Mobile Government White Paper Summary

A
white paper by Technology Digest

July 2010

Mobile Technology & Government

Technology Digest Inc. :: Add: 155 Gibbs Street Suite 403 , Rockville MD 20850
Info@TechnologyDigest.net :: Tel: 240-‐505-‐7272

Mobile Technology for Government
A white paper by Technology Digest, June 2010

Executive Summary
The emergence of ultra broadband mobile access technologies (3G and
beyond) and the inexpensive availability of smart phones and other handheld
computing devices is opening unprecedented opportunities for mobile

communications and IT services to change the way communities conduct
their lively activities. Many government and public services agencies in
different sectors are evolving current conventional online applications
towards fully mobile wireless ones. This paper provides an overview of m-‐
Government applications, as well as a focus on current state of the art and
potential progress in mobile Health services (m-‐Health) and city
administration (mobile city). It is concluded that technology is a few steps
ahead of the socio-‐economic and usability enablers necessary to make the
transition. Hardware and software developers, usability experts, regulatory
bodies, and beneficiary government agencies are working in various
collaborative contexts to eventually make possible the “anywhere, anytime,
anyhow access to any service by anybody” paradigm.

Contents

Overview of Mobile Technology 3
Mobile Applications for Government 3

M-‐Health and Telemedicine 4
Mobile Cities 6
Conclusions 8
Resources 8

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Overview of Mobile Technology

Advances in wireless and mobile digital communications technology have brought to reality a realm of
opportunities for changing the way communities conduct their lively activities. Computers and compact
portable devices have been getting smaller, smarter, and more powerful ever since their inception
throughout the past few decades. The incorporation of more capable processors in “smart” mobile
devices have boosted their performance and widened their range of applications beyond what could yet
be conceived. Meanwhile, mobile access to IT resources has brought both information and services into
the hand hold. According to W3C, over 80% of the world’s population is now covered by (at least) GSM.
Mobile technology of interest to this paper is not restricted to terrestrial communications for mobile
phones and computer networks. Satellite communications is another arena that significantly supports
mobility for roamers and residents of rural area thanks to GPS technology, satellite phones, and satellite
Internet access.
Advantages of adopting mobile devices for accessing services include (Mobi Solutions, 2010):
o Mobile devices are always on -‐-‐ anywhere, anytime
o Mobile devices are typically personal
o Mobile devices are more intuitive to use than personal computers
o Mobile phones enjoy a very high and rising penetration rate around the world
o Mobile phone access services are particularly emerging in the poorer, less developed, and/or
rural regions of the world; since they are characterized by poor cabling infrastructure
o Mobile government applications will not only improve service levels but will also enhance the
inter-‐administrative organizational process flexibility (Rossel et Al., 2004)
Current broadband mobile wireless access technologies can be categorized by the type of network
(computer or mobile phone network, together with the geographical scope of coverage).
o Wide area networks employ either Wi-‐Max and 3G (UMTS, HSDPA) technologies
o Local area networks employ Wi-‐Fi technology
o Personal area networks employ Bluetooth and other proprietary RF technologies
o Data communication enabled mobile phones access the Internet or an intranet via 3G, Wi-‐Fi, or
Wi-‐Max
The thrust of this paper is dedicated to mobile applications for governmental services, irrespective of
the specific access technology.
Mobile Applications for Government

Looking at mobile technology applications in government and public agencies, it is intuitive to fore see
that all sectors are likely to gain major advances in the way they serve their clients. Civil government
entities concerned with health, education, transport, commerce, agriculture, justice, urban planning,
energy, and several others will find both main stream and niche areas that would benefit from mobile
ICTs. The foresight is advancing towards mGovernment, which is considered a subset of the already
rapidly evolving eGovernment (KushChu, 2004).
In this context, current mobile devices can be conceived as smaller personal computers with the added
benefit of being conveniently movable to an extent that could be used at any place while on the run.



The mGovernment framework therefore is meant to enhance the provisioning and reachability of online
government services by making possible access through mobile devices.
A topical brainstorm on applications would yield many feasible service concepts, which could be
organized into categories in the process of streamlining the discipline of converged telecommunications
services. These applications include:
o Conducting all sorts of financial transactions, starting with those that involve smaller monetary
amounts (by dialing, SMS, or through a mobile web online service)
o Using mobile video sessions for remote diagnosis (of both humans and machines)
o Using mobile or fixed wireless video sessions for remote surveillance
o Using mobile dialing or SMS for authenticating transactions
o Using Radio Frequency ID (RFID) for tracking identity
o Using mobile dialing or SMS for remotely controlling devices and appliances
o Using SMS for voting, conducting polls and surveys
o Using SMS for advising citizens of potential hazards, risks, and other arbitrary information
o Accessing public and private administrative data and requesting citizen documentation
Categorizing potential mobile government services can take place along several dimensions: by
government sector, by scale of coverage, and by access medium (web, SMS, voice, etc.).This paper
explores mGovernment services in the health industry and in the concept of mobile cities.
M-‐Health and Telemedicine

