40
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2THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
W E L C O M E C O N T E N T S
About GovLoop
Executive Summary
Technology Allow Agencies to Increase Productivity UP In The Cloud- The Promise of Cloud Computing Federal Risk and Authorization Manage-ment Program (FedRAMP)Finding Efficiency Leveraging Technology - Data Center ConsolidationSecuring Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Environment - Cyber Security
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es
3STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24
22
36
39
The Digital Government Strategytimeline - Infographic
About The Authors
Technology enabling agencies to improve performance
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Government Accountability Through Increased Transparency
Government Websites
Government Transparency In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Breaking All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
The digital government strategyDelivering 21st Century Services to
AmericaThe Mobile Revolution
TECHNOLOGY PROMOTES AGENCIES TO INNOVATE PROACTIVELYShared Services Shared Savings
14
4THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
GovLooprsquos mission is to connect government to improve government We aim to inspire public sector professionals by acting as the knowledge network for government GovLoop serves nearly 60000 members by helping to foster collaboration solve problems and ad-vance their government careers
The GovLoop community has been widely recognized across multiple sectors GovLoop members come from across the public sec-tor including federal state and local public servants industry experts and professionals grounded in academic research
Today GovLoop is the leading site for address-ing public sector issues GovLoop is also the largest government niche network GovLoop
A B O U T G O V L O O PLocation
GovLoop is headquartered in Washington DC with a team of dedicated professionals who
share a commitment to connect and improve government
GovLoop
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
members create and comment on nearly 1000 blog posts and discussion forums every month
GovLoop works with top industry partners to provide resources and tools such as guides infographics online trainings and educational events all to help public sector professionals GovLoop also promotes public service suc-cess stories in popular news outlets such as the Washington Post Huffington Post Govern-ment Technology and other industry publica-tions
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap-was underwritten by the GovLoop Technology Solutions Council Members of this council in-clude Cisco Google GovDelivery HP IBM Or-acle and Microsoft
5STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Advancements in technology has enabled gov-ernment to improve how services are delivered to citizens This guide focuses on technology that has enabled government to increase pro-ductivity improve performance and facilitates innovation in government This guide shows how new and emerging technology is radi-cally changing the government landscape
TECHNOLOGY allowing agencies to increase productivity
In this section we highlight technology trends that are allowing government agencies to in-crease their productivity within the agency These trends are cloud computing and data cen-ter consolidations With more information being stored in the cloud there is an increasing need to take proper measures to ensure security This section will also focus on the growing need to implement stronger cyber security protocols
THE Digital Government Strategy Providing 21st Century Services to America The featured story of this report is The Digital Government Strategy which was released by the Obama Administration on May 23 2012 With this memorandum the Obama Adminis-tration has set standards and goals for federal agencies Agencies will now make Open Data
the default and are required to provide two services on mobile devices within the next year This section highlights the digital gov-ernment strategy mobile and the importance of more widely accessible government data
TECHNOLOGY Enabling Agencies to Improve Performance
For centuries government has been collect-ing data about citizens and looking for ways to use data to improve services With emerg-ing technology leveraging large volumes of data to drive decision-making is now a real-ity This section also explores ways govern-ment can become more transparent focus-ing on government websites data the rule making process and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) procedures Finally this section explores the IT workforce exploring initia-tives that are intended to develop the next generation of leaders in the public sector
TECHNOLOGY Promoting Agencies to Innovate Proactively
The final section highlights how agencies can do more with less through shared services With fiscal uncertainty and deep budget cuts on the horizon government at all levels is challenged to find ways to ldquodo more with lessrdquo
E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R YIT01011010
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00010
6THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Across government agencies are looking for innovative ways to improve productivity With the development of cloud technology and a host of different collaboration tools technology now exists to instantly connect people around the globe The use of cloud services and mobile technology has been a game changer across all sectors allow-ing employees to access information when they want and on what device they desire
Although employees can now connect easily across any device new challenges have become apparent and there are increasingly more secu-rity risks for government Retaining security in multiple environments and decreasing vulner-abilities is critical to improve productivity for government This section will highlight cloud computing data center consolidation and cy-ber security as ways government can use tech-nology to increase and maintain productivity
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01
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1
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
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00101
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7STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
C
Up in the Cloud The Promise of Cloud Computing
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Cloud computing continues to be one of the key trends in government Since 2009 President Obamarsquos Adminis-tration has been encourag-ing federal agencies to adopt cloud technologies through the Federal Governmentrsquos Cloud Computing Initiative
With this initiative the Obama Administration hopes that by leveraging cloud comput-ing agencies can work to reduce waste increase effi-ciency and cut costs for the federal government With the adoption of cloud comput-ing government at all levels has found new efficiencies
In May 2012 GovLoop ran a blog series that explored how government can break down silos including the role of emerging technology such as cloud technology Cloud tech-nology offers many benefits for government agencies With
more and more cloud initia-tives being implemented in government there are many related benefits to moving to a cloud-based environment
Ten benefits of cloud tech-nology can be found below
(1) Ease of Sharing Information and Data
The cloud easily allows users to connect and share information across the agency By sharing data and resources agencies can work collaboratively to solve cross-agency challenges
(2) Sharing Best Practices
Just like with data best prac-tices and resources can easily be shared through the cloud whether this is certain initia-tives or programs that the agency has started or long-standing projects or processes
(3) Connecting In-stantly
The cloud makes it easier than ever before to connect with col-leagues The ability to instant-ly connect through the cloud collaborate on documents and share information is one of the many benefits of the cloud
(4) Driving Improved Decision Making
By sharing data and informa-tion decision makers will have access to the right information they need to make a decision
Some examples include agen-cies using the cloud to connect people in the field with deci-sion makers back in the office
This could be extremely use-ful during a crisis as decision makers could address where to send supplies and how to best provide relief at risk areas
8THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
(5) Connecting More Decision Makers
With the cloud more decision makers can be connected and work towards collaborative solutions Getting all the right people at the table is always a challenge but the cloud helps mitigate some of those barri-ers
(6) Increase Telework Opportunities
With cloud technology im-proving the cloud provides more opportunities for tele-working Teleworking provides many benefits to employees and organizations
(7) Recruit Top Tal-ent
Do not forget that technol-ogy can also be a recruitment tool Many future workers are accustomed to using cloud technologies to collaborate on projects they will expect to have this kind of technol-ogy at the workplace
(8) Increase Effi-ciency and Productivity
With the cloud people can be more efficient and produc-tive by having the information they need at their fingertips rather than searching and requesting information
(9) Achieve Cost Sav-ings
Cost savings is usually men-tioned with cloud technology With cloud technology now available agencies need to be smart as to how they think about cost savings If a new cloud initiative yields a cost saving the saved money can be redistributed back into the agency to support other initiatives
(10) Improve Trans-parency
With the ability to quickly access information and share information through the cloud agencies can improve their transparency efforts The cloud allows people to share the right information and al-low people to quickly access the information they need
_______________
______________________
1234567897891067891012345
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8910123456789106
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67891012345678910 89678910
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6723452345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
89678
89678
45678910 678910120
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1234567897891067891012345
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1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910
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8910123456789106
1234567891012345678910
1234567891012345678910
012345678910 8
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
6789101234567
6789101234567
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
6723452345678910
67891012345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
01234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
56789101234567891
89678
89678
9STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
For more information visit oraclecom or call 1800ORACLE1
ORACLE (NASDAQ ORCL) is the worldrsquos most complete open and integrated business software and hardware systems company With more than 370000 customersmdashinclud-ing 100 of the Fortune 100mdashin more than 145 countries around the globe Oracle is the only vendor able to offer a complete technology stack in which every layer is engineered to work together as a single system Oraclersquos industry-leading public sector solutions give organizations unmatched benefits including unbreakable security high availability scalabil-ity energy efficiency powerful performance and low total cost of ownership
Oracle Public Sector SolutionsOracle delivers a complete platform of database middleware applications servers and storagemdashall based on open standardsmdashto work together in the cloud and in your data center
bull Big Data Solutionsbull Business Intelligence and Reporting Applicationsbull Case Management and CRM Solutionsbull Cloud Computingbull Data Center Transformationbull Enterprise Security Solutionsbull Financial Management Solutionsbull Human Capital Management Solutionsbull Integrated Workplace Management Solutionbull Oracle Databasebull Procurement Applicationsbull Public Sector Planning and Budgetingbull Server and Storage Systemsbull Tax and Revenue Management Solutionsbull Virtualization Portfoliobull Security Solutions
Oracle Public Sector Sector Resourcesbull Oracle Public Sector Resource Centerbull Oracle Solutions for Public Sectorbull Using Oracle to Ease the Transition to Moderniza-tionbull Recruit Develop and Deploy Personnelbull Improve Efficiency and Responsiveness at All Lev-els of Governmentbull Oracle Social Services A Complete Platform for Integrated Program Deliverybull Oraclersquos Cloud Solutions for Public Sectorbull Public Sector Defense Solutions
Oracle Offers the Public Sector Measurable Resultsbull City of Las Vegas Saves up to $17 Million in Con-sulting Costs for IT Infrastructure Upgrade bull State of Maryland Government Agencies Improve Inter-Agency Collaboration through a Shared Services Business Intelligence Environmentbull State of Indiana Standardizes Financial Systems State-wide to Improve Efficiency and Transparencybull Federal Aviation Administration Improves Perfor-mance and Scalability of Shared Services Center Database bull The Forestry Commission Reduces Testing Time for Online Services by 80 and Improves System Stabil-itybull US Air Force Capabilities Integration Environment Meets Extreme Growth Demands with Virtualization bull The United States Marine Corps Deploys Compre-hensive Oracle Solution to Create a Global Combat Support System
More Oracle Public Sector Case Studies
10THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
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Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
F
FedRAMPgov states the fol-lowing program goals
bull Accelerate the adoption of secure cloud solutions through reuse of assess-ments and authorizations
bull Increase confidence in se-curity of cloud solutions
bull Achieve consistent secu-rity authorizations using a baseline set of agreed upon standards to be used for Cloud product approval in or outside of FedRAMP
bull Ensure consistent applica-tion of existing security practices
bull Increase confidence in security assessments
bull Increase automation and near real-time data for continuous monitoring
FedRAMPgov states the following program benefits
bull Increases re-use of exist-ing security assessments across agencies
bull Saves significant cost time and resources ndash ldquodo once use many timesrdquo
bull Improves real-time secu-rity visibility
bull Provides a uniform ap-proach to risk-based man-
agement
bull Enhances transparency between government and cloud service providers (CSPs)
bull Improves the trustworthi-ness reliability consis-tency and quality of the Federal security authoriza-tion process
Key FedRAMP Documentation (Resource list provided from CIOgov)
bull FedRAMP Security Con-trols The baseline controls required for FedRAMP security assessments and authorizations
bull FedRAMP CONOPS The FedRAMP Program Man-agement Officersquos Concept of Operations for FedRAM
bull FedRAMP JAB Charter - The Joint Authorization Boardrsquos Charter detailing roles and responsibilities and gover-nance
bull OMB Policy Memo ndash OMB policy guidance on issues ffecting FedRAMP
bull FedRAMP FAQs ndash provides answers to most questions about FedRAMP
For questions regarding FedRAMPinfoFedRAMPgov
FedRAMP is a government-wide program that helps gov-ernment agencies implement cloud based technology At the core of FedRAMP is provid-ing government officials with a standardized approach to se-curity authorization and moni-toring of cloud-based services
With the implementation of FedRAMP governmentwide ac-quisition of cloud technology is expected to increase With Fe-dRAMP cloud service provid-ers will have to use a third par-ty to verify the company meets basic security requirements FedRAMP is an extension of the Obama Administrationrsquos ldquoCloud Firstrdquo strategy de-tailed by the memorandum re-leased on December 8th 2011
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
11STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Find efficiency data center consolidation
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________
DData center consolidation is typically part of the cloud computing discussion like cloud computing there are significant advantages to consolidating data centers There are dozens of case stud-ies identifying the success that agencies are having with data center consolidation
One example of data center consolidation success comes from the Census Bureau which was able to close a 6750 fa-cility and free up $17 million annually in operating costs
The Census Bureau strategy has allowed them to reduce data center power consump-tion in all of their data centers by 10 The Census Bureaus is
not alone and due to the nu-merous successes reported by Federal agencies Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel has expand-ed his goals of closing redun-dant data centers By the end of 2015 agencies plan to close nearly 1080 data centers sur-passing goals set by the Fed-eral Data Center Consolidation Initiative two years ago Data center consolidation is a prac-tical solution to cutting costs increasing services and im-proving efficiency for agencies
Best Practice - Assessing Business Value Tie to Mission The first step for an agency considering data center con-solidation is to look at the business value of new adop-tion or consolidation of ser-vices Agencies should be sure to scope the project and make sure implementing the new technology makes sense for the agency Likewise when think-ing about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify to-
tal savings and think critically about how the savings can be filtered back within the agency
Best Practice - Culture Change Make it personal
One of the key lessons for culture change and data cen-ter consolidation is to always make it personal Top-level managers need to really show how implementing data cen-ter consolidation will make employees jobs easier more efficient and help to achieve the goals of the agency
The first step for an agency con-sidering data center consolida-tion is to look at the business value of new adoption or con-solidation of services Agen-cies should be sure to scope the project and make sure im-plementing the new technolo-gy makes sense for the agency Likewise when thinking about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify total sav-ings and think critically about how the savings can be fil-tered back within the agency
12THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Securing Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Envi-ronment - Cyber Security
In a White House blog post President Obama stated ldquoCy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nationrdquo and that ldquoAmericarsquos economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber securityrdquo
Protecting the nation from cyber threats is critical As citizens perform more daily transactions online with the government and more infor-mation is shared the govern-ment has a responsibility to make sure our personal infor-mation is protected Although we are more connected than ever before more information has been shared and there is more risk of information being breached
Government agencies now must improve infrastructure to protect against threats and simultaneously reduce the number of cyber attacks within government As at-tacks become more complex agencies need to be ready to protect themselves and im-prove infrastructure to reduce the number of attacks Cyber security affects all of us With government using more de-vices and employees access-ing information in new ways government is challenged to keep all systems protected
Top 3 Challenges for Cyber Security
(1) Network Accessi-bility
Agencies need to understand who has access when they have access and through what kind of device people are ac-cessing the network Knowing this information is critical as it will help agencies identify proper protocols for accessing the networking and assessing network vulnerabilities
(2) Diversity of De-vices on Network
With increasing use of bring-your-own-device policies and the variety of devices avail-able in the market IT pro-fessionals are challenged to protect multiple devices and often across different operat-ing systems
(3) Diversity of Net-work Applications
Agencies sometimes develop homegrown network applica-tions which sometimes do not comply with agency wide standards and may poten-tially open up networks to threats
Although network applica-tions are important for ef-ficiency and productivity agencies need to be careful while developing and be sure they meet all the right stan-dards to retain security
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
0101101010
1000
10101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
13STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas
middot Cloud Computingmiddot Data Center Consolidationmiddot Cyber Securitymiddot Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)middot Teleworkmiddot Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect commu-
nicate and collaborate Since 1984
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies includ-
ing routing switching security TelePres-
ence systems unif ied communications
video and wireless The companyrsquos re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability business sustain-
ability and environmentally conscious
operations and products Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve educate and defend
For more information visit wwwciscocomgousgov
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
2THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
W E L C O M E C O N T E N T S
About GovLoop
Executive Summary
Technology Allow Agencies to Increase Productivity UP In The Cloud- The Promise of Cloud Computing Federal Risk and Authorization Manage-ment Program (FedRAMP)Finding Efficiency Leveraging Technology - Data Center ConsolidationSecuring Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Environment - Cyber Security
5
4
6
pag
es
3STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24
22
36
39
The Digital Government Strategytimeline - Infographic
About The Authors
Technology enabling agencies to improve performance
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Government Accountability Through Increased Transparency
Government Websites
Government Transparency In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Breaking All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
The digital government strategyDelivering 21st Century Services to
AmericaThe Mobile Revolution
TECHNOLOGY PROMOTES AGENCIES TO INNOVATE PROACTIVELYShared Services Shared Savings
14
4THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
GovLooprsquos mission is to connect government to improve government We aim to inspire public sector professionals by acting as the knowledge network for government GovLoop serves nearly 60000 members by helping to foster collaboration solve problems and ad-vance their government careers
The GovLoop community has been widely recognized across multiple sectors GovLoop members come from across the public sec-tor including federal state and local public servants industry experts and professionals grounded in academic research
Today GovLoop is the leading site for address-ing public sector issues GovLoop is also the largest government niche network GovLoop
A B O U T G O V L O O PLocation
GovLoop is headquartered in Washington DC with a team of dedicated professionals who
share a commitment to connect and improve government
GovLoop
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
members create and comment on nearly 1000 blog posts and discussion forums every month
GovLoop works with top industry partners to provide resources and tools such as guides infographics online trainings and educational events all to help public sector professionals GovLoop also promotes public service suc-cess stories in popular news outlets such as the Washington Post Huffington Post Govern-ment Technology and other industry publica-tions
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap-was underwritten by the GovLoop Technology Solutions Council Members of this council in-clude Cisco Google GovDelivery HP IBM Or-acle and Microsoft
5STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Advancements in technology has enabled gov-ernment to improve how services are delivered to citizens This guide focuses on technology that has enabled government to increase pro-ductivity improve performance and facilitates innovation in government This guide shows how new and emerging technology is radi-cally changing the government landscape
TECHNOLOGY allowing agencies to increase productivity
In this section we highlight technology trends that are allowing government agencies to in-crease their productivity within the agency These trends are cloud computing and data cen-ter consolidations With more information being stored in the cloud there is an increasing need to take proper measures to ensure security This section will also focus on the growing need to implement stronger cyber security protocols
THE Digital Government Strategy Providing 21st Century Services to America The featured story of this report is The Digital Government Strategy which was released by the Obama Administration on May 23 2012 With this memorandum the Obama Adminis-tration has set standards and goals for federal agencies Agencies will now make Open Data
the default and are required to provide two services on mobile devices within the next year This section highlights the digital gov-ernment strategy mobile and the importance of more widely accessible government data
TECHNOLOGY Enabling Agencies to Improve Performance
For centuries government has been collect-ing data about citizens and looking for ways to use data to improve services With emerg-ing technology leveraging large volumes of data to drive decision-making is now a real-ity This section also explores ways govern-ment can become more transparent focus-ing on government websites data the rule making process and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) procedures Finally this section explores the IT workforce exploring initia-tives that are intended to develop the next generation of leaders in the public sector
TECHNOLOGY Promoting Agencies to Innovate Proactively
The final section highlights how agencies can do more with less through shared services With fiscal uncertainty and deep budget cuts on the horizon government at all levels is challenged to find ways to ldquodo more with lessrdquo
E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R YIT01011010
1010
0010
101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
6THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Across government agencies are looking for innovative ways to improve productivity With the development of cloud technology and a host of different collaboration tools technology now exists to instantly connect people around the globe The use of cloud services and mobile technology has been a game changer across all sectors allow-ing employees to access information when they want and on what device they desire
Although employees can now connect easily across any device new challenges have become apparent and there are increasingly more secu-rity risks for government Retaining security in multiple environments and decreasing vulner-abilities is critical to improve productivity for government This section will highlight cloud computing data center consolidation and cy-ber security as ways government can use tech-nology to increase and maintain productivity
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010010010010101001000
1010
01
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010
0101101010100010101001010101010
0101001001001010100100
0101
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
10010100101101010100010101001010
1010
100101
01001001010100100010
1
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
010010010101001000101
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
1
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
010110101010001010100101010101
001010100100101010010
