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Related posts:

1. 17 open data apps for San Francisco
2. Gov 2.0 Radio: Engaging app developers with government data
3. Gov 2.0 guide to 311 and Open311

Down YourGOV at iTunes or learn more from Cartegraph.

Screenshots:

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1. i1600PennsylvaniaAvenue: White House launches iPhone app
2. Sunlight whips up Real Time Congress iPhone app
3. Citizens out in force with CitySourced

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1. Government, citizen developers join forces to build new Federal Register 2.0 Website
2. HHS launches Healthcare.gov
3. SF launches PolicySF to help governments share ideas

Engaging app developers with government data: A discussion with Mark Headd, an app developer and former govie, about civic apps. Headd explains Open311 and accessing government services and lowering costs using Twitter, and gives ideas on how to engage developers around government civic apps contests.

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Related posts:

1. Gov 2.0 Radio: Democratizing Data
2. Gov 2.0 Radio: The Promise of Open Data
3. A ‘glass half full’ view of government app contests

There have been lots of musings lately about the payoff for governments that hold such contests and the long term viability of individual entries developed for these contests. Even Washington DC – the birthplace of the current government app contest craze – seems the be moving beyond the framework it has employed not once, but twice to engage local developers:

“I don’t think we’re going to be running any more Apps for Democracy competitions quite in that way,” says Bryan Sivak, who became the district’s chief technology officer in 2009. Sivak calls Apps for Democracy a “great idea” for getting citizen software developers involved with government, but he also hints that the applications spun up by these contests tend to be more “cool” than useful to the average city resident.

App contests abound

This view is starting to crystallize against the backdrop of an ever greater number of app contests being held. At the recent Gov 2.0 Expo in Washington DC, Peter Corbett of iStrategy Labs (who helped launch the first government app contest in DC) gave a presentation that listed several dozen governments around the globe that had recently completed an app contest or were scheduled to soon start one.

And the biggest app contest to date – being sponsored by the State of California – is slated to begin soon. (Two fringe technology companies that you’ve probably never heard of – Google and Microsoft – are set to partner with the Golden State for this 800 pound gorilla of government app contests.)

So if app contests are being used in more and more places, and the size and scope of these contests keeps growing, what’s with all the hand wringing of late?

Lessons learned from app contests

My take on app contests is not an unbiased one. I’ve been a competitor in three different app contests (the original Apps for Democracy, the original Apps for America, and the NYC Big Apps competition) and was recognized for my work in them. Outside of contests, I’ve build applications using open government data and APIs for the cities of Toronto and San Francisco, and for the New York State Senate.

Clearly I am a supporter of the concept of the government app contest.

Having said that, though, I do think that those taking a more skeptical view of app contests are asking some important questions. The government app contest has come a long way since Vivek Kundra was in the driver’s seat in the DC technology office. It’s time to start asking how app contests can be improved.

But before we move on to that discussion, it is worth noting the lessons that have been learned over the last two years or so from government app contests.

First, governments and citizens benefit when high value, high quality data sets are released by governments that are in machine readable formats, easily consumed by third party applications. Believe it or not, there is still debate in many places on this point. App contests prove the theory that publishing open government data provides tangible benefits.

Second, app contests prove that it is possible to engage and excite both developers and high level elected officials about open government data. The cause of open government can’t be anything but well served when these two groups are excited about it, and appealing to both successfully in equal measure is usually very challenging.

Third, and maybe most importantly, government app contests provide sort of a “petri dish” for government officials to see how government data might be used. They let governments solicit ideas from the private sector about the different ways that open data can be used in a manner that is low risk and low cost. Some of the proposed uses of government data that emerge from these contests – whether its tweeting a recorded message to your Congressman, or using an IM client to browse campaign finance data – might never be considered by governments but for them running an app contest.

These lessons aside, there are those who contend that the existence of app contest entries that have languished (or even been abandoned altogether) after a contest is over suggests that an app contest didn’t work well (or as well as it should have). I don’t think this is necessarily the case.

Look at it this way; once a government has decided to publish open data sets and enable the development of one single app by an outside developer, the marginal cost of the next app (from the perspective of government) is essentially zero.

Once a data set has been put into a machine readable format and staged for download so that it can be used by a developer or third party, what is the cost of the next download? Or the next 50, or 100? Essentially nothing.

The road to tech startup profitability and success is a long and hard one, and it’s littered with the hollowed out husks of ideas (some very bad, some very good) that for one reason or another just don’t make it.

Should we be overly concerned that the dynamic of government app contest entries is essentially the same as it is for any other sort of technology startup project? Personally, I don’t think so.

Making app contests better

I do however, think there are some things that government app contests organizers can do a better job on.

