Presidential Memo 5-23-12, Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People

DIGITAL GOVERNMENT:

BUILDING A 21
CENTURY PLATFORM
TO BETTER SERVE THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE
ST

MAY 23, 2012

Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Part A. Information-Centric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1. Make Open Data, Content, and Web APIs the New Default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2. Make Existing High-Value Data and Content Available through Web APIs . . . . . . . . 11
Part B. Shared Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3. Establish a Digital Services Innovation Center and Advisory Group . . . . . . . . . . 13
4. Establish Intra-Agency Governance to Improve Delivery of Digital Services . . . . . . . 15
5. Shift to an Enterprise-Wide Asset Management and Procurement Model . . . . . . . . 16
Part C. Customer-Centric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6. Deliver Better Digital Services Using Modern Tools and Technologies . . . . . . . . . . 19
7. Improve Priority Customer-Facing Services for Mobile Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
8. Measure Performance and Customer Satisfaction to Improve Service Delivery . . . . . . 22
Part D. Security and Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
9. Promote the Safe and Secure Adoption of New Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
10. Evaluate and Streamline Security and Privacy Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Appendix: Roadmap Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

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Introduction
“I want us to ask ourselves every day, how are
we using technology to make a real difference in
people’s lives.” —President Barack Obama
Mission drives agencies, and the need to deliver better services to customers at a lower cost—whether an
agency is supporting the warfighter overseas, a teacher
seeking classroom resources or a family figuring out
how to pay for college—is pushing every level of government to look for new solutions.

The Speed of Digital Information
When a 5.9 earthquake hit near Richmond,
Virginia on August 23rd, 2011, residents
in New York City read about the quake on
Twitter feeds 30 seconds before they experienced the quake themselves.

Today’s amazing mix of cloud computing, ever-smarter
mobile devices, and collaboration tools is changing
the consumer landscape1 and bleeding into government as both an opportunity and a challenge. New
expectations require the Federal Government to be ready to deliver and receive digital information2 and
services3 anytime, anywhere and on any device. It must do so safely, securely, and with fewer resources.
To build for the future, the Federal Government needs a Digital Strategy that embraces the opportunity
to innovate more with less, and enables entrepreneurs to better leverage government data to improve
the quality of services to the American people.
Early mobile adopters in government—like the early web adopters—are beginning to experiment in pursuit of innovation. Some have created products that leverage the unique capabilities of mobile devices.
Others have launched programs and strategies and brought personal devices into the workplace. Absent
coordination, however, the work is being done in isolated, programmatic silos within agencies.
Building for the future requires us to think beyond programmatic lines. To keep up with the pace of
change in technology, we need to securely architect our systems for interoperability and openness
from conception. We need to have common standards and more rapidly share the lessons learned by
early adopters. We need to produce better content and data, and present it through multiple channels
in a program and device-agnostic4 way. We need to adopt a coordinated approach to ensure privacy
and security in a digital age.
1.  Source for “The Speed of Digital Information”: http://mashable.com/2011/08/23/virginia-earthquake/. Sources for
“The Rapidly Changing Mobile Landscape”: http://hugin.info/1061/R/1561267/483187.pdf, http://www.idc.com/
getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23028711, http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Smartphone-Update-2012/Findings.
aspx, http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/02/07/idc-smartphone-shipment-numbers-passed-pc-in-q4-2010/.
2.  Digital information is information that the government provides digitally. Information, as defined in OMB Circular
A-130, is any communication or representation of knowledge such as facts, data, or opinions in any medium or form,
including textual, numerical, graphic, cartographic, narrative, or audiovisual forms. See http://www.whitehouse.gov/
omb/circulars_a130_a130trans4 for more information.
3.  Digital services include the delivery of digital information (i.e. data or content) and transactional services (e.g. online
forms, benefits applications) across a variety of platforms, devices and delivery mechanisms (e.g. websites, mobile
applications, and social media).
4.  Device-agnostic means a service is developed to work regardless of the user’s device, e.g. a website that works
whether viewed on a desktop computer, laptop, smartphone, media tablet or e-reader.

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These imperatives are not new, but many of the
solutions are. We can use modern tools and technologies to seize the digital opportunity and fundamentally change how the Federal Government
serves both its internal and external customers—
building a 21st century platform to better serve the
American People.

The Rapidly Changing Mobile Landscape
• Mobile broadband subscriptions are expected
to grow from nearly 1 billion in 2011 to over 5
billion globally in 2016.
• By 2015, more Americans will access the
Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs.
• As of March 2012, 46% of American adults
were smartphone owners – up from 35% in
May 2011.
• In 2011, global smartphone shipments
exceeded personal computer shipments for
the first time in history.

Strategy Objectives
The Digital Government Strategy sets out to accomplish three things:
•• Enable the American people and an increasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality
digital government information and services anywhere, anytime, on any device.
Operationalizing an information-centric model, we can architect our systems for interoperability
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 affordable
ways.
Learning from the previous transition of moving information and services online, we now
have an opportunity to break free from the inefficient, costly, and fragmented practices of the
past, build a sound governance structure 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 services for the American people.
We must enable the public, entrepreneurs, and our own government programs to better leverage the rich wealth of federal data to pour into applications and services by ensuring that data
is open and machine-readable by default. 

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About this Document
The Digital Government Strategy complements several initiatives aimed at building a 21st century government that works better for the American people. These include Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining
Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service),5 Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient,
Effective, and Accountable Government),6 the President’s Memorandum on Transparency and Open
Government,7 OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Directive),8 the National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC),9 and the 25-Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal
Information Technology Management (IT Reform).10
Through IT Reform, the Federal Government has made progress in foundational execution areas such
as adopting “light technologies” (e.g. cloud computing), shared services (e.g. commodity IT), modular
approaches for IT development and acquisition, and improved IT program management. The strategy
leverages this progress while focusing on the next key priority area that requires government-wide
action: innovating with less to deliver better digital services. It specifically draws upon the overall approach
to increase return on IT investments, reduce waste and duplication, and improve the effectiveness of IT
solutions defined in the Federal Shared Services Strategy.11
The Digital Government Strategy incorporates a broad range of input from government practitioners,
the public, and private-sector experts. Two cross-governmental working groups—the Mobility Strategy
and Web Reform Task Forces—provided guidance and recommendations for building a digital government. These groups worked with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and General Services
Administration (GSA) to conduct current state research (e.g. the December 2011 State of the Federal
Web Report12) and explore solutions for the future of government digital services. Feedback was also
incorporated from citizens and federal workers across the nation using online public dialogues, including
the September 2011 National Dialogue on Improving Federal Websites and the January 2012 National
Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy which produced a combined total of 570 ideas and nearly 2,000
comments.13

5.  http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/04/27/executive-order-streamlining-service-delivery-andimproving-customer-ser
6.  http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/06/13/executive-order-13576-delivering-efficient-effective-andaccountable-gov
7.  http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-06.pdf
8.  http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Transparency_and_Open_Government
9.  http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/NSTICstrategy_041511.pdf
10.  http://www.cio.gov/documents/25-Point-Implementation-Plan-to-Reform-Federal%20IT.pdf
11.  http://www.cio.gov/documents/Shared_Services_Strategy.pdf
12.  The State of the Federal Web Report, released in December 2011, was created based on agency-provided
information and can be found at http://www.usa.gov/webreform/state-of-the-web.pdf.
13.  The National Dialogues are archived at http://web-reform-dialogue.ideascale.com/ (Improving Federal Websites) and
http://mobility-strategy.ideascale.com/ (Federal Mobility Strategy).

