Home U.S. CIO Wants To Open Mobile Apps Store But Is Apple The Right Model?

U.S. CIO Wants To Open Mobile Apps Store But Is Apple The Right Model?

The federal government sure loves cloud computing. And now it’s using the foundation it built in the cloud to create a mobile apps store for citizens and government agencies.

The federal budget for IT services has $35 million set aside for introducing mobile technologies. The money is part of a $79 billion IT budget, down from $81 billion last year.

According to the Hill.com, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra said he wants to “tap into the mobile revolution” by helping the General Services Administration add the mobile apps to the government “store” at Apps.gov.

Apps.gov is the government’s cloud-based apps environment. Government agencies use it to download different software and services.

The Hill reports that Kundra wants to model the success that Apple has seen with its app store for the iPhone and iTouch. For example, just as independent developers can submit iPhone apps, he wants people to use government data to create mobile apps for citizens. There is no detail yet about the costs of the apps, if they’d be free or a mix like on Apple or the Android platform.

Kundrs has the information ready to mine. He spearheaded Data.gov, which gives access to all kinds of government data.

Kundra understands the ecosystem that is developing online. He refers to the way social networks leverage third-party sites. He’d like to see the same ecosystem emerge out of the federal government.

But we wonder what apps developers would create. Kundra envisions mobile apps that, for instance, would track federal spending, and show which projects get initiated in your neighborhood.

And how would this application developer community emerge? Apple’s success comes from the sheer volume of applications available and the popularity they enjoy. Is there an interest among developers to create applications out of government data? And we wonder if the Apple model is really best. An open application development environment seems more in the spirit of an effort such as this by the federal government.

In the meantime, cloud computing appears to gaining slowly in the federal government over concerns about security. To help spur adoption, Kundra’s IT budget has $70 million in funds for the National Institute of Standards and Technology to establish formal security standards for cloud computing.

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