Most notably, government engagement with app developers over the long-term has proved to be somewhat challenging. Gunnar Hellekson of Red Hat has observed the same phenomenon:

“..I would think that one of the desired outcomes [of an app contest] was an ongoing community of developers that are producing and maintaining applications like this — whether it’s for love, money, or fame. It would be a shame to see hard work like this die on the vine because we’ve lost the carrot of a cash prize.”

I don’t think this is an issue with developers necessarily – I know there is still lots of excitement around the data sets that have served as the foundation for app contents that are now over. I think the issue is that governments do not always have a plan for post-contest developer engagement.

Once the prizes are given out, and the award ceremony is over, there are no plans or strategies in place to keep developers engaged over the long haul. I do not believe this is an issue of money – not every developer is looking for a cash prize, and there are some good examples of government agencies (MassDOT and BART among them) who do a pretty good job of keeping developers engaged without contests.

I also think that a greater emphasis could be placed in app contests on developing reusable components (as opposed to user-facing solutions) that can be released as open source software and used by anyone to consume data or interact with a government API. I’m talking specifically about things like open source libraries for interacting with the Open311 API – tools and libraries specifically designed to make it easier to use open government data.

The easier it is to use government data and APIs the more people will do it, and the more development of reusable components as a by product of app contest, the less angst there will be about projects that don’t remain viable long-term. If one of the requirements of entry is the use (or reuse) of common components, even contest entries that fizzle out down the road will have made a tangible contribution to the open data effort.

I think with a few simple changes, app contests can continue to be used as an effective tool by governments to encourage the development of cutting edge applications powered by “democratized” government data.

Related posts:

1. Gov 2.0 Radio: Engaging app developers with government data
2. Developers for Glory
3. Government, developers need to build a more structured, scalable approach to leveraging technology

The platform is available to government agencies starting at $5,000/month. You can download a product spec sheet or register for a demo.

CitizenSpigit features list:

• Core Idea Management Platform
• Pricing starting at 5K per month with unlimited users
• Available on the GSA
• Reputation Scores/ Virtual Currency
• Social Media Tools (i.e. Blogs, Wikis, Polls)
• Online Incentives Store
• Standard Reporting
• Idea Markets
• Community Management Services
• Customized site branding

City of Manor CIO Dustin Haisler discusses their use of the CitizenSpigit platform:

Related posts:

1. OpenGover Boss: Better government through employee engagement
2. City of Manor launches Manor Labs to crowdsource innovative ideas
3. How to pick a citizen idea platform

The General Services Administration recently announced it will create FedSpace, a ‘new social intranet for federal employees and contractors.’ The project will be managed by the agency’s Office of Citizen Services and the initial version is expected to launch late summer.

GSA describes it as follows:

FedSpace is a secure intranet and collaboration workspace for Federal employees and contractors. Designed to be “for Feds by Feds”, FedSpace will enable government employees to work collaboratively across agencies, through the use of Web 2.0 technologies like file sharing, wikis, a government–wide employee directory, shared workspaces, blogs, and more.

Gartner analyst Andrea DiMaio has interesting thoughts as to why it’s too late for FedSpace (with spirited and substantial comments). Whether you believe the federal government should create another social network or intranet is another discussion. I understand Andrea’s 30,000-foot assessment, but disagree, mostly because an officially-endorsed government network has huge potential to cut through the open Web clutter and protect the privacy of people who just want to get their jobs done.

FedSpace was inevitable and will survive the test of time, regardless of its success. Longer term (1-2 years), if effectively executed, it will have a huge impact on GovLoop, the largest unofficial social network for government employees. To his credit, GovLoop founder Steve Ressler shared his suggestions for FedSpace.

To learn more about FedSpace, there’s a great FAQ and overview page here.

This is a great opportunity for the federal government to do something creatively epic and have a major impact on the way government works. Below are some questions and recommendations.

Questions:

• What is the budget?
• What will it be developed in?
• Will it be hosted on a government cloud?
• How many people are on the development team?
• What contractor firms are working on the project?
• Who’s the project lead?
• How will success be measured?

Recommendations:

• Change the name. Government needs to stop mimicking dot-com social network branding and get creative. Use a naming contest as an opportunity build interest. While this may seem trivial, branding is a big deal.
• Read Steve Blank’s customer development classic The Four Steps to the Epiphany. Joshua Porter’s Designing for the Social Web is a great reference for non-technical team members and will help others get more excited about the potential.
• Leverage experts outside of the government tech bubble. Smart people are working internally on this project, but engage with in-the-trenches product and marketing development experts from popular commercial networks. Bring them in for brown-bag discussions or video-conference Q&As.
• Start an open blog to chronicle your progress and solicit input. You’ll get free advice and feedback from all sectors, increase project visibility and create a resource for state governments looking to do the same.
• Get serious about marketing it. Its usefulness will determine long-term success, but short-term, you’ll need to get very creative to get 2 million employees actively engaged.

