36

2.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

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

3.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

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 – Reinventing Rule Making

The digital government strategyDelivering 21st Century Services to

AmericaThe Mobile Revolution

TECHNOLOGY PROMOTES AGENCIES TO INNOVATE PROACTIVELYShared Services, Shared Savings

14

4.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

GovLoop’s 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 60,000 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 D.C 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 1,000 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.

5.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

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 “do more with less.”

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

6.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

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

_________________________________________

7.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

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 Obama’s Adminis-tration has been encourag-ing federal agencies to adopt cloud technologies through the Federal Government’s 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.

8.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

(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___________________

___________________

___________________

_______________________________________________

____________________

1234567897891067891012345

234567891012345678910678967891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

_________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

_________________________________

__________

_______________

8910123456789106

1234567891012345678910

1234567891012345678910

012345678910 8

67891012345678910 89678910

67891012345678910 89678910

6789101234567

6789101234567

67891012345678910

67891012345678910

67891012345678910

672345234567891067891012345678910

234567891012345

234567891012345

23456789101234567

123456789101234567

123456789101234567

01234567

7891012345678956789101234567891

56789101234567891

89678

89678

9.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

For more information, visit oracle.com or call 1.800.ORACLE1

ORACLE (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world’s most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems company. With more than 370,000 customers—includ-ing 100 of the Fortune 100—in 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. Oracle’s 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 storage—all based on open standards—to work together in the cloud and in your data center.

Big Data SolutionsBusiness Intelligence and Reporting ApplicationsCase Management and CRM SolutionsCloud ComputingData Center Transformation

Enterprise Security SolutionsFinancial Management SolutionsHuman Capital Management SolutionsIntegrated Workplace Management SolutionOracle DatabaseProcurement ApplicationsPublic Sector Planning and BudgetingServer and Storage SystemsTax and Revenue Management SolutionsVirtualization PortfolioSecurity Solutions

Oracle Public Sector Sector ResourcesOracle Public Sector Resource CenterOracle Solutions for Public SectorUsing Oracle to Ease the Transition to Moderniza-

tionRecruit, Develop and Deploy PersonnelImprove Efficiency and Responsiveness at All Lev-

els of GovernmentOracle Social Services: A Complete Platform for

Integrated Program DeliveryOracle’s Cloud Solutions for Public SectorPublic Sector Defense Solutions

Oracle Offers the Public Sector Measurable ResultsCity of Las Vegas Saves up to $1.7 Million in Con-

sulting Costs for IT Infrastructure Upgrade State of Maryland Government Agencies Improve

Inter-Agency Collaboration through a Shared Services Business Intelligence Environment

State of Indiana Standardizes Financial Systems State-wide to Improve Efficiency and Transparency

Federal Aviation Administration Improves Perfor-mance and Scalability of Shared Services Center Database

The Forestry Commission Reduces Testing Time for Online Services by 80% and Improves System Stabil-ity

U.S. Air Force Capabilities Integration Environment Meets Extreme Growth Demands with Virtualization

The United States Marine Corps Deploys Compre-hensive Oracle Solution to Create a Global Combat Support System

More Oracle Public Sector Case Studies

10.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

___________________________________________________________

_________________________________ _______________________________________

____

____

____

__

____

____

____

___

____

____

____

____

___

____

____

____

____

____

__

____

____

____

____

_

Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)

F

FedRAMP.gov states the fol-lowing program goals:

Accelerate the adoption of secure cloud solutions through reuse of assess-ments and authorizations

Increase confidence in se-curity of cloud solutions

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

Ensure consistent applica-tion of existing security practices

Increase confidence in security assessments

Increase automation and near real-time data for continuous monitoring

FedRAMP.gov states the following program benefits:

Increases re-use of exist-ing security assessments across agencies

Saves significant cost, time and resources – “do once, use many times”

Improves real-time secu-rity visibility

Provides a uniform ap-proach to risk-based man-

agement

Enhances transparency between government and cloud service providers (CSPs)

Improves the trustworthi-ness, reliability, consis-tency, and quality of the Federal security authoriza-tion process

Key FedRAMP Documentation (Resource list provided from CIO.gov)

FedRAMP Security Con-trols: The baseline controls required for FedRAMP security assessments and authorizations.

FedRAMP CONOPS: The FedRAMP Program Man-agement Office’s Concept of Operations for FedRAM

FedRAMP JAB Charter - The Joint Authorization Board’s Charter detailing roles and responsibilities and gover-nance.

