Gov 2.0 Roundup: Week of April 29

President Obama tells federal agencies it’s time for an upgrade, the Army makes plans to launch its own app store, a recent survey shows the benefits of good government websites, and the Department of Homeland Security outlines is plan to protect against cyberattacks, all in this week’s version of the Gov 2.0 Roundup.

–In an effort to improve customer satisfaction, President Obama issued an Executive Order Wednesday requiring federal agencies to upgrade their technology systems. Every agency must develop a plan within 180 days adopting the private sector’s best practices and developing standards and benchmarks to measure themselves against. Research shows improved online customer service can lead to lower costs proving that there needs to be a shift in the way government websites are developed especially with budget woes on everyone’s mind. In 2001, the Internal Revenue Service introduced electronic processing saving millions of dollars in time and paperwork.

–The Army’s version of an app store, Army Marketplace, is set to launch in August. While Army Marketplace will only allow access by a member of the Department of Defense on its secure server, it offers a range of Army-related applications that can be downloaded to a computer and, later, a mobile phone. A number of apps were created at the Apps for the Army contest last year, but later the Army wants to be able to create soldier-requested apps quickly to aid in the transfer of information. As of late, the government has not yet certified any mobile device as secure enough to receive data from its networks. Check out the article for screen shots!

–Research shows that customer satisfaction on government websites fosters democracy, reduces government costs and increases efficiency. The ACSI E-Government Satisfaction Index surveyed more than 330,000 users of 110 federal sites and found that convenient, easy-to-use sites cut costs through reduced paperwork, call-center traffic and employees’ time. Private sector sites score better on average, but a high-scoring government website outperforms the best private sites including Google and Netflix. The top three government sites all come from the Social Security Administration.

–Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano spoke Monday at Berkley about what the government is doing to protect federal and private cyberspace and its infrastructure. This includes the implementation of the first-ever National Cyber Incident Response Plan that allows the agency to coordinate a quick response with the help of government resources as well as the private sector. As threats and attacks become increasingly sophisticated, the agency feels responsible to provide sufficient and equally-novel ways to prevent and respond to them.