WASHINGTON – The White House on Wednesday unveiled what it called a "sweeping shift to mobile," an initiative aimed at accelerating efforts to make new and useful services available to consumers on their mobile devices.
As part of President Barack Obama's commitment to delivering a 21st century government, he issued a directive requiring that each major federal agency – including the Department of Health and Human Services – make two key government services the American people depend on available on mobile phones within the next 12 months.
In conjunction with the White House initiative, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park is launching a Presidential Innovation Fellows program. The effort will bring in top innovators from outside government for focused “tours of duty” to work with federal innovators on new projects. Among the projects the fellows will take on are ones to make consumer-friendly government information about health, education, energy, safety, and personal finance more accessible to all Americans.
[See also: Twitter recap: Todd Park talks Big Data Week.]
“The release of government weather and GPS data has already led to countless entrepreneurial innovations, which have made life easier for America’s families while also creating multi-billion-dollar industries and generating jobs.” Park said. “The initiatives we’re launching today will make government data resources even more accessible to the public and to entrepreneurs who can turn these data into services that can help Americans find the best doctor for their family, choose the college that offers them the most value for their money, save money on their energy bills through smarter shopping and much more.”
The administration is ramping up its efforts to make large amounts of government data more easily accessible to the public to spur entrepreneurs to develop innovative new services and mobile applications that take advantage of this data. The idea is to create new opportunities, businesses and jobs in the process.
The president’s directive is part of a larger digital strategy being implemented by the Administration – a roadmap that will guide the federal government as it makes the most of new sources of digital information.
“Americans deserve a government that works for them anytime, anywhere, and on any device,” said Obama in a news release. “By making important services accessible from your phone and sharing government data with entrepreneurs, we are giving hard-working families and businesses tools that will help them succeed.”
Mobile is rapidly becoming the platform of choice for Americans; it is now anticipated that by 2015 more people will be accessing the Internet via mobile phones than via traditional desktop computers. The Administration announced digital strategies intended to have the government make the mobile shift along with the population.
The Open Data Initiatives program will speed and expand the release of government data in machine-readable form in realms ranging from healthcare to education to energy to public safety, and will actively stimulate the creation of new apps and services by entrepreneurs that will improve the lives of Americans in many tangible ways and create jobs of the future at the same time, officials said.
By next spring, the American people will be able to access dozens of additional government services on their mobile phones for the first time, Obama said.
[See also: Government tools, apps available to help with meaningful use.]
He has tasked U.S. Chief Information Officer, Steven VanRoekel with releasing a comprehensive roadmap to help the federal government re-think digital services.
“We’re living in an increasingly mobile world and it is critical that the federal government keep up with the way the American people do business,” said VanRoekel. Already, families can use government apps to check the wait time at the airport, get access to critical veteran services, and check the status of their tax return. Today’s directive will accelerate our drive to make key services easily accessible to more Americans than ever.”
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