Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device.

The 21st century imperative to deliver government information and services to the public anytime, anywhere and on any device makes mobile a critical tactic in the federal Digital Government Strategy. Today, GSA’s Digital Services Innovation Center and the Federal CIO Council launch the Mobile Application Development Program to provide agencies with tools they need to make great mobile products available to the public.

The program–developed with and by 25 agencies across government–will help agencies in each stage of mobile development.

• Plan –Build a mobile strategy, see what other agencies have done, use new acquisitions tools to find top mobile developers.

• Develop –Create great mobile apps and sites using mobile user experience guidelines. Jump start development by leveraging pre-existing code.

• Test –Make sure your app works on all devices by leveraging automated and in the wild testing support. Test for security & accessibility.

• Launch –Let people know yours is an official government app by registering it. Get your app in the app stores and leverage API’s for promoting your apps.

What’s In It?

The program is chock full of useful resources and tools. For starters there is

• The Mobile Code Sharing Catalog provides agency mobile developers with whole frameworks for a mobile web site, modular code to solve common problems, and open-sourced apps to modify or use as a template. AND, agencies and other developers can submit code for reuse.

• RFP-EZ helps link agencies and small businesses for tech projects below $150,000–definitely a sweet spot for many mobile products. The idea is to help agencies reach the talent in startups more quickly and at reasonable cost. We worked with the RFP-EZ team at SBA to include mobile statement of work templates. Now when agencies create a new project in RFP-EZ, they can jumpstart their efforts by choosing the “Mobile Application Development” project type.

• Agencies can easily create mobile ready websites using Sites.USA.gov. This GSA-hosted content management tool supports open content, is secure, compliant and uses only responsive themes that work well on any-sized screen.

The Federal Apps Registry helps verify that apps and mobile sites are actually government mobile products–and provides an API so agencies can easily create galleries around their mission areas.

Just Do It

You can use these and many more tools and resources today. And, you can join us for a discussion about the Mobile Application Development Program May 30th at our webinar, or come see us live later that day at our Mobile Gov Wikithon.

Last, we need YOU to help us as we continue to develop new tools to help you develop citizen-focused mobile products. Tell us what you need at digitalgov@gsa.gov.

By Jacob Parcell, General Services Administration

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Time people spend using smartphones is increasing 14 times faster than the time they spend using desktops, according to thinkcomputers.org.  University of Tampa graduate student DJ Miller posted this handy infographic on the site.

Some other highlights:

• In 2013 smartphones will overtake PCs for accessing the Internet in North America
• Android and Apple devices will continue to take larger market shares
• Cloud packaged data and analytics are expected to accelerate with mobile access to them

Techies in government should take note of these trends and work to increase their mobile communication with citizens and stakeholders.

By Linda V. Priebe, Office of National Drug Control Policy

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The Center’s for Disease and Control has developed a mobile website and a mobile app so users can access information anytime, anywhere, on any device.

The mobile website was developed to allow users to access a subset of CDC’s content on mobile devices. These sections include Health & Safety, Vital Signs and Videos. This mobile website is very user friendly and it was developed using JQuery, HTML and Ajax.

The CDC Mobile App is compatible for iPad and Android mobile devices. The CDC Mobile App was designed to allow users to access healthcare related information. The mobile app allows users to view articles, journals, reports, press releases and images from the CDC’s Public Image Library. The application also allows the users to access CDC’s podcasts, blogs, and social media.

In addition, the CDC has developed other mobile tools like Solve the Outbreak and Fluview. You can find more government mobile products like these on the USA.gov Apps Gallery.

By Kanika Tolver, U.S. Department of Transportation

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North American mobile users are talking less and emailing, texting and social networking, more, according to ComputerWorld who recently reviewed a new report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

PwC says smartphones and tablets are the gateways for this trend:

· In June 2012, 56% of mobile network subscribers had a smartphone, up from 39% the year before.

· Tablet connections to mobile networks also increased by almost 43% from 2011 to 2012.

· Average monthly data use on mobile networks also grew from 548 MB to 694 MB per user during that period.

They also found mobile users on new faster networks are one factor in the increase in mobile data use. Users of mobile broadband networks are consuming 700% more data than most smartphone or tablet users, averaging 4.8GB of data per month in June 2012, up from 3.6GB the previous June.

Agencies optimizing their websites and social media content for mobile are likely to enjoy more interaction with citizens and stakeholders using smartphones and tablets.

By Linda V. Priebe, Office of National Drug Control Policy

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Federal agencies have a new resource to help them make content and services available anytime, anywhere, and from any device–the federal Mobile Code Catalog sponsored by the Digital Services Innovation Center.

This catalog is hosted on GitHub (more on why that matters in a moment). Here, agency developers looking to jump-start their efforts can find source code for native and web projects from a variety of sources: federal agencies, other governments, and third-parties in the private sector.

Developers can access whole frameworks for a mobile web site, modular code to solve common problems, or even links to complete apps to use as a template for their own apps.

More than code

It’s not all about code, though.  Any successful mobile program needs to be able to test the quality and the accessibility of their apps.  The catalog also includes  test scripts to help your agency validate the functionality and accessibility of their app.  You can also find links to data, APIs and other federal developer pages.