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Conceptual Model
Before discussing how we will build a 21st century digital government, we must first establish a conceptual model that acknowledges the three “layers” of digital services (see Figure 1).
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.14
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 Programming Interface)15
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).

“Customers”
American
People

Govt Digital
Services
(Websites &
Applications)

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 information (e.g., data or content)
digitally, whether through websites,16 mobile
applications, or other modes of delivery.

Employees

Private Sector
Digital Services
(Websites &
Applications)

Systems, Processes,
Management & Web APIs

Open Data & Content
(Information)

Presentation
Layer

Platform
Layer

Information
Layer

Security & Privacy
These three layers separate information creation from information presentation—allowFigure 1: The Layers of Digital Services
ing 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.

14.  For the purposes of this document, the term “content” will refer to all unstructured information, while the term “data”
will refer to all structured information unless otherwise noted.
15.  Web APIs are a system of machine-to-machine interaction over a network. Web APIs involve the transfer of data, but
not a user interface.
16.  A website is the hosted content on a domain, which has a unique homepage and global navigation, e.g., NASA.v is
a domain, but www.nasa.gov and jpl.nasa.gov are both websites on that domain.

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Strategy Principles
To drive this transformation, the strategy is built upon four overarching principles:
•• An “Information-Centric” approach—Moves us from managing “documents” to managing
discrete pieces of open data and content17 which can be tagged, shared, secured, mashed up
and presented in the way that is most useful for the consumer of that information.
•• A “Shared Platform” approach—Helps us work together, both within and across agencies, to
reduce costs, streamline development, apply consistent standards, and ensure consistency in
how we create and deliver information.
••  A “Customer-Centric” approach—Influences how we create, manage, and present data
through websites, mobile applications, raw data sets, and other modes of delivery, and allows
customers to shape, share and consume information, whenever and however they want it.
•• A platform of “Security and Privacy”—Ensures this innovation happens in a way that ensures
the safe and secure delivery and use of digital services to protect information and privacy.

Information-Centric
The Federal Government must fundamentally shift how it thinks about digital information. Rather
than thinking primarily about the final presentation—publishing web pages, mobile applications or
brochures—an information-centric approach focuses on ensuring our data and content are accurate,
available, and secure. We need to treat all content as data18—turning any unstructured content into
structured data—then ensure all structured data are associated with valid metadata.19 Providing this
information through web APIs helps us architect for interoperability and openness, and makes data
assets freely available for use within agencies, between agencies, in the private sector, or by citizens.
This approach also supports device-agnostic security and privacy controls, as attributes can be applied
directly to the data and monitored through metadata, enabling agencies to focus on securing the data
and not the device.

17.  Open data and content for the purposes of this document refers to digital information that is structured and
exposed in a way that makes it accessible for meaningful use beyond its system of origin, be that internal to the
government or external to the public. This builds upon the definition of “openness” in OMB Memorandum M-10-06
(Open Government Directive), which specifically addresses the release of information to the public: “Agencies shall
respect the presumption of openness by publishing information online…To the extent practicable and subject to
valid restrictions, agencies should publish information online in an open format that can be retrieved, downloaded,
indexed, and searched by commonly used web search applications. An open format is one that is platform
independent, machine readable, and made available to the public without restrictions that would impede the reuse of that information.” See http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/documents/open-government-directive for more
information.
18.  To treat content as data and turn unstructured content into structured data, web-based documents must be created
as pieces of structured information. For example, a fact sheet may be broken into the following component data
pieces: the title, body text, images, and related links.
19.  Metadata are information used to describe certain attributes of a piece of digital information, such as page title,
author, date updated, and other classifications. Consistent quality metadata tagging can improve search results and
also be used to structure content so that it can be more widely disseminated.

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In production, the information-centric approach ensures all agencies follow the same “rules of the road”
by using open standards. It also guides how we present information, from mobile applications to websites, and allows for increased automation at the presentation layer. If done right, the information-centric
approach will add reach and value to government services by helping to surface the best information
and making it widely available through a variety of useful formats.

Shared Platform
To make the most use of our resources and “innovate with less”, we need to share more effectively, both
within the government and with the public. We also need to share capacities to build the systems and
processes that support our efforts, and be smart about creating new tools, applications, systems, websites and domains. Ultimately, a shared platform approach to developing and delivering digital services
and managing data not only helps accelerate the adoption of new technologies, but also lowers costs
and reduces duplication. To do so, we need to rapidly disseminate lessons learned from early adopters,
leverage existing services and contracts, build for multiple use cases at once, use common standards
and architectures, participate in open source communities, leverage public crowdsourcing, and launch
shared government-wide solutions and contract vehicles.20

Customer-Centric
From how we create information, to the systems we use to manage it, to how we organize and present it, we must focus on our customers’ needs. Putting the customer first means quality information is
accessible, current and accurate at any time whether the customer is in the battle field, the lab, or the
classroom. It means coordinating across agencies to ensure when citizens and employees interact with
government information and services, they can find what they need and complete transactions with a
level of efficiency that rivals their experiences when engaging with the private-sector.
The customer-centric principle charges us to do several things: conduct research to understand the
customer’s business, needs and desires; make content more broadly available and accessible and present
it through multiple channels in a program- and device-agnostic way; make content more accurate and
understandable by maintaining plain language and content freshness standards; and offer easy paths
for feedback to ensure we continually improve service delivery. The customer-centric principle holds
true whether our customers are internal (e.g. the civilian and military federal workforce in both classified
and unclassified environments) or external (e.g. individual citizens, businesses, research organizations,
and state, local, and tribal governments).

Security and Privacy
As the Federal Government builds for the future, it must do so in a safe and secure, yet transparent and
accountable manner. Architecting for openness and adopting new technologies have the potential to
make devices and data vulnerable to malicious or accidental breaches of security and privacy. They also

20.  A shared solution is a service such as web hosting, application support, or a content management system, provided
by a single agency or organization, but used by many. For example, a central hosting platform that allows multiple
agencies to host their web content rather than procuring separate infrastructure for each new project.

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create challenges in providing adequate notice of a user’s rights and options when providing personally
identifiable information (PII).
Moving forward, we must strike a balance between the very real need to protect sensitive government
and citizen assets given the realities of a rapidly changing technology landscape. To support information sharing and collaboration, we must build in security, privacy, and data protection throughout the
entire technology life cycle. To promote a common approach to security and privacy, we must streamline
assessment and authorization processes, and support the principle of “do once, use many times”. We must
also adopt new solutions in areas such as continuous monitoring, identity, authentication, and credential
management, and cryptography that support the shift from securing devices to securing the data itself
and ensure that data is only shared with authorized users. When appropriate, requirements and solutions should be collaboratively developed with industry to match Federal Government needs, using
the power of innovation and economies of scale to deliver better-value security and privacy products.

