A free web chat program, a few laptops and a whole lot of motivation for harnessing the power of mobile technology to provide citizen services came together inside a Starbucks in the heart of the nation’s Capitol this week.
In all, 18 participants from 11 federal agencies, private companies and non-profits spent time Wednesday on various tasks associated with building a Mobile Gov Wiki to further the mobile government movement. In two hours, they had five new articles created and 15 articles edited on the wiki, a living web site that allows users to easily create, edit, and organize web pages.
It’s really kind of inspirational. It’s big in a little way in that it’s not a complicated thing to do, but has great impact.” – Barbara Little
Barbara Little, an archeologist with the National Park Service, was at the so-called Wikithon on detail as part of the President’s Management Council.
“It works. People share ideas. They participate. They collaborate,” she said as she worked on adding to detailed mobile strategy plans in the wiki. “That’s what we are now. Share first. It’s really kind of inspirational. It’s big in a little way in that it’s not a complicated thing to do, but has great impact.”
Indeed. Over the past month, the wiki has logged 1610 visits from federal workers seeking information on everything from mobile apps to mobile strategy for an entire department.
Little is among a group of dedicated federal workers who’s been part of the Making Mobile Gov Project to help federal agencies develop a more open, innovative government by providing information and services anytime, anywhere and on any device. The so-called Mobile Gov Community of Practice has included 59 folks from 30 agencies contributing to the effort both virtually and in person since October.
Mobile Director Gwynne Kostin from the Office of Citizen Services & Innovative Technologies at GSA has led the effort, along with Mobile Programs Manager Jacob Parcell.
While Kostin was deep in conversation about navigation and GPS with one participant on Wednesday, Parcell was managing virtual participants from as far away as Los Angeles and Kansas City.
Their goals are simple: help federal workers discover information and make the case for mobile innovation within their own agency and join in the discussion about challenges involved in mobile gov. Anyone can participate. The resulting community-generated wiki developed at monthly wikithons offers tools to help build and implement a mobile strategy for any federal agency and to share resources among other agencies.
“We’ve learned to keep it simple,” Parcell said of the Wikithons. “At first we envisioned big tasks. Now they’re more incremental so that if someone gets tired halfway through that’s fine.”
Wednesday was the fifth such gathering of mobile gov professionals to create and develop content for the Mobile Gov Wiki and discuss various mobile practices. They are open-house events at which participants are encouraged to come for a minute or the entire time and received training if needed.
“Mobile innovators all over and outside of government are coming to build this wiki,” Kostin told the audience at a summit on mobile government last month. “You can do things any time, anywhere, on any device. We’re not stuck in the structure that we were before.”