Building a 21st Century Digital Government

This memorandum directs federal agencies to implement a new 'Digital Government' strategy within 12 months, including creating public progress-reporting web pages within 90 days. The strategy aims to modernize government digital services, expand mobile accessibility, open government data through APIs, and improve customer experience across all .gov websites.

Federal Register Open PDF 77 FR 32391

Impact dates

May 23, 2013
Full implementation of Digital Government Strategy requirements
Aug 21, 2012
Agencies create /digitalstrategy page for public progress reporting

Key directives

Implement Digital Government Strategy requirements within 12 months of May 23, 2012
Create www.[agency].gov/digitalstrategy page within 90 days to report progress in machine-readable format
Establish specific measurable goals for digital service delivery
Adopt standards for open and machine-readable government information by default
Use web performance analytics and customer satisfaction tools on all .gov websites
Aggregate developer resources in centralized catalogue on Data.gov

Who is ordered

Timeline

Immediate

Memorandum issued
Federal CIO releases Digital Government Strategy

Near term (90d)

Agencies must create /digitalstrategy pages on their websites
Public progress reporting begins in machine-readable format

Long term

Full implementation of Digital Government Strategy within 12 months
Agencies establish measurable goals for digital service delivery
Centralized developer resources on Data.gov
Web performance analytics deployed across all .gov sites

Risks & tensions

Subject to availability of appropriations may limit implementation
Privacy and civil liberties protections required but not specified in detail
12-month timeline for comprehensive digital transformation may be ambitious for resource-constrained agencies
Machine-readable default standard may face technical and cultural adoption barriers