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Part A. Information-Centric
The rich wealth of information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset with tremendous potential value to the public, entrepreneurs, and to our own government programs. This
information takes many forms. It can be unstructured content (e.g. press releases, help documents,
or how-to guides) or more structured data (e.g. product safety databases, census results, or airline
on-time records). Regardless of form, to harness its value to the fullest extent possible, we must adopt
an information-centric approach to digital services by securely architecting for interoperability and
openness from the start.
Traditionally, the government has architected systems
(e.g. databases or applications) for specific uses at specific
points in time. The tight coupling of presentation and
information has made it difficult to extract the underlying
information and adapt to changing internal and external
needs. This has necessarily resulted in a duplication of
efforts and the building of multiple systems to serve
different audiences where a single would suffice. For
example, most websites are typically built with webpages
sized specifically for computer screens. To serve mobile
audiences, many agencies build an entirely new mobile
site to present the same content to federal employees
and the public.

Decoupling Data and Presentation
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) is liberating web
content by decoupling data and presentation. Using a “create once, publish
everywhere mindset” and an API-driven
syndication service, CDC’s content flows
easily into multiple channels and is available for public and private reuse. Within
its own channels, content is updated
once, and then easily displayed on the
main CDC.gov web site, the mobile site at
m.cdc.gov, and in the various modules of
the CDC mobile app.

An information-centric approach decouples information
from its presentation. It means beginning with the data
In 2011, CDC’s liberated content was
or content,21 describing that information clearly, and then
syndicated to 700 registered partners in
exposing it to other computers in a machine-readable
all 50 US states, the District of Columbia
format—commonly known as providing web APIs. In
and 15 countries and accounted for an
describing the information, we need to ensure it has
additional 1.2 million page views.
sound taxonomy (making it searchable) and adequate
metadata (making it authoritative). Once the structure
of the information is sound, various mechanisms can be built to present it to customers (e.g. websites,
mobile applications, and internal tools) or raw data can be released directly to developers and entrepreneurs outside the organization. This approach to opening data and content means organizations
can consume the same web APIs to conduct their day-to-day business and operations as they do to
provide services to their customers.
In addition, by embedding security and privacy controls into structured data and metadata, data owners
can focus more effort on ensuring the safe and secure delivery of data to the end customer and fewer
resources on securing the device that will receive the data. For example, security of an endpoint device
21.  Unstructured content like web-based fact sheets must be broken into their component data pieces (e.g. the title,
body text, images, and related links) and treated as structured data.

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becomes less of a risk management factor if data is protected and authorized users must authenticate
their identities to gain access to it.
The private sector has proven an information-centric model for delivering digital services securely
and efficiently. The time has come for the Federal Government to embrace this approach in stride.
Recognizing that simply publishing snapshots of government information is not enough to make it
open, we need to improve the quality, accessibility, timeliness, and usability of our data and content
through well-defined standards that include the use of machine-readable formats such as web APIs and
common metadata tagging schemas.

1. Make Open Data, Content, and Web APIs the New Default
To lay the foundation for opening data and content efficiently, effectively and accessibly, OMB will
work with representatives from across government to develop and publish an open data, content, and
web API policy for the Federal Government. This policy
will leverage central coordination and leadership to
Fueling the App Economy
develop guidelines, standards, and best practices for
The City of San Francisco releases its raw
improved interoperability. To establish a “new default,”
public transportation data on train routes,
the policy will require that newly developed IT systems
schedules, and to-the-minute location
are architected for openness and expose high-value22
updates directly to the public through web
data and content as web APIs at a discrete and digestservices. This has enabled citizen develible level of granularity with metadata tags23. Under a
opers to write over 10 different mobile
presumption of openness, agencies must evaluate the
applications to help the public navigate San
information contained within these systems for release
Francisco’s public transit systems—more
to other agencies and the public, publish it in a timely
services than the city could provide if it
focused on presentation development
manner, make it easily accessible for external use as
rather than opening the data publicly
applicable, and post it at agency.gov/developer in a
through web services.
machine-readable format.

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1.1

1.2

Owner(s)

Milestone Actions

OMB

Issue government-wide open data, content, and web API
policy and identify standards and best practices for improved
interoperability.

Agencies

Ensure all new IT systems follow the open data, content, and
web API policy and operationalize agency.gov/developer
pages. [Within 6 months of release of open data policy—
see milestone 1.1]

Timeframe (months)
1

3

6

12

•
•

22.  High-value information is information that can be used to increase agency accountability and responsiveness;
improve public knowledge of the agency and its operations; further the core mission of the agency; create economic
opportunity; or respond to need and demand as identified through public consultation.
23.  Industry-standard markup language (e.g. XBRL, XML) will be used to the extent practicable.

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2. Make Existing High-Value Data and Content Available through Web APIs
Recognizing that change will not happen overnight, we need to adopt an efficient and cost effective
implementation strategy that will not place an undue burden on agencies to transition all existing
systems and information upfront. While the open data and web API policy will apply to all new systems
and underlying data and content developed going forward, OMB will ask agencies to bring existing
high-value systems and information into compliance over a period of time—a “look forward, look back”
approach. To jump-start the transition, agencies will be required to:
•• Identify at least two major customer-facing systems that contain high-value data and content;
•• Expose this information through web APIs to the appropriate audiences;
•• Apply metadata tags in compliance with the new federal guidelines; and
•• Publish a plan to transition additional systems as practical.
Given the scope, scale, and complexity of some of these systems, agencies will be asked to prioritize
release of data and content so the most valuable information is made available first. In cases where the
system supports a website, content must also be structured, published through web APIs and tagged
appropriately. Agencies will be required to engage with their customers24 within three months to identify the highest priority systems to transition, and work internally across communications, content, and
infrastructure teams (e.g. program leads, digital strategists, web managers, Chief Information Officers
(CIOs), Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), Chief Acquisition Officers (CAOs),
Chief Public Affairs Officers, Geographic Information Officers (GIOs), and data managers to select the
final candidates. GSA will help agencies develop web APIs through the Digital Services Innovation
Center (see section 3). Additionally, Data.gov will be expanded to include a web API catalog to serve
as an interactive directory of information made available to the public by agencies via web services so
that customers may more readily utilize that information in their own applications. Web APIs posted on
agencies’/developer pages will be automatically aggregated in this catalog.
#

Owner(s)

Milestone Actions

Timeframe (months)
1

3

6

12

Agencies

Engage with customers to identify at least two existing major
customer-facing services that contain high-value data or
content as first-move candidates to make compliant with new
open data, content, and web API policy.

2.2

Agencies

Make high-value data and content in at least two existing
major customer-facing systems available through web APIs,
apply metadata tagging and publish a plan to transition
additional high-value systems. [Within 6 months of release of
open data policy—see milestone 1.1]

•

2.3

GSA

Expand Data.gov to include a web API catalog that centrally
aggregates web APIs posted on agencies’/developer pages.

•

2.1

•

24.  Customers may be internal (e.g. the civilian and military federal workforce in both classified and unclassified
environments) or external (e.g. individual citizens, businesses, research organizations, and state, local, and tribal
governments.) Agencies with external customers should engage the public.