0010
1
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010101001001010100100
0101
0
0101101010100010101001010101010
010101
01001001010100100010
01001001010100100010
010010010101001000101
00100100101010010001
0
010010010101001000
1010010010101001000
1
010010010101001000101
0100100101010010001
01
010010010101001000
10
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
__
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_
7STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
C
Up in the Cloud The Promise of Cloud Computing
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Cloud computing continues to be one of the key trends in government Since 2009 President Obamarsquos Adminis-tration has been encourag-ing federal agencies to adopt cloud technologies through the Federal Governmentrsquos Cloud Computing Initiative
With this initiative the Obama Administration hopes that by leveraging cloud comput-ing agencies can work to reduce waste increase effi-ciency and cut costs for the federal government With the adoption of cloud comput-ing government at all levels has found new efficiencies
In May 2012 GovLoop ran a blog series that explored how government can break down silos including the role of emerging technology such as cloud technology Cloud tech-nology offers many benefits for government agencies With
more and more cloud initia-tives being implemented in government there are many related benefits to moving to a cloud-based environment
Ten benefits of cloud tech-nology can be found below
(1) Ease of Sharing Information and Data
The cloud easily allows users to connect and share information across the agency By sharing data and resources agencies can work collaboratively to solve cross-agency challenges
(2) Sharing Best Practices
Just like with data best prac-tices and resources can easily be shared through the cloud whether this is certain initia-tives or programs that the agency has started or long-standing projects or processes
(3) Connecting In-stantly
The cloud makes it easier than ever before to connect with col-leagues The ability to instant-ly connect through the cloud collaborate on documents and share information is one of the many benefits of the cloud
(4) Driving Improved Decision Making
By sharing data and informa-tion decision makers will have access to the right information they need to make a decision
Some examples include agen-cies using the cloud to connect people in the field with deci-sion makers back in the office
This could be extremely use-ful during a crisis as decision makers could address where to send supplies and how to best provide relief at risk areas
8THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
(5) Connecting More Decision Makers
With the cloud more decision makers can be connected and work towards collaborative solutions Getting all the right people at the table is always a challenge but the cloud helps mitigate some of those barri-ers
(6) Increase Telework Opportunities
With cloud technology im-proving the cloud provides more opportunities for tele-working Teleworking provides many benefits to employees and organizations
(7) Recruit Top Tal-ent
Do not forget that technol-ogy can also be a recruitment tool Many future workers are accustomed to using cloud technologies to collaborate on projects they will expect to have this kind of technol-ogy at the workplace
(8) Increase Effi-ciency and Productivity
With the cloud people can be more efficient and produc-tive by having the information they need at their fingertips rather than searching and requesting information
(9) Achieve Cost Sav-ings
Cost savings is usually men-tioned with cloud technology With cloud technology now available agencies need to be smart as to how they think about cost savings If a new cloud initiative yields a cost saving the saved money can be redistributed back into the agency to support other initiatives
(10) Improve Trans-parency
With the ability to quickly access information and share information through the cloud agencies can improve their transparency efforts The cloud allows people to share the right information and al-low people to quickly access the information they need
_______________
______________________
1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
8910123456789106
1234567891012345678910
1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
6789101234567
6789101234567891067891012345678910123
6723452345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
89678
89678
45678910 678910120
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1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910
__
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_
8910123456789106
1234567891012345678910
1234567891012345678910
012345678910 8
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
6789101234567
6789101234567
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
6723452345678910
67891012345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
01234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
56789101234567891
89678
89678
9STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
For more information visit oraclecom or call 1800ORACLE1
ORACLE (NASDAQ ORCL) is the worldrsquos most complete open and integrated business software and hardware systems company With more than 370000 customersmdashinclud-ing 100 of the Fortune 100mdashin more than 145 countries around the globe Oracle is the only vendor able to offer a complete technology stack in which every layer is engineered to work together as a single system Oraclersquos industry-leading public sector solutions give organizations unmatched benefits including unbreakable security high availability scalabil-ity energy efficiency powerful performance and low total cost of ownership
Oracle Public Sector SolutionsOracle delivers a complete platform of database middleware applications servers and storagemdashall based on open standardsmdashto work together in the cloud and in your data center
bull Big Data Solutionsbull Business Intelligence and Reporting Applicationsbull Case Management and CRM Solutionsbull Cloud Computingbull Data Center Transformationbull Enterprise Security Solutionsbull Financial Management Solutionsbull Human Capital Management Solutionsbull Integrated Workplace Management Solutionbull Oracle Databasebull Procurement Applicationsbull Public Sector Planning and Budgetingbull Server and Storage Systemsbull Tax and Revenue Management Solutionsbull Virtualization Portfoliobull Security Solutions
Oracle Public Sector Sector Resourcesbull Oracle Public Sector Resource Centerbull Oracle Solutions for Public Sectorbull Using Oracle to Ease the Transition to Moderniza-tionbull Recruit Develop and Deploy Personnelbull Improve Efficiency and Responsiveness at All Lev-els of Governmentbull Oracle Social Services A Complete Platform for Integrated Program Deliverybull Oraclersquos Cloud Solutions for Public Sectorbull Public Sector Defense Solutions
Oracle Offers the Public Sector Measurable Resultsbull City of Las Vegas Saves up to $17 Million in Con-sulting Costs for IT Infrastructure Upgrade bull State of Maryland Government Agencies Improve Inter-Agency Collaboration through a Shared Services Business Intelligence Environmentbull State of Indiana Standardizes Financial Systems State-wide to Improve Efficiency and Transparencybull Federal Aviation Administration Improves Perfor-mance and Scalability of Shared Services Center Database bull The Forestry Commission Reduces Testing Time for Online Services by 80 and Improves System Stabil-itybull US Air Force Capabilities Integration Environment Meets Extreme Growth Demands with Virtualization bull The United States Marine Corps Deploys Compre-hensive Oracle Solution to Create a Global Combat Support System
More Oracle Public Sector Case Studies
10THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__
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__
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__
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_
Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
F
FedRAMPgov states the fol-lowing program goals
bull Accelerate the adoption of secure cloud solutions through reuse of assess-ments and authorizations
bull Increase confidence in se-curity of cloud solutions
bull Achieve consistent secu-rity authorizations using a baseline set of agreed upon standards to be used for Cloud product approval in or outside of FedRAMP
bull Ensure consistent applica-tion of existing security practices
bull Increase confidence in security assessments
bull Increase automation and near real-time data for continuous monitoring
FedRAMPgov states the following program benefits
bull Increases re-use of exist-ing security assessments across agencies
bull Saves significant cost time and resources ndash ldquodo once use many timesrdquo
bull Improves real-time secu-rity visibility
bull Provides a uniform ap-proach to risk-based man-
agement
bull Enhances transparency between government and cloud service providers (CSPs)
bull Improves the trustworthi-ness reliability consis-tency and quality of the Federal security authoriza-tion process
Key FedRAMP Documentation (Resource list provided from CIOgov)
bull FedRAMP Security Con-trols The baseline controls required for FedRAMP security assessments and authorizations
bull FedRAMP CONOPS The FedRAMP Program Man-agement Officersquos Concept of Operations for FedRAM
bull FedRAMP JAB Charter - The Joint Authorization Boardrsquos Charter detailing roles and responsibilities and gover-nance
bull OMB Policy Memo ndash OMB policy guidance on issues ffecting FedRAMP
bull FedRAMP FAQs ndash provides answers to most questions about FedRAMP
For questions regarding FedRAMPinfoFedRAMPgov
FedRAMP is a government-wide program that helps gov-ernment agencies implement cloud based technology At the core of FedRAMP is provid-ing government officials with a standardized approach to se-curity authorization and moni-toring of cloud-based services
With the implementation of FedRAMP governmentwide ac-quisition of cloud technology is expected to increase With Fe-dRAMP cloud service provid-ers will have to use a third par-ty to verify the company meets basic security requirements FedRAMP is an extension of the Obama Administrationrsquos ldquoCloud Firstrdquo strategy de-tailed by the memorandum re-leased on December 8th 2011
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
11STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Find efficiency data center consolidation
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________
DData center consolidation is typically part of the cloud computing discussion like cloud computing there are significant advantages to consolidating data centers There are dozens of case stud-ies identifying the success that agencies are having with data center consolidation
One example of data center consolidation success comes from the Census Bureau which was able to close a 6750 fa-cility and free up $17 million annually in operating costs
The Census Bureau strategy has allowed them to reduce data center power consump-tion in all of their data centers by 10 The Census Bureaus is
not alone and due to the nu-merous successes reported by Federal agencies Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel has expand-ed his goals of closing redun-dant data centers By the end of 2015 agencies plan to close nearly 1080 data centers sur-passing goals set by the Fed-eral Data Center Consolidation Initiative two years ago Data center consolidation is a prac-tical solution to cutting costs increasing services and im-proving efficiency for agencies
Best Practice - Assessing Business Value Tie to Mission The first step for an agency considering data center con-solidation is to look at the business value of new adop-tion or consolidation of ser-vices Agencies should be sure to scope the project and make sure implementing the new technology makes sense for the agency Likewise when think-ing about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify to-
tal savings and think critically about how the savings can be filtered back within the agency
Best Practice - Culture Change Make it personal
One of the key lessons for culture change and data cen-ter consolidation is to always make it personal Top-level managers need to really show how implementing data cen-ter consolidation will make employees jobs easier more efficient and help to achieve the goals of the agency
The first step for an agency con-sidering data center consolida-tion is to look at the business value of new adoption or con-solidation of services Agen-cies should be sure to scope the project and make sure im-plementing the new technolo-gy makes sense for the agency Likewise when thinking about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify total sav-ings and think critically about how the savings can be fil-tered back within the agency
12THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Securing Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Envi-ronment - Cyber Security
In a White House blog post President Obama stated ldquoCy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nationrdquo and that ldquoAmericarsquos economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber securityrdquo
Protecting the nation from cyber threats is critical As citizens perform more daily transactions online with the government and more infor-mation is shared the govern-ment has a responsibility to make sure our personal infor-mation is protected Although we are more connected than ever before more information has been shared and there is more risk of information being breached
Government agencies now must improve infrastructure to protect against threats and simultaneously reduce the number of cyber attacks within government As at-tacks become more complex agencies need to be ready to protect themselves and im-prove infrastructure to reduce the number of attacks Cyber security affects all of us With government using more de-vices and employees access-ing information in new ways government is challenged to keep all systems protected
Top 3 Challenges for Cyber Security
(1) Network Accessi-bility
Agencies need to understand who has access when they have access and through what kind of device people are ac-cessing the network Knowing this information is critical as it will help agencies identify proper protocols for accessing the networking and assessing network vulnerabilities
(2) Diversity of De-vices on Network
With increasing use of bring-your-own-device policies and the variety of devices avail-able in the market IT pro-fessionals are challenged to protect multiple devices and often across different operat-ing systems
(3) Diversity of Net-work Applications
Agencies sometimes develop homegrown network applica-tions which sometimes do not comply with agency wide standards and may poten-tially open up networks to threats
Although network applica-tions are important for ef-ficiency and productivity agencies need to be careful while developing and be sure they meet all the right stan-dards to retain security
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
0101101010
1000
10101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
13STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas
middot Cloud Computingmiddot Data Center Consolidationmiddot Cyber Securitymiddot Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)middot Teleworkmiddot Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect commu-
nicate and collaborate Since 1984
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies includ-
ing routing switching security TelePres-
ence systems unif ied communications
video and wireless The companyrsquos re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability business sustain-
ability and environmentally conscious
operations and products Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve educate and defend
For more information visit wwwciscocomgousgov
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
3STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24
22
36
39
The Digital Government Strategytimeline - Infographic
About The Authors
Technology enabling agencies to improve performance
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Government Accountability Through Increased Transparency
Government Websites
Government Transparency In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Breaking All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
The digital government strategyDelivering 21st Century Services to
AmericaThe Mobile Revolution
TECHNOLOGY PROMOTES AGENCIES TO INNOVATE PROACTIVELYShared Services Shared Savings
14
4THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
GovLooprsquos mission is to connect government to improve government We aim to inspire public sector professionals by acting as the knowledge network for government GovLoop serves nearly 60000 members by helping to foster collaboration solve problems and ad-vance their government careers
The GovLoop community has been widely recognized across multiple sectors GovLoop members come from across the public sec-tor including federal state and local public servants industry experts and professionals grounded in academic research
Today GovLoop is the leading site for address-ing public sector issues GovLoop is also the largest government niche network GovLoop
A B O U T G O V L O O PLocation
GovLoop is headquartered in Washington DC with a team of dedicated professionals who
share a commitment to connect and improve government
GovLoop
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
members create and comment on nearly 1000 blog posts and discussion forums every month
GovLoop works with top industry partners to provide resources and tools such as guides infographics online trainings and educational events all to help public sector professionals GovLoop also promotes public service suc-cess stories in popular news outlets such as the Washington Post Huffington Post Govern-ment Technology and other industry publica-tions
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap-was underwritten by the GovLoop Technology Solutions Council Members of this council in-clude Cisco Google GovDelivery HP IBM Or-acle and Microsoft
5STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Advancements in technology has enabled gov-ernment to improve how services are delivered to citizens This guide focuses on technology that has enabled government to increase pro-ductivity improve performance and facilitates innovation in government This guide shows how new and emerging technology is radi-cally changing the government landscape
TECHNOLOGY allowing agencies to increase productivity
In this section we highlight technology trends that are allowing government agencies to in-crease their productivity within the agency These trends are cloud computing and data cen-ter consolidations With more information being stored in the cloud there is an increasing need to take proper measures to ensure security This section will also focus on the growing need to implement stronger cyber security protocols
THE Digital Government Strategy Providing 21st Century Services to America The featured story of this report is The Digital Government Strategy which was released by the Obama Administration on May 23 2012 With this memorandum the Obama Adminis-tration has set standards and goals for federal agencies Agencies will now make Open Data
the default and are required to provide two services on mobile devices within the next year This section highlights the digital gov-ernment strategy mobile and the importance of more widely accessible government data
TECHNOLOGY Enabling Agencies to Improve Performance
For centuries government has been collect-ing data about citizens and looking for ways to use data to improve services With emerg-ing technology leveraging large volumes of data to drive decision-making is now a real-ity This section also explores ways govern-ment can become more transparent focus-ing on government websites data the rule making process and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) procedures Finally this section explores the IT workforce exploring initia-tives that are intended to develop the next generation of leaders in the public sector
TECHNOLOGY Promoting Agencies to Innovate Proactively
The final section highlights how agencies can do more with less through shared services With fiscal uncertainty and deep budget cuts on the horizon government at all levels is challenged to find ways to ldquodo more with lessrdquo
E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R YIT01011010
1010
0010
101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
6THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Across government agencies are looking for innovative ways to improve productivity With the development of cloud technology and a host of different collaboration tools technology now exists to instantly connect people around the globe The use of cloud services and mobile technology has been a game changer across all sectors allow-ing employees to access information when they want and on what device they desire
Although employees can now connect easily across any device new challenges have become apparent and there are increasingly more secu-rity risks for government Retaining security in multiple environments and decreasing vulner-abilities is critical to improve productivity for government This section will highlight cloud computing data center consolidation and cy-ber security as ways government can use tech-nology to increase and maintain productivity
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010010010010101001000
1010
01
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010
0101101010100010101001010101010
0101001001001010100100
0101
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
10010100101101010100010101001010
1010
100101
01001001010100100010
1
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
010010010101001000101
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
1
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
010110101010001010100101010101
001010100100101010010
0010
1
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010101001001010100100
0101
0
0101101010100010101001010101010
010101
01001001010100100010
01001001010100100010
010010010101001000101
00100100101010010001
0
010010010101001000
1010010010101001000
1
010010010101001000101
0100100101010010001
01
010010010101001000
10
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
__
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_
7STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
C
Up in the Cloud The Promise of Cloud Computing
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Cloud computing continues to be one of the key trends in government Since 2009 President Obamarsquos Adminis-tration has been encourag-ing federal agencies to adopt cloud technologies through the Federal Governmentrsquos Cloud Computing Initiative
With this initiative the Obama Administration hopes that by leveraging cloud comput-ing agencies can work to reduce waste increase effi-ciency and cut costs for the federal government With the adoption of cloud comput-ing government at all levels has found new efficiencies
In May 2012 GovLoop ran a blog series that explored how government can break down silos including the role of emerging technology such as cloud technology Cloud tech-nology offers many benefits for government agencies With
more and more cloud initia-tives being implemented in government there are many related benefits to moving to a cloud-based environment
Ten benefits of cloud tech-nology can be found below
(1) Ease of Sharing Information and Data
The cloud easily allows users to connect and share information across the agency By sharing data and resources agencies can work collaboratively to solve cross-agency challenges
(2) Sharing Best Practices
Just like with data best prac-tices and resources can easily be shared through the cloud whether this is certain initia-tives or programs that the agency has started or long-standing projects or processes
(3) Connecting In-stantly
The cloud makes it easier than ever before to connect with col-leagues The ability to instant-ly connect through the cloud collaborate on documents and share information is one of the many benefits of the cloud
(4) Driving Improved Decision Making
By sharing data and informa-tion decision makers will have access to the right information they need to make a decision
Some examples include agen-cies using the cloud to connect people in the field with deci-sion makers back in the office
This could be extremely use-ful during a crisis as decision makers could address where to send supplies and how to best provide relief at risk areas
8THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
(5) Connecting More Decision Makers
With the cloud more decision makers can be connected and work towards collaborative solutions Getting all the right people at the table is always a challenge but the cloud helps mitigate some of those barri-ers
(6) Increase Telework Opportunities
With cloud technology im-proving the cloud provides more opportunities for tele-working Teleworking provides many benefits to employees and organizations
(7) Recruit Top Tal-ent
Do not forget that technol-ogy can also be a recruitment tool Many future workers are accustomed to using cloud technologies to collaborate on projects they will expect to have this kind of technol-ogy at the workplace
(8) Increase Effi-ciency and Productivity
With the cloud people can be more efficient and produc-tive by having the information they need at their fingertips rather than searching and requesting information
(9) Achieve Cost Sav-ings
Cost savings is usually men-tioned with cloud technology With cloud technology now available agencies need to be smart as to how they think about cost savings If a new cloud initiative yields a cost saving the saved money can be redistributed back into the agency to support other initiatives
(10) Improve Trans-parency
With the ability to quickly access information and share information through the cloud agencies can improve their transparency efforts The cloud allows people to share the right information and al-low people to quickly access the information they need
_______________
______________________
1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
8910123456789106
1234567891012345678910
1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
6789101234567
6789101234567891067891012345678910123
6723452345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
89678
89678
45678910 678910120
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1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910
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8910123456789106
1234567891012345678910
1234567891012345678910
012345678910 8
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
6789101234567
6789101234567
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
6723452345678910
67891012345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
01234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
56789101234567891
89678
89678
9STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
For more information visit oraclecom or call 1800ORACLE1
ORACLE (NASDAQ ORCL) is the worldrsquos most complete open and integrated business software and hardware systems company With more than 370000 customersmdashinclud-ing 100 of the Fortune 100mdashin more than 145 countries around the globe Oracle is the only vendor able to offer a complete technology stack in which every layer is engineered to work together as a single system Oraclersquos industry-leading public sector solutions give organizations unmatched benefits including unbreakable security high availability scalabil-ity energy efficiency powerful performance and low total cost of ownership
Oracle Public Sector SolutionsOracle delivers a complete platform of database middleware applications servers and storagemdashall based on open standardsmdashto work together in the cloud and in your data center
bull Big Data Solutionsbull Business Intelligence and Reporting Applicationsbull Case Management and CRM Solutionsbull Cloud Computingbull Data Center Transformationbull Enterprise Security Solutionsbull Financial Management Solutionsbull Human Capital Management Solutionsbull Integrated Workplace Management Solutionbull Oracle Databasebull Procurement Applicationsbull Public Sector Planning and Budgetingbull Server and Storage Systemsbull Tax and Revenue Management Solutionsbull Virtualization Portfoliobull Security Solutions