Related posts:

1. FedSpace wants your ideas
2. New feeds and recommendations to President Obama
3. You go gURL: GSA turns on URL shortener Go.USA.gov

NOTE: Site is very much in beta. Pricing and Web copy still needs updating.

What is PageFreezer?

Government websites are actually public records and need to be archived. PageFreezer is a Web service that archives websites, so they can comply to public records laws. However, in case of a legal claim, archiving is not enough. You need to provide proof of data integrity and authenticity. You need to prove that a page was archived on a specific date and that the archived page hasn’t been changed over time.

What problem does it solve?

Government websites, in accordance with the Public Records Law, are considered an official government publication. Information on these sites influences decisions of citizens and businesses. Governments can be held accountable for the information they publish on the Web. Tracking changes on Websites with PageFreezer offers governments trusted, non-refutable evidence in case of liability claims.

What’s the technology behind it?

It’s pretty complex and we’ve been working on it for more than 2 years. PageFreezer uses crawling technology, similar to that of Google, to take snapshots of your website. Archiving is an automated process. Only new pages and changes are archived, saving storage space.

Each page is time stamped with an ANSI X9.95-compliant Time Stamp Authority securely synchronized with the certified atomic clocks of a Stratum-1 Time Server. This trusted, non-refutable time that cannot be altered without detection provides legal proof when the page was actually archived.

Related posts:

1. Next Generation of Government Summit, July 6-7, Arlington, Virginia
2. 10 entrepreneurs changing the way government works
3. Government, citizen developers join forces to build new Federal Register 2.0 Website

What is ‘Emergency Communication 2.0?’

In a nutshell, it’s near real-time location-aware communication between a citizen and its government during an emergency. EC 2.0 systems are an order of magnitude faster than SMS/Voice based solutions due to them leveraging the power of Internet-scale delivery platforms optimized for smartphones and connected devices. They are also extremely resilient, capable of delivering valuable information to the citizen even when networks fail completely. Lastly, they are social network aware, enabling citizens to assemble relief teams and share resources during times of adversity. Trust, timeliness and transparency are the three tenets of EC 2.0.

What is the problem with civilian emergency communication today?

Most offerings today are focused on mass notification over as many information channels as possible. While this successfully raises awareness about a situation, it also raises confusion amongst citizens. Additionally, these solutions don’t take a citizen’s location into account or have a way of additional messages as a situation changes. Lastly, they are all SMS or Voice based leading to multiple dependencies across the communication loop and not enough redundancy. Just take the Times Square bomb threat that occurred recently, instead of cops in the perimeter yelling at people to move out of the danger zone, we could have sent targeted updates to their smartphones creating a friction-free evacuation. We got lucky that day. If that device would have gone off, there would have been absolute chaos and that same evacuation process wouldn’t have worked.

How did CiviGuard form?

We were born out of Singularity University – a program sponsored by NASA and Google to cultivate future technology leaders. About 1,200 students applied for 40 slots in 2009. For our team projects at the end of the program we were given one mission: positively impact the lives of a billion people in a decade. Our team chose to tackle the area of disaster response and zeroed in on the area of emergency notification, crisis reporting and real-time communication. That set the mission for CiviGuard: to build leading-edge technology platforms for the protection of human life in times of crisis.

Why is optimizing for smartphones a viable strategy?

The Nielsen Company predicts smartphones to outnumber feature phones by the third quarter of 2011. That’s not accounting for millions of connected devices leveraging WiFi such as the iPod Touch. By the end of 2011 – we expect the US to have 200 million connected devices and smartphones operational. Additionally – the most populous cities in the US already have smartphone adoption rates that are far higher than the national average – San Francisco and New York City for example are greater than 60% already. For those who haven’t migrated to smartphones, SMS and voice will remain sub-optimal ways of receiving emergency communications.

Wadia interview at Where 2.0 2010

Where 2.0 presentation

Related posts:

1. FedScoop founder Goldy Kamali discusses ‘Developing Communities of Practice in the Government’
2. 10 entrepreneurs changing the way government works
3. YourGOV iPhone app gets the 311, helps citizens report non-emergency issues

For Drupal geeks:

Go.USA.gov is open source, and was developed in Drupal using the theme base Blueprint, Drupal Core, Shorten, Short URL, and TLD restriction modules.

User activity will be monitored to better understand citizen interests and needs. According to GSA, more than 700 public servants across all levels of government have registered to use the service, and more than 3,000 URLs that have been clicked over 450,000 times.

Related posts:

1. Drupal: The New Gov 2.0 Site Builder?
2. Gov 2.0 guide to Drupal
3. USAspending.gov 2.0 gets its money’s worth