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Part B. Shared Platform
Government agencies are missing out on opportunities to share ideas and resources within the digital
services space.25 Inefficiencies such as fragmented procurement and development practices waste
taxpayer dollars and stymie the consistent adoption of new technologies and approaches. The shift
to a shared platform culture will require strong leadership at the government-wide and agency levels.
Agencies must begin to look first to shared solutions and existing infrastructure when developing
new projects, rather than procuring new infrastructure
and systems for each new project. They must also share
Opportunities to Share
ownership of common service areas, both within and
In the State of the Federal Web Report,
across agencies, instead of creating multiple websites
agencies reported 150 separate impleon the same topic. To alleviate the burden on individual
mentations of 42 different systems used to
agencies, prevent duplication, and spur innovation, we
create and publish content and 250 web
must provide central support for the adoption of new
hosting providers.
technologies, development of better digital services, and
strengthening of governance.

3. Establish a Digital Services Innovation Center and Advisory Group
There are common challenges that all agencies face in trying to deliver better digital services at a lower
cost to the American people and employees. Approaching these challenges as one government will
enable agencies to focus their time and money on developing innovative, mission-facing solutions
rather than re-inventing the wheel.
Identifying opportunities for sharing existing solutions at agencies and building new solutions for
government-wide use requires strong leadership, coordination, and support. To operationalize the principle of “build once, use many times”, GSA will expand its current efforts and establish a Digital Services
Innovation Center. The Center will work with agencies to establish shared solutions and training to support infrastructure and content needs across the Federal Government (e.g. source code sharing tools,
video captioning, language translation, usability and accessibility testing, web hosting, and security
architectures). The Innovation Center will support agencies lacking these capabilities, not supersede
agencies’ existing capabilities, and function as a cooperative enterprise that draws on resources from
across government and leverages the expertise of forward-leaning agencies.
At the outset, to support strategy implementation, the Center will focus on three initial actions:
•• Identify shared and open content management system (CMS) solutions and support
implementation through training and best practices. This will offer agencies an alternative to
building their own platforms in isolation and enable code sharing and modular development.
•• Help agencies develop web APIs and unlock valuable data by providing expert resources
and other support to enable developers, entrepreneurs, and other end users take advantage
of government data and content.
25.  The State of the Federal Web Report provides several examples. See http://www.usa.gov/webreform/state-of-theweb.pdf for more information.

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•• Launch a shared mobile application development program, in conjunction with the
Federal CIO Council, that will help agencies
develop secure, device-agnostic mobile applications, provide a development test environment to streamline app delivery, foster codesharing, and validate official government
applications.
To augment the natural cross-agency collaboration
that has developed through initiatives such as the
Web Reform and Mobility Strategy Task Forces, OMB
will formalize and sustain such coordination into the
future by convening a Digital Services Advisory Group
that draws membership from the Federal CIO Council,
Federal Web Managers Council, and other agency leaders. Through its leadership, the Advisory Group will
promote cross-agency sharing and accelerated adoption of mobile workforce solutions and best practices
in the development and delivery of digital services
that build in security and privacy and keep the federal
workforce abreast of emerging technologies. Overall,
in addition to advising the Federal CIO on implementation of the strategy, the Advisory Group will have three
main focus areas:
•• Help prioritize shared services needs for
the Digital Services Innovation Center. The
Advisory Group will identify areas that need
government-wide leadership and work with
the Innovation Center to determine the best
shared solutions that leverage existing agency
work and commercial options to the extent
practical.
•• Foster the sharing of existing policies and
best practices using online platforms and
communities of practice to provide more structure to existing ad-hoc collaboration efforts.
For instance, many front-running agencies
have already launched bring-your-own-device
(BYOD) pilots that test new devices and solutions. The Advisory Group will work with the
Federal CIO Council to develop government-

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14 ★

The Need for Open Content
Management Solutions
According to the State of the Federal Web
Report, over 43% of federal agencies currently do not use CMS solutions for publishing content online. In many cases, the lack
of CMS means maintaining and updating
websites is an inefficient, manual process.
A prominent theme from the National
Dialogue on Improving Federal Websites
was the need to phase out the use of
custom-built technology. Participants in the
dialogue recommended that the Federal
Government use open source technology
to enable more sharing of data and make
content more accessible. “Encourage use of
popular Open Source platforms” was one of
the many ideas submitted in this vein and
generated robust discussion.

Creating an Environment for Mobility
A popular idea submitted during the
National Dialogue on the Federal Mobility
Strategy got straight to the point: “Apps are
easy… enterprise strategy, not so much.” As
one commenter put it, we need to look at
“how mobility (not just mobile technology) fits
into an organization, regardless of the device,
platform, application, etc.”
“Mobility” is not just about embracing the
newest technology, but rather reflects a
fundamental change in how, when, and
where our citizens and employees work and
interact. Mobile technology—the devices,
infrastructure, and applications required to
support a mobile citizenry and workforce—
is a critical enabler of mobility, but is only
part of the profound environmental shift
that mobility represents.

Part B . S hared P latform

wide BYOD guidance leveraging their findings. The Advisory Group will also work with the
Federal Web Managers Council to develop guidelines for improving digital services and creating better digital content (see section 6) and setting up intra-agency governance models for
delivering better digital services (see section 4).
•• Identify and recommend changes to help close gaps in policy and standards. For instance,
as new technologies are introduced into the federal environment, policies governing identity
and credential management may need to be revised to allow the introduction of new solutions
that work better in a mobile world. Equally, as new technologies emerge, telework rules may
need to be revisited to allow employees to work from any location, as long as the device and
connectivity are appropriately secure.
#

Owner(s)

Milestone Actions

Timeframe (months)
1

3

6

GSA

Establish a Digital Services Innovation Center to improve the
government’s delivery of digital services.

•

3.2

OMB

Convene a Digital Services Advisory Group to provide
input on priorities for the Innovation Center activities and
recommend government-wide best practices, guidance,
and standards.

•

3.3

Advisory
Group/Federal
CIO Council

Release government-wide bring-your-own-device (BYOD)
guidance based on lessons learned from successful pilots at
federal agencies.

3.4

Innovation
Center

Identify shared and open content management system
solutions.

•

3.5

Innovation
Center

Provide support to help agencies develop web APIs.

•

3.6

Innovation
Center/
Federal CIO
Council

Launch a shared mobile app development program.

3.1

12

•

•

4. Establish Intra-Agency Governance to Improve Delivery of Digital Services
At the agency-level, Agency CIOs are responsible26 for commodity IT services and information security.
However, the lines of responsibility for developing and delivering content and data are not as clear and
distinct. Agencies must decide how they will staff and manage the delivery of digital services across the
enterprise. An uncoordinated approach at some agencies has resulted in the development and maintenance of dozens—in some cases hundreds—of separate websites and supporting infrastructure, and
26.  To clarify the role of Chief Information Officers (CIO), the Director of the OMB issued OMB Memorandum M-11-29
(Chief Information Officer Authorities) to the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies. In addition to their
statutory responsibilities through the Clinger-Cohen Act and related laws, Agency CIOs have a lead role in four main
areas: IT Governance, Commodity IT, Program Management, and Information Security. OMB continues to work with
Congress to consolidate Commodity IT spending under the Agency CIO.

