Government Bits

So, Adobe and geospatial? Is Adobe really thinking of jumping into the geospatial market to compete with the likes of ESRI and Intergraph? Well, of course not. However, when thinking about Adobe's focus on engagement and our mission to revolutionize the way people interact with information, it really makes sense that our technologies become interesting and useful to those needing to share and use this kind of information. For today's entry, I'm going to begin setting context for you by outlining the various types of users in this community. I am going to generalize the users into three categories; geospatial experts, intermediate geospatial users and casual users and then provide a high level overview of who these people are and what they do, geospatially speaking of course.

First, are the geospatial experts. These are typically individuals who have studied the art and science of geospatial concepts and have made it their career. These highly trained folks are generally the ones who leverage tools from companies such as ESRI to create geospatial applications. They speak with terms such as projections, geocoding, raster imagery, vectors, coordinate systems and registration. They understand how the world is represented by various standardized data points that address practically every square inch of the world. With this knowledge and experience, these people are the ones who generate what most people refer to as maps. Also included in this group are geospatial and/or imagery analysts, the folks that study geospatial information, perhaps as a scientist or as a military analyst. The tools leveraged by those who practice this trade are very robust and mature. Of the three groups, this is by far the smallest number of users.

Next are the intermediate users. This is a group of people who typically depend on knowing where things are as part of their job. For example, a police officer needs to know who to get to the site of a crime and a transportation analyst needs to be able to see or visualize traffic patterns within the context of place and time and a platoon leader in Iraq needs to know the sites of insurgent activity. Likewise, many times, these individuals are required to work as part of a larger team, thus requiring the need for collaboration and data collection. If you were to chat with a person in this group, they may or may not even recognize the term geospatial, but, they do understand the importance of knowing where things are. Unlike the geospatial experts who usually work from fixed locations using highly powered workstations, folks in this category work from wherever they are using whatever equipment they have available. They cannot even assume a consistent network connection. When compared to the experts, this category is substantially larger in terms of the number of people.

At the far end of the spectrum, are the casual users, people who have no clue what geospatial means, BUT, they certainly recognize a map when they see one! These folks are the ones who use maps to find something or get someplace. They are generally content to engage with a map in very rudimentary ways, such as, zoom in/out or get the directions from point A to point B. Of course, this category encompasses pretty much everyone else, making this an extremely large population of users.

Now, with these basic characterizations in mind, I would also like to mention briefly the typical interactions between and within the groups. Generally speaking, the experts have little, if any, interaction at all with the casual user. Experts create maps and geospatially enabled applications which are then published and made available to the casual user. The casual user typically finds what they need on the map and they move on with their life. So, we are going to call that type of interaction 'publish and go'. Within the casual group, there may be some simple sharing of information, for instance, sending someone a link to directions, however, again, the interaction is usually simple and one way. There are very few cases where the casual user interacts back with the expert.

The more interesting interactions happen between the experts and the intermediate users. Quite often, the intermediate users serve as data collectors. Take for example, a first responder arriving to the scene of a disaster and finding a bridge missing, this information needs to be made available to the experts so the geospatial databases and products can be updated to reflect reality. In addition, teams of users can be brought together, intermediates and experts alike, to collaborate. This form of interaction allows for better analysis of a situation, leading to better decisions being made.

Within this basic context, for my next entry, I will begin to focus on sharing models for geospatial information with a closer look at online/offline formats and a few important security considerations.

Until next time......

Posted by Bobby Caudill at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the greatest perks of my role at Adobe is I get to work with and gain insight into some truly innovative things that governments are doing worldwide.

Just a couple of days ago, I was able to catch up with Anthony Steve from the Australian federal government to discuss his upcoming trip to the Adobe Max 2008 conference in San Francisco. He is presenting and sharing the success his agency has had with their electronic forms initiative.

We started working with his team several years ago to transform how services were delivered via their business services portal using Adobe LiveCycle ES.

In 2006, the site won a United Nations Public Services award in the Application of Information and Communication Technology category. The initiative has reduced the cost of interacting with government.

For those of you interested in specific examples of innovation and best practices in services delivery, you are in for a treat. Not only have they provided a shared-service infrastructure for hosting government forms in one location, they have also created a community forum that anyone can join and share best practices.

The success from this project is now being replicated in their Australia Government Online Service Portal (AGOSP) initiative to transform how services are delivered to its constituents via their citizen portal .

Here are some resources to learn more:

Online presentation by Anthony Steve, eBusiness Division, Department of Innovation. He shares some great statistics on the trends in electronic forms and eGovernment.

Forum set up by the Australian government way for agencies to share best practices for Smartforms development.

Recently updated case study on Adobe.com

For those of you attending MAX 2008, do plan on catching the session which is entitled, "LiveCycle Showcase: Making the Business Case for Engaging Applications".

P.S. I will be at the annual NASCIO conference next week in Milwaukee. Do hope to see you there. This year, there were some fantastic entries for the annual IT recognition awards. I had a tough time judging...will be exciting when the winners are announced.

Posted by Loni Kao at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Previously, Rob Pinkerton wrote our first installment on engagement for government. Rob mentioned how the topic is somewhat abstract so I'm opting to share the story of how we came to the conclusion that engagement is important to government. Winding back the clock almost two years, there was a small group of people at Adobe investigating the concept of "engagement applications". I recall many meetings, each starting in the same way, with the need to define the idea because there was someone new in the room. The idea was very fresh and came at many of the challenges in government from a very different perspective, primarily from the perspective of the citizen experience. At first, it seemed like an uphill battle, most people would eventually "get" the idea, but, not without a considerable amount of discussion.

