louisiana" features a multimedia exhibit where you can see and hear such notables as former governor Huey Long, the flamboyant populist who promoted many controversial notions in his time-such as paving roads, providing children with free text books, and eliminating the poll tax, thus allowing the poor to vote.

You will also find a historical review of the state under ten flags (from which I conclude that either everyone or no one wanted it) and links to other state government offices. For trivia buffs, there are several pages of "Louisiana Facts" compiled, it proudly proclaims, by the Secretary himself. I may now be one of only a handful of people in the nation who can identify the

Louisiana state dog. (It's the Catahoula Leopard Dog, if you're itching to know.)

The "Archives Division" page provides an overview of acquisitions, vital historical records, the genealogy library, and preservation labs. The page links to schedules and descriptions of exhibits at the State Archives building, which cater this month to an eclectic range of tastes-from World War I posters to modern Chinese painting. Future plans include digitizing priceless film and tape recordings of state luminaries and historic events. With the help of IBM's Multimedia Group in Atlanta, McAlpine plans to move the state's vast collection of film clips and audio broadcasts to CD-ROMs and offer them on the Internet.

So far, the site is both informative and entertaining, but where it really begins to pay off for both the state and the citizenry is in the "Commercial Division." Bureaucracies, as any citizen who has ever braved the baroque entanglements of starting a business knows, tend to produce copious amounts of paperwork. Just understanding what the state requires may itself be an adventure necessitating multiple fishing excursions through the treacherous shoals of city hall, trolling for the appropriate forms, fees, and instructions. But everything you need to know about starting a business in Louisiana can be found in the "Corporations Section," including an alphabetical index of all forms, fee schedules, and a document compliance checklist. It's the commercial red carpet without the red tape.

The "First Stop Shop" is a licensing information center. It provides prospective business owners a single point of reference for determining what licenses and permits must be obtained in order to conduct business in the state. Where appropriate, it directs the individual to the proper local licensing and taxing authorities.

New business owners can discover how to incorporate, form a limited liability company, register a partnership, or file a trade name. Users can also access information about existing businesses. Links to the corporations database allow searches on business names, trademarks, registered agents, and individual names.

There is also a direct access feature that permits such enterprises as banks and law firms to tap into the Secretary of State's files on existing firms. Articles of incorporation, boards of directors, and other public domain information can be researched. The service is provided on a subscription basis via dial-up lines.

McAlpine plans to incorporate imaging into the system. Legal and certified documents are presently stored on microfilm, McAlpine explained. Retrieval is laborious and costly. "Only one person at a time can search through the microfilm, and we have a two- to three-week backlog of requests for document copies," he said. "Making them available on the Internet will not only speed up service but will also free up valuable staff time." When fully operational, corporate charters, amendments, and annual reports will also be made available.

The "Uniform Commercial Code" section is only one of two in the nation that boasts decentralized filing. "At the parish/county level, we've installed leased lines to every courthouse," said McAlpine. Traditionally, UCC filing must be made through the office of the Secretary of State. But in Louisiana, "people can file from any location with the parish Clerk of Court." The data is then transferred to the central AS/400 database in the Secretary's office. The Web site answers "most frequently asked questions," provides the locations of all Clerks of

Court, lists complete fee schedules, and specifies the locations of UCC forms vendors. If business owners wish to expand their enterprises beyond Louisiana's borders, they can take advantage of the links to the Web pages of the other 49 Secretaries of State.

The Elections and Commissions Division is next up, and accessing it allows citizens to download archived elections results or make inquiries against the elections database. (The system clearly lacks some functionality, however, since one may not, as of this writing, change election results and upload them.)

Citizens curious about the accomplishments of their legislature may access a complete list of all bills signed into law. I'm tempted to say this is a modest section, but it is not. The Louisiana legislature likes to make laws, and there are several hundred to choose from. There is also a comparatively tiny list of vetoed bills and bills that will become law without the governor's signature. (Over a period of time, unsigned bills automatically become law.)

All of this poses a riveting question: Will government online be more responsive? Certainly in providing certain types of services it has great potential to be. Of greater importance, government will become more visible and more accessible, and that, in itself, is cause for celebration. As is the AS/400's novel role in bringing government to the people.

Since the Web site went fully operational in February 1997, McAlpine reports some 4,000 page- hits daily, indicating a growing reliance on government services provided over the Internet. In addition, the AS/400 supports nearly 400 government users in Baton Rouge and throughout the state's parishes. "I'm very proud of what our people have done," he added. Although his IS staff of 150 is deployed in eight separate locations, each locale participated in the development of the Web site.

After all this heavy lifting, a little cultural diversion is in order. A trip to the museum, perhaps? The "Museums Division" has images and links to the five museums managed by the Department of State, plus brief descriptions of museums managed by the Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism. Individual museum pages feature images and descriptions of the facility and current exhibits, exhibit schedules, location maps, hours of operation, and admission prices.

As for the "Administration" index, I've saved it for last because it is, curiously, the least interesting and the most revealing. There, you can find such pedestrian but useful features as a complete directory of phone and fax numbers for various government offices. But if the Internet is useful to the voters, it can be equally useful to politicians. Browsing through the Administration index, one cannot hope to miss the ubiquitous smiling presence of Walter Fox McKeithen.

Not that this was ever intended, of course, but the site, beyond having some impressive practical features, also serves as a pretty fair political showcase. Judging by the number of times McKeithen's name and picture appear, Fox, as he prefers to be called, looks like a man who will shortly be running for governor.

Stately images of Fox and pelican are strategically positioned, and a biography of the Secretary who, with extreme political correctness, belongs to just about every noncontroversial organization in Louisiana, is available for voter perusal. The Secretary's media advisories and press releases are also online, revealing a lighter side to governance-one, perhaps, more familiar

to the voters. They nearly all begin with the weighty words "The Secretary of State W. Fox McKeithen announced today..." and they range from the informative to the indisputable. Take this blockbuster announcement for instance: "The Secretary of State W. Fox McKeithen announced today that the Louisiana Archives building will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday."

Film at eleven.

Victor Rozek has been in the data processing industry since 1975. His experience includes seven years with IBM in operations management and systems engineering.