Oracle Public Sector Sector Resourcesbull Oracle Public Sector Resource Centerbull Oracle Solutions for Public Sectorbull Using Oracle to Ease the Transition to Moderniza-tionbull Recruit Develop and Deploy Personnelbull Improve Efficiency and Responsiveness at All Lev-els of Governmentbull Oracle Social Services A Complete Platform for Integrated Program Deliverybull Oraclersquos Cloud Solutions for Public Sectorbull Public Sector Defense Solutions
Oracle Offers the Public Sector Measurable Resultsbull City of Las Vegas Saves up to $17 Million in Con-sulting Costs for IT Infrastructure Upgrade bull State of Maryland Government Agencies Improve Inter-Agency Collaboration through a Shared Services Business Intelligence Environmentbull State of Indiana Standardizes Financial Systems State-wide to Improve Efficiency and Transparencybull Federal Aviation Administration Improves Perfor-mance and Scalability of Shared Services Center Database bull The Forestry Commission Reduces Testing Time for Online Services by 80 and Improves System Stabil-itybull US Air Force Capabilities Integration Environment Meets Extreme Growth Demands with Virtualization bull The United States Marine Corps Deploys Compre-hensive Oracle Solution to Create a Global Combat Support System
More Oracle Public Sector Case Studies
10THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
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_
Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
F
FedRAMPgov states the fol-lowing program goals
bull Accelerate the adoption of secure cloud solutions through reuse of assess-ments and authorizations
bull Increase confidence in se-curity of cloud solutions
bull Achieve consistent secu-rity authorizations using a baseline set of agreed upon standards to be used for Cloud product approval in or outside of FedRAMP
bull Ensure consistent applica-tion of existing security practices
bull Increase confidence in security assessments
bull Increase automation and near real-time data for continuous monitoring
FedRAMPgov states the following program benefits
bull Increases re-use of exist-ing security assessments across agencies
bull Saves significant cost time and resources ndash ldquodo once use many timesrdquo
bull Improves real-time secu-rity visibility
bull Provides a uniform ap-proach to risk-based man-
agement
bull Enhances transparency between government and cloud service providers (CSPs)
bull Improves the trustworthi-ness reliability consis-tency and quality of the Federal security authoriza-tion process
Key FedRAMP Documentation (Resource list provided from CIOgov)
bull FedRAMP Security Con-trols The baseline controls required for FedRAMP security assessments and authorizations
bull FedRAMP CONOPS The FedRAMP Program Man-agement Officersquos Concept of Operations for FedRAM
bull FedRAMP JAB Charter - The Joint Authorization Boardrsquos Charter detailing roles and responsibilities and gover-nance
bull OMB Policy Memo ndash OMB policy guidance on issues ffecting FedRAMP
bull FedRAMP FAQs ndash provides answers to most questions about FedRAMP
For questions regarding FedRAMPinfoFedRAMPgov
FedRAMP is a government-wide program that helps gov-ernment agencies implement cloud based technology At the core of FedRAMP is provid-ing government officials with a standardized approach to se-curity authorization and moni-toring of cloud-based services
With the implementation of FedRAMP governmentwide ac-quisition of cloud technology is expected to increase With Fe-dRAMP cloud service provid-ers will have to use a third par-ty to verify the company meets basic security requirements FedRAMP is an extension of the Obama Administrationrsquos ldquoCloud Firstrdquo strategy de-tailed by the memorandum re-leased on December 8th 2011
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
11STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Find efficiency data center consolidation
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________
DData center consolidation is typically part of the cloud computing discussion like cloud computing there are significant advantages to consolidating data centers There are dozens of case stud-ies identifying the success that agencies are having with data center consolidation
One example of data center consolidation success comes from the Census Bureau which was able to close a 6750 fa-cility and free up $17 million annually in operating costs
The Census Bureau strategy has allowed them to reduce data center power consump-tion in all of their data centers by 10 The Census Bureaus is
not alone and due to the nu-merous successes reported by Federal agencies Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel has expand-ed his goals of closing redun-dant data centers By the end of 2015 agencies plan to close nearly 1080 data centers sur-passing goals set by the Fed-eral Data Center Consolidation Initiative two years ago Data center consolidation is a prac-tical solution to cutting costs increasing services and im-proving efficiency for agencies
Best Practice - Assessing Business Value Tie to Mission The first step for an agency considering data center con-solidation is to look at the business value of new adop-tion or consolidation of ser-vices Agencies should be sure to scope the project and make sure implementing the new technology makes sense for the agency Likewise when think-ing about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify to-
tal savings and think critically about how the savings can be filtered back within the agency
Best Practice - Culture Change Make it personal
One of the key lessons for culture change and data cen-ter consolidation is to always make it personal Top-level managers need to really show how implementing data cen-ter consolidation will make employees jobs easier more efficient and help to achieve the goals of the agency
The first step for an agency con-sidering data center consolida-tion is to look at the business value of new adoption or con-solidation of services Agen-cies should be sure to scope the project and make sure im-plementing the new technolo-gy makes sense for the agency Likewise when thinking about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify total sav-ings and think critically about how the savings can be fil-tered back within the agency
12THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Securing Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Envi-ronment - Cyber Security
In a White House blog post President Obama stated ldquoCy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nationrdquo and that ldquoAmericarsquos economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber securityrdquo
Protecting the nation from cyber threats is critical As citizens perform more daily transactions online with the government and more infor-mation is shared the govern-ment has a responsibility to make sure our personal infor-mation is protected Although we are more connected than ever before more information has been shared and there is more risk of information being breached
Government agencies now must improve infrastructure to protect against threats and simultaneously reduce the number of cyber attacks within government As at-tacks become more complex agencies need to be ready to protect themselves and im-prove infrastructure to reduce the number of attacks Cyber security affects all of us With government using more de-vices and employees access-ing information in new ways government is challenged to keep all systems protected
Top 3 Challenges for Cyber Security
(1) Network Accessi-bility
Agencies need to understand who has access when they have access and through what kind of device people are ac-cessing the network Knowing this information is critical as it will help agencies identify proper protocols for accessing the networking and assessing network vulnerabilities
(2) Diversity of De-vices on Network
With increasing use of bring-your-own-device policies and the variety of devices avail-able in the market IT pro-fessionals are challenged to protect multiple devices and often across different operat-ing systems
(3) Diversity of Net-work Applications
Agencies sometimes develop homegrown network applica-tions which sometimes do not comply with agency wide standards and may poten-tially open up networks to threats
Although network applica-tions are important for ef-ficiency and productivity agencies need to be careful while developing and be sure they meet all the right stan-dards to retain security
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
0101101010
1000
10101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
13STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas
middot Cloud Computingmiddot Data Center Consolidationmiddot Cyber Securitymiddot Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)middot Teleworkmiddot Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect commu-
nicate and collaborate Since 1984
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies includ-
ing routing switching security TelePres-
ence systems unif ied communications
video and wireless The companyrsquos re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability business sustain-
ability and environmentally conscious
operations and products Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve educate and defend
For more information visit wwwciscocomgousgov
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
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Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
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bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
4THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
GovLooprsquos mission is to connect government to improve government We aim to inspire public sector professionals by acting as the knowledge network for government GovLoop serves nearly 60000 members by helping to foster collaboration solve problems and ad-vance their government careers
The GovLoop community has been widely recognized across multiple sectors GovLoop members come from across the public sec-tor including federal state and local public servants industry experts and professionals grounded in academic research
Today GovLoop is the leading site for address-ing public sector issues GovLoop is also the largest government niche network GovLoop
A B O U T G O V L O O PLocation
GovLoop is headquartered in Washington DC with a team of dedicated professionals who
share a commitment to connect and improve government
GovLoop
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
members create and comment on nearly 1000 blog posts and discussion forums every month
GovLoop works with top industry partners to provide resources and tools such as guides infographics online trainings and educational events all to help public sector professionals GovLoop also promotes public service suc-cess stories in popular news outlets such as the Washington Post Huffington Post Govern-ment Technology and other industry publica-tions
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap-was underwritten by the GovLoop Technology Solutions Council Members of this council in-clude Cisco Google GovDelivery HP IBM Or-acle and Microsoft
5STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Advancements in technology has enabled gov-ernment to improve how services are delivered to citizens This guide focuses on technology that has enabled government to increase pro-ductivity improve performance and facilitates innovation in government This guide shows how new and emerging technology is radi-cally changing the government landscape
TECHNOLOGY allowing agencies to increase productivity
In this section we highlight technology trends that are allowing government agencies to in-crease their productivity within the agency These trends are cloud computing and data cen-ter consolidations With more information being stored in the cloud there is an increasing need to take proper measures to ensure security This section will also focus on the growing need to implement stronger cyber security protocols
THE Digital Government Strategy Providing 21st Century Services to America The featured story of this report is The Digital Government Strategy which was released by the Obama Administration on May 23 2012 With this memorandum the Obama Adminis-tration has set standards and goals for federal agencies Agencies will now make Open Data
the default and are required to provide two services on mobile devices within the next year This section highlights the digital gov-ernment strategy mobile and the importance of more widely accessible government data
TECHNOLOGY Enabling Agencies to Improve Performance
For centuries government has been collect-ing data about citizens and looking for ways to use data to improve services With emerg-ing technology leveraging large volumes of data to drive decision-making is now a real-ity This section also explores ways govern-ment can become more transparent focus-ing on government websites data the rule making process and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) procedures Finally this section explores the IT workforce exploring initia-tives that are intended to develop the next generation of leaders in the public sector
TECHNOLOGY Promoting Agencies to Innovate Proactively
The final section highlights how agencies can do more with less through shared services With fiscal uncertainty and deep budget cuts on the horizon government at all levels is challenged to find ways to ldquodo more with lessrdquo
E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R YIT01011010
1010
0010
101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
6THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Across government agencies are looking for innovative ways to improve productivity With the development of cloud technology and a host of different collaboration tools technology now exists to instantly connect people around the globe The use of cloud services and mobile technology has been a game changer across all sectors allow-ing employees to access information when they want and on what device they desire
Although employees can now connect easily across any device new challenges have become apparent and there are increasingly more secu-rity risks for government Retaining security in multiple environments and decreasing vulner-abilities is critical to improve productivity for government This section will highlight cloud computing data center consolidation and cy-ber security as ways government can use tech-nology to increase and maintain productivity
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010010010010101001000
1010
01
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010
0101101010100010101001010101010
0101001001001010100100
0101
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
10010100101101010100010101001010
1010
100101
01001001010100100010
1
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
010010010101001000101
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
1
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
010110101010001010100101010101
001010100100101010010
0010
1
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010101001001010100100
0101
0
0101101010100010101001010101010
010101
01001001010100100010
01001001010100100010
010010010101001000101
00100100101010010001
0
010010010101001000
1010010010101001000
1
010010010101001000101
0100100101010010001
01
010010010101001000
10
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
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7STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
C
Up in the Cloud The Promise of Cloud Computing
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Cloud computing continues to be one of the key trends in government Since 2009 President Obamarsquos Adminis-tration has been encourag-ing federal agencies to adopt cloud technologies through the Federal Governmentrsquos Cloud Computing Initiative
With this initiative the Obama Administration hopes that by leveraging cloud comput-ing agencies can work to reduce waste increase effi-ciency and cut costs for the federal government With the adoption of cloud comput-ing government at all levels has found new efficiencies
In May 2012 GovLoop ran a blog series that explored how government can break down silos including the role of emerging technology such as cloud technology Cloud tech-nology offers many benefits for government agencies With
more and more cloud initia-tives being implemented in government there are many related benefits to moving to a cloud-based environment
Ten benefits of cloud tech-nology can be found below
(1) Ease of Sharing Information and Data
The cloud easily allows users to connect and share information across the agency By sharing data and resources agencies can work collaboratively to solve cross-agency challenges
(2) Sharing Best Practices
Just like with data best prac-tices and resources can easily be shared through the cloud whether this is certain initia-tives or programs that the agency has started or long-standing projects or processes
(3) Connecting In-stantly
The cloud makes it easier than ever before to connect with col-leagues The ability to instant-ly connect through the cloud collaborate on documents and share information is one of the many benefits of the cloud
(4) Driving Improved Decision Making
By sharing data and informa-tion decision makers will have access to the right information they need to make a decision
Some examples include agen-cies using the cloud to connect people in the field with deci-sion makers back in the office
This could be extremely use-ful during a crisis as decision makers could address where to send supplies and how to best provide relief at risk areas
8THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
(5) Connecting More Decision Makers
With the cloud more decision makers can be connected and work towards collaborative solutions Getting all the right people at the table is always a challenge but the cloud helps mitigate some of those barri-ers
(6) Increase Telework Opportunities
With cloud technology im-proving the cloud provides more opportunities for tele-working Teleworking provides many benefits to employees and organizations
(7) Recruit Top Tal-ent
Do not forget that technol-ogy can also be a recruitment tool Many future workers are accustomed to using cloud technologies to collaborate on projects they will expect to have this kind of technol-ogy at the workplace
(8) Increase Effi-ciency and Productivity
With the cloud people can be more efficient and produc-tive by having the information they need at their fingertips rather than searching and requesting information
(9) Achieve Cost Sav-ings
Cost savings is usually men-tioned with cloud technology With cloud technology now available agencies need to be smart as to how they think about cost savings If a new cloud initiative yields a cost saving the saved money can be redistributed back into the agency to support other initiatives
(10) Improve Trans-parency
With the ability to quickly access information and share information through the cloud agencies can improve their transparency efforts The cloud allows people to share the right information and al-low people to quickly access the information they need
_______________
______________________
1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
8910123456789106
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67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
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234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
89678
89678
45678910 678910120
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1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910
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8910123456789106
1234567891012345678910
1234567891012345678910
012345678910 8
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
6789101234567
6789101234567
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
6723452345678910
67891012345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
01234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
56789101234567891
89678
89678
9STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
For more information visit oraclecom or call 1800ORACLE1
ORACLE (NASDAQ ORCL) is the worldrsquos most complete open and integrated business software and hardware systems company With more than 370000 customersmdashinclud-ing 100 of the Fortune 100mdashin more than 145 countries around the globe Oracle is the only vendor able to offer a complete technology stack in which every layer is engineered to work together as a single system Oraclersquos industry-leading public sector solutions give organizations unmatched benefits including unbreakable security high availability scalabil-ity energy efficiency powerful performance and low total cost of ownership
Oracle Public Sector SolutionsOracle delivers a complete platform of database middleware applications servers and storagemdashall based on open standardsmdashto work together in the cloud and in your data center
bull Big Data Solutionsbull Business Intelligence and Reporting Applicationsbull Case Management and CRM Solutionsbull Cloud Computingbull Data Center Transformationbull Enterprise Security Solutionsbull Financial Management Solutionsbull Human Capital Management Solutionsbull Integrated Workplace Management Solutionbull Oracle Databasebull Procurement Applicationsbull Public Sector Planning and Budgetingbull Server and Storage Systemsbull Tax and Revenue Management Solutionsbull Virtualization Portfoliobull Security Solutions
Oracle Public Sector Sector Resourcesbull Oracle Public Sector Resource Centerbull Oracle Solutions for Public Sectorbull Using Oracle to Ease the Transition to Moderniza-tionbull Recruit Develop and Deploy Personnelbull Improve Efficiency and Responsiveness at All Lev-els of Governmentbull Oracle Social Services A Complete Platform for Integrated Program Deliverybull Oraclersquos Cloud Solutions for Public Sectorbull Public Sector Defense Solutions
Oracle Offers the Public Sector Measurable Resultsbull City of Las Vegas Saves up to $17 Million in Con-sulting Costs for IT Infrastructure Upgrade bull State of Maryland Government Agencies Improve Inter-Agency Collaboration through a Shared Services Business Intelligence Environmentbull State of Indiana Standardizes Financial Systems State-wide to Improve Efficiency and Transparencybull Federal Aviation Administration Improves Perfor-mance and Scalability of Shared Services Center Database bull The Forestry Commission Reduces Testing Time for Online Services by 80 and Improves System Stabil-itybull US Air Force Capabilities Integration Environment Meets Extreme Growth Demands with Virtualization bull The United States Marine Corps Deploys Compre-hensive Oracle Solution to Create a Global Combat Support System
More Oracle Public Sector Case Studies
10THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
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Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
F
FedRAMPgov states the fol-lowing program goals
bull Accelerate the adoption of secure cloud solutions through reuse of assess-ments and authorizations
bull Increase confidence in se-curity of cloud solutions
bull Achieve consistent secu-rity authorizations using a baseline set of agreed upon standards to be used for Cloud product approval in or outside of FedRAMP
bull Ensure consistent applica-tion of existing security practices
bull Increase confidence in security assessments
bull Increase automation and near real-time data for continuous monitoring
FedRAMPgov states the following program benefits
bull Increases re-use of exist-ing security assessments across agencies
bull Saves significant cost time and resources ndash ldquodo once use many timesrdquo
bull Improves real-time secu-rity visibility
bull Provides a uniform ap-proach to risk-based man-
agement
bull Enhances transparency between government and cloud service providers (CSPs)
bull Improves the trustworthi-ness reliability consis-tency and quality of the Federal security authoriza-tion process
Key FedRAMP Documentation (Resource list provided from CIOgov)
bull FedRAMP Security Con-trols The baseline controls required for FedRAMP security assessments and authorizations
bull FedRAMP CONOPS The FedRAMP Program Man-agement Officersquos Concept of Operations for FedRAM
bull FedRAMP JAB Charter - The Joint Authorization Boardrsquos Charter detailing roles and responsibilities and gover-nance
bull OMB Policy Memo ndash OMB policy guidance on issues ffecting FedRAMP
bull FedRAMP FAQs ndash provides answers to most questions about FedRAMP
For questions regarding FedRAMPinfoFedRAMPgov
FedRAMP is a government-wide program that helps gov-ernment agencies implement cloud based technology At the core of FedRAMP is provid-ing government officials with a standardized approach to se-curity authorization and moni-toring of cloud-based services
With the implementation of FedRAMP governmentwide ac-quisition of cloud technology is expected to increase With Fe-dRAMP cloud service provid-ers will have to use a third par-ty to verify the company meets basic security requirements FedRAMP is an extension of the Obama Administrationrsquos ldquoCloud Firstrdquo strategy de-tailed by the memorandum re-leased on December 8th 2011
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
11STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Find efficiency data center consolidation
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________
DData center consolidation is typically part of the cloud computing discussion like cloud computing there are significant advantages to consolidating data centers There are dozens of case stud-ies identifying the success that agencies are having with data center consolidation
One example of data center consolidation success comes from the Census Bureau which was able to close a 6750 fa-cility and free up $17 million annually in operating costs
The Census Bureau strategy has allowed them to reduce data center power consump-tion in all of their data centers by 10 The Census Bureaus is
not alone and due to the nu-merous successes reported by Federal agencies Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel has expand-ed his goals of closing redun-dant data centers By the end of 2015 agencies plan to close nearly 1080 data centers sur-passing goals set by the Fed-eral Data Center Consolidation Initiative two years ago Data center consolidation is a prac-tical solution to cutting costs increasing services and im-proving efficiency for agencies
Best Practice - Assessing Business Value Tie to Mission The first step for an agency considering data center con-solidation is to look at the business value of new adop-tion or consolidation of ser-vices Agencies should be sure to scope the project and make sure implementing the new technology makes sense for the agency Likewise when think-ing about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify to-
tal savings and think critically about how the savings can be filtered back within the agency
Best Practice - Culture Change Make it personal
One of the key lessons for culture change and data cen-ter consolidation is to always make it personal Top-level managers need to really show how implementing data cen-ter consolidation will make employees jobs easier more efficient and help to achieve the goals of the agency
The first step for an agency con-sidering data center consolida-tion is to look at the business value of new adoption or con-solidation of services Agen-cies should be sure to scope the project and make sure im-plementing the new technolo-gy makes sense for the agency Likewise when thinking about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify total sav-ings and think critically about how the savings can be fil-tered back within the agency
12THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Securing Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Envi-ronment - Cyber Security
In a White House blog post President Obama stated ldquoCy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nationrdquo and that ldquoAmericarsquos economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber securityrdquo
Protecting the nation from cyber threats is critical As citizens perform more daily transactions online with the government and more infor-mation is shared the govern-ment has a responsibility to make sure our personal infor-mation is protected Although we are more connected than ever before more information has been shared and there is more risk of information being breached