In the months following those early meetings, the team took the message of engagement for citizens on the road. We briefed customers, analysts, the press and various thought leaders across the industry. The response was very positive and encouraging. It seemed that we tapped into something that many others were thinking about as well. In fact, we realized it wasn't only Adobe folks having engagement conversations. Since then, research papers from the likes of Gartner, Forrester and the Center for Digital Government have appeared, universities such as Rutgers and Harvard have started offering classes and/or research papers, and many government agencies from around the globe have incorporated the concept. To get a feel for just how pervasive the idea has become, do a Yahoo or Google search on "government citizen engagement".

To further substantiate the importance of engagement to government, in 2007, the Economist conducted a survey of government and public-sector officials and found that more than 80% of the respondents thought that engagement is either very important or important to achieving their mission. Additionally, over 75% of the respondents said the lack of engagement actually interfered with their agency’s ability to fulfill its mission! This tells me the concept is actively on the mind of government, which is good news, but that there is still much work to do. In fact, according to the survey, only 25% of public service managers think their department or agency is deeply engaged with its constituents. Over half said the lack of engagement cost their agency 20% or more of its budget annually, which translates to millions of dollars wasted.

Of course, unlike commercial entities who have the option to choose their audience and customers, public-sector organizations are mandated to accommodate the needs of all citizens, which offers a different set of opportunities to leverage technology, especially with regards to engagement solutions.

To be continued......

Posted by Bobby Caudill at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just came back from the annual APHSA/ISM conference held in San Francisco this year where I had been asked to moderate a session entitled "Technologies for Service Delivery".

Amidst all the passionate debate about the best ways to provide high quality services to citizens, one thing was clear and everyone agreed - with budgets tightening, head count decreasing and case loads increasing, the challenges to deliver essential social services are immense.

It's simply overwhelming to try to manage the workload. Many government folks I spoke with were looking for ways to make their jobs easier.

In an equation with little wiggle room, technology can transform challenges into opportunities.

And so, as my session came to a close and the room full of attendees started clamoring to the front, I wondered what I would have said had I been a speaker instead of a moderator.

Globally, government has made immense strides in technology investments. However, much of this investment has focused on back-office infrastructure or just getting content onto a web site. Little has been invested in engagement: making sure that government portals are intuitive and citizen-centric so that the public can actually find the services and forms that they need.

After the conference I gave it some thought. Here's some things to think about:

1. More is not always better. In a rush to move to eGovernment, many agencies have put up web sites for their department. Not only is this hard to maintain, it confuses the citizen. Getting down to one web site may be too ambitious, but reducing the number is moving in the right direction.

2. Pre-screen for eligibility across programs. Many agencies I talk to look for the holy grail of eligibility engines - the one that will provide the exact services the citizen may be eligible for. Unfortunately, if they complete the quest, they end up with 50 to 100 questions no citizen will probably want to answer!

I recommend screening the top 10 to 20 questions and spend more time designing the questions so they are based on life events and in easy-to-understand terms. Every day language works. Like surveys, the smaller set of questions, the more likely a person will go through them and you can alleviate the deer in the headlights look as citizens try to navigate individual services.

3. Provide electronic applications online. Once a citizen gets to the recommended services, don't make them walk into an agency to get the forms. Instead, provide an online list of forms they may need in a format they can easily access and complete. If there are multiple forms, look to pre-fill common information across the board. A study found the most common items asked for on almost every form are first name, last name, date of birth, and a personal identification number.

This is easier said than done, so instead of leaving you with a tall order as my first blog entry, I got some of our user designers and engineers here to build a sample incorporating some of these best practices. If you're interested, you can find more about it here.

Posted by Loni Kao at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Government leaders who want to implement change and improve public service should consider technology as a tool for 'engaging' their constituencies. Citizen centricity is not a new concept for eGovernment initiatives, but the application of technology to improve engagement for the entire ecosystem is new. An individual 'engages' with government the moment they require an agencies services, attempt to transact business with an agency or simply seek to understand its mission. That individual may be a citizen, they may also be an employee, a businessman or business entity, a non-profit, a serviceman, a contractor, etc. Engagement manifests itself with a phone call, browsing a web site or mobile device, visiting a physical office or personal contact with a government professional at work or home. When the experience of engagement is meaningful and effective, an agency will more successfully deliver on its mission.

In private industry, effective customer engagement is paramount to success, with companies like Amazon, Google and Apple thriving because they effectively use technology to enrich the point of engagement with their customers. In government however, technology is used more as a tool for automating process or providing transparency to operations. The consequence is that the individual who must engage with the agency is forgotten and becomes disengaged from the process. Adobe calls this circumstance an engagement gap.

For a very simple example, go to any government agency Website (I don't want to pick on a specific one, but try a regional social services agency) and you will probably find a picture of the agency's leader, a list of recent news and an organizational chart. Now imagine if you went to apple.com and the first thing you found was a picture of the CEO, Steve Jobs, a list of recent Apple press releases, and links to the different business units inside Apple. You probably wouldn't buy an iPod. For Apple the consequence of poor engagement would be lost sales. For the social services agency, its a lost opportunity to help someone in need.

The concept of engagement can seem abstract at first and we will spend some time on this blog substantiating it.

Posted by Rob Pinkerton at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

If you are interested in the application of new technology to the challenges and opportunities of government, then this blog was created for you.

Adobe is a dynamic software company with a storied Silicon Valley history and a vigorous passion to innovate technology for the future. Within our customer family, some of our most diverse and important users are government professionals and the constituencies they serve. Adobe's government team is privileged to spend its time working with these customers every day and our goal with this blog is to share some of our observations, successes, and frustrations with the application of new technology in government.

Our hope is that these posts will inspire you, challenge you, inform you, or, at the very least, spark an interest in the possibilities that new technology can offer for the public good. We welcome your thoughts and comments.

Enjoy.

The Adobe Government Team

Posted by Beth Lovett at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)