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application of varying degrees of quality and fiscal control to these resources. In many cases, agencies
lack consistent processes to measure performance and ensure content quality.
Agencies must drive better decision-making across the organization about how best to spend resources
on digital services and manage their data. The Digital Services Advisory Group (see section 3) will recommend guidelines to help agencies set up an effective governance structure where it does not yet
exist. The guidance will suggest a range of approaches, but not prescribe specific structures, and set
expectations for activities and outcomes. For example, as agencies establish new governance structures
or strengthen existing ones, they will be required to establish specific, measurable goals for delivering
better services at a lower cost (e.g. through domain consolidation) and set agency-wide standards for
content lifecycle management, adoption of third-party online tools, mobile application delivery, and
sharing (e.g. infrastructure and digital information).
#

Owner(s)

Timeframe (months)

Description and Milestone Actions

1

4.1

Advisory
Group

Recommend guidelines on agency-wide governance structure for
developing and delivering digital services and managing data.

4.2

Agencies

Establish an agency-wide governance structure for developing
and delivering digital services. [Within 3 months of release of
governance guidance—see milestone 4.1]

3

6

12

•
•

5. Shift to an Enterprise-Wide Asset Management and Procurement Model
Traditionally, agencies have purchased technology
products and services in a fragmented manner at the
bureau, regional, team, and even individual levels.27 This
approach has prevented the Federal Government from
effectively leveraging its buying power with vendors
and service providers. In the mobile space alone, the
opportunity to increase efficiencies and cut costs is too
great to overlook. The Federal Government currently
spends approximately $1.2 billion annually for mobile
and wireless services and devices with an inventory
of approximately 1.5 million active accounts.28 These
figures will only increase as agencies accelerate their
adoption of new mobile technologies.

Fragmented…
Three separate federal agencies located in
Atlanta pay three different monthly service
plan rates for unlimited data on the same
type of device—$39, $94, and $120—a
significant price variance of $81.

…and Centralized
In 2011, the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) centralized its wireless
procurement by collapsing over 700 separate contracts into three blanket purchase
agreements (BPA), resulting in acquisition
cost savings of 18%.

By moving to an enterprise-wide model, we can leverage economies of scale and streamline purchasing,
invoicing, and asset management processes. We can also explore different pricing models, such as usagebased pricing (e.g. metered), first at the agency-wide level and eventually at the government-wide level.
27.  For a broader treatment of this issue, refer to the Federal Shared Services Strategy.
28.  Figures on mobile spending, including call-out box, drawn from research of the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative.
See http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/105156 for more information.

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Part B . S hared P latform

Adopting a shared services approach and consolidating mobile device and wireless service contracts
will not only reduce costs but also improve our ability to track usage, analyze pricing, secure devices,
and deliver mobile applications. This is in line with the Administration’s overall effort to consolidate
the acquisition and management of commodity IT services29 through mechanisms such as the Federal
Strategic Sourcing Initiative, the PortfolioStat process30, and the Administrative Efficiency Initiative.31
To jumpstart this shift, GSA will establish a government-wide contract vehicle for mobile devices and
wireless service and offer agencies the option of accessing central portal services for placing orders,
reporting inventory, and managing expenses to optimize their mobile usage. GSA will also set up a
government-wide mobile device management platform to support enhanced monitoring, management, security, and device synchronization. The Federal CIO Council will work with the Digital Services
Advisory Group (see Section 3) to develop models for the secure, yet rapid, delivery of commercial
mobile applications into the federal environment to support the consistent application of security
and interoperability requirements. For example, an enterprise mobile application environment could
provide central hosting, distribution, certification, and management services for mobile applications.
For their part, agencies will be required to develop and maintain an enterprise-wide inventory of their
mobile devices and wireless service contracts, and include an evaluation of government-wide contract
vehicles in their alternatives analysis for all new mobile-related procurements.
#

Owner(s)

Milestone Actions

Timeframe (months)
1

3

6

12

5.1

GSA

Establish government-wide contract vehicle for mobile devices
and wireless service.

•

5.2

Agencies

Develop an enterprise-wide inventory of mobile devices and
wireless service contracts.

•

5.3

Agencies

Evaluate the government-wide contract vehicles in the alternatives analysis for all new mobile-related procurements.

•

5.4

Advisory
Group/
Federal CIO
Council

Develop models for the delivery of commercial mobile applications into the federal environment.

•

5.5

GSA

Set up a government-wide mobile device management
platform.

•

29.  Examples of commodity IT services identified in OMB Memorandum M-11-29 include IT Infrastructure (e.g. Data
Centers, Networks, Desktop Computers, Mobile Devices), Enterprise IT Systems (e.g. E-mail, Collaboration Tools,
Identity and Access Management, Security, Web Infrastructure), Business Systems (e.g. Finance, Human Resources,
Other Administrative Functions).
30.  Under OMB Memorandum M-12-10 (Implementing PortfolioStat), agency Chief Operating Officers (COO) are
required to lead an annual agency-wide IT portfolio review (PortfolioStat) to reduce duplication within commodity
IT by shifting to intra- and inter-agency shared services. This includes acquisitions for acquiring mobile devices,
applications, and wireless telecommunications services. See http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/
memoranda/2012/m-12-10.pdf for more information.
31.  In support of the Administrative Efficiency Initiative, Executive Order 13589 (Promoting Efficient Spending) asks
agencies to assess current employee device inventories and usage and establish controls to ensure that they are
not paying for unused or underutilized IT equipment, installed software, or services. This includes limiting the
number of devices (e.g., mobile phones, tablets) issued to employees. See http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-pressoffice/2011/11/09/executive-order-promoting-efficient-spending for more information.

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Part C. Customer-Centric
The quality of digital services that we provide determines our reputation and trust as an institution. It
profoundly affects the customer experience that our
employees and citizens have in working for, and engaging with, the Federal Government. Digital services
include the delivery of digital information and transactional services (e.g. online forms, benefits applications,
timecard submissions) across a variety of platforms,
devices and delivery mechanisms (e.g. websites, mobile
applications, and social media). Regardless of the form
they take, these digital services must be designed and
delivered with customer service first in mind and reflect
the technologies used by today’s customers.

Absorbing the Complexity
of the Government
A common theme from the National
Dialogue for Improving Federal Websites
was that the Federal Government needs
to change to a culture of customer service. A key part of that shift is the need
to start absorbing the complexity of the
Government on behalf of the citizen. As
one participant wrote, “Customers don’t
know—and don’t care to know—how government is organized. So why make them go from
agency [website] to agency [website] to get
the full picture of what gov’t has to offer on
any subject?”

Customer-centric government means that agencies
respond to customers’ needs and make it easy to find
and share information and accomplish important tasks.
It requires holding ourselves to a high-standard of timely data, informative content, simple transactions,
and seamless interactions that are easily accessible. The mantra of “anytime, anywhere, any device,” is
increasingly setting the standard for how information and services are both delivered and received in a
two-way exchange of information and ideas. We must embrace the ability of new technologies to drive
participation in the digital public square. To develop innovative, transparent, customer-facing products
and services efficiently and effectively, the Federal Government must also focus on the fundamentals of
customer-centric design: measure how well we are providing meaningful services; focus our efforts on
those interactions that have the most use and value; institutionalize performance measurement; and
continuously improve services in response to those measurements.

6. Deliver Better Digital Services Using Modern Tools and Technologies
Using modern tools and technologies such as responsive web design32 and search engine optimization33
is critical if the government is to adapt to an ever-changing digital landscape and deliver services to
any device, anytime, anywhere. Similarly, optimizing content for modern platforms, rather than just
translating content from paper-based documents to the Web, will help ensure the American people
and employees can access content regardless of platform. Agencies will need to keep current with the
latest design concepts and refresh content delivery mechanisms to ensure the highest performance.
To help achieve these objectives, the Digital Services Advisory Group (see section 3) will work with
32.  Responsive web design is a method of designing content so that it can be re-sized to fit on various screen sizes
(e.g. designing a service to work well on both a laptop screen and a smartphone, without the need to design and
maintain separate “standard” and “mobile” sites).
33.  Search engine optimization involves understanding how search engines work and designing content around those
standards to boost content’s ranking in search results.

