Deliverables

This page highlights deliverables released to date through the Digital Government Strategy. For a full list of upcoming deliverables, please visit the Strategy Milestones page.

Digital Government Spotlight

Agencies are making great strides towards putting a solid foundation for a 21st Century Digital Government in place. Here we shine a light on some great examples of agencies working to open up data sets and services so that they are available “anywhere, anytime, on any device” – a key goal of the Digital Government Strategy.

“America’s Economy” Mobile App and the Census API: The Census Bureau recently released its first mobile app, called “America’s Economy,” which mashes up Census data with economic statistics from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics and provides the latest economic indicators that drive business hiring, sales, and production decisions throughout the nation in near real time. Economists, planners, business owners, and the public can use the app to get a quick and easy snapshot of the health of the U.S. economy, look at trends, and receive notifications when indicators change. But as powerful as the app is, just as powerful is the way Census is releasing the underlying data through its first publicly available application programming interface (API).

The Census API, which pulls from the American Community Survey and the 2010 Census, has yielded an unprecedented level of interest from citizen developers. In the first three weeks since its release, over 800 external developers accessed the API, and users generated over 24 million data requests. And as an indication of how valuable and accessible this data is, it took only 24 hours for the first third-party app.

AIDS.gov: An existing health resource website that offers basic facts about HIV/AIDS; information on federal HIV/AIDS policies, programs, and resources; and guidance on using new media to enhance HIV/AIDS programs. The Department of Health and Human Services recently relaunched AIDS.gov using responsive design. ,. Responsive web design is a next-generation web development method of designing content so that it automatically adjusts to the size of the device that accesses the information. Since smartphones, tablets, computers, TVs, and video game consoles all have different content display capabilities, use of responsive web design ensures that a site’s content is equally accessible via all devices without adding the extra cost of designing and maintaining separate “standard” and “mobile” sites.

AIDS.gov is among the first full-scale federal websites launched using responsive design, one of the modern tools and technologies that the Digital Government Strategy advocates as way to deliver better digital services “anywhere, anytime, on any device.”

Agency Deliverables

The President directed Federal agencies to launch a page on their websites to publicly report progress in meeting the requirements of the Strategy in a machine-readable format. Agencies launched their /digitalstrategy pages, which will be the repository for updated progress, on August 23, 2012. Agencies will continue to update them as they complete the Strategy milestones. For example, consistent with Milestone Actions #2.1 and #7.1, agencies have posted candidate data sets and services to open up so that they are available “anywhere, anytime, on any device.”

Links to each of the agency pages and information for developers can be found at the Digital Services Innovation Center’s website: http://gsablogs.gsa.gov/dsic/agency-digital-strategy-pages/

Tools and Resources

These Digital Government Strategy deliverables are aimed at scaling existing best practices across government and providing agencies with the tools they need to successfully implement the Strategy principles.

Name: Digital Services Innovation Center (Milestone Action #3.1)

Description: To operationalize the principle of “build once, use many times”, the General Services Administration has established a Digital Services Innovation Center to help improve the government’s delivery of digital services. The Innovation Center will work with agencies to establish shared solutions and training to support infrastructure and content needs across the Federal Government. The Innovation Center will function as a cooperative enterprise that draws on resources from across government and leverages the expertise of forward-leaning agencies.

Link: http://gsablogs.gsa.gov/dsic/

Name: Digital Services Advisory Group (Milestone Action #3.2)

Description: Drawing on leaders from across government, the Digital Services Advisory Group will advise the Federal CIO on implementation of the strategy and pursue a threefold mission: (1) help prioritize shared services needs for the Digital Services Innovation Center, (2) foster the sharing of existing policies and best practices, and (3) identify and recommend changes to help close gaps in policy and standards.

Link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/digitalgov/advisory-group

Name: Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) Toolkit (Milestone Action #3.3)

Description:  As part of its mission to promote cross-agency sharing of mobile workforce solutions, the Digital Services Advisory Group worked with the Federal CIO Council to develop a BYOD toolkit for agencies contemplating implementation of BYOD programs. By exploring options to increase the mobility of government workers, the Administration can save taxpayer dollars and improve its service to the American people. The toolkit includes key considerations, best practices, and examples of existing policies from successful BYOD programs launched at forward-leaning agencies.

Link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/digitalgov/bring-your-own-device (html) and http://www.cio.gov/byod-toolkit.pdf (pdf)

Name: Digital Services Governance Recommendations(Milestone Action #4.1)

Description: As part of its mission to promote cross-agency sharing of best practices in the delivery of digital services, the Digital Services Advisory Group worked with the U.S. CIO Council and Federal Web Managers Council to develop recommendations on how agencies can stand up effective digital services governance structures consistent with Milestone Action #4.2. Recognizing that governance is a means to an end, the recommendations highlight opportunity areas for agencies to deliver better services at a lower cost.

Link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/digitalgov/digital-services-governance-recommendations (html) and http://www.cio.gov/digital-services-governance-recommendations.pdf (pdf)

Name: Performance Measurement Guidance and Tools (Milestone Action #8.1)

Description: To enable data-driven decisions on service performance, Milestone Action #8.2 of the Digital Government Strategy requires agencies to start using performance and customer satisfaction measurement tools on all .gov websites. To help these efforts, the Digital Services Innovation Center has identified guidance for common measures and tools that will enable aggregation of this data at the federal level. Common measures and tools will give us the ability – for the first time – to take a government-wide view of how well we serve our customers and open up new possibilities for consolidating and improving the federal web space.

Link: http://howto.gov/digital-metrics

Name: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Report on Mobile Security (Milestone Action #10.1)

Description: To help agencies navigate the rapidly changing space of mobile security, NIST has released a report on their current work in mobile security and how NIST standards and guidelines are evolving to meet the challenge. The report includes summaries of forthcoming publications on managing and securing mobile devices and information on how NIST’s standards and guidelines should be used in the mobile landscape.

Link: http://csrc.nist.gov/