The Mobile Code Catalog is hosted on GitHub for a reason.  In addition to the form that agencies can use to submit their open source project or resource, the catalog itself can be “forked.”  Forking the catalog is the process of making a copy of it so improvements can be made without affecting the original copy.  Those improvements can then be submitted to us through what’s called a “pull request.”  If everything’s in order, we’ll incorporate those improvements with just a few clicks.

What’s next

This catalog has been initially populated with the cooperation from several agencies, but the work is not done. Over the next few months we will be hosting events but we need you.

• Are you a government mobile innovator with some code you’ve developed to share? Submit your code.
• Are you a developer who wants to tweak one of the existing government apps or modules? Fork the content and make a pull request.
• Are you looking to get involved in government mobile code sharing? Ask your questions.

By Michael Pulsifer, U.S. Department of Labor

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The U.S. Postal Service Mobile app can help you find a post office, calculate shipping prices and track packages.  Since we last featured this app, the USPS has added the ability to schedule pickups and order supplies.

Last month, USPS Mobile version 3.8 was released. The new version allows users to see special hours for various USPS locations and has a “Coupons” feature that allows users to scan bar codes on mobile phones.

The U.S. Postal Service Mobile App is available for the iOS, Android and Blackberry platforms and can also be accessed as a mobile friendly website.

You can find more government mobile products like the U.S. Postal Service App on the USA.gov Apps Gallery.

By Kanika Tolver, U.S. Department of Transportation

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The  2013 Q1 ACSI E-Government Satisfaction Index has been released and it reviews citizen satisfaction with 103 federal sites.

For mobile government, the ACSI reviewed 14 federal websites and collected almost 68,000 survey responses. This is what they found:

• About a third (32%) of people reported having accessed any federal website using a mobile phone or tablet
• 16% said they didn’t, but planned to
• 40% said they didn’t, but might in the future
• 13% said they didn’t and did not plan to

ForeSee, who administers the ACSI, points out that a large number (nearly 50%) of people responded that they either “plan to” or “might” visit federal government sites on a smartphone or tablet, creating a huge opportunity for agencies.

The ACSI study also found that highly satisfied citizens are more likely to put their trust behind the agency and more likely to return to the site. If agency leaders listen to what the citizens want in a mobile experience, they can build an experience that will encourage citizens to return to, recommend, and use the mobile site as a primary resource over a more expensive channel, saving crucial budget dollars and building trust in government.

By Linda V. Priebe, Office of National Drug Control Policy

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Mobile is a fast moving technology leaving many agencies feeling behind the contracting eight-ball.  Between finding those rockstar mobile developers, figuring out what to ask for in a statement of work (SOW), the time it takes getting a contract to get those expert resources, agencies are challenged in making anytime, anywhere mobile gov.

We have some relief.

We have been working with several agencies to create model mobile SOW templates to use in a new program designed to streamline the acquisitions process for some technology services–like mobile development. It’s called RFP-EZ.

RFP-EZ is a web based platform created by the Small Business Administration and a group of Presidential Innovation Fellows to improve tech acquisitions by focusing on small business and contracts valued below $150,000. (Why $150K? That’s because there are special simplified acquisition rules under this threshold.)

Good for Federal Agencies

RFP-EZ streamlines and simplifies the procurement process and allows agencies to work with their Contracting Officers to get developers on board quickly. RFP-EZ allows agencies to;

• View a profile of the business (location, small business status, prior awards and award cost, and current catalog pricing of the business)
• Browse pre-existing SOW templates and leverage them as templates for creating their own SOW’s
• Easily coordinate with Contracting Officers who can edit RFP’s and easily post them to FBO.gov
• Submit their RFP’s directly to a community of vendors actively searching for RFP’s
• Monitor and respond to vendor questions on bids.

Agencies just need to sign up to get started.

Good for Small Business Mobile Developers

RFP-EZ streamlines and simplifies the procurement process and allows businesses to bid on government RFP’s quicker.  RFP-EZ allows small businesses to;

• Market their services and products to the government
• Sign up to receive alerts about and monitor new RFP’s
• Respond online instead of having to download the solicitation and respond with a paper-based offer
• Ask questions and communicate with agencies about the acquisition online
• Access “helper text” to assist in responding to the solicitation and save their draft proposals for later review and reuse
• Store some standard information to pre-populate required forms on their current and future acquisitions.

Small businesses can sign up to get started. In order to be awarded RFP’s they will need to be registered with SAM.gov and follow procedures there.

Good for Mobile Gov

We have been working with the folks developing RFP-EZ at SBA to include model mobile SOW templates. Now when agencies create a new project in RFP-EZ, they can find our model mobile SOW templates by choosing the “Mobile Application Development” project type.

In addition, there is a community of vendors who can provide the expertise and skills needed to develop excellent mobile products (mobile web, native apps, etc.).  Agencies can browse this community and encourage other mobile and web service providers, such as designers and developers, to join the community.

So, what are you waiting for? Put on your mobile gov thinking cap and start using RFP-EZ today!

Questions?

Contact @RFP-EZ or email rfpez@sba.gov and jacob.parcell@gsa.gov for mobile gov.

-By Jacob Parcell, U.S. General Services Administration

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