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the Federal Web Managers Council to recommend guidelines for improving digital services and the
customer experience that will set a new default for how digital services are developed and delivered.
These guidelines will include:
•• Approaches for consolidating duplicative websites and coordinating information delivery
across agencies;
•• Best practices for identifying and optimizing top tasks34, content, and transactions, including
use of plain language; optimizing for usability, search, and accessibility35; and implementing
content lifecycle management;
•• Best practices for standards-compliant, next-generation web development, including use of
content delivery networks; content management systems; common code libraries, frameworks,
and tools; and responsive web design (e.g. using HTML536 and CSS337 to provide a mobiletailored experience);
•• Standards for structuring and tagging content and data to be machine-readable;
•• Approaches for using customer feedback to make improvements; and
•• Considerations to support the adoption of an information-centric security model.
The dot gov domain guidance and procedures will be updated to help ensure all new digital services
meet these improvement guidelines. Under the principle of “no new domains”, criteria for approving
new second-level domains will be strengthened and new domains will only be granted on an exception basis. For example, an agency may be granted a new single domain to host consolidated content
previously spread across multiple domains, thus streamlining the customer experience and reducing
redundant infrastructure. Domains will be approved or renewed only if they to comply with web-related
federal standards, guidance, and regulations (e.g. adoption of the aforementioned guidelines, IPv638,
DNSSEC, continuous monitoring, and externally-issued credentials39). In addition, the dot gov domain
34.  Top tasks are the things customers most often try to accomplish when accessing an organization’s services, whether
finding specific information or completing some transaction (e.g. filing taxes).
35.  Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires that federal employees and members of the public with
disabilities have access to the government’s digital information and services comparable to individuals without
disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency. See http://www.access-board.gov/508.htm
for more information.
36.  HTML5 is the fifth revision of the Hypertext Markup Language standard used to code content for the Web. HTML5
makes it possible to embed video, audio, animations and other features without the use of third-party plugins and
can be used to build cross-platform mobile applications.
37.  CSS3 is the current standard for Cascading Style Sheets, a language used to specify look and feel of digital content,
and used separately from the markup language (e.g., HTML) so as to separate content from presentation.
38.  The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) requires all new information technology acquisitions using Internet
Protocol (IP) to include IPv6 requirements expressed using the USGv6 Profile and to require vendors to document
their compliance with those requirements through the USGv6 Testing Program. Agencies shall institute processes
to include language in solicitations and contracts, where applicable. For additional information, a copy of the
September 2010 memorandum and IPv6 Frequently Asked Questions can be found at www.cio.gov.
39.  The list of externally-issued credential providers that have been certified as being in accordance with governmentwide requirements is at http://www.idmanagement.gov/pages.cfm/page/ICAM-TrustFramework-IDP (for non-PKI
solutions) and at http://www.idmanagement.gov/pages.cfm/page/Federal-PKI-Management-Authority-entitiescrosscertified-with-the-FBCA (for PKI solutions). These are the only externally-issued credentials which may be
accepted. See Federal CIO Memorandum on Requirements for Accepting Externally-Issued Identity Credentials
http://www.cio.gov/documents/OMBReqforAcceptingExternally_IssuedIdCred10-6-2011.pdf for more information.

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20 ★

Part C . C ustomer - C entric

registration process will reinforce existing policies prohibiting the use of non-.gov (e.g. .org, .com)
top-level domains.40 Through the Digital Services Innovation Center (see section 3), GSA will provide
tools, guidelines, and training to help agencies comply with these new policies and continue efforts to
consolidate websites along topical lines.
Milestone Actions

Timeframe (months)

#

Owner(s)

6.1

Advisory
Group/
Federal Web
Managers
Council

Recommend guidelines for improving digital services and
customer experience.

•

6.2

GSA

Update the dot gov domain guidance and procedures to help
ensure all new digital services meet improvement guidelines
and provide support to agencies.

•

6.3

Agencies

Ensure all new digital services follow digital services and customer experience improvement guidelines. [Within 6 months of
release of improvement guidance—see milestone 6.2]

1

3

6

12

•

7. Improve Priority Customer-Facing Services for Mobile Use
The general public and our government workforce should be able to access government information
and services on demand and on any device. To jump-start the transition to mobile platforms, agencies
will be required to mobile-enable at least two priority customer-facing services within the next 12
months. This includes services currently provided offline or optimizing those currently delivered online
for mobile platforms. Agencies will also be required to deliver information in new ways that fully harness
the power and potential of mobile and web-based technologies and ensure that all domains (e.g. www.
agency.gov) can be easily accessed and used on mobile devices. GSA will help coordinate these efforts
to prevent the development of duplicative services and support the use of shared solutions to provide
the best quality mobile services at the lowest costs (see section 3).
Agencies will be required to engage their customers within three months to identify the highest priority
services to optimize for mobile use, and work internally across communications, content, and infrastructure teams to select their final candidates. They will also be required to publish a plan for improving
additional existing services as practical.
#

7.1

7.2

Owner(s)

Milestone Actions

Agencies

Engage with customers to identify at least two existing priority
customer-facing services to optimize for mobile use.

Agencies

Optimize at least two existing priority customer-facing services
for mobile use and publish a plan for improving additional
existing services. [Within 6 months of release of digital services
improvement guidance—see milestone 6.2]

Timeframe (months)
1

3

6

12

•
•

40.  See OMB Memorandum M-05-04 (Policies for Federal Agency Public Websites) http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/
default/files/omb/memoranda/fy2005/m05-04.pdf for more information.

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8. Measure Performance and Customer Satisfaction to Improve Service Delivery
Objective performance measures should drive the development and delivery of effective digital government services. Today most agencies lack enterprise-wide performance measures to consistently evaluate
the success and usability of their websites. This limits their ability to allocate resources effectively to
invest in critical-needs areas. Similarly, the lack of a government-wide view of performance for digital
service delivery makes it difficult to properly address gaps or duplications in services.
To enable data-driven decisions on service performance, agencies will be required to use analytics and
customer satisfaction measurement tools on all .gov
websites within 6 months. To help these efforts, the
Digital Services Innovation Center (see Section 3) will
identify common tools for agencies to use that will
enable aggregation of this data at the federal level.
Common tools will give us the ability—for the first
time—to take a government-wide view of how well
we serve our customers and opens up new possibilities
for consolidating and improving the federal web space
and the growing number of mobile services.
#

Owner(s)

Measuring Performance
According to the State of the Federal Web
Report, only 10% of the 24 major federal
agencies use the same performance
metrics to consistently evaluate websites
agency-wide. But there’s a solution for that:
“Open web analytics for all .gov websites”, a
popular idea submitted during the National
Dialogue on Improving Federal Websites.

Milestone Actions

8.1

Innovation
Center

Identify tools and guidance for measuring performance and
customer satisfaction on digital services.