OMB Policy Memo – OMB policy guidance on issues ffecting FedRAMP

FedRAMP FAQs – provides answers to most questions about FedRAMP

For questions regarding FedRAMP:info@FedRAMP.gov.

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 Administration’s “Cloud First” strategy, de-tailed by the memorandum re-leased on December 8th, 2011.

_________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

11.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

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 6,750 fa-cility and free up $1.7 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 1,080 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.

12.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

Securing Infrastructure in an Increasingly Digital Envi-ronment - Cyber Security

In a White House blog post, President Obama stated, “Cy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation” and that “America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber security.”

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

13.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas:

· Cloud Computing

· Data Center Consolidation

· Cyber Security

· Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)

· Telework

· 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 company’s 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 www.cisco.com/go/usgov

14.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

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, “I want us to ask ourselves every day, how are we using technology to make a real difference in people’s lives?” 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

15.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

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 TechCrunch’s 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 data.gov 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 API’s

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 Obama’s memorandum reads, “Innovators 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 online.”

GovLoop’s 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

16.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

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 consumers.During 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:

“The 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 talent.”

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 “data”) 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 websites,16 mobile applications, or other modes of delivery

These three layers separate information creation from information presentation—allowing 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: govdelivery.com email: info@govdelivery.com call: 866-276-5583

facebook.com/govdeliveryreachthepublic.com youtube.com/govdelivery@govdelivery govloop.com

Within the first six months of the [website’s] launch, the [State of Indiana] saw a return on investment between $200,000 and $250,000 through reduced postage, printing and mailing costs, and the state has seen annual savings of nearly $200,000.

- Robert Paglia, Director, Indiana Department of Technology and IN.gov

“Within one hour, we generated more revenue than we did in weeks with the old method. People here were elated – we had reduced a truckload of work processing checks as well as printing and mailing costs.”

- Margie Damgaard, Web Division Coordinator, Wisconsin DNR

The U.S. 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 103,000 subscribers, sending more than 2.4 million messages. The Census’s overall communications effectiveness saved $1.87 billion in taxpayer money.

- U.S. 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.

18.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

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 PMF’s, 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, “There has been a groundswell of interest in the Presidential Innovation Fellows program, with 700 ap-plicants for Fellows positions, and over 4,000 people in total expressing interest in follow-ing (and contributing to) their progress.”

The Presidential Innovation Fellows program has five proj-ects that launched in 2012, the website states the goal of the project is “To 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 Americans.”

The five projects are MyGov, which the White House briefly describes as, “Reimagine 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 people.”

The second program men-tioned is, Open Data Initia-tives, described as, “Stimulate a rising tide of innovation and entrepreneurship that utilizes government data to create tools that help Americans in numerous ways – e.g., 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 recalled.”

The third is the extremely suc-cessful Blue Button Initiative by the VA. The White House states, “[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 – that can improve their health and healthcare.”

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, “Build 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 solutions.”

The final program of the Presi-dential Innovation Fellows program is the 20% Campaign, which looks to “Create 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 methods.”

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, it’s 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 API’s, improved data, technology standards, IT re-form is about a combination of all services, which will help

19.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

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:

> Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service)

> Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient, Effec-tive, and Accountable Govern-ment)

> The President’s Memoran-dum on Transparency and Open Government

> OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Direc-tive)

> The National Strategy for

Trusted Identities in Cyber-space (NSTIC)

> 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-istration’s 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 2,000 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 “right” 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.

20.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

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 nation’s 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 can’t 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. />

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 citizen’s 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 citizen’s 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 – BYOD & 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

21.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

The world isn’t 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 ibm.com/

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

(1.2MB)

Available contracts

���US Federal contracts

���Canadian contracts

Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members:

Frank Stein- fstein@us.ibm.com

Nathan Greenhut- nrgreenh@us.ibm.com

22.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

23.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

24.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

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, “value.” 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

25.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

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.

GovLoop’s 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. “We 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 occur.”

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

26.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

Best Practice\\ Eval-uate Your Personnel/Workforce

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.

27.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utah.gov. Vanessa states, “BEST http://utah.gov/index.html This web-site is my personal favorite. The website is well designed, clean, simple, easy to navigate, and organized. There’s 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 that’s hard to read, utah.gov 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 me!”

1\\ Department of EnergyBuilt on Drupal, energy.gov 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 energy.gov 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, “My state’s .gov website, Arkansas.gov, was named #1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awards!”

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 won’t 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-Loop’s top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites.

28.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

phy, localized search returns, clean navigation (which per-sists as you scroll), and great presentation of data, energy.gov really is at the forefront of government websites

Chris Stinson stated on Gov-Loop:“I tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there, so please don’t 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 what’s happening in the local area, not what’s happening in government.