Government agencies now must improve infrastructure to protect against threats and simultaneously reduce the number of cyber attacks within government As at-tacks become more complex agencies need to be ready to protect themselves and im-prove infrastructure to reduce the number of attacks Cyber security affects all of us With government using more de-vices and employees access-ing information in new ways government is challenged to keep all systems protected
Top 3 Challenges for Cyber Security
(1) Network Accessi-bility
Agencies need to understand who has access when they have access and through what kind of device people are ac-cessing the network Knowing this information is critical as it will help agencies identify proper protocols for accessing the networking and assessing network vulnerabilities
(2) Diversity of De-vices on Network
With increasing use of bring-your-own-device policies and the variety of devices avail-able in the market IT pro-fessionals are challenged to protect multiple devices and often across different operat-ing systems
(3) Diversity of Net-work Applications
Agencies sometimes develop homegrown network applica-tions which sometimes do not comply with agency wide standards and may poten-tially open up networks to threats
Although network applica-tions are important for ef-ficiency and productivity agencies need to be careful while developing and be sure they meet all the right stan-dards to retain security
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
0101101010
1000
10101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
13STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas
middot Cloud Computingmiddot Data Center Consolidationmiddot Cyber Securitymiddot Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)middot Teleworkmiddot Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect commu-
nicate and collaborate Since 1984
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies includ-
ing routing switching security TelePres-
ence systems unif ied communications
video and wireless The companyrsquos re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability business sustain-
ability and environmentally conscious
operations and products Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve educate and defend
For more information visit wwwciscocomgousgov
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
5STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Advancements in technology has enabled gov-ernment to improve how services are delivered to citizens This guide focuses on technology that has enabled government to increase pro-ductivity improve performance and facilitates innovation in government This guide shows how new and emerging technology is radi-cally changing the government landscape
TECHNOLOGY allowing agencies to increase productivity
In this section we highlight technology trends that are allowing government agencies to in-crease their productivity within the agency These trends are cloud computing and data cen-ter consolidations With more information being stored in the cloud there is an increasing need to take proper measures to ensure security This section will also focus on the growing need to implement stronger cyber security protocols
THE Digital Government Strategy Providing 21st Century Services to America The featured story of this report is The Digital Government Strategy which was released by the Obama Administration on May 23 2012 With this memorandum the Obama Adminis-tration has set standards and goals for federal agencies Agencies will now make Open Data
the default and are required to provide two services on mobile devices within the next year This section highlights the digital gov-ernment strategy mobile and the importance of more widely accessible government data
TECHNOLOGY Enabling Agencies to Improve Performance
For centuries government has been collect-ing data about citizens and looking for ways to use data to improve services With emerg-ing technology leveraging large volumes of data to drive decision-making is now a real-ity This section also explores ways govern-ment can become more transparent focus-ing on government websites data the rule making process and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) procedures Finally this section explores the IT workforce exploring initia-tives that are intended to develop the next generation of leaders in the public sector
TECHNOLOGY Promoting Agencies to Innovate Proactively
The final section highlights how agencies can do more with less through shared services With fiscal uncertainty and deep budget cuts on the horizon government at all levels is challenged to find ways to ldquodo more with lessrdquo
E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R YIT01011010
1010
0010
101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
6THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Across government agencies are looking for innovative ways to improve productivity With the development of cloud technology and a host of different collaboration tools technology now exists to instantly connect people around the globe The use of cloud services and mobile technology has been a game changer across all sectors allow-ing employees to access information when they want and on what device they desire
Although employees can now connect easily across any device new challenges have become apparent and there are increasingly more secu-rity risks for government Retaining security in multiple environments and decreasing vulner-abilities is critical to improve productivity for government This section will highlight cloud computing data center consolidation and cy-ber security as ways government can use tech-nology to increase and maintain productivity
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010010010010101001000
1010
01
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010
0101101010100010101001010101010
0101001001001010100100
0101
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
10010100101101010100010101001010
1010
100101
01001001010100100010
1
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
010010010101001000101
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
1
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
010110101010001010100101010101
001010100100101010010
0010
1
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010101001001010100100
0101
0
0101101010100010101001010101010
010101
01001001010100100010
01001001010100100010
010010010101001000101
00100100101010010001
0
010010010101001000
1010010010101001000
1
010010010101001000101
0100100101010010001
01
010010010101001000
10
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
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_
7STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
C
Up in the Cloud The Promise of Cloud Computing
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Cloud computing continues to be one of the key trends in government Since 2009 President Obamarsquos Adminis-tration has been encourag-ing federal agencies to adopt cloud technologies through the Federal Governmentrsquos Cloud Computing Initiative
With this initiative the Obama Administration hopes that by leveraging cloud comput-ing agencies can work to reduce waste increase effi-ciency and cut costs for the federal government With the adoption of cloud comput-ing government at all levels has found new efficiencies
In May 2012 GovLoop ran a blog series that explored how government can break down silos including the role of emerging technology such as cloud technology Cloud tech-nology offers many benefits for government agencies With
more and more cloud initia-tives being implemented in government there are many related benefits to moving to a cloud-based environment
Ten benefits of cloud tech-nology can be found below
(1) Ease of Sharing Information and Data
The cloud easily allows users to connect and share information across the agency By sharing data and resources agencies can work collaboratively to solve cross-agency challenges
(2) Sharing Best Practices
Just like with data best prac-tices and resources can easily be shared through the cloud whether this is certain initia-tives or programs that the agency has started or long-standing projects or processes
(3) Connecting In-stantly
The cloud makes it easier than ever before to connect with col-leagues The ability to instant-ly connect through the cloud collaborate on documents and share information is one of the many benefits of the cloud
(4) Driving Improved Decision Making
By sharing data and informa-tion decision makers will have access to the right information they need to make a decision
Some examples include agen-cies using the cloud to connect people in the field with deci-sion makers back in the office
This could be extremely use-ful during a crisis as decision makers could address where to send supplies and how to best provide relief at risk areas
8THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
(5) Connecting More Decision Makers
With the cloud more decision makers can be connected and work towards collaborative solutions Getting all the right people at the table is always a challenge but the cloud helps mitigate some of those barri-ers
(6) Increase Telework Opportunities
With cloud technology im-proving the cloud provides more opportunities for tele-working Teleworking provides many benefits to employees and organizations
(7) Recruit Top Tal-ent
Do not forget that technol-ogy can also be a recruitment tool Many future workers are accustomed to using cloud technologies to collaborate on projects they will expect to have this kind of technol-ogy at the workplace
(8) Increase Effi-ciency and Productivity
With the cloud people can be more efficient and produc-tive by having the information they need at their fingertips rather than searching and requesting information
(9) Achieve Cost Sav-ings
Cost savings is usually men-tioned with cloud technology With cloud technology now available agencies need to be smart as to how they think about cost savings If a new cloud initiative yields a cost saving the saved money can be redistributed back into the agency to support other initiatives
(10) Improve Trans-parency
With the ability to quickly access information and share information through the cloud agencies can improve their transparency efforts The cloud allows people to share the right information and al-low people to quickly access the information they need
_______________
______________________
1234567897891067891012345
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8910123456789106
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1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
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123456789101234567
123456789101234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
89678
89678
45678910 678910120
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1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910
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8910123456789106
1234567891012345678910
1234567891012345678910
012345678910 8
67891012345678910 89678910
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6789101234567
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
6723452345678910
67891012345678910
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234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
01234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
56789101234567891
89678
89678
9STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
For more information visit oraclecom or call 1800ORACLE1
ORACLE (NASDAQ ORCL) is the worldrsquos most complete open and integrated business software and hardware systems company With more than 370000 customersmdashinclud-ing 100 of the Fortune 100mdashin more than 145 countries around the globe Oracle is the only vendor able to offer a complete technology stack in which every layer is engineered to work together as a single system Oraclersquos industry-leading public sector solutions give organizations unmatched benefits including unbreakable security high availability scalabil-ity energy efficiency powerful performance and low total cost of ownership
Oracle Public Sector SolutionsOracle delivers a complete platform of database middleware applications servers and storagemdashall based on open standardsmdashto work together in the cloud and in your data center
bull Big Data Solutionsbull Business Intelligence and Reporting Applicationsbull Case Management and CRM Solutionsbull Cloud Computingbull Data Center Transformationbull Enterprise Security Solutionsbull Financial Management Solutionsbull Human Capital Management Solutionsbull Integrated Workplace Management Solutionbull Oracle Databasebull Procurement Applicationsbull Public Sector Planning and Budgetingbull Server and Storage Systemsbull Tax and Revenue Management Solutionsbull Virtualization Portfoliobull Security Solutions
Oracle Public Sector Sector Resourcesbull Oracle Public Sector Resource Centerbull Oracle Solutions for Public Sectorbull Using Oracle to Ease the Transition to Moderniza-tionbull Recruit Develop and Deploy Personnelbull Improve Efficiency and Responsiveness at All Lev-els of Governmentbull Oracle Social Services A Complete Platform for Integrated Program Deliverybull Oraclersquos Cloud Solutions for Public Sectorbull Public Sector Defense Solutions
Oracle Offers the Public Sector Measurable Resultsbull City of Las Vegas Saves up to $17 Million in Con-sulting Costs for IT Infrastructure Upgrade bull State of Maryland Government Agencies Improve Inter-Agency Collaboration through a Shared Services Business Intelligence Environmentbull State of Indiana Standardizes Financial Systems State-wide to Improve Efficiency and Transparencybull Federal Aviation Administration Improves Perfor-mance and Scalability of Shared Services Center Database bull The Forestry Commission Reduces Testing Time for Online Services by 80 and Improves System Stabil-itybull US Air Force Capabilities Integration Environment Meets Extreme Growth Demands with Virtualization bull The United States Marine Corps Deploys Compre-hensive Oracle Solution to Create a Global Combat Support System
More Oracle Public Sector Case Studies
10THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
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Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
F
FedRAMPgov states the fol-lowing program goals
bull Accelerate the adoption of secure cloud solutions through reuse of assess-ments and authorizations
bull Increase confidence in se-curity of cloud solutions
bull Achieve consistent secu-rity authorizations using a baseline set of agreed upon standards to be used for Cloud product approval in or outside of FedRAMP
bull Ensure consistent applica-tion of existing security practices
bull Increase confidence in security assessments
bull Increase automation and near real-time data for continuous monitoring
FedRAMPgov states the following program benefits
bull Increases re-use of exist-ing security assessments across agencies
bull Saves significant cost time and resources ndash ldquodo once use many timesrdquo
bull Improves real-time secu-rity visibility
bull Provides a uniform ap-proach to risk-based man-
agement
bull Enhances transparency between government and cloud service providers (CSPs)
bull Improves the trustworthi-ness reliability consis-tency and quality of the Federal security authoriza-tion process
Key FedRAMP Documentation (Resource list provided from CIOgov)
bull FedRAMP Security Con-trols The baseline controls required for FedRAMP security assessments and authorizations
bull FedRAMP CONOPS The FedRAMP Program Man-agement Officersquos Concept of Operations for FedRAM
bull FedRAMP JAB Charter - The Joint Authorization Boardrsquos Charter detailing roles and responsibilities and gover-nance
bull OMB Policy Memo ndash OMB policy guidance on issues ffecting FedRAMP
bull FedRAMP FAQs ndash provides answers to most questions about FedRAMP
For questions regarding FedRAMPinfoFedRAMPgov
FedRAMP is a government-wide program that helps gov-ernment agencies implement cloud based technology At the core of FedRAMP is provid-ing government officials with a standardized approach to se-curity authorization and moni-toring of cloud-based services
With the implementation of FedRAMP governmentwide ac-quisition of cloud technology is expected to increase With Fe-dRAMP cloud service provid-ers will have to use a third par-ty to verify the company meets basic security requirements FedRAMP is an extension of the Obama Administrationrsquos ldquoCloud Firstrdquo strategy de-tailed by the memorandum re-leased on December 8th 2011
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
11STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Find efficiency data center consolidation
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________
DData center consolidation is typically part of the cloud computing discussion like cloud computing there are significant advantages to consolidating data centers There are dozens of case stud-ies identifying the success that agencies are having with data center consolidation
One example of data center consolidation success comes from the Census Bureau which was able to close a 6750 fa-cility and free up $17 million annually in operating costs
The Census Bureau strategy has allowed them to reduce data center power consump-tion in all of their data centers by 10 The Census Bureaus is
not alone and due to the nu-merous successes reported by Federal agencies Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel has expand-ed his goals of closing redun-dant data centers By the end of 2015 agencies plan to close nearly 1080 data centers sur-passing goals set by the Fed-eral Data Center Consolidation Initiative two years ago Data center consolidation is a prac-tical solution to cutting costs increasing services and im-proving efficiency for agencies
Best Practice - Assessing Business Value Tie to Mission The first step for an agency considering data center con-solidation is to look at the business value of new adop-tion or consolidation of ser-vices Agencies should be sure to scope the project and make sure implementing the new technology makes sense for the agency Likewise when think-ing about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify to-
tal savings and think critically about how the savings can be filtered back within the agency
Best Practice - Culture Change Make it personal
One of the key lessons for culture change and data cen-ter consolidation is to always make it personal Top-level managers need to really show how implementing data cen-ter consolidation will make employees jobs easier more efficient and help to achieve the goals of the agency
The first step for an agency con-sidering data center consolida-tion is to look at the business value of new adoption or con-solidation of services Agen-cies should be sure to scope the project and make sure im-plementing the new technolo-gy makes sense for the agency Likewise when thinking about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify total sav-ings and think critically about how the savings can be fil-tered back within the agency
12THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Securing Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Envi-ronment - Cyber Security
In a White House blog post President Obama stated ldquoCy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nationrdquo and that ldquoAmericarsquos economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber securityrdquo
Protecting the nation from cyber threats is critical As citizens perform more daily transactions online with the government and more infor-mation is shared the govern-ment has a responsibility to make sure our personal infor-mation is protected Although we are more connected than ever before more information has been shared and there is more risk of information being breached
Government agencies now must improve infrastructure to protect against threats and simultaneously reduce the number of cyber attacks within government As at-tacks become more complex agencies need to be ready to protect themselves and im-prove infrastructure to reduce the number of attacks Cyber security affects all of us With government using more de-vices and employees access-ing information in new ways government is challenged to keep all systems protected
Top 3 Challenges for Cyber Security
(1) Network Accessi-bility
Agencies need to understand who has access when they have access and through what kind of device people are ac-cessing the network Knowing this information is critical as it will help agencies identify proper protocols for accessing the networking and assessing network vulnerabilities
(2) Diversity of De-vices on Network
With increasing use of bring-your-own-device policies and the variety of devices avail-able in the market IT pro-fessionals are challenged to protect multiple devices and often across different operat-ing systems
(3) Diversity of Net-work Applications
Agencies sometimes develop homegrown network applica-tions which sometimes do not comply with agency wide standards and may poten-tially open up networks to threats
Although network applica-tions are important for ef-ficiency and productivity agencies need to be careful while developing and be sure they meet all the right stan-dards to retain security
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
0101101010
1000
10101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
13STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas
middot Cloud Computingmiddot Data Center Consolidationmiddot Cyber Securitymiddot Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)middot Teleworkmiddot Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect commu-
nicate and collaborate Since 1984
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies includ-
ing routing switching security TelePres-
ence systems unif ied communications
video and wireless The companyrsquos re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability business sustain-
ability and environmentally conscious
operations and products Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve educate and defend
For more information visit wwwciscocomgousgov
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
6THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Across government agencies are looking for innovative ways to improve productivity With the development of cloud technology and a host of different collaboration tools technology now exists to instantly connect people around the globe The use of cloud services and mobile technology has been a game changer across all sectors allow-ing employees to access information when they want and on what device they desire
Although employees can now connect easily across any device new challenges have become apparent and there are increasingly more secu-rity risks for government Retaining security in multiple environments and decreasing vulner-abilities is critical to improve productivity for government This section will highlight cloud computing data center consolidation and cy-ber security as ways government can use tech-nology to increase and maintain productivity
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010010010010101001000
1010
01
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010
0101101010100010101001010101010
0101001001001010100100
0101
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
10010100101101010100010101001010
1010
100101
01001001010100100010
1
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
010010010101001000101
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
1
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
010110101010001010100101010101
001010100100101010010
0010
1
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010101001001010100100
0101
0
0101101010100010101001010101010
010101
01001001010100100010
01001001010100100010
010010010101001000101
00100100101010010001
0
010010010101001000
1010010010101001000
1
010010010101001000101
0100100101010010001
01
010010010101001000
10
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
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7STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
C
Up in the Cloud The Promise of Cloud Computing
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Cloud computing continues to be one of the key trends in government Since 2009 President Obamarsquos Adminis-tration has been encourag-ing federal agencies to adopt cloud technologies through the Federal Governmentrsquos Cloud Computing Initiative
With this initiative the Obama Administration hopes that by leveraging cloud comput-ing agencies can work to reduce waste increase effi-ciency and cut costs for the federal government With the adoption of cloud comput-ing government at all levels has found new efficiencies
In May 2012 GovLoop ran a blog series that explored how government can break down silos including the role of emerging technology such as cloud technology Cloud tech-nology offers many benefits for government agencies With
more and more cloud initia-tives being implemented in government there are many related benefits to moving to a cloud-based environment
Ten benefits of cloud tech-nology can be found below
(1) Ease of Sharing Information and Data
The cloud easily allows users to connect and share information across the agency By sharing data and resources agencies can work collaboratively to solve cross-agency challenges
(2) Sharing Best Practices
Just like with data best prac-tices and resources can easily be shared through the cloud whether this is certain initia-tives or programs that the agency has started or long-standing projects or processes
(3) Connecting In-stantly
The cloud makes it easier than ever before to connect with col-leagues The ability to instant-ly connect through the cloud collaborate on documents and share information is one of the many benefits of the cloud
(4) Driving Improved Decision Making
By sharing data and informa-tion decision makers will have access to the right information they need to make a decision
Some examples include agen-cies using the cloud to connect people in the field with deci-sion makers back in the office
This could be extremely use-ful during a crisis as decision makers could address where to send supplies and how to best provide relief at risk areas
8THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
(5) Connecting More Decision Makers
With the cloud more decision makers can be connected and work towards collaborative solutions Getting all the right people at the table is always a challenge but the cloud helps mitigate some of those barri-ers
(6) Increase Telework Opportunities
With cloud technology im-proving the cloud provides more opportunities for tele-working Teleworking provides many benefits to employees and organizations
(7) Recruit Top Tal-ent
Do not forget that technol-ogy can also be a recruitment tool Many future workers are accustomed to using cloud technologies to collaborate on projects they will expect to have this kind of technol-ogy at the workplace
(8) Increase Effi-ciency and Productivity
With the cloud people can be more efficient and produc-tive by having the information they need at their fingertips rather than searching and requesting information
(9) Achieve Cost Sav-ings
Cost savings is usually men-tioned with cloud technology With cloud technology now available agencies need to be smart as to how they think about cost savings If a new cloud initiative yields a cost saving the saved money can be redistributed back into the agency to support other initiatives
(10) Improve Trans-parency
With the ability to quickly access information and share information through the cloud agencies can improve their transparency efforts The cloud allows people to share the right information and al-low people to quickly access the information they need
_______________
______________________
1234567897891067891012345
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8910123456789106
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67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
6789101234567
6789101234567891067891012345678910123
6723452345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
89678
89678
45678910 678910120