8.2

Agencies

Implement performance and customer satisfaction measuring
tools on all .gov websites. [Within 3 months of release of tools and
guidance—see milestone 8.1]

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Timeframe (months)
1

3

6

•
•

12

Part D. Security and Privacy
The information maintained by the Federal Government needs to be secured regardless of how data
is stored, processed, or transmitted. As information and devices become increasingly mobile, we must
ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability by building security into digital government services.
As the government moves to an information-centric and mobility-enabled digital environment, existing security, privacy, and data protections41 and cyber security priorities42—including Trusted Internet
Connection (TICs), continuous monitoring, and strong authentication consistent with NSTIC and Federal
Identity Credential and Access Management (ICAM) requirements—must be considered throughout
the entire life cycle of existing and emerging technologies as part of agencies’ overall organizational
risk management.43 They must also be updated to reflect the realities of a rapidly changing technology
landscape.
Mobile devices have unique security challenges. Due to their portability, they are easy to misplace,
potentially compromising any unencrypted sensitive data or applications stored locally. Wireless connectivity allows users to bypass an agency’s secure TIC and connect directly to the Internet and other
untrusted resources. These problems are not new, as the introduction of laptops into the workforce led
to security and data breaches as employees took their electronic devices mobile. However, the new class
of smaller, lighter smartphones and media tablets has elevated exposure to this risk. The rate of change
of mobile operating systems, new update and notification capabilities from external hardware and software vendors, diversity of the devices themselves, and introduction of employee-owned devices (BYOD)
also make security in the mobile space more challenging than in a traditional desktop environment
and require new approaches to continuously monitor and manage devices and secure the data itself.
The challenge extends beyond the workforce and into the delivery of services to external customers.
When deploying applications and other mobile technologies to interact with citizens and businesses,
the Federal Government will need to foster trust, accountability, and transparency about how user
information is collected, used, shared, and secured, without unduly burdening the robust development
of such technologies or the user experience.

41.  All existing federal requirements for data protection and remote access are applicable to mobile devices. For
example, the security requirements in the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA), OMB
Circular A-130, NIST FIPS 140-2, NIST FIPS 199, and NIST FIPS 200, apply (including appropriate security and privacy
controls specified in NIST Special Publication 800-53). Agencies should specify security requirements during the
acquisition process and ensure that procurements capture the requirements of the Federal Acquisition Regulation
(e.g. 52.225-5, Trade Agreements), OMB policy (e.g. OMB Memorandum M-06-16 and OMB Memorandum M-07-16),
and NIST standards and guidelines.
42. See http://goals.performance.gov/goals_2013 for more information on the Cross-Agency Priority Goal for
Cybersecurity.
43.  Organizational Risk Management is a key element in an organization’s information security program. A risk-based
approach to securing information technology involves categorizing an information system and the information in
that system based on an impact analysis, then selecting and implementing appropriate security controls. See http://
csrc.nist.gov/groups/SMA/fisma/framework.html for more information.

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9. Promote the Safe and Secure Adoption of New Technologies
Agencies need to continue to integrate effective security and privacy measures into the design and
adoption of all new technologies introduced to the federal environment, including mobile devices,
applications, and wireless networks, consistent with existing policies, and incorporate commercial
security and privacy capabilities by default, augmenting controls and policies as required. To enable
agencies to share security testing information and prevent unnecessary duplication, the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Defense (DOD) will work with the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop a security baseline within 12 months that provides
standardized security requirements for mobile and wireless adoption in the Federal Government. This
will include the development of mobile and wireless security reference architectures that incorporate
security and privacy by design while accounting for different agencies’ mission needs. For example,
the Federal Government’s evolving enterprise wireless networks may have varying needs to support
unclassified and classified high-bandwidth traffic, mission critical wireless coverage to in-building and
terrestrial environments, and data offloading. A government-wide mobile and wireless security baseline
will enable adoption of the “do once, use many times” approach to mobile and wireless security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring.
Going forward, we must pilot, document, and rapidly scale new approaches to secure data and mobile
technologies and address privacy concerns (see section 3 for role of the Digital Services Advisory Group
in facilitating this process). Such pilots and documentation will help advance our security posture and
communicate the Federal Government’s expectations on product capabilities to the private sector.
Shifting to the cloud is one area of opportunity. For example, if applications, operating systems, and
data reside in an appropriately secured44 cloud environment rather than on a device, this will limit the
potential impact to an agency in the event a device is lost, stolen, or compromised. Other opportunity
areas include adopting advanced mobile device management solutions to support continuous monitoring, strengthening identity and access management, and accepting externally-issued credentials
on public-facing websites.
#

9.1

Owner(s)
DHS/DOD/
NIST

Milestone Actions
Develop government-wide mobile and wireless security baseline
(includes security reference architectures.)

Timeframe (months)
1

3

6

12

•

10. Evaluate and Streamline Security and Privacy Processes
Given the realities of a rapidly changing technology landscape, we must continually evaluate current
processes for adopting new technologies and ensuring they provide security and privacy protections.
As part of its ongoing work on securing mobile devices, applications, and platforms to support wider
mobile adoption across the Federal Government, NIST will review existing standards and guidelines
to ensure they are sufficiently flexible to accommodate mobile technology. The Federal CIO Council’s
44.  Cloud services authorized through the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) will meet
standardized security requirements and address cybersecurity priorities such as continuous monitoring and TIC. See
www.FedRAMP.gov for more information.

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Part D. S ecurity and P rivacy

Information Security and Identity Management Committee will also evaluate opportunities to accelerate
the secure adoption mobile technologies into the federal environment at reduced costs.
As good stewards of data security and privacy, the Federal Government must ensure that there are
safeguards to prevent the improper collection, retention, use or disclosure of sensitive data such as
personally identifiable information (PII).45 These safeguards should be regularly reviewed and updated
as technology use, capability, and architectures advance so they do not unnecessarily stifle the government’s ability to architect for openness and engage with the public. The Federal CIO Council’s Privacy
Committee will work with NIST and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to develop
guidelines for standardized implementation of privacy controls in a digital environment and educate
key agency privacy and legal officials on the latest technology advances and options for addressing
digital privacy (e.g. data collection and individual notice) as well as records retention and security issues.
#

Owner(s)

Milestone Actions

Timeframe (months)
1

3

6

10.1

NIST

Report on NIST’s ongoing work in mobile technology, including
the applicability of NIST’s standards and guidelines to mobile
devices and platforms.

10.2

Advisory
Group/
Federal CIO
Council

Evaluate opportunities to accelerate the secure adoption of
mobile technologies into the federal environment at reduced
cost.

•

10.3

Federal CIO
Council/NIST/
NARA

Develop guidelines for standardized implementation of digital
privacy controls and educate agency privacy and legal officials
on options for addressing digital privacy, records retention, and
security issues.

•

12

•

45.  For example, commercial Identity Providers approved for use under the Federal ICAM initiative have gone through
a certification process to ensure that their solutions support federal privacy and security rules. See http://www.
idmanagement.gov/pages.cfm/page/ICAM for more information.