And keep the pictures & 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 you’ve deemed important items, they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places

that don’t 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)

http://www.weho.org/ (very colorful! great small site)

I might be a little harsh, but I (and I believe most people, who’s job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website, that has nothing but government.”

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 “de-sign by committee” 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 comparison’s sake. It’s

29.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

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 whitehouse.gov 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 don’t disappoint. They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize, and they’ve 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 (I’m 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

30.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

“What 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 time.” – Dennis Stransky

them interact freely in many instances. It’s a huge logistical and developmental challenge and that makes their very basic, yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive. From a user’s 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. I’m ex-cited to see how this agency’s website continues to evolve.

After scouring just about every government agency’s website, there were a decent amount that had pretty impressive design and usability. The fol-lowing are the government websites that didn’t 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 MentionsThe House of Representa-tivesThe Department of JusticeThe Small Business Admin-istrationThe Department of the TreasuryThe 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 Arizona’s second largest city.

‘OPEN Tucson’ to Drive Better Decisions

As of last month, the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayor’s office to create a public open data portal on the mayor’s website. Their projects include: opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to

31.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

3 Ways Microsoft Can help

1. Use What You Already OwnIf you’re government organization has a Microsoft enterprise license agreement, you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market.Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs, realizing the technology benefits as you pay.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 “do more with less” 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 – 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 CloudWith little to no infrastructure investment, you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources.Save on hardware, maintenance, IT man-agement, and facilities cost, in addition to software licensing fees.Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services.

3. Work Without WallsTelework solutions can help reduce travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce.Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located.Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies.

www.microsoft.com/govcostsavings

32.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

stops near local businesses, an outreach program to ex-plain how the city’s 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-more’s 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 contracts… 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 Tucson’s approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising.

Tucson’s 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 city’s website at the end of 2012.

BREAKING All the Rules – 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 “Public Participation,” di-rects agencies to promote an “open exchange of information and perspectives” among all stakeholders during the regula-tory process, and to provide the public with a “meaningful op-portunity” to comment on pro-posed rules. Specifically, the Or-der directs agencies to provide the public with a “timely” 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 “seek the views of those likely to be affected” 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 rulemaking.” 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 Regulations.gov.

RULE Making In Focus: The Regulations.gov Re-launch

Blog post by, Alex Moll, Commu-nications Officer, eRulemaking Program Management Office

Yesterday, the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lations.gov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein, the Administra-

33.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA):

“In response to the President’s direction,Regulations.gov 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 Regulations.gov also fulfills the President’s commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to ‘improve public services,’ including to ‘expand public participation in the development of regula-tions.’ 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 collaborative.”The eRulemaking Program team, which manages Regu-lations.gov, 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 President’s 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.

Access: Increase the amount, breadth, and ease of access to rulemaking.Education: Advance public understanding of the rule-making process. Efficiency: Sharpen pro-cesses for smarter gover-nance via docket manage-ment best practices. Participation: Build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making.

Focused on these program goals, we relaunch Regula-tions.gov this week with new features and functionality. These improvements include the following:

Navigation: Improved

34.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

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 “Report Card on Federal Government Effort’s to Track

and Manage FOIA Requests.” The report states “Under 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 corporations.” 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 homepage.

Learning: New homepage tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by category and learn about the regulatory process.Search: New sorting and filtering functions help change and refine search results.Social Media: Better con-nections to Twitter and Facebook, and two-way communication with the public.Data Standardization: Con-sistent use of the Regula-tion Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and de-scriptions across Federal agencies.Open Data: Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly

35.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

Learn more at www.google.com/federal

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 Google’s enterprise

solutions — Google Apps for Government,

Google Earth & Maps, or the Google

Search Appliance. Google helps take the

hassle out of managing IT solutions, letting

you focus resources on your core mission.

Contact us at: federal@google.com

202-346-1100

36.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

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. CIO.gov 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

37.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

about their efforts states:

“In 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 cloud.”

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.

38.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE

“It’s great to have HP partners at hand for my day-to-day needs, but it’s also incredibly valuable to have access to a company with HP’s broad expertise in technol-ogy. It’s the best of both worlds.”

—Scott 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 world’s 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 HP’s 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.

“HP 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 before.”

—Dorothy Brown, Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County (Clerk’s Office), Ill.

“We’re 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 we’ve made.”

—Garry Beaty, chief information officer, City of Boise, Boise, Idaho

39.STATEOFTECHNOLOGY

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 60,000 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