In his "first-ever" national Webcast, President Clinton today intends to unveil a series of e-government initiatives that the administration contends will make the federal government far more Internet-accessible.

The cornerstone of the Clinton e-government package is a soon-to-be completed Web site called firstgov.gov, which administration officials say will allow citizens to search "all online government documents" at one Internet location. The site, which the government had originally intended to build on its own, will be developed and run by a not-for-profit corporation operated by Internet search engine pioneer Eric Brewer. Brewer co-founded Inktomi Corp. in 1996. Brewer expects to have firstgov.gov up and running before year's end, White House Office of Management official Sally Katzen said during a conference call Friday. In addition to the firstgov.gov project, the Clinton administration is working on two other e-government initiatives that are currently in the prototype phase, Katzen said. One initiative calls for the development of a centralized online location that all government grant seekers can visit to locate and apply for federal government grants. The second initiative calls for the development of a similar online clearinghouse for government procurement. Using such a system, vendors looking to sell products and services to federal agencies could do so through a single online location.