You can leap into citizen-facing mobile strategies and other topics at our “Leap Year” Wikithon on Wednesday, February 29th from 3-5!

Wikithons are gatherings of Mobile Gov professionals to create and develop content for the Mobile Gov Wiki and discuss various mobile practices. The wikithon theme this time will be DATA and we are looking for your articles about API’s, SDK’s and experiences with other data elements in the creation of mobile products.

In addition, join us to get the coveted “Leap Year” Wikithon badge–available once every 4 years. You can also earn special badges for your wiki edits, for bringing a friend and of course wiki article creation.

Like all our wikithons, the “Leap Year” Wikithon is an open-house event. Come for a minute, come for the entire time, come anytime. You don’t need to know how to use the wiki–we’ll show you. And if you don’t have a burning idea, we can help you join in with big and small tasks from the wiki fishbowl.

Meet us at the “large board” table at the location below in Washington, D.C. or virtually via our virtual channel (virtual details to come).

Details:
“Leap Year” Wikithon
Wednesday, February 29th 3-5 pm

There will be an in person location and a way to join virtually. Bring your own wi-fi enabled laptop or tablet.

In Person Location

801 18th St NW # 1 Washington, DC 20006. (202) 785-2024. We have reserved the large “board” table at this location.

Virtual location details will be forthcoming.

Gwynne Kostin
Director Mobile
Office of Citizen Services & Innovative Technologies, GSA

on twitter @mobile_gov

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According to Mashable and a new study by Nielsen:

Smartphone penetration among young people in the lowest income bracket is higher than it is among older people in the wealthiest bracket.

Among 18- to 24-year-olds, more than half of respondents who make less than $15,000 each year said they own a smartphone….Making less than $15,000 in a year doesn’t stop 43% of these 25- to 34-year-old mobile customers from paying for a smartphone.

Meanwhile, fewer than 20% of respondents older than 45 who make less than $15,000 said they owned a smartphone.– more from Mashable

Nielsen also reported that 80% of the 25-34 year olds who bought a new phone in the past three months chose a smartphone.

Looks like, at least for now,  younger people are making room in their tight budgets for a smartphone.

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QuitStart was created by the National Cancer Institute to help people stop smoking. QuitStart provides help with tracking smoking cravings and moods and monitoring progress toward achieving smokefree milestones.

Quitstart is available for iOS devices and NCI describes it as:

QuitSTART is a free smartphone app that can help you track your cravings and moods, monitor your progress toward achieving smokefree milestones, identify your smoking triggers, and upload personalized “pick me ups” and reminders to use during challenging times to help you successfully become and stay smokefree.

QuitStart is the 100th mobile product placed in the USA.gov Apps Gallery. Launched in July 2010, it is the government’s primary citizen facing mobile gallery that features mobile websites and apps produced by the federal government for public audiences. Other apps in the gallery include IRS2Go, FAA Mobile, MyTSA App and U.S. Postal Service App.

The USA.gov Apps Gallery is part of the USA.gov family of information and services and there is also a Spanish language mobile gallery at apps.gobiernousa.gov.

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Gone are the days of people sitting passively in front of their TVs. Today, people are interacting with what they are watching, using the devices in their pockets.

According to a Yahoo/Nielsen survey

86% of mobile Internet users (and 92% of 13-24s) are using their mobile devices simultaneously with TV. A quarter of them say they are browsing content related to what they are watching, presenting a compelling opportunity for content providers and advertisers alike to complement the viewing experience on the mobile platform. – Read more from the Survey.

This is important for government for two reasons.

First, are you optimizing your content so that people can find answers to their questions. How can you tie your content into big TV events?

And, second, when people do find your content related to what they’re watching, are you driving them away with a bad user experience–unnavigable content all smashed on their small screens?

Bonus important thing in honor of Social Media Week: A common multi-screen activity is posting comments on Twitter, Facebook, and new social watching tools like GetGlue.  Do you know what people are saying about you?

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The “Bring a Friend” Mobile Gov Wikithon held last week was an overwhelming success!

Attendees in Bethesda, MD, Washington, D.C. and those online discussed mHealth initiatives, consuensus mobile good practices and created content for the Mobile Gov Wiki. You can see everything that was done during the Wikithon at this link. Thanks for the attendees who represented current and future government mobile products like MyDS, Pillbox, Ask Karen, OSHA Heat Index and Answers.Ed.gov.

A resource you can use and help build out are the wiki’s Consensus Mobile Good Practices. These practices were pulled together from the Making Mobile Gov Dialogue and additional discussion with folks at the Wikithon. What we hope to create from your input is good mobile practices in areas like mobile strategy, measurement and analytics and compliance and accessibility so agencies can use them when creating and maintaining Mobile Gov products.

If you were not able to make this wikithon, you can atttend our Leap Year Wikithon on Wednesday, February 29th from 3-5. The theme will be DATA and we are looking for input about API’s, SDK’s and experiences with other data elements in the creation of mobile products. Stay tuned for further details!

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The Library of Congress created the Congressional Record App so users can view the daily edition of the Congressional Record and search for other related information on their tablets. The mobile product leverages data provided by the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate and the Government Printing Office.

Currently, the app is only available for iPad users. According to the Library of Congress, other features include:
- Browse editions of the Congressional Record by date: January 4, 1995 (the 104th Congress, 1st Session) to the present
- Perform keyword searches within individual documents or sections within documents
- Share documents via email
- Save documents to your preferred iPad PDF reader
- Identify the latest bills and resolutions considered daily on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives
- Identify the latest bills, resolutions, treaties, and nominations considered daily on the floor of the U.S. Senate

You can find more government mobile products like the Congressional Record App on the USA.gov Apps Gallery.

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Apps development is becoming an economic force. According to a new study published by TechNet, an industry group, mobile app development is creating jobs.

The study found that there were about 466,000 jobs in the “App Economy” in the United States, up from zero in 2007.

Top U.S. Metro Areas With Highest Percentage of App Economy Jobs

New York-Northern N.J.-Long Island………………….. 9.2%

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont………………………. 8.5%

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara……………………… 6.3%

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue……………………………….. 5.7%

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana………………….. 5.1%

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria………………………. 4.8%

Chicago-Naperville-Joliet……………………………….. 3.5%

Boston-Cambridge-Quincy……………………………… 3.5%

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta………………………… 3.3%

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington……………………………… 2.6%

What is the App Economy

According to the study, the total number of Apps Economy jobs includes

… jobs at “pure” app firms such as Zynga as well as app-related jobs at large companies such as Electronic Arts, Amazon, and AT&T, as well as app ‘”infrastructure” jobs at core firms such as Google, Apple, and Facebook.  In addition, the App Economy total includes employment spillovers to the rest of the economy. –TechNet “Where The Jobs Are: The App Economy“

Government & the App Economy

App economy workers can take a look at data sources on www.data.gov to find opportunities using government data. You can start by exploring data sets here.

(This week’s Trends on Tuesday is published a day late. We know.)

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The Department of Education’s Information Resource Center mobilized their Frequently Asked Questions page to give online visitors a consistent and optimized self-service experience across multiple platforms.

Users now get access to hundreds of frequently asked questions related to education from any device (PC, tablet, smartphone, etc) from the site that serves as the central entry point for U.S. Department of Education customers. According to the Department of Education:

Use your smart phone (iPhone, Android, Palm) to access hundreds of frequently asked questions related to education. You can ask questions via Answers.ED.gov right on your phone. And, you can share answers ranging on a wide range of topics, including federal student aid, special education, reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and so much more.

You can find more federal mobile products like Mobile Answers.ED.gov at Apps.USA.gov.

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