Want to increase voter turnout? What about offering a mobile application that allowed citizens to fill their voter registration form and receive reminders as election dates came close? An emergency happens, and there’s no time to rush home to gather the family’s medical history – what if a mobile app allowed one to access family records at the hospital? There are plenty of examples that, if the appropriate security protocols were in place, could provide value to citizens and the government alike in saving time and, potentially, providing critical information on-site.
So why aren’t we seeing more government-oriented mobile apps yet? Several reasons:
- 1.) Navigating the permissions with the national bureaucracy to get approvals is labyrinthine and complex (do you want to apply for a background screening from Homeland Security?)
- 2.) Who wants to be liable if the applications do get hacked and thousands of records get stolen…all because of your software.
- 3.) The industry is too new for government. Accessing medical information online just came about in the last few years and we’re still developing ways to have a national database. The behemoth lurch that government needs to take to just get on the internet is still underway…how can we expect it to have mobile info by now?
Government-oriented apps are bound to develop, but these formidable hurtles, as well as many others will slow down the process to some of much-desired applications.
