G.S.A.’s Gov App Takes Hold

The General Services Administration’s Office of Citizen Services is publishing a list of 10 challenges facing federal agencies developing a mobile presence.

The office is publishing one challenge online each day, along with an open forum for agencies to discuss the challenge and offer tips.

The challenges list is the second phase of Mobile Gov, a G.S.A. program aimed at promoting the development of mobile apps in government.

“Making an app is not a strategy, [but] it might fit in with a strategy,” says Gwynne Kostin, Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies director. According to Kostin, agencies are looking at who their audience is, how they’re using mobile, where their mission space is. Where those things converge “are really their opportunities.”

To help develop that broad strategy, G.S.A. and an interagency group have launched the “Making Mobile Gov” initiative.

“The goal of this initiative is to make the case for mobile, for people in their agencies to make their case for the importance of mobile,” Kostin notes. The project has four phases, starting with discovering and detailing agency examples of mobile computing. It will reach its zenith later this month by launching a wiki to gather and organize comments about the popularity of apps.

 

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