Do you have the White House app for your phone?, asks the April 19, 2011 post from the White House Blog. The White House realized some time ago that the use of mobile device applications was on a meteoric rise and that the technology could enable allowed citizens to receive alerts, check out behind-the-scenes photos and videos, and read the latest news from the blog or the Briefing Room. Until this week, the White House app had only been available for the iphone. It is now available to Androids.
The White House has recognized what Federal Computer Week (FCW) sees as a growing trend throughout the federal government. In an April 8, 2011 article, Gov 2.0 on the go: Agencies hit it big with mobile apps, FCW quoted Gwynne Kostin, director of mobile applications at the US General Services Administration's Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, “In some ways, we have probably reached the tipping point for mobile,” said. “It will be exciting to watch.” Federal agencies currently offer more than thirty mobile apps on their USA.gov site, and they are continuing to role out more of these useful resources.
More and more Americans are accessing the Internet through their smart phones and other mobile devices. According to a recent Yahoo study 39 percent of USA residents were in the mobile information loop in 2010 and that is expected to grow to 59 percent by 2014. Financial analysts at Morgan Stanly predict that by 2014 more people will access the Internet on mobile devices than on desktop PCs.
A further step demonstrating the importance the federal government is placing on mobile apps is the launch by The Knight Foundation and the FCC of an Apps for Community competition to develop software applications that deliver personalized, actionable information to people that are least likely to be online. The FCC is offering $100,000 in prizes.
The reason for the advance of mobile app offerings is obvious, citizens want information when and where they need it, and that is more often then not somewhere other than at their desks in front of computers.
Municipal and local governments have begun to use the Internet for to offer services and participation to their citizens. The bulk of these offerings are wedded to computers. Continuing to offer only 'at your desk' resources will situate local governments on the wrong side of the growing curve of mobile use. Citizens now have an increasing expectation not only to access mobile apps for private companies but also for communicating with their local government.
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