Federal government boosts digital strategy with mobile apps, security programs

By Chantal Tode

May 29, 2013

The White House is talking up a series of recent mobile initiatives designed to more efficiently and effectively connect Americans with government, including mobile security guidelines and a mobile application development program.

These developments reflect the growing role that mobile is playing in people?s lives and the government?s strategy to deliver information anywhere, anytime and on any device. The news was revealed by the White House on the year anniversary of the release of its Digital Government Strategy and is meant to build on that strategy.

A blog post introducing the mobile initiatives addressed how open government data that is publicly accessible in easy-to-use formats can fuel innovation and economic growth.

App development
One way that the government is embracing mobile is through the release of hundreds of APIs that can be used by private-sector developers to create new applications and services.

These APIs encompass government datasets such as home and business energy trends, real-time earthquake notifications around the world and the current weather on Mars transmitted from the Curiosity Rover.

 

To facilitate the creation of new apps, each government agency has released its own developer pages and Data.gov launched a government-wide API directory so these resources are easier to find and use.

These moves were further supported by President Obama?s recently executive order and open data policy making open and machine-readable the new default for government data.

The federal government also created the Mobile Application Development Program to help agencies launch mobile apps.

Mobile analytics
The government is also focused on optimizing federal Web sites for mobile devices and creating its own mobile apps to ensure government services are available to citizens on any device.

For example, the new USAJobs app from the Office of Personnel Management makes it easier for job seekers to search and apply for jobs with their mobile devices, and the SaferBus app from the Department of Transportation allows users to access a bus company?s safety performance record and file a complaint from their mobile devices.

 

In order to have insight into what information the public is looking for, where they are looking for it and if they are able to find it, the government has implemented a digital analytics program.

Centralizing the management of mobile devices used by government employees and strengthen the security of government?s mobile platforms is the focus of another series of developments, including the creation of a government-wide mobile and wireless contract program that acts as a ?family plan? for the federal government and which is expected to save taxpayers $300 million over the next five years.

A new Managed Mobility Program was also created at GSA.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York

Associate Editor Chantal Tode covers advertising, messaging, legal/privacy and database/CRM. Reach her at chantal@mobilemarketer.com.

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Idaho hiker's body found after search hampered by government shutdown

By Laura Zuckerman

SALMON, Idaho | Thu Oct 24, 2013 2:16am EDT

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - The body of a missing hiker has been recovered at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in central Idaho after a month-long search hampered by the recent U.S. government shutdown.

The remains of Jodean Elliott-Blakeslee, 63, were spotted on Tuesday evening during a helicopter search of the vast lava fields at the National Park Service site where she and her hiking partner, Amelia Linkert, were reported missing on September 24.

Searchers last month found Linkert dead from exposure. An Idaho coroner is determining how Elliott-Blakeslee perished, park officials said.

At its height, the search for the Boise-based physician drew helicopters, dog teams and as many 100 individuals from other U.S. parks, but those efforts were scaled back in part because of a congressional budget impasse that halted government operations on October 1. The government reopened last week after Congress passed a temporary spending measure that President Barack Obama signed into law.

Ted Stout and several other Craters of the Moon workers furloughed during the shutdown nevertheless continued to search for Elliott-Blakeslee across the Idaho park's 750,000 acres of volcanic rifts, cinder cones and underground tunnels carved by ancient lava flows.

"We can't let her down now. This needs to continue," Stout, the park's chief of interpretation and education, said the day after he and park officials were laid off.

(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman; Editing by Steve Gorman and Lisa Shumaker)

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Obama: Government shutdown won't delay healthcare exchange launch

By Lewis Krauskopf

Fri Sep 27, 2013 6:21pm EDT

n">(Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday that the new state insurance exchanges created by his healthcare reform law will launch as scheduled on Tuesday even if the federal government shuts down due to Republican efforts to defund Obamacare.

The new online health exchanges at the heart of Obama's Affordable Care Act are set to open for enrollment on October 1 after years of political attack, offering subsidized health coverage for millions of uninsured Americans. Conservative lawmakers in Congress are pushing to cut out spending for the healthcare law at the threat of shutting down the government on the same day.

"On Tuesday, about 40 million more Americans will be able to finally buy quality affordable healthcare just like anybody else," Obama said in a speech addressing the potential for a shutdown.

"Those marketplaces will be open for business on Tuesday, no matter what, even if there's a government shutdown. That's a done deal."

Obama's statement confirmed speculation that the exchanges would operate regardless of Congress' actions.

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department, the branch of the government overseeing the law's implementation, released its contingency plan on Friday in the event of a potential shutdown.

The department's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services branch "would continue large portions of ACA activities," according to a document on its Website.

That includes coordination between the Medicaid program for low-income Americans and the insurance marketplaces. Insurance rate reviews and assessments of what portion of premium revenue insurance companies spend on medical services would also continue.

The document said that certain funding for healthcare reform was mandatory and "not affected by a hiatus in annual appropriations," such as the ACA Mandatory Program Management and the ACA Implementation Fund.

The Medicare program for the elderly would also "continue largely without disruption," in the short term. States would also have funding for Medicaid.

Regarding other HHS agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would continue "minimal support" in the United States and abroad to respond to outbreak investigations, processing lab samples and maintaining an emergency operations center.

The Food and Drug Administration would continue activities to handle emergencies such as high-risk recalls, but "will be unable to support the majority of its food safety, nutrition, and cosmetics activities."

(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Ken Wills)

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Your Tax Dollars at Work: Goofy Government Apps

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UPDATE 1-IMF recognizes Somali government, offers economic advice

WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund officially recognized the Somali government on Friday, ending a 22-year hiatus and allowing the Fund to provide economic policy advice to Somalia.

The move opens the way for donors and other development banks to resume relations with Somalia, whose economy is in tatters after more than two decades of conflict.

Donors are expected to meet officials from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund during meetings of world finance leaders in Washington next week.

"The decision is consistent with broad international support and recognition of the federal government," the IMF said in a statement. The IMF said, however, that it will not be able to approve lending to Somalia until the government clears $352 million in debt it owes to the IMF.

The United States has said it will work with the World Bank and the IMF to help Somalia clear the debt. The country also owes the World Bank about $250 million, which is preventing the institution from providing development aid to the government.

Major Western donors, including the United States, Britain and countries in Europe, have slowly been re-engaging with the Mogadishu government since the election of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud last year. It was the first vote of its kind since warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

In subsequent years, al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgents seized control of large swathes of the south and central parts of the country. An African Union force has had some success in driving the insurgents out of the capital.

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