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1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910
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8910123456789106
1234567891012345678910
1234567891012345678910
012345678910 8
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
6789101234567
6789101234567
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
6723452345678910
67891012345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
01234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
56789101234567891
89678
89678
9STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
For more information visit oraclecom or call 1800ORACLE1
ORACLE (NASDAQ ORCL) is the worldrsquos most complete open and integrated business software and hardware systems company With more than 370000 customersmdashinclud-ing 100 of the Fortune 100mdashin more than 145 countries around the globe Oracle is the only vendor able to offer a complete technology stack in which every layer is engineered to work together as a single system Oraclersquos industry-leading public sector solutions give organizations unmatched benefits including unbreakable security high availability scalabil-ity energy efficiency powerful performance and low total cost of ownership
Oracle Public Sector SolutionsOracle delivers a complete platform of database middleware applications servers and storagemdashall based on open standardsmdashto work together in the cloud and in your data center
bull Big Data Solutionsbull Business Intelligence and Reporting Applicationsbull Case Management and CRM Solutionsbull Cloud Computingbull Data Center Transformationbull Enterprise Security Solutionsbull Financial Management Solutionsbull Human Capital Management Solutionsbull Integrated Workplace Management Solutionbull Oracle Databasebull Procurement Applicationsbull Public Sector Planning and Budgetingbull Server and Storage Systemsbull Tax and Revenue Management Solutionsbull Virtualization Portfoliobull Security Solutions
Oracle Public Sector Sector Resourcesbull Oracle Public Sector Resource Centerbull Oracle Solutions for Public Sectorbull Using Oracle to Ease the Transition to Moderniza-tionbull Recruit Develop and Deploy Personnelbull Improve Efficiency and Responsiveness at All Lev-els of Governmentbull Oracle Social Services A Complete Platform for Integrated Program Deliverybull Oraclersquos Cloud Solutions for Public Sectorbull Public Sector Defense Solutions
Oracle Offers the Public Sector Measurable Resultsbull City of Las Vegas Saves up to $17 Million in Con-sulting Costs for IT Infrastructure Upgrade bull State of Maryland Government Agencies Improve Inter-Agency Collaboration through a Shared Services Business Intelligence Environmentbull State of Indiana Standardizes Financial Systems State-wide to Improve Efficiency and Transparencybull Federal Aviation Administration Improves Perfor-mance and Scalability of Shared Services Center Database bull The Forestry Commission Reduces Testing Time for Online Services by 80 and Improves System Stabil-itybull US Air Force Capabilities Integration Environment Meets Extreme Growth Demands with Virtualization bull The United States Marine Corps Deploys Compre-hensive Oracle Solution to Create a Global Combat Support System
More Oracle Public Sector Case Studies
10THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
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Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
F
FedRAMPgov states the fol-lowing program goals
bull Accelerate the adoption of secure cloud solutions through reuse of assess-ments and authorizations
bull Increase confidence in se-curity of cloud solutions
bull Achieve consistent secu-rity authorizations using a baseline set of agreed upon standards to be used for Cloud product approval in or outside of FedRAMP
bull Ensure consistent applica-tion of existing security practices
bull Increase confidence in security assessments
bull Increase automation and near real-time data for continuous monitoring
FedRAMPgov states the following program benefits
bull Increases re-use of exist-ing security assessments across agencies
bull Saves significant cost time and resources ndash ldquodo once use many timesrdquo
bull Improves real-time secu-rity visibility
bull Provides a uniform ap-proach to risk-based man-
agement
bull Enhances transparency between government and cloud service providers (CSPs)
bull Improves the trustworthi-ness reliability consis-tency and quality of the Federal security authoriza-tion process
Key FedRAMP Documentation (Resource list provided from CIOgov)
bull FedRAMP Security Con-trols The baseline controls required for FedRAMP security assessments and authorizations
bull FedRAMP CONOPS The FedRAMP Program Man-agement Officersquos Concept of Operations for FedRAM
bull FedRAMP JAB Charter - The Joint Authorization Boardrsquos Charter detailing roles and responsibilities and gover-nance
bull OMB Policy Memo ndash OMB policy guidance on issues ffecting FedRAMP
bull FedRAMP FAQs ndash provides answers to most questions about FedRAMP
For questions regarding FedRAMPinfoFedRAMPgov
FedRAMP is a government-wide program that helps gov-ernment agencies implement cloud based technology At the core of FedRAMP is provid-ing government officials with a standardized approach to se-curity authorization and moni-toring of cloud-based services
With the implementation of FedRAMP governmentwide ac-quisition of cloud technology is expected to increase With Fe-dRAMP cloud service provid-ers will have to use a third par-ty to verify the company meets basic security requirements FedRAMP is an extension of the Obama Administrationrsquos ldquoCloud Firstrdquo strategy de-tailed by the memorandum re-leased on December 8th 2011
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
11STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Find efficiency data center consolidation
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________
DData center consolidation is typically part of the cloud computing discussion like cloud computing there are significant advantages to consolidating data centers There are dozens of case stud-ies identifying the success that agencies are having with data center consolidation
One example of data center consolidation success comes from the Census Bureau which was able to close a 6750 fa-cility and free up $17 million annually in operating costs
The Census Bureau strategy has allowed them to reduce data center power consump-tion in all of their data centers by 10 The Census Bureaus is
not alone and due to the nu-merous successes reported by Federal agencies Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel has expand-ed his goals of closing redun-dant data centers By the end of 2015 agencies plan to close nearly 1080 data centers sur-passing goals set by the Fed-eral Data Center Consolidation Initiative two years ago Data center consolidation is a prac-tical solution to cutting costs increasing services and im-proving efficiency for agencies
Best Practice - Assessing Business Value Tie to Mission The first step for an agency considering data center con-solidation is to look at the business value of new adop-tion or consolidation of ser-vices Agencies should be sure to scope the project and make sure implementing the new technology makes sense for the agency Likewise when think-ing about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify to-
tal savings and think critically about how the savings can be filtered back within the agency
Best Practice - Culture Change Make it personal
One of the key lessons for culture change and data cen-ter consolidation is to always make it personal Top-level managers need to really show how implementing data cen-ter consolidation will make employees jobs easier more efficient and help to achieve the goals of the agency
The first step for an agency con-sidering data center consolida-tion is to look at the business value of new adoption or con-solidation of services Agen-cies should be sure to scope the project and make sure im-plementing the new technolo-gy makes sense for the agency Likewise when thinking about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify total sav-ings and think critically about how the savings can be fil-tered back within the agency
12THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Securing Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Envi-ronment - Cyber Security
In a White House blog post President Obama stated ldquoCy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nationrdquo and that ldquoAmericarsquos economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber securityrdquo
Protecting the nation from cyber threats is critical As citizens perform more daily transactions online with the government and more infor-mation is shared the govern-ment has a responsibility to make sure our personal infor-mation is protected Although we are more connected than ever before more information has been shared and there is more risk of information being breached
Government agencies now must improve infrastructure to protect against threats and simultaneously reduce the number of cyber attacks within government As at-tacks become more complex agencies need to be ready to protect themselves and im-prove infrastructure to reduce the number of attacks Cyber security affects all of us With government using more de-vices and employees access-ing information in new ways government is challenged to keep all systems protected
Top 3 Challenges for Cyber Security
(1) Network Accessi-bility
Agencies need to understand who has access when they have access and through what kind of device people are ac-cessing the network Knowing this information is critical as it will help agencies identify proper protocols for accessing the networking and assessing network vulnerabilities
(2) Diversity of De-vices on Network
With increasing use of bring-your-own-device policies and the variety of devices avail-able in the market IT pro-fessionals are challenged to protect multiple devices and often across different operat-ing systems
(3) Diversity of Net-work Applications
Agencies sometimes develop homegrown network applica-tions which sometimes do not comply with agency wide standards and may poten-tially open up networks to threats
Although network applica-tions are important for ef-ficiency and productivity agencies need to be careful while developing and be sure they meet all the right stan-dards to retain security
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
0101101010
1000
10101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
13STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas
middot Cloud Computingmiddot Data Center Consolidationmiddot Cyber Securitymiddot Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)middot Teleworkmiddot Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect commu-
nicate and collaborate Since 1984
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies includ-
ing routing switching security TelePres-
ence systems unif ied communications
video and wireless The companyrsquos re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability business sustain-
ability and environmentally conscious
operations and products Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve educate and defend
For more information visit wwwciscocomgousgov
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
7STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
C
Up in the Cloud The Promise of Cloud Computing
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Cloud computing continues to be one of the key trends in government Since 2009 President Obamarsquos Adminis-tration has been encourag-ing federal agencies to adopt cloud technologies through the Federal Governmentrsquos Cloud Computing Initiative
With this initiative the Obama Administration hopes that by leveraging cloud comput-ing agencies can work to reduce waste increase effi-ciency and cut costs for the federal government With the adoption of cloud comput-ing government at all levels has found new efficiencies
In May 2012 GovLoop ran a blog series that explored how government can break down silos including the role of emerging technology such as cloud technology Cloud tech-nology offers many benefits for government agencies With
more and more cloud initia-tives being implemented in government there are many related benefits to moving to a cloud-based environment
Ten benefits of cloud tech-nology can be found below
(1) Ease of Sharing Information and Data
The cloud easily allows users to connect and share information across the agency By sharing data and resources agencies can work collaboratively to solve cross-agency challenges
(2) Sharing Best Practices
Just like with data best prac-tices and resources can easily be shared through the cloud whether this is certain initia-tives or programs that the agency has started or long-standing projects or processes
(3) Connecting In-stantly
The cloud makes it easier than ever before to connect with col-leagues The ability to instant-ly connect through the cloud collaborate on documents and share information is one of the many benefits of the cloud
(4) Driving Improved Decision Making
By sharing data and informa-tion decision makers will have access to the right information they need to make a decision
Some examples include agen-cies using the cloud to connect people in the field with deci-sion makers back in the office
This could be extremely use-ful during a crisis as decision makers could address where to send supplies and how to best provide relief at risk areas
8THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
(5) Connecting More Decision Makers
With the cloud more decision makers can be connected and work towards collaborative solutions Getting all the right people at the table is always a challenge but the cloud helps mitigate some of those barri-ers
(6) Increase Telework Opportunities
With cloud technology im-proving the cloud provides more opportunities for tele-working Teleworking provides many benefits to employees and organizations
(7) Recruit Top Tal-ent
Do not forget that technol-ogy can also be a recruitment tool Many future workers are accustomed to using cloud technologies to collaborate on projects they will expect to have this kind of technol-ogy at the workplace
(8) Increase Effi-ciency and Productivity
With the cloud people can be more efficient and produc-tive by having the information they need at their fingertips rather than searching and requesting information
(9) Achieve Cost Sav-ings
Cost savings is usually men-tioned with cloud technology With cloud technology now available agencies need to be smart as to how they think about cost savings If a new cloud initiative yields a cost saving the saved money can be redistributed back into the agency to support other initiatives
(10) Improve Trans-parency
With the ability to quickly access information and share information through the cloud agencies can improve their transparency efforts The cloud allows people to share the right information and al-low people to quickly access the information they need
_______________
______________________
1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
8910123456789106
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1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
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6723452345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
89678
89678
45678910 678910120
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1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910
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8910123456789106
1234567891012345678910
1234567891012345678910
012345678910 8
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
6789101234567
6789101234567
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
6723452345678910
67891012345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
01234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
56789101234567891
89678
89678
9STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
For more information visit oraclecom or call 1800ORACLE1
ORACLE (NASDAQ ORCL) is the worldrsquos most complete open and integrated business software and hardware systems company With more than 370000 customersmdashinclud-ing 100 of the Fortune 100mdashin more than 145 countries around the globe Oracle is the only vendor able to offer a complete technology stack in which every layer is engineered to work together as a single system Oraclersquos industry-leading public sector solutions give organizations unmatched benefits including unbreakable security high availability scalabil-ity energy efficiency powerful performance and low total cost of ownership
Oracle Public Sector SolutionsOracle delivers a complete platform of database middleware applications servers and storagemdashall based on open standardsmdashto work together in the cloud and in your data center
bull Big Data Solutionsbull Business Intelligence and Reporting Applicationsbull Case Management and CRM Solutionsbull Cloud Computingbull Data Center Transformationbull Enterprise Security Solutionsbull Financial Management Solutionsbull Human Capital Management Solutionsbull Integrated Workplace Management Solutionbull Oracle Databasebull Procurement Applicationsbull Public Sector Planning and Budgetingbull Server and Storage Systemsbull Tax and Revenue Management Solutionsbull Virtualization Portfoliobull Security Solutions
Oracle Public Sector Sector Resourcesbull Oracle Public Sector Resource Centerbull Oracle Solutions for Public Sectorbull Using Oracle to Ease the Transition to Moderniza-tionbull Recruit Develop and Deploy Personnelbull Improve Efficiency and Responsiveness at All Lev-els of Governmentbull Oracle Social Services A Complete Platform for Integrated Program Deliverybull Oraclersquos Cloud Solutions for Public Sectorbull Public Sector Defense Solutions
Oracle Offers the Public Sector Measurable Resultsbull City of Las Vegas Saves up to $17 Million in Con-sulting Costs for IT Infrastructure Upgrade bull State of Maryland Government Agencies Improve Inter-Agency Collaboration through a Shared Services Business Intelligence Environmentbull State of Indiana Standardizes Financial Systems State-wide to Improve Efficiency and Transparencybull Federal Aviation Administration Improves Perfor-mance and Scalability of Shared Services Center Database bull The Forestry Commission Reduces Testing Time for Online Services by 80 and Improves System Stabil-itybull US Air Force Capabilities Integration Environment Meets Extreme Growth Demands with Virtualization bull The United States Marine Corps Deploys Compre-hensive Oracle Solution to Create a Global Combat Support System
More Oracle Public Sector Case Studies
10THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
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__
__
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__
__
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Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
F
FedRAMPgov states the fol-lowing program goals
bull Accelerate the adoption of secure cloud solutions through reuse of assess-ments and authorizations
bull Increase confidence in se-curity of cloud solutions
bull Achieve consistent secu-rity authorizations using a baseline set of agreed upon standards to be used for Cloud product approval in or outside of FedRAMP
bull Ensure consistent applica-tion of existing security practices
bull Increase confidence in security assessments
bull Increase automation and near real-time data for continuous monitoring
FedRAMPgov states the following program benefits
bull Increases re-use of exist-ing security assessments across agencies
bull Saves significant cost time and resources ndash ldquodo once use many timesrdquo
bull Improves real-time secu-rity visibility
bull Provides a uniform ap-proach to risk-based man-
agement
bull Enhances transparency between government and cloud service providers (CSPs)
bull Improves the trustworthi-ness reliability consis-tency and quality of the Federal security authoriza-tion process
Key FedRAMP Documentation (Resource list provided from CIOgov)
bull FedRAMP Security Con-trols The baseline controls required for FedRAMP security assessments and authorizations
bull FedRAMP CONOPS The FedRAMP Program Man-agement Officersquos Concept of Operations for FedRAM
bull FedRAMP JAB Charter - The Joint Authorization Boardrsquos Charter detailing roles and responsibilities and gover-nance
bull OMB Policy Memo ndash OMB policy guidance on issues ffecting FedRAMP
bull FedRAMP FAQs ndash provides answers to most questions about FedRAMP
For questions regarding FedRAMPinfoFedRAMPgov
FedRAMP is a government-wide program that helps gov-ernment agencies implement cloud based technology At the core of FedRAMP is provid-ing government officials with a standardized approach to se-curity authorization and moni-toring of cloud-based services
With the implementation of FedRAMP governmentwide ac-quisition of cloud technology is expected to increase With Fe-dRAMP cloud service provid-ers will have to use a third par-ty to verify the company meets basic security requirements FedRAMP is an extension of the Obama Administrationrsquos ldquoCloud Firstrdquo strategy de-tailed by the memorandum re-leased on December 8th 2011
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
11STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Find efficiency data center consolidation
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________
DData center consolidation is typically part of the cloud computing discussion like cloud computing there are significant advantages to consolidating data centers There are dozens of case stud-ies identifying the success that agencies are having with data center consolidation
One example of data center consolidation success comes from the Census Bureau which was able to close a 6750 fa-cility and free up $17 million annually in operating costs
The Census Bureau strategy has allowed them to reduce data center power consump-tion in all of their data centers by 10 The Census Bureaus is
not alone and due to the nu-merous successes reported by Federal agencies Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel has expand-ed his goals of closing redun-dant data centers By the end of 2015 agencies plan to close nearly 1080 data centers sur-passing goals set by the Fed-eral Data Center Consolidation Initiative two years ago Data center consolidation is a prac-tical solution to cutting costs increasing services and im-proving efficiency for agencies
Best Practice - Assessing Business Value Tie to Mission The first step for an agency considering data center con-solidation is to look at the business value of new adop-tion or consolidation of ser-vices Agencies should be sure to scope the project and make sure implementing the new technology makes sense for the agency Likewise when think-ing about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify to-
tal savings and think critically about how the savings can be filtered back within the agency
Best Practice - Culture Change Make it personal
One of the key lessons for culture change and data cen-ter consolidation is to always make it personal Top-level managers need to really show how implementing data cen-ter consolidation will make employees jobs easier more efficient and help to achieve the goals of the agency
The first step for an agency con-sidering data center consolida-tion is to look at the business value of new adoption or con-solidation of services Agen-cies should be sure to scope the project and make sure im-plementing the new technolo-gy makes sense for the agency Likewise when thinking about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify total sav-ings and think critically about how the savings can be fil-tered back within the agency
12THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Securing Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Envi-ronment - Cyber Security
In a White House blog post President Obama stated ldquoCy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nationrdquo and that ldquoAmericarsquos economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber securityrdquo
Protecting the nation from cyber threats is critical As citizens perform more daily transactions online with the government and more infor-mation is shared the govern-ment has a responsibility to make sure our personal infor-mation is protected Although we are more connected than ever before more information has been shared and there is more risk of information being breached
Government agencies now must improve infrastructure to protect against threats and simultaneously reduce the number of cyber attacks within government As at-tacks become more complex agencies need to be ready to protect themselves and im-prove infrastructure to reduce the number of attacks Cyber security affects all of us With government using more de-vices and employees access-ing information in new ways government is challenged to keep all systems protected
Top 3 Challenges for Cyber Security
(1) Network Accessi-bility
Agencies need to understand who has access when they have access and through what kind of device people are ac-cessing the network Knowing this information is critical as it will help agencies identify proper protocols for accessing the networking and assessing network vulnerabilities
(2) Diversity of De-vices on Network
With increasing use of bring-your-own-device policies and the variety of devices avail-able in the market IT pro-fessionals are challenged to protect multiple devices and often across different operat-ing systems
(3) Diversity of Net-work Applications
Agencies sometimes develop homegrown network applica-tions which sometimes do not comply with agency wide standards and may poten-tially open up networks to threats
Although network applica-tions are important for ef-ficiency and productivity agencies need to be careful while developing and be sure they meet all the right stan-dards to retain security
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
0101101010
1000
10101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
13STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas
middot Cloud Computingmiddot Data Center Consolidationmiddot Cyber Securitymiddot Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)middot Teleworkmiddot Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect commu-
nicate and collaborate Since 1984
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies includ-
ing routing switching security TelePres-
ence systems unif ied communications
video and wireless The companyrsquos re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability business sustain-
ability and environmentally conscious
operations and products Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve educate and defend
For more information visit wwwciscocomgousgov
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
8THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
(5) Connecting More Decision Makers
With the cloud more decision makers can be connected and work towards collaborative solutions Getting all the right people at the table is always a challenge but the cloud helps mitigate some of those barri-ers
(6) Increase Telework Opportunities
With cloud technology im-proving the cloud provides more opportunities for tele-working Teleworking provides many benefits to employees and organizations
(7) Recruit Top Tal-ent
Do not forget that technol-ogy can also be a recruitment tool Many future workers are accustomed to using cloud technologies to collaborate on projects they will expect to have this kind of technol-ogy at the workplace
(8) Increase Effi-ciency and Productivity
With the cloud people can be more efficient and produc-tive by having the information they need at their fingertips rather than searching and requesting information
(9) Achieve Cost Sav-ings
Cost savings is usually men-tioned with cloud technology With cloud technology now available agencies need to be smart as to how they think about cost savings If a new cloud initiative yields a cost saving the saved money can be redistributed back into the agency to support other initiatives
(10) Improve Trans-parency
With the ability to quickly access information and share information through the cloud agencies can improve their transparency efforts The cloud allows people to share the right information and al-low people to quickly access the information they need
_______________
______________________
1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
