The White House has issued a digital government strategy establishing standards and best practices to make government information more available and easier to use.
The strategy – "Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People" – provides agencies with a 12-month roadmap focusing on several priority areas.
Under a directive issued by President Obama, agencies will be required to establish specific, measurable goals for delivering better digital services. The directive also encourages agencies to deliver information in new ways that fully exploit mobile and web-based technologies and to take steps to ensure information security and privacy.
Agencies will further be expected to establish central online resources for outside developers and to adopt new standards for making applicable government information open and machine-readable by default, aggregating their online resource pages for developers in a centralized catalogue on www.Data.gov, and be required to use web performance analytics and customer satisfaction measurement tools on all ".gov" websites.
A key element of the “12-month roadmap" is an increased emphasis on the mobile web, and it directs agencies to make at least two key services available and tailored for delivery on smart phones, noting that globally smart phone sales now outpace desktop computers.
According to CIO Steven Van Roekel, “the strategy takes a coordinated, information- and customer-centric approach to changing how the government works and delivers services," adding that “making open data the default for government IT systems and embracing the use of web APIs – enables us to more easily deliver information and services through multiple channels, including mobile, and engage the public and America’s entrepreneurs as partners in building a better government."
