As soon as the Environmental Protection Agency decided it would begin developing public-facing mobile applications, Dalroy Ward, senior technology advisor at EPA's office of information analysis and access, made a visit to the agency's ethics officer.

"They very simply said, 'You can't do something just for one device, one network,'" said Ward, while speaking June 23 at an AFCEA Bethesda event. "That could be perceived as an endorsement that's going to go out to the public."

At the same time, said Ward, agencies can't afford to build and support mobile operating systems that only claim 1 percent of the market. Ward watches market penetration data for the various mobile operating systems very closely, as it dictates what the agency will develop for and support.

"At the very minimum we have been doing iOS, Android and a mobile web, so that any relatively smart phone--that's not a smartphone but that can just handle a web browser--can do our mobile applications," said Ward.

But even if an agency commits to building apps for the three, leading mobile OSes it will likely struggle with variations to the user experience, introduced by carriers and manufacturers, said Lt. Col. Anmy Torres, director of defense knowledge online and secure go mobile at the Defense Information Systems Agency.

"Each device is different. You get Android 2.3 on a device and you think you developed something that works but the manufacturer has put in a few other features or things and the carrier has a different flavor of the device and you've got to work with that," warned Torres.

Torres focuses on internally-facing mobile applications that help employees and service members do their jobs more effectively and efficiently. Despite a longstanding allegiance to BlackBerry devices at DoD, Torres said her shop is "customer driven," and the demand iPhones, iPads and Android devices is increasing.

The recurring question for Torres is: "What are the security requirements we need to address and put in place in order to adopt new devices?" said Torres.

Many times, she said, DISA has successfully enabled remote wiping, common acces card compliance, and disabled GPS, WiFi and cameras, through security applications provided by third-party software vendors.

"We have [to have] a way to secure it that is painless for everybody, not just for the customers but also for the people who are supporting--the system administrators behind the scenes making sure that everything works on their device," said Torres.

Earlier in the week, the General Service Administration's office of citizen services and innovative technologies announced a new project called "Making Mobile Gov." During the first phase of the initiative OCSIT plans to assist agencies in educating leadership on the benefits of a consumer-focused mobile strategy. OCSIT will also help agencies develop criteria for project selection, encourage investment in mobile and facilitate interagency collaboration around mobility. Eventually, OCSIT will launch a community-generated wiki around the effort.

EPA recently launched an "Apps for the Environment" contest which asks mobile application developers to create "data mashups" from data sets released by EPA and the Department of Health and Human Services. Ward touted the interagency collaboration and said the agencies' data can be brought together in ways that "allow the public to draw their own conclusions."

"It's potentially very powerful and potentially very dangerous, because just because there's a concentration of a chemical that does not necessarily mean it's causing some disease, but there are some really cool things that can be done," added Ward.

For more:
- see GSA's "Making Mobile Gov" project

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