8910123456789106
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67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
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6723452345678910
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7891012345678956789101234567891
89678
89678
45678910 678910120
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1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910
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8910123456789106
1234567891012345678910
1234567891012345678910
012345678910 8
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
6789101234567
6789101234567
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
6723452345678910
67891012345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
01234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
56789101234567891
89678
89678
9STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
For more information visit oraclecom or call 1800ORACLE1
ORACLE (NASDAQ ORCL) is the worldrsquos most complete open and integrated business software and hardware systems company With more than 370000 customersmdashinclud-ing 100 of the Fortune 100mdashin more than 145 countries around the globe Oracle is the only vendor able to offer a complete technology stack in which every layer is engineered to work together as a single system Oraclersquos industry-leading public sector solutions give organizations unmatched benefits including unbreakable security high availability scalabil-ity energy efficiency powerful performance and low total cost of ownership
Oracle Public Sector SolutionsOracle delivers a complete platform of database middleware applications servers and storagemdashall based on open standardsmdashto work together in the cloud and in your data center
bull Big Data Solutionsbull Business Intelligence and Reporting Applicationsbull Case Management and CRM Solutionsbull Cloud Computingbull Data Center Transformationbull Enterprise Security Solutionsbull Financial Management Solutionsbull Human Capital Management Solutionsbull Integrated Workplace Management Solutionbull Oracle Databasebull Procurement Applicationsbull Public Sector Planning and Budgetingbull Server and Storage Systemsbull Tax and Revenue Management Solutionsbull Virtualization Portfoliobull Security Solutions
Oracle Public Sector Sector Resourcesbull Oracle Public Sector Resource Centerbull Oracle Solutions for Public Sectorbull Using Oracle to Ease the Transition to Moderniza-tionbull Recruit Develop and Deploy Personnelbull Improve Efficiency and Responsiveness at All Lev-els of Governmentbull Oracle Social Services A Complete Platform for Integrated Program Deliverybull Oraclersquos Cloud Solutions for Public Sectorbull Public Sector Defense Solutions
Oracle Offers the Public Sector Measurable Resultsbull City of Las Vegas Saves up to $17 Million in Con-sulting Costs for IT Infrastructure Upgrade bull State of Maryland Government Agencies Improve Inter-Agency Collaboration through a Shared Services Business Intelligence Environmentbull State of Indiana Standardizes Financial Systems State-wide to Improve Efficiency and Transparencybull Federal Aviation Administration Improves Perfor-mance and Scalability of Shared Services Center Database bull The Forestry Commission Reduces Testing Time for Online Services by 80 and Improves System Stabil-itybull US Air Force Capabilities Integration Environment Meets Extreme Growth Demands with Virtualization bull The United States Marine Corps Deploys Compre-hensive Oracle Solution to Create a Global Combat Support System
More Oracle Public Sector Case Studies
10THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
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_
Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
F
FedRAMPgov states the fol-lowing program goals
bull Accelerate the adoption of secure cloud solutions through reuse of assess-ments and authorizations
bull Increase confidence in se-curity of cloud solutions
bull Achieve consistent secu-rity authorizations using a baseline set of agreed upon standards to be used for Cloud product approval in or outside of FedRAMP
bull Ensure consistent applica-tion of existing security practices
bull Increase confidence in security assessments
bull Increase automation and near real-time data for continuous monitoring
FedRAMPgov states the following program benefits
bull Increases re-use of exist-ing security assessments across agencies
bull Saves significant cost time and resources ndash ldquodo once use many timesrdquo
bull Improves real-time secu-rity visibility
bull Provides a uniform ap-proach to risk-based man-
agement
bull Enhances transparency between government and cloud service providers (CSPs)
bull Improves the trustworthi-ness reliability consis-tency and quality of the Federal security authoriza-tion process
Key FedRAMP Documentation (Resource list provided from CIOgov)
bull FedRAMP Security Con-trols The baseline controls required for FedRAMP security assessments and authorizations
bull FedRAMP CONOPS The FedRAMP Program Man-agement Officersquos Concept of Operations for FedRAM
bull FedRAMP JAB Charter - The Joint Authorization Boardrsquos Charter detailing roles and responsibilities and gover-nance
bull OMB Policy Memo ndash OMB policy guidance on issues ffecting FedRAMP
bull FedRAMP FAQs ndash provides answers to most questions about FedRAMP
For questions regarding FedRAMPinfoFedRAMPgov
FedRAMP is a government-wide program that helps gov-ernment agencies implement cloud based technology At the core of FedRAMP is provid-ing government officials with a standardized approach to se-curity authorization and moni-toring of cloud-based services
With the implementation of FedRAMP governmentwide ac-quisition of cloud technology is expected to increase With Fe-dRAMP cloud service provid-ers will have to use a third par-ty to verify the company meets basic security requirements FedRAMP is an extension of the Obama Administrationrsquos ldquoCloud Firstrdquo strategy de-tailed by the memorandum re-leased on December 8th 2011
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
11STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Find efficiency data center consolidation
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________
DData center consolidation is typically part of the cloud computing discussion like cloud computing there are significant advantages to consolidating data centers There are dozens of case stud-ies identifying the success that agencies are having with data center consolidation
One example of data center consolidation success comes from the Census Bureau which was able to close a 6750 fa-cility and free up $17 million annually in operating costs
The Census Bureau strategy has allowed them to reduce data center power consump-tion in all of their data centers by 10 The Census Bureaus is
not alone and due to the nu-merous successes reported by Federal agencies Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel has expand-ed his goals of closing redun-dant data centers By the end of 2015 agencies plan to close nearly 1080 data centers sur-passing goals set by the Fed-eral Data Center Consolidation Initiative two years ago Data center consolidation is a prac-tical solution to cutting costs increasing services and im-proving efficiency for agencies
Best Practice - Assessing Business Value Tie to Mission The first step for an agency considering data center con-solidation is to look at the business value of new adop-tion or consolidation of ser-vices Agencies should be sure to scope the project and make sure implementing the new technology makes sense for the agency Likewise when think-ing about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify to-
tal savings and think critically about how the savings can be filtered back within the agency
Best Practice - Culture Change Make it personal
One of the key lessons for culture change and data cen-ter consolidation is to always make it personal Top-level managers need to really show how implementing data cen-ter consolidation will make employees jobs easier more efficient and help to achieve the goals of the agency
The first step for an agency con-sidering data center consolida-tion is to look at the business value of new adoption or con-solidation of services Agen-cies should be sure to scope the project and make sure im-plementing the new technolo-gy makes sense for the agency Likewise when thinking about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify total sav-ings and think critically about how the savings can be fil-tered back within the agency
12THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Securing Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Envi-ronment - Cyber Security
In a White House blog post President Obama stated ldquoCy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nationrdquo and that ldquoAmericarsquos economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber securityrdquo
Protecting the nation from cyber threats is critical As citizens perform more daily transactions online with the government and more infor-mation is shared the govern-ment has a responsibility to make sure our personal infor-mation is protected Although we are more connected than ever before more information has been shared and there is more risk of information being breached
Government agencies now must improve infrastructure to protect against threats and simultaneously reduce the number of cyber attacks within government As at-tacks become more complex agencies need to be ready to protect themselves and im-prove infrastructure to reduce the number of attacks Cyber security affects all of us With government using more de-vices and employees access-ing information in new ways government is challenged to keep all systems protected
Top 3 Challenges for Cyber Security
(1) Network Accessi-bility
Agencies need to understand who has access when they have access and through what kind of device people are ac-cessing the network Knowing this information is critical as it will help agencies identify proper protocols for accessing the networking and assessing network vulnerabilities
(2) Diversity of De-vices on Network
With increasing use of bring-your-own-device policies and the variety of devices avail-able in the market IT pro-fessionals are challenged to protect multiple devices and often across different operat-ing systems
(3) Diversity of Net-work Applications
Agencies sometimes develop homegrown network applica-tions which sometimes do not comply with agency wide standards and may poten-tially open up networks to threats
Although network applica-tions are important for ef-ficiency and productivity agencies need to be careful while developing and be sure they meet all the right stan-dards to retain security
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
0101101010
1000
10101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
13STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas
middot Cloud Computingmiddot Data Center Consolidationmiddot Cyber Securitymiddot Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)middot Teleworkmiddot Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect commu-
nicate and collaborate Since 1984
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies includ-
ing routing switching security TelePres-
ence systems unif ied communications
video and wireless The companyrsquos re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability business sustain-
ability and environmentally conscious
operations and products Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve educate and defend
For more information visit wwwciscocomgousgov
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
9STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
For more information visit oraclecom or call 1800ORACLE1
ORACLE (NASDAQ ORCL) is the worldrsquos most complete open and integrated business software and hardware systems company With more than 370000 customersmdashinclud-ing 100 of the Fortune 100mdashin more than 145 countries around the globe Oracle is the only vendor able to offer a complete technology stack in which every layer is engineered to work together as a single system Oraclersquos industry-leading public sector solutions give organizations unmatched benefits including unbreakable security high availability scalabil-ity energy efficiency powerful performance and low total cost of ownership
Oracle Public Sector SolutionsOracle delivers a complete platform of database middleware applications servers and storagemdashall based on open standardsmdashto work together in the cloud and in your data center
bull Big Data Solutionsbull Business Intelligence and Reporting Applicationsbull Case Management and CRM Solutionsbull Cloud Computingbull Data Center Transformationbull Enterprise Security Solutionsbull Financial Management Solutionsbull Human Capital Management Solutionsbull Integrated Workplace Management Solutionbull Oracle Databasebull Procurement Applicationsbull Public Sector Planning and Budgetingbull Server and Storage Systemsbull Tax and Revenue Management Solutionsbull Virtualization Portfoliobull Security Solutions
Oracle Public Sector Sector Resourcesbull Oracle Public Sector Resource Centerbull Oracle Solutions for Public Sectorbull Using Oracle to Ease the Transition to Moderniza-tionbull Recruit Develop and Deploy Personnelbull Improve Efficiency and Responsiveness at All Lev-els of Governmentbull Oracle Social Services A Complete Platform for Integrated Program Deliverybull Oraclersquos Cloud Solutions for Public Sectorbull Public Sector Defense Solutions
Oracle Offers the Public Sector Measurable Resultsbull City of Las Vegas Saves up to $17 Million in Con-sulting Costs for IT Infrastructure Upgrade bull State of Maryland Government Agencies Improve Inter-Agency Collaboration through a Shared Services Business Intelligence Environmentbull State of Indiana Standardizes Financial Systems State-wide to Improve Efficiency and Transparencybull Federal Aviation Administration Improves Perfor-mance and Scalability of Shared Services Center Database bull The Forestry Commission Reduces Testing Time for Online Services by 80 and Improves System Stabil-itybull US Air Force Capabilities Integration Environment Meets Extreme Growth Demands with Virtualization bull The United States Marine Corps Deploys Compre-hensive Oracle Solution to Create a Global Combat Support System
More Oracle Public Sector Case Studies
10THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
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_
Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
F
FedRAMPgov states the fol-lowing program goals
bull Accelerate the adoption of secure cloud solutions through reuse of assess-ments and authorizations
bull Increase confidence in se-curity of cloud solutions
bull Achieve consistent secu-rity authorizations using a baseline set of agreed upon standards to be used for Cloud product approval in or outside of FedRAMP
bull Ensure consistent applica-tion of existing security practices
bull Increase confidence in security assessments
bull Increase automation and near real-time data for continuous monitoring
FedRAMPgov states the following program benefits
bull Increases re-use of exist-ing security assessments across agencies
bull Saves significant cost time and resources ndash ldquodo once use many timesrdquo
bull Improves real-time secu-rity visibility
bull Provides a uniform ap-proach to risk-based man-
agement
bull Enhances transparency between government and cloud service providers (CSPs)
bull Improves the trustworthi-ness reliability consis-tency and quality of the Federal security authoriza-tion process
Key FedRAMP Documentation (Resource list provided from CIOgov)
bull FedRAMP Security Con-trols The baseline controls required for FedRAMP security assessments and authorizations
bull FedRAMP CONOPS The FedRAMP Program Man-agement Officersquos Concept of Operations for FedRAM
bull FedRAMP JAB Charter - The Joint Authorization Boardrsquos Charter detailing roles and responsibilities and gover-nance
bull OMB Policy Memo ndash OMB policy guidance on issues ffecting FedRAMP
bull FedRAMP FAQs ndash provides answers to most questions about FedRAMP
For questions regarding FedRAMPinfoFedRAMPgov
FedRAMP is a government-wide program that helps gov-ernment agencies implement cloud based technology At the core of FedRAMP is provid-ing government officials with a standardized approach to se-curity authorization and moni-toring of cloud-based services
With the implementation of FedRAMP governmentwide ac-quisition of cloud technology is expected to increase With Fe-dRAMP cloud service provid-ers will have to use a third par-ty to verify the company meets basic security requirements FedRAMP is an extension of the Obama Administrationrsquos ldquoCloud Firstrdquo strategy de-tailed by the memorandum re-leased on December 8th 2011
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
11STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Find efficiency data center consolidation
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________
DData center consolidation is typically part of the cloud computing discussion like cloud computing there are significant advantages to consolidating data centers There are dozens of case stud-ies identifying the success that agencies are having with data center consolidation
One example of data center consolidation success comes from the Census Bureau which was able to close a 6750 fa-cility and free up $17 million annually in operating costs
The Census Bureau strategy has allowed them to reduce data center power consump-tion in all of their data centers by 10 The Census Bureaus is
not alone and due to the nu-merous successes reported by Federal agencies Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel has expand-ed his goals of closing redun-dant data centers By the end of 2015 agencies plan to close nearly 1080 data centers sur-passing goals set by the Fed-eral Data Center Consolidation Initiative two years ago Data center consolidation is a prac-tical solution to cutting costs increasing services and im-proving efficiency for agencies
Best Practice - Assessing Business Value Tie to Mission The first step for an agency considering data center con-solidation is to look at the business value of new adop-tion or consolidation of ser-vices Agencies should be sure to scope the project and make sure implementing the new technology makes sense for the agency Likewise when think-ing about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify to-
tal savings and think critically about how the savings can be filtered back within the agency
Best Practice - Culture Change Make it personal
One of the key lessons for culture change and data cen-ter consolidation is to always make it personal Top-level managers need to really show how implementing data cen-ter consolidation will make employees jobs easier more efficient and help to achieve the goals of the agency
The first step for an agency con-sidering data center consolida-tion is to look at the business value of new adoption or con-solidation of services Agen-cies should be sure to scope the project and make sure im-plementing the new technolo-gy makes sense for the agency Likewise when thinking about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify total sav-ings and think critically about how the savings can be fil-tered back within the agency
12THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Securing Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Envi-ronment - Cyber Security
In a White House blog post President Obama stated ldquoCy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nationrdquo and that ldquoAmericarsquos economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber securityrdquo
Protecting the nation from cyber threats is critical As citizens perform more daily transactions online with the government and more infor-mation is shared the govern-ment has a responsibility to make sure our personal infor-mation is protected Although we are more connected than ever before more information has been shared and there is more risk of information being breached
Government agencies now must improve infrastructure to protect against threats and simultaneously reduce the number of cyber attacks within government As at-tacks become more complex agencies need to be ready to protect themselves and im-prove infrastructure to reduce the number of attacks Cyber security affects all of us With government using more de-vices and employees access-ing information in new ways government is challenged to keep all systems protected
Top 3 Challenges for Cyber Security
(1) Network Accessi-bility
Agencies need to understand who has access when they have access and through what kind of device people are ac-cessing the network Knowing this information is critical as it will help agencies identify proper protocols for accessing the networking and assessing network vulnerabilities
(2) Diversity of De-vices on Network
With increasing use of bring-your-own-device policies and the variety of devices avail-able in the market IT pro-fessionals are challenged to protect multiple devices and often across different operat-ing systems
(3) Diversity of Net-work Applications
Agencies sometimes develop homegrown network applica-tions which sometimes do not comply with agency wide standards and may poten-tially open up networks to threats
Although network applica-tions are important for ef-ficiency and productivity agencies need to be careful while developing and be sure they meet all the right stan-dards to retain security
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
0101101010
1000
10101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
13STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas
middot Cloud Computingmiddot Data Center Consolidationmiddot Cyber Securitymiddot Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)middot Teleworkmiddot Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect commu-
nicate and collaborate Since 1984
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies includ-
ing routing switching security TelePres-
ence systems unif ied communications
video and wireless The companyrsquos re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability business sustain-
ability and environmentally conscious
operations and products Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve educate and defend
For more information visit wwwciscocomgousgov
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
10THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
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__
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_
Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
F
FedRAMPgov states the fol-lowing program goals
bull Accelerate the adoption of secure cloud solutions through reuse of assess-ments and authorizations
bull Increase confidence in se-curity of cloud solutions
bull Achieve consistent secu-rity authorizations using a baseline set of agreed upon standards to be used for Cloud product approval in or outside of FedRAMP
bull Ensure consistent applica-tion of existing security practices
bull Increase confidence in security assessments
bull Increase automation and near real-time data for continuous monitoring
FedRAMPgov states the following program benefits
bull Increases re-use of exist-ing security assessments across agencies
bull Saves significant cost time and resources ndash ldquodo once use many timesrdquo
bull Improves real-time secu-rity visibility
bull Provides a uniform ap-proach to risk-based man-
agement
bull Enhances transparency between government and cloud service providers (CSPs)
bull Improves the trustworthi-ness reliability consis-tency and quality of the Federal security authoriza-tion process
Key FedRAMP Documentation (Resource list provided from CIOgov)
bull FedRAMP Security Con-trols The baseline controls required for FedRAMP security assessments and authorizations
bull FedRAMP CONOPS The FedRAMP Program Man-agement Officersquos Concept of Operations for FedRAM
bull FedRAMP JAB Charter - The Joint Authorization Boardrsquos Charter detailing roles and responsibilities and gover-nance
bull OMB Policy Memo ndash OMB policy guidance on issues ffecting FedRAMP
bull FedRAMP FAQs ndash provides answers to most questions about FedRAMP
For questions regarding FedRAMPinfoFedRAMPgov
FedRAMP is a government-wide program that helps gov-ernment agencies implement cloud based technology At the core of FedRAMP is provid-ing government officials with a standardized approach to se-curity authorization and moni-toring of cloud-based services
With the implementation of FedRAMP governmentwide ac-quisition of cloud technology is expected to increase With Fe-dRAMP cloud service provid-ers will have to use a third par-ty to verify the company meets basic security requirements FedRAMP is an extension of the Obama Administrationrsquos ldquoCloud Firstrdquo strategy de-tailed by the memorandum re-leased on December 8th 2011
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
11STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Find efficiency data center consolidation
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________
DData center consolidation is typically part of the cloud computing discussion like cloud computing there are significant advantages to consolidating data centers There are dozens of case stud-ies identifying the success that agencies are having with data center consolidation
One example of data center consolidation success comes from the Census Bureau which was able to close a 6750 fa-cility and free up $17 million annually in operating costs
The Census Bureau strategy has allowed them to reduce data center power consump-tion in all of their data centers by 10 The Census Bureaus is
not alone and due to the nu-merous successes reported by Federal agencies Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel has expand-ed his goals of closing redun-dant data centers By the end of 2015 agencies plan to close nearly 1080 data centers sur-passing goals set by the Fed-eral Data Center Consolidation Initiative two years ago Data center consolidation is a prac-tical solution to cutting costs increasing services and im-proving efficiency for agencies
Best Practice - Assessing Business Value Tie to Mission The first step for an agency considering data center con-solidation is to look at the business value of new adop-tion or consolidation of ser-vices Agencies should be sure to scope the project and make sure implementing the new technology makes sense for the agency Likewise when think-ing about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify to-
tal savings and think critically about how the savings can be filtered back within the agency
Best Practice - Culture Change Make it personal
One of the key lessons for culture change and data cen-ter consolidation is to always make it personal Top-level managers need to really show how implementing data cen-ter consolidation will make employees jobs easier more efficient and help to achieve the goals of the agency
The first step for an agency con-sidering data center consolida-tion is to look at the business value of new adoption or con-solidation of services Agen-cies should be sure to scope the project and make sure im-plementing the new technolo-gy makes sense for the agency Likewise when thinking about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify total sav-ings and think critically about how the savings can be fil-tered back within the agency
12THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Securing Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Envi-ronment - Cyber Security
In a White House blog post President Obama stated ldquoCy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nationrdquo and that ldquoAmericarsquos economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber securityrdquo
Protecting the nation from cyber threats is critical As citizens perform more daily transactions online with the government and more infor-mation is shared the govern-ment has a responsibility to make sure our personal infor-mation is protected Although we are more connected than ever before more information has been shared and there is more risk of information being breached
