Since the federal government stopped issuing .gov URLs in June, some officials have suggested that a contraction of federal websites could elevate the role of mobile citizen services across government. But according to an official with the General Services Administration's Making Mobile Gov project, most agencies making the case for mobile aren't taking that tack.  

"That could very well bubble up," said Gwynne Kostin, director of mobile at GSA's office of citizen services and innovative technologies. For now, however, most of the mobile demand is driven from "the office level" for a specific, mission-related need, she said Aug. 24 following a presentation at a FedScoop event in Washington, D.C.

More than 70 free mobile applications have been developed or endorsed by agencies said Kostin, who spoke about "mobile myths" that challenge the growth of mobile technology within government.

"I think [in the future citizens will be] getting their services through mobile devices, through apps, whatever device they're on. I don't see websites looking like they are today, in the future," said Martha Dorris, deputy associate administrator at GSA's OCSIT, while speaking at the event.

While Dorris characterizes mobile-centric--versus web-centric--citizen engagement as a long-term goal, agencies may begin rethinking their content now so as to ease a future move in that direction.

"When we decouple information from the delivery mechanism, it doesn't really matter how it's distributed," said Kostin.

Search and collaborative services will also play a greater role moving forward, said Dorris.

"I think search is a very integral part of the experience that the public will have because there's so much information. So, I see search moving to the next level," she said. "I also see a citizen wanting integrated transactions across agencies that they can't do today."

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