★

25 ★

Conclusion
Technology is fundamentally transforming how we conduct our business and live our daily lives.
Exponential advances in computing power, the rise of high-speed networks, and the growing mobile
revolution, which puts the entire Internet at our fingertips, have unleashed new innovations, spawned
new industries and reshaped existing ones. The President has charged us with harnessing the power of
technology to help create a 21st century digital government—one that is efficient, effective and focused
on improving the delivery of services to the American people.
The roadmap actions outlined within this Digital Government Strategy form a series of critical next
steps to help build a 21st century government that innovates with less. To put us on a path to unlock
the potential of a digital government, the strategy emphasizes several key objectives.
First, we must enable citizens and an increasingly mobile federal workforce to securely access highquality digital government information, data and services—“anywhere, anytime, on any device.” By
operationalizing an information-centric model, we can help agencies securely architect systems for
interoperability and openness. Doing so will allow agencies to modernize their content publication
model and deliver better, device-agnostic digital services at a lower cost. In addition, by providing
machine-readable connections to government data and services, government agencies, businesses, and
independent innovators can directly access the building blocks of government—recombining them to
create new services or connecting them with existing services to streamline operations.
Secondly, we must ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world, we build the modern
infrastructure needed to support digital government efforts and leverage the Federal Government’s
buying power to reduce costs. Taking what we have learned from the previous transition in moving government information and services online, we now have a chance to do mobile “right” from the beginning
by procuring and managing devices, applications, and data in a smart, secure, and affordable manner.
Establishing a Digital Services Innovation Center and Advisory Group will help lay the foundation for a
well-coordinated approach toward these objectives.
Ultimately, this strategy aims to be disruptive. It provides a platform to fundamentally shift how government connects with, and provides services to, the American people. It gives the federal workforce the
tools needed to carry out their mission of delivering services to all citizens—whether to a warfighter in
the field retrieving geospatial imagery information; a medical researcher sharing the latest bio specimen
data sets for a rare form of cancer; or a rural farmer accessing a real-time forecast of seasonal precipitation. It creates a space for citizens to become partners in building a better government, where “every
man,” as Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs.”

★

27 ★

Appendix: Roadmap Milestones
The following table captures all milestones in the Digital Government Strategy.
#

Owner(s)

Milestone Actions

Timeframe (months)
1

3

6

12

Part A: Information-Centric
1. Make Open Data, Content, and Web APIs the New Default
1.1

OMB

Issue government-wide open data, content, and web API
policy and identify standards and best practices for improved
interoperability.

1.2

Agencies

Ensure all new IT systems follow the open data, content, and
web API policy and operationalize agency.gov/developer pages.
[Within 6 months of release of open data policy—see milestone 1.1]

•
•

2. Make Existing High-Value Data and Content Available through Web APIs

Agencies

Engage with customers to identify at least two existing major
customer-facing services that contain high-value data or content
as first-move candidates to make compliant with new open data,
content, and web API policy.

2.2

Agencies

Make high-value data and content in at least existing two major
customer-facing systems available through web APIs, apply
metadata tagging and publish a plan to transition additional
high-value systems. [Within 6 months of release of open data
policy—see milestone 1.1]

•

2.3

GSA

Expand Data.gov to include a web API catalog that centrally
aggregates web APIs posted on agencies’ /developer pages.

•

2.1

•

PART B: Shared Platform
3. Establish a Digital Services Innovation Center and Advisory Group
3.1

GSA

Establish a Digital Services Innovation Center to improve the
government’s delivery of digital services.

•

3.2

OMB

Convene a Digital Services Advisory Group to prioritize
Innovation Center activities and help develop government-wide
best practices, guidance, and standards.

•

3.3

Advisory
Group/
Federal CIO
Council

Release government-wide bring-your-own-device (BYOD) guidance based on lessons learned from successful pilots at federal
agencies.

3.4

Innovation
Center

Identify shared and open content management system
solutions.

•

3.5

Innovation
Center

Provide support to help agencies develop web APIs.

•

3.6

Innovation
Center/
Federal CIO
Council

Launch a shared mobile app development program.

★

29 ★

•

•

D I G I TA L G OV E R N M E N T: B U I LD I N G A 2 1 S T C E N T U RY P L AT F O R M
T O B E T T E R S E RV E T H E A M E R I C A N P E O P LE

#

Owner(s)

Milestone Actions

Timeframe (months)
1

3

6

12

Part B: Shared Platform (cont.)
4. Establish Intra-Agency Governance to Improve Delivery of Digital Services
4.1

Advisory
Group

Recommend guidelines on agency-wide governance structure
for developing and delivering digital services.

4.2

Agencies

Establish an agency-wide governance structure for developing
and delivering digital services. [Within 3 months of release of
governance guidance—see milestone 4.1]

•
•

5. Shift to an Enterprise-Wide Asset Management and Procurement Model
5.1

GSA

Establish government-wide contract vehicle for mobile devices
and wireless service.

•

5.2

Agencies

Develop an enterprise-wide inventory of mobile devices and
wireless service contracts.

•

5.3

Agencies

Evaluate the government-wide contract vehicles in the alternatives analysis for all new mobile-related procurements.

•

5.4

Advisory
Group/
Federal CIO
Council

Develop models for the delivery of commercial mobile applications into the federal environment.

•

5.5

GSA

Set up a government-wide mobile device management
platform.

•

Part C: Customer-Centric
6. Deliver Better Digital Services Using Modern Tools and Technologies

6.1

Advisory
Group/
Federal Web
Managers
Council

Recommend guidelines for improving digital services and
customer experience.

•

6.2

GSA

Update the dot gov domain guidance and procedures to help
ensure all new digital services meet improvement guidelines
and provide support to agencies.

•

6.3

Agencies

Ensure all new digital services follow digital services and customer experience improvement guidelines. [Within 6 months of
release of improvement guidance—see milestone 6.2]

•

7. Improve Priority Customer Facing Services for Mobile Use
7.1

7.2

Agencies

Engage with customers to identify at least two existing priority
customer-facing services to optimize for mobile use.

Agencies

Optimize at least two existing priority customer-facing services
for mobile use and publish a plan for improving additional
existing services. [Within 6 months of release of digital services
improvement guidance—see milestone 6.2]

★

30 ★

•
•

A ppendi x : R oadmap M ilestones

#

Owner(s)

Milestone Actions

Timeframe (months)
1

3

6

12

Part C: Customer-Centric (cont.)
8. Measure Performance and Customer Satisfaction to Improve Service Delivery
8.1

Innovation
Center

Provide tools and guidance for measuring performance and
customer satisfaction on digital services.

8.2

Agencies

Implement performance and customer satisfaction measuring
tools on all .gov websites. [Within 3 months of release of tools and
guidance—see milestone 8.1]

•
•

Part D: Security and Privacy
9. Promote the Safe and Secure Adoption of New Technologies
9.1

DHS/DOD/
NIST

Develop government-wide mobile and wireless security baseline (includes security reference architectures.)

•

10. Evaluate and Streamline Security and Privacy Processes
10.1

NIST

Report on NIST’s ongoing work in mobile technology, including
the applicability of NIST’s standards and guidelines to mobile
devices and platforms.

10.2

Advisory
Group/
Federal CIO
Council

Evaluate opportunities to accelerate the secure adoption of
mobile technologies into the federal environment at reduced
cost.

•

10.3

Federal CIO
Council/NIST/
NARA

Develop guidelines for standardized implementation of digital
privacy controls and educate agency privacy and legal officials
on options for addressing digital privacy, records retention, and
security issues.

•

★

31 ★

•