US Government`s Digital Strategy: A new way of Democracy
Just
as I went across President Barack Obama's words: “I want us to ask ourselves every
day, how are we using technology to make a real difference in people’s lives”
I questioned myself that how in contemporary world awash with evolution of
cloud computing, smarter mobile devices and collaboration tools is it possible
for state and local governments to walk hand in hand with rapid advancements in
technology. Digital government has emerged as both an opportunity and a
challenge. Unprecedentedly the Federal Government is expected to be a service
provider of digital information and services without any constraints of time
and place.
My
question was answered when I read about the digital strategy formulated by the
U.S. for delivering e-services safely, securely and with minimum resources. In
the wake of rapidly advancing technology it is anticipated that in United
States mobile broadband subscriptions will cross a figure of 5 billion globally
in 2016 as compared to 1 billion in 2011 and by 2015, more Americans will
access internet through mobile devices than desktop PCs. Therefore the U.S.
Federal Government seeks to make data and content easily and efficiently
accessible to citizens the Federal government will chalk out an open data,
content and web API policy for all new systems.. Secondly as part of an
effective and affordable implementation strategy it would make existing
high-value data and content available through web APIs. Thirdly, to facilitate
the American citizens with better digital services at low costs it would establish
a Digital Services Innovation Center and Advisory Group to develop shared
solutions and infrastructure that addresses the content needs of all agencies
of the Federal Government through source code sharing tools, language translation,
video captioning, web hosting, usability and accessibility testing, and
security architectures. Fourthly, the US government would establish Intra-Agency
Governance to improve delivery of digital services by streamlining processes
that gauge performance and deliver quality content.
At present the Federal Government's expenditure on
mobile and wireless services is around $1.2 billion annually. These figures can
increase tremendously if agencies switch to an enterprise-wide asset management
and procurement model that may assist to expedite adoption of new mobile
technologies. The government must make concerted efforts to provide improved
digital services by employing modern tools and technologies through
collaboration of Digital Services Advisory Group and Federal Web Managers
Council.
In a world where cell has become part and parcel
of the US citizens` lives who use it for almost every daily chores from wake up
alarm clock to maintaining daily schedules. E-government applications and
implementation of above initiatives would serve as paradigm shift indeed in the
way a government serves people by help citizens to have access to government
information and services through mobile platforms. After all technology begets
technology.
References
References
http://www.state.gov/digitalstrategy/
http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/140871?utm_source=OCSIT&utm_medium=print-radio&utm_term=digitalstrategy&utm_campaign=shortcuts
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