Government agencies now must improve infrastructure to protect against threats and simultaneously reduce the number of cyber attacks within government As at-tacks become more complex agencies need to be ready to protect themselves and im-prove infrastructure to reduce the number of attacks Cyber security affects all of us With government using more de-vices and employees access-ing information in new ways government is challenged to keep all systems protected
Top 3 Challenges for Cyber Security
(1) Network Accessi-bility
Agencies need to understand who has access when they have access and through what kind of device people are ac-cessing the network Knowing this information is critical as it will help agencies identify proper protocols for accessing the networking and assessing network vulnerabilities
(2) Diversity of De-vices on Network
With increasing use of bring-your-own-device policies and the variety of devices avail-able in the market IT pro-fessionals are challenged to protect multiple devices and often across different operat-ing systems
(3) Diversity of Net-work Applications
Agencies sometimes develop homegrown network applica-tions which sometimes do not comply with agency wide standards and may poten-tially open up networks to threats
Although network applica-tions are important for ef-ficiency and productivity agencies need to be careful while developing and be sure they meet all the right stan-dards to retain security
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
0101101010
1000
10101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
13STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas
middot Cloud Computingmiddot Data Center Consolidationmiddot Cyber Securitymiddot Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)middot Teleworkmiddot Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect commu-
nicate and collaborate Since 1984
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies includ-
ing routing switching security TelePres-
ence systems unif ied communications
video and wireless The companyrsquos re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability business sustain-
ability and environmentally conscious
operations and products Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve educate and defend
For more information visit wwwciscocomgousgov
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
11STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Find efficiency data center consolidation
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________
DData center consolidation is typically part of the cloud computing discussion like cloud computing there are significant advantages to consolidating data centers There are dozens of case stud-ies identifying the success that agencies are having with data center consolidation
One example of data center consolidation success comes from the Census Bureau which was able to close a 6750 fa-cility and free up $17 million annually in operating costs
The Census Bureau strategy has allowed them to reduce data center power consump-tion in all of their data centers by 10 The Census Bureaus is
not alone and due to the nu-merous successes reported by Federal agencies Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel has expand-ed his goals of closing redun-dant data centers By the end of 2015 agencies plan to close nearly 1080 data centers sur-passing goals set by the Fed-eral Data Center Consolidation Initiative two years ago Data center consolidation is a prac-tical solution to cutting costs increasing services and im-proving efficiency for agencies
Best Practice - Assessing Business Value Tie to Mission The first step for an agency considering data center con-solidation is to look at the business value of new adop-tion or consolidation of ser-vices Agencies should be sure to scope the project and make sure implementing the new technology makes sense for the agency Likewise when think-ing about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify to-
tal savings and think critically about how the savings can be filtered back within the agency
Best Practice - Culture Change Make it personal
One of the key lessons for culture change and data cen-ter consolidation is to always make it personal Top-level managers need to really show how implementing data cen-ter consolidation will make employees jobs easier more efficient and help to achieve the goals of the agency
The first step for an agency con-sidering data center consolida-tion is to look at the business value of new adoption or con-solidation of services Agen-cies should be sure to scope the project and make sure im-plementing the new technolo-gy makes sense for the agency Likewise when thinking about costs agencies need to be sure that they identify total sav-ings and think critically about how the savings can be fil-tered back within the agency
12THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Securing Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Envi-ronment - Cyber Security
In a White House blog post President Obama stated ldquoCy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nationrdquo and that ldquoAmericarsquos economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber securityrdquo
Protecting the nation from cyber threats is critical As citizens perform more daily transactions online with the government and more infor-mation is shared the govern-ment has a responsibility to make sure our personal infor-mation is protected Although we are more connected than ever before more information has been shared and there is more risk of information being breached
Government agencies now must improve infrastructure to protect against threats and simultaneously reduce the number of cyber attacks within government As at-tacks become more complex agencies need to be ready to protect themselves and im-prove infrastructure to reduce the number of attacks Cyber security affects all of us With government using more de-vices and employees access-ing information in new ways government is challenged to keep all systems protected
Top 3 Challenges for Cyber Security
(1) Network Accessi-bility
Agencies need to understand who has access when they have access and through what kind of device people are ac-cessing the network Knowing this information is critical as it will help agencies identify proper protocols for accessing the networking and assessing network vulnerabilities
(2) Diversity of De-vices on Network
With increasing use of bring-your-own-device policies and the variety of devices avail-able in the market IT pro-fessionals are challenged to protect multiple devices and often across different operat-ing systems
(3) Diversity of Net-work Applications
Agencies sometimes develop homegrown network applica-tions which sometimes do not comply with agency wide standards and may poten-tially open up networks to threats
Although network applica-tions are important for ef-ficiency and productivity agencies need to be careful while developing and be sure they meet all the right stan-dards to retain security
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
0101101010
1000
10101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
13STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas
middot Cloud Computingmiddot Data Center Consolidationmiddot Cyber Securitymiddot Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)middot Teleworkmiddot Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect commu-
nicate and collaborate Since 1984
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies includ-
ing routing switching security TelePres-
ence systems unif ied communications
video and wireless The companyrsquos re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability business sustain-
ability and environmentally conscious
operations and products Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve educate and defend
For more information visit wwwciscocomgousgov
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
12THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Securing Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Envi-ronment - Cyber Security
In a White House blog post President Obama stated ldquoCy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nationrdquo and that ldquoAmericarsquos economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber securityrdquo
Protecting the nation from cyber threats is critical As citizens perform more daily transactions online with the government and more infor-mation is shared the govern-ment has a responsibility to make sure our personal infor-mation is protected Although we are more connected than ever before more information has been shared and there is more risk of information being breached
Government agencies now must improve infrastructure to protect against threats and simultaneously reduce the number of cyber attacks within government As at-tacks become more complex agencies need to be ready to protect themselves and im-prove infrastructure to reduce the number of attacks Cyber security affects all of us With government using more de-vices and employees access-ing information in new ways government is challenged to keep all systems protected
Top 3 Challenges for Cyber Security
(1) Network Accessi-bility
Agencies need to understand who has access when they have access and through what kind of device people are ac-cessing the network Knowing this information is critical as it will help agencies identify proper protocols for accessing the networking and assessing network vulnerabilities
(2) Diversity of De-vices on Network
With increasing use of bring-your-own-device policies and the variety of devices avail-able in the market IT pro-fessionals are challenged to protect multiple devices and often across different operat-ing systems
(3) Diversity of Net-work Applications
Agencies sometimes develop homegrown network applica-tions which sometimes do not comply with agency wide standards and may poten-tially open up networks to threats
Although network applica-tions are important for ef-ficiency and productivity agencies need to be careful while developing and be sure they meet all the right stan-dards to retain security
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
0101101010
1000
10101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
13STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas
middot Cloud Computingmiddot Data Center Consolidationmiddot Cyber Securitymiddot Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)middot Teleworkmiddot Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect commu-
nicate and collaborate Since 1984
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies includ-
ing routing switching security TelePres-
ence systems unif ied communications
video and wireless The companyrsquos re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability business sustain-
ability and environmentally conscious
operations and products Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve educate and defend
For more information visit wwwciscocomgousgov
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
13STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas
middot Cloud Computingmiddot Data Center Consolidationmiddot Cyber Securitymiddot Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)middot Teleworkmiddot Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect commu-
nicate and collaborate Since 1984
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies includ-
ing routing switching security TelePres-
ence systems unif ied communications
video and wireless The companyrsquos re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability business sustain-
ability and environmentally conscious
operations and products Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve educate and defend
For more information visit wwwciscocomgousgov
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
14THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
DELIVERING 21st Century Services to America
or centuries government has been collecting data Whether it was ancient civilians record-ing data about the stars iden-
tifying weather patterns collecting health data information to avoid epidemics or col-lecting data about the citizenry similar to a modern day census Data has always been an integral part of how government operates
Recently more data has been released and made accessible for citizens As more kinds of data are collected many agencies have made a shift towards open data initiatives in which
data is released to the public in multiple forms Sometimes the data is used to develop apps and at other times data is collected and turned into visualizations to help educate the public On May 23 2012 the Obama Administration announced The Digital Government Strate-gy which strives to change how government works and delivers services to citizens Presi-dent Obama states ldquoI want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in peoplersquos livesrdquo The Digital Government Strategy challenges inno-vators across government to think how they can fully leverage emerging technology to im-prove how services are delivered to Americans
Within the Digital Government Strategy fed-
THEDIGITAL GOVERNMENT
STRATEGY
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
15STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
eral agencies are required to make two core services available to citizens on mo-bile devices by May 23 2013 giving agencies one year to make the transition Further the memorandum requires that government data be ma-chine readable and govern-ment data be open by default
Federal Chief Information Of-ficer Steve VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Of-ficer Todd Park announced the Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunchrsquos Disrupt Con-ference in New York City
Eight core outcomes from the Digital Government Strategy are
1 The new default for data is open data should be public when possible available on demand and agencies should take a device agnostic ap-proach providing flexibility to citizens and developers to use and published data
2 Government data should be social and a two way street allowing people to develop mobile apps This will encour-age increased participation to transform government
3 Agencies will create a slash developer page and con-tinue to build upon datagov as a spot to host governmnet data
4 Decreasing the number of
government domains to help streamline information and make finding resources easier for citizens
5 Agencies must convert two priority citizen services to mobile in the next 12 months
6 Take two backend systems and convert them to APIrsquos
7 Create the Digital Innova-tion Center central effort to change web dynamic
8 Private sector integration
The Digital Government Strat-egy has been developed at a fascinating time for govern-ment The combination of a staggering economy and in-cresed demand for improved services by Americans has added a new layer of complex-ity to government agencies In many situations govern-ment is operating in a restric-tive budgetary environment With this dynamic function-ing within government mis-sion centric programs have become more important to agencies than ever before
Regardless of the agency or department agencies are now called to identify the best
way to serve their custom-ers decrease costs and oper-ate efficiently in a perilous fiscal environment This chal-lenge is reflected in the call for developing two services on a mobile device within 12 months As more citizens have adopted smart phones and mobile technology is becom-ing increasingly more com-mon in consumers lives there is truly a need for government to reform services and pro-vide them in a mobile setting
An excerpt from President Obamarsquos memorandum reads ldquoInnovators in the private sector and the Federal Gov-ernment have used these technological advances to fun-damentally change how they serve their customers How-ever it is time for the Federal Government to do more For far too long the American peo-ple have been forced to navi-gate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need In addi-tion at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices Gov-ernment services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets assuming the servic-es are even available onlinerdquo
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast The DorobekINSIDER had extensive cover-age of the Digital Government Strategy announcement in New York
DorobekINSIDER Resources
How to guide for implementing the Digital Government Strategy
Default Open Data White House Launches New Digital Govern-ment Strategy
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
16THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Mobile is not the only way in-novators in the private sector have transformed how they deliver services Everything from cloud computing data data center consolidation and collaboration tools are being used to transform the ability to deliver services to consumersDuring the announcement of the Digital Government Strat-egy VanRoekel and Park also provided insights into the new Technology Fellows Pro-
gram which closely resembles the prestigious and extreme-ly competitive Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program The Technology Fel-lows Program website states
ldquoThe Technology Fellows Pro-gram seeks to cut bureaucratic barriers to entering public ser-vice and providing access to unique career opportunities in Federal Agencies to highly talented technology profes-sionals By partnering directly
with universities with well‐rec-ognized technology programs the Federal Government will tap into the emerging talent pool and begin to build a sus-tainable pipeline of talentrdquo
Under the first federal CIO Vivek Kundra the 25-point plan was developed which the Technology Fellows Pro-gram was derived from The new Technology Fellows Pro-gram acknowledges that one critical way to make govern-
3Layers of Government
Service DeliveryIT33INFORMATION
PLATFORM
PRESENTATION
The information layer contains digital information It includes structured information (e g the most common concept of ldquodatardquo) such as census and employment data plus unstructured information (e g content) such as fact sheets press releases and compliance guidance
Within the Digital Government Strategy Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel established a conceptual model as to how government should deliver services He identifies three distinct layers the infor-mation layer the platform layer and the presentation layer
The platform layer includes all the systems and processes used to manage this information Examples include systems for content management processes such as web API (Application Program-ming Interface) and application development services that support mission critical IT functions such as human resources or financial management as well as the hardware used to access information (e g mobile devices)
The presentation layer defines the manner in which information is organized and provided to customers It represents the way the government and private sector deliver government informa-tion (e g data or content) digitally whether through websites16 mobile applications or other modes of delivery
These three layers separate information creation from information presentationmdashallowing us to create content and data once and then use it in different ways In effect this model represents a fundamental shift from the way our government provides digital services today
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
Solutions
Delivering Real Value
GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM) provides organizations with an automated on-demand public communication system GovDelivery DCM empowers governments to provide citizens with better service and access to relevant information by proactively communicating official content through email text messaging RSS and social media
GovDelivery Collaboration creates a secure community to help you gather and organize stakeholders on unprecedented scale with the flexibility to innovate and collaborate nationally with colleagues citizens businesses government partners consultants and more With GovDelivery Collaboration you can eliminate the physical and technological barriers that often stifle the flow of communications and teamwork across your entire stakeholder base to more fully interact with your community in an effective efficient and engaging manner
GovDelivery Transactional Messaging Service (TMS) makes critical large-scale transaction-focused email communication between government and the public more effective and reliable With GovDelivery TMS your organization can save time and money while allowing your employees to focus on messaging and stakeholder interaction instead of technical email complexities and deliverability
Learn more visit govdeliverycom email infogovdeliverycom call 866-276-5583
facebookcomgovdeliveryreachthepubliccom youtubecomgovdeliverygovdelivery govloopcom
Within the first six months of the [websitersquos] launch the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200000 and $250000 through reduced postage printing and mailing costs and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200000
- Robert Paglia Director Indiana Department of Technology and INgov
ldquoWithin one hour we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method People here were elated ndash we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costsrdquo
- Margie Damgaard Web Division Coordinator Wisconsin DNR
The US Census Bureau ran a national campaign incorporating use of GovDelivery DCM to broaden its outreach and encourage members of the public to participate in the 2010 Census in a timely fashion They engaged 103000 subscribers sending more than 24 million messages The Censusrsquos overall communications effectiveness saved $187 billion in taxpayer money
- US Census Bureau
Focused on helping government organizations communicate with the public more effectively and efficiently GovDelivery adapts world-class practices from the private
sector and leverages new technologies while designing communication solutions that address the unique privacy compliance and security needs faced by government
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
18THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative is to provide unique career op-portunities to talented tech-nology professionals to at-tract them to public service
The program structure and application process is very similar to the competitive PMF program as potential fellows follow the same ap-plication process as PMFrsquos and are appointed to a two-year rotational position
In a recent White House blog Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel mentioned there has been substantial interest in the pro-gram as he states ldquoThere has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions and over 4000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progressrdquo
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012 the website states the goal of the project is ldquoTo improve the lives of the American people saving taxpayer money and fueling job creation This is in-novation aimed at making a difference for all Americansrdquo
The five projects are MyGov which the White House briefly describes as ldquoReimagine the relationship between the fed-eral government and its citi-zens through an online foot-
print developed not just for the people but also by the peoplerdquo
The second program men-tioned is Open Data Initia-tives described as ldquoStimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways ndash eg apps and services that help people find the right health care pro-vider identify the college that provides the best value for their money save money on electricity bills through smart-er shopping or keep their fam-ilies safe by knowing which products have been recalledrdquo
The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA The White House states ldquo[this program] will develop apps and create awareness of tools that help individuals get access to their personal health records -- current medications and drug allergies claims and treatment data and lab re-ports ndash that can improve their health and healthcarerdquo
The fourth initiative looks to reform the RFP process and help small business navigate the federal government This program is called RFP-EZ and briefly described as ldquoBuild a platform that makes it easier for small high-growth busi-nesses to navigate the fed-eral government and enables agencies to quickly source low-cost high-impact infor-
mation technology solutionsrdquo
The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20 Campaign which looks to ldquoCreate a sys-tem that enables US govern-ment programs to seamlessly move from making cash pay-ments to support foreign pol-icy development assistance government operations or commercial activities to using electronic payments such as mobile devices smart cards and other methodsrdquo
All these programs are great steps forward and it will be interesting to see how they unfold in the coming months Hopefully these programs will recruit new talent into the federal space With fel-lowship programs itrsquos always easy to attract top talent but difficult to hold on to the tal-ent once the fellowship ends The Digital Government Strat-egy and Technology Fellows Program is just one of many initiatives set forth by the Obama Administration that encourages the federal gov-ernment to embrace emerg-ing technology The Obama Administration has set a high bar for government agencies With numerous initiatives encouraging IT reform the Administration understands that it is not just about pro-viding APIrsquos improved data technology standards IT re-form is about a combination of all services which will help
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
19STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
to facilitate the needed re-forms to government services
Other executive orders and initiatives developed by the Obama Administration focus-ing on technology to trans-form government include
gt Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)
gt Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient Effec-tive and Accountable Govern-ment)
gt The Presidentrsquos Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government
gt OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)
gt The National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)
gt The 25-Point Implementa-tion Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Man-agement (IT Reform)
These Executive Orders have led to further cloud adop-tion increased use of shared services and improved man-agement of IT programs The Digital Government Strat-egy builds on these improve-ments and focuses on deliv-ery of services as the priority The way the Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed is a testament to the admin-istrationrsquos desire to create a more transparent participa-tory and collaborative gov-ernment The Digital Govern-ment Strategy was developed through a multi-disciplinary approach as practitioners
from the government private sector public and two work-ing groups collaborated to de-velop The Digital Government Strategy The two working groups the Mobility Strategy and Web Reform Task Forces worked with the Office of Man-agement and Budget (OMB) and General Services Adminis-tration (GSA) to identify solu-tions for mobile government The Digital Government Strat-egy incorporated insights from citizens and federal workers In September of 2011 an online dialogue National Dialogue on Improving Federal Improve-ments and in January 2012 Na-tional Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy both were used to formulate the Digital Government Strategy In total the online forums produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2000 comments
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things
Enable the American people and an in-creasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital gov-ernment information and services anywhere anytime on any device Operationalizing an information-centric model we can architect our systems for interoperabil-ity and openness modernize our content publication model and deliver better device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost
Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices applications and data in smart secure and af-fordable ways Learning from the previous tran-sition of moving information and services online we now have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient costly and frag-mented practices of the past build a sound governance struc-ture for digital services and do mobile ldquorightrdquo from the beginning
Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of servic-es for the American people We must enable the public en-trepreneurs and our own govern-ment programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and servic-es by ensuring that data is open and machine-readable by default
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
20THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The Digital Government Strat-egy and related initiatives are bold moves by the current Ad-ministration and set a high bar for reforming government IT With our nationrsquos top leaders setting the goals and leading the charge reform is on the way for government IT A core
differentiator is that the Obama Administration understands that to tackle the challenges of government IT they canrsquot go at it alone - it will require collab-oration across sectors to fully leverage all potential technol-ogy to transform how services are delivered to Americans
With the bar set high now is the time for government agen-cies to embrace the move-ment work towards reform and start to transform govern-ment services in a way that has never been in history gt
The growth of mobile technology has been game-changing for both the private and public sector In the public sector mobile is changing both the way government interacts with citizens and within the workplace As smartphone usage con-tinues to proliferate in citizenrsquos personal lives there is an increasing expectation that the services they are accustomed to in the private sector and personal lives will also be available with government services
Mobile technology is an interesting study for government as mobile crosses many disciplines and functions that govern-ment provides In this section we define two different applications of mobility mobility for improved citizen engagement and mobility for the workforce
Mobility for Improved Citizen Engagement
Mobility for improved citizen engagement comes from a variety of sources The use of smart phones has fa-cilitated increasing use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where government agencies can quickly share information to citizens Likewise the re-lease of data sets has enabled citizens to develop their own mobile applications to help facilitate improved interactions with government With these apps an on-going trend is that government is complex and cannot provide solutions to all the problems citizenrsquos face Part-nerships with individuals and companies can help facili-tate improved citizen engagement
5 Benefits of Mobility and Citizen Engagement
1 Speed of Communication2 Connect Key Stakeholders3 Improved Customer Service4 Increased Accessibility to Information5 Empower the Citizen
Mobility for Improving the Workforce ndash BYOD amp Telework
There are a lot of different ways that mobility has im-pacted the workforce Two examples are bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives and telework A com-mon trend across all sectors is the desire of employees to work where they want and have flexible schedules With more and more opportunities for telework and bring- your-own-device initiatives taking place in gov-ernment the workforce is changing based on advances in mobility
5 Benefits of Mobility in the Workplace
1 Information on Demand2 Flexibility of Workplace3 Enable Employees to Work on Most Comfortable Platform and Tool4 Recruitment Tool5 Efficiently connect key stakeholders
THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
21STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
The world isnrsquot just getting smaller and flatter it is also becoming more instrumented inter-connected and intelligent As we move toward a globally integrated economy all types of governments are also getting smarter
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth innovation and prosperity They also collab-orate across departments communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents improve operational efficiencies transform processes man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research the Center for the Business of Government the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships To learn more visit ibmcom
government
Recent reports and whitepapers
Smarter Public Safety
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government Read our latest report (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(12MB)
Available contracts
bull US Federal contracts
bull Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members
Frank Stein- fsteinusibmcom
Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenhusibmcom
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
22THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
23STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
24THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures but also to deliver improved services to constituents In order to do so agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance Two ways agencies are exploring improved performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs and transparency initiatives
Driving Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012 Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume velocity and variety Often a fourth V is men-tioned ldquovaluerdquo The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated agencies can cut costs reduce fraud and deliver a higher level of service to citizens
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have become much more transactional With these kinds of transactions government agencies are now able to collect more kinds of data For
TECHNOLOGYT E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
25STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
instance a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online
If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets they can track user behavior online identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior This is just one small example of how agencies can use data There are many really interesting examples of how government has managed big data to improve services
GovLooprsquos Daily Podcast the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing ldquoWe have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after and we have found that in certain crime types when you have a
crime there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occurrdquo
Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative
TECHNOLOGY
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
26THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice Eval-uate Your PersonnelWorkforce
Understanding data is no easy task so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborative government Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define Departments and agencies across government describe transparency differ-ently Although differences exist there are some com-mon initiatives that stretch across government There are
Best Practice Iden-tify Your Scope
Big data can do a lot of things agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin With any kind of initiative it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined and can be solved with the use of available data
Best Practice Make Sure Your IT Infra-structure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data Without the right infra-structure in place agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
27STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utahgov Vanessa states ldquoBEST httputahgovindexhtml This web-site is my personal favorite The website is well designed clean simple easy to navigate and organized Therersquos clear visibility on how to connect to social media The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information thatrsquos hard to read utahgov becomes a manageable eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way This site gets an A in design for merdquo
1 Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal energygov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites They started rolling out big changes as early as January which we re-ported here on GovLoop but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here While there were a few issues with things like format-ting aspect rations and acces-sibility at first the new energygov has continued to evolve and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful From sleek photogra-
several initiatives that gov-ernment at all levels has em-braced to improve govern-ment transparency including website reform releasing government data improved rule making and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA)
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post ldquoMy statersquos gov website Arkansasgov was named 1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awardsrdquo
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through significant upgrades in the past few years The goals with these upgrades tend to be three-fold improved services improved accessibil-ity and improved information
GovLoop Content and Commu-nity Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal web-sites in a recent GovLoop post
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry However in recent years and even months there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience Granted not every agency requires a modern flashy public-facing website but if your agency en-gages the public in any form a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is there is a web solution out there for you that wonrsquot break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business in-cluding citizen services mak-ing the need for responsive clean and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot The following are Gov-Looprsquos top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
28THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
phy localized search returns clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll) and great presentation of data energygov really is at the forefront of government websites
Chris Stinson stated on Gov-LoopldquoI tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there so please donrsquot give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official) I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-rent If you are local govern-ment tell me whatrsquos happening in the local area not whatrsquos happening in government
And keep the pictures amp icons to a minimum One big picture is nice 15 pictures and 30 little icons may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about (One of them might have been important but if you have 30 plus items that yoursquove deemed important items they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places
that donrsquot try to be everything to everybody on the homepage
h t t p w w w c a l g a r y c a S i t e P a g e s c o c i s d e f a u l t aspx (alot like the Utah site with search as the key)
h t t p w w w g e o r g i a g o v (kept it simple not as pret-ty as utah or calgary but still is search focused)
httpwwwwehoorg (very colorful great small site)
I might be a little harsh but I (and I believe most people whorsquos job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website that has nothing but governmentrdquo
2 The Federal Communica-tions CommissionI had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints drawn out approval require-ments and the dreaded ldquode-sign by committeerdquo surely paid off as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined yet informa-tive Not to mention the site itself is blazing fast I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparisonrsquos sake Itrsquos
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
29STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here
3 The White HouseThe whitehousegov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all The website itself basically needs to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about
their experience and was highly impressed The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional Overall just a stunning website no mat-ter what your political views are Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years
4 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative genius and also fun govern-ment organizations around With their website they surely donrsquot disappoint They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize and theyrsquove done a beautiful job at displaying it While the content blocks are a bit thick
in the lower half the use of fun iconography clean navigation beautiful themeing and images (Irsquom a sucker for space photog-raphy) more than make up for the minimal design imperfec-tions and still puts them well ahead of most of their govern-ment counterparts In addi-tion to their homepage NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives)
5 The National ArchivesThe National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design and usabil-ity The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information and then some Personally it boggles my mind to even begin to think about or-ganizing all of this information and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public and even let
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
30THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoWhat makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech con-sider your audience and be brief Work from the general to the specific The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor a disaster
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business Have a third party not familiar with your business beta test the site and give feed back Lastly looks are important but they are not everything Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every timerdquo ndash Dennis Stransky
them interact freely in many instances Itrsquos a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive From a userrsquos perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website but the limited 5 choices gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact So kudos to the National Archives Irsquom ex-cited to see how this agencyrsquos website continues to evolve
After scouring just about every government agencyrsquos website there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability The fol-lowing are the government websites that didnrsquot make the Top 5 but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences
Honorable Mentionsbull The House of Representa-
tivesbull The Department of Justicebull The Small Business Admin-
istrationbull The Department of the
Treasurybull The United States Postal
Service
GOVERNMENT Transparen-cy In Focus Open Tucson Initiative
Excerpts from a blog post by Sam Lovett Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizonarsquos second largest city
lsquoOPEN Tucsonrsquo to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayorrsquos office to create a public open data portal on the mayorrsquos website Their projects include opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
31STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1 Use What You Already Ownbull If yoursquore government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market
bull Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs realizing the technology benefits as you pay
bull Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast efficient access to the most current technology
The positive side of the ldquodo more with lessrdquo mantra Done right less is more Less com-plexity means fewer errors less downtime lower cost of operations and improved simplicity that drives user adoption ndash and improved mission performance
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity go to
Realfor Better Government
2 Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloudbull With little to no infrastructure investment
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources
bull Save on hardware maintenance IT man-agement and facilities cost in addition to software licensing fees
bull Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services
3 Work Without Wallsbull Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce
bull Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located
bull Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies
wwwmicrosoftcomgovcostsavings
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
32THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
stops near local businesses an outreach program to ex-plain how the cityrsquos budget and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair
They are not the first city to undertake the creation of a portal A quick look at Balti-morersquos Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide The salary of every city employee is easily available right next to victim based crime data and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city Parking citation infor-mation addresses of vacant buildings city contractshellip the list goes on and on
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government Having access to data is helpful for businesses policy makers city planners and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it which is why Tucsonrsquos approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising
Tucsonrsquos portal is still in its planning stages and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets It is ex-pected to go live on the cityrsquos website at the end of 2012
BREAKING All the Rules ndash Reinventing Rule Making
An excerpt from the Open Government Status Update The White House reads
On January 18 2011 President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules Section 2 of Executive Order 13563 en-titled ldquoPublic Participationrdquo di-rects agencies to promote an ldquoopen exchange of information and perspectivesrdquo among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process and to provide the public with a ldquomeaningful op-portunityrdquo to comment on pro-posed rules Specifically the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a ldquotimelyrdquo oppor-tunity to comment on proposed and final rules and to make electronic rulemaking dock-ets including the scientific and
technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule available and searchable online Execu-tive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to ldquoseek the views of those likely to be affectedrdquo by a proposed rule including likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule No-tably the Order directs agen-cies to do so before issuing a notice of proposed rulemakingrdquo One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemak-ing Program Management Office recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulationsgov
RULE Making In Focus The Regulationsgov Re-launch
Blog post by Alex Moll Commu-nications Officer eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lationsgov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein the Administra-
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
33STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
ldquoIn response to the Presidentrsquos directionRegulationsgov has launched a major redesign in-cluding innovative new search tools social media connec-tions and better access to regulatory data The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules
The redesign of Regulationsgov also fulfills the Presidentrsquos commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to lsquoimprove public servicesrsquo including to lsquoexpand public participation in the development of regula-tionsrsquo This step is just one of many consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan designed to make our Federal Govern-
ment more transparent par-ticipatory and collaborativerdquoThe eRulemaking Program team which manages Regu-lationsgov regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the Presidentrsquos Executive Or-der 13563 The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes
Emboldened by this fact equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process and empowered with new web tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-
making Overall the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access education ef-ficiency and participation
bull Access Increase the amount breadth and ease of access to rulemaking
bull Education Advance public understanding of the rule-making process
bull Efficiency Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices
bull Participation Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making
Focused on these program goals we relaunch Regula-tionsgov this week with new features and functionality These improvements include the followingbull Navigation Improved
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
34THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to regulatory documents
Moving forward we pursue continuous improvement Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012
IMPROVED Access to Information A Funda-mental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents On March 15 2012 the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman Darrell Issa CA -49) released their ldquoReport Card on Federal Government Effortrsquos to Track
and Manage FOIA Requestsrdquo The report states ldquoUnder FOIA people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments agencies and of-fices federal regulatory agen-cies and federal corporationsrdquo The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966 The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion In 2011 more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency
navigation with a simplified homepagebull Learning New homepage
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process
bull Search New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results
bull Social Media Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook and two-way communication with the public
bull Data Standardization Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies
bull Open Data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
35STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
Learn more at wwwgooglecomfederal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees Our solutions
for search geospatial data and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use quick to deploy fast and scalable
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Googlersquos enterprise
solutions mdash Google Apps for Government
Google Earth amp Maps or the Google
Search Appliance Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions letting
you focus resources on your core missionContact us at federalgooglecom202-346-1100
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
36THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
T E C H N O L O G Y P R O M O T E S A G E N C I E S T O I N N O V A T E
P R O A C T I V E L Y
The traditional view of government is that it is slow moving archaic and changes only when necessary or when a crisis occurs Although economic forces are shaping the current gov-ernment landscape this leaves a lot of room for agencies to innovate With new services and technology available agencies are ex-ploring ways they can do more with less in-crease the use of shared services and explore ways to improve IT to cut costs improve ef-ficiency and drive mission oriented success
SHARED Services Shared Savings
With the current fiscal state of government IT
professionals are tasked to do more with less With this dynamic clear in government agen-cies are looking for ways to streamline efficien-cies optimize services and share resources across the agency One solution to this chal-lenge is implementing more shared services
Shared services can be defined as consolidat-ing functions or services that an agency pro-vides into one unit That unit then becomes the sole provider for other departments across the agency CIOgov lists numerous studies and best practices from the Federal government USDA is a great example of using shared ser-vices to help streamline email One case study
Technology
Innovation
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
37STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
about their efforts states
ldquoIn 2008 USDA was operat-ing numerous separate email systems most with unique functionality and settings The decision to consolidate these systems was driven by sound business practices based in cost operational ef-ficiency and developing a more productive workforce Though the Department had begun to move in the direc-tion of an on-premise solu-tion the option that made the clearest business sense in the end was moving the USDA email system to the cloudrdquo
Throughout this guide numer-ous kinds of technology have been identified which allow agencies to do more with less and help drive innovation and IT reform in government Do-ing more with less is a com-mon trend across all levels of
government As government resources becoming tighter and demands increase gov-ernment is forced to think of creative ways to improve how services are delivered Al-though challenges will always remain with doing more with less there are some common trends that agencies have ad-opted to become more efficient in their service delivery The financial state of government is perilous and now is a time for innovation to help work towards solving the complex problems government faces
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
38THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
ldquoItrsquos great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs but itrsquos also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HPrsquos broad expertise in technol-ogy Itrsquos the best of both worldsrdquo
mdashScott Smith director Informa-tion Systems City of Bristol Conn
creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people busi-
nesses governments and society The worldrsquos largest technology company HP brings together
a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure to
solve customer problems Federal state and local government IT decision makers trust HPrsquos time-
tested legacy of innovation and proven global hardware leadership to help them answer the call
to deliver a more streamlined transparent and secure government through the strategic use of
technology Follow HP Government on Twitter at christinaatHP or on GovLoop at HP for Gov
ldquoHP technology is helping us deliver dramatic changes in the way we do business and serve the public We can deliver services faster and do it more efficiently than ever beforerdquo
mdashDorothy Brown Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerkrsquos Office) Ill
ldquoWersquore getting high quality products and services from an industry lead-er improving our ability to manage the environment and getting more value for our dollar Developing a closer relationship with HP is one of the best decisions wersquove maderdquo
mdashGarry Beaty chief information officer City of Boise Boise Idaho
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
39STATEOFTECHNOLOGY
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S
Navigating the Digital Government Roadmap was written by Pat Fiorenza and designed by Jeff Ribeira and Vanessa Vogel Thank you to everyone in the GovLoop community for their contribution to this guide
Pat Fiorenza GovLoop Research Analyst
Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop GovLoop is an online knowledge network of nearly 60000 government employees In his role Pat is the author of GovLoop guides re-search reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop By authoring this content Pat works to find best practices and identify solutions to help government employees be-come more efficient in their day to day re-sponsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government Pat received his Masters
of Public Administration degree from the Max-well School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jeff Ribeira GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator
Jeff is the Content and Community Coordina-tor at GovLoop and manages all creative and technical development projects
Vanessa Vogel GovLoop Design Fellow
Vanessa is currently a Design Fellow at Gov-Loop She recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
734 15th St NW Suite 500Washington DC 20005Phone (202) 407-7421
Fax (202) 407-7501