Mobile phones and services promise strong potential for both basic and secondary health related
services. There are currently over 2000 smart phone applications to support mobile health services.
o Mobile diagnosis, especially in emergencies and where medical experts are not available
o Mobile monitoring of patient medical information, such as blood pressure, sugar level, etc.
o Mobile management of critical patient medications (special medical packaging required)
o Mobile access to patient health records
o Dissemination of health hazards and providing online health advice
o Mobile access to reference medical material by physicians and nurses at the patients’ premises
o Cross border health management and support (e.g., during natural disasters)
On another hand, there are patient security concerns and reservations that must be seriously
considered by m-‐health services and technology developers to avoid risking the patients’ health
condition or even their lives. These concerns include:
o Possible identity theft, hijacking, transmission of forged information, and injection of malware
into mobile access/control devices as well as supporting servers
o Dependability of mobile network access with respect to the reliance on m-‐health services
o Privacy of patients’ medical information
In addition to the above risks, there are long term issues to be resolved concerning policy and
regulations, evolution of the health system and institutions, interoperability issues at network and
applications levels, and provisioning of specific m-‐health service plans by mobile network and/or
application service providers (Istepanian, 2006).



Source: IEEE Computer Society

The fore mentioned m-‐health applications are generally feasible with current 2.5G and 3G access
technologies. 4G technology refers to all-‐IP packet-‐switched networks and ultra-‐broadband access
through gigabit and multi-‐carrier transmission (Istepanian, 2006). 4G is expected to give rise to
converged m-‐health services such as:
o Mobile on-‐demand home health care; to integrate advances in pervasive computing and
wearable technologies with 4G networks; and enabling patients with limited (or lack of)
mobility to be interactively monitored and managed by healthcare professionals
o Virtual mobile hospitals; to connect medical experts with their patients through high quality
multimedia channels; also providing emergency medical support in case of natural disasters
o Personalized predictive healthcare; to take advantage of future availability of Wireless Body
Area Networks (WBANs), providing online connectivity between a set of external or implanted
medical sensors and virtual or physical health care centers

Source: Asian Hospital & Health Care Management
Extensive reference to an abundance of specific m-‐health and telemedicine applications, technologies,
operational and prototype services can be found in (Istepanian, 2006) and (Xiao, 2008).



Mobile Cities

There are a few industrial and governmental initiatives to define frameworks for the concept of a
mobile city. The main directions that we identified go along two axes:
1. The extensive deployment of GPS services based on accurate GIS maintained by urban planners
and local or regional administration
2. The provisioning of online citizen administrative services, which are specifically more accessible
through smart mobile phones
To a large extent, the concept of a mobile city is an attempt to contain the yet non-‐converged directions
of service deployment and access facilitation within the “smaller and more visible” administrative
bounds of one city. It is clear that such limited scale implementations pave the way to more qualified
wider scale coverage at county and state levels. It can also be foreseen that several locomotive and
administrative services would lend themselves to global access by interested and authorized parties. It
is still common though to find the term “mobile city” used as a general branding promotion of green
cities that emphasize the deployment of, and reliance on, ICT services and other clean technologies.
By featuring mobile accessible city/county administration websites, providing a good subset of the
services needed by residents, the base of users is foreseen to increase dramatically. While not all
citizens are yet computer comfortable, a larger percentage is regular mobile users. They can access the
mobile websites to get their needed information and to accomplish their desired administrative tasks.
They can also reach (many of) these services via interactive voice and/or SMS. Mobile phones (and
particularly smart phones) are hence the portable tools for use as service access devices.
Three examples of prevalent mobile city initiatives are identified and presented below.
Seattle Mobile City Project
The city of Seattle was one of the earliest adopters of eGovernment and mobility concepts. The Seattle
Public Utilities (SPU) division was a pioneer in launching the Fully Mobile City research project (mCity) as
early as 1999. SPU adopted first generation (1G) Fully Mobile, Wirelessly Connected (FMWC)
applications in its Water operations Group in 2002, allowing fieldworkers to access backend asset
management, logistics, and GIS applications using rugged FMWC-‐enabled portable devices (laptops,
smart phones, and PDAs). The initial project launch has demonstrated a streamlined work process with
higher productivity, reduced operations cost, and improved data integrity (Scholl et Al, U. Washington).
Several challenges have been encountered and researched while incrementally moving towards a
multiple-‐agency, city-‐wide deployment of FMWC applications with enhanced backend interoperability
and re-‐engineered field operations process. It was generally concluded that the introduction of FMWC
ICT in local government is much more complex than anticipated by government leaders and academics.
Research on FMWC computing (also referred to as pervasive computing) has revealed critical
differences between stationary interactions, where user movement is restrained; and mobile
interactions, where various degrees of body movement are allowed. Three types of FMWC applications
have been identified (Gorlenko, 2003).
o Essentially FMWC applications; offer solutions that are unique to wireless connectivity and can
be delivered through FMWC devices; and are characterized by on-‐the-‐spot communication and
context-‐aware computing. Examples of contextual awareness include awareness of location,
mobility, health, and activity.



o Applications adapted for the FMWC context; exist on all three types of hardware: fixed,
portable, and fully mobile. Examples include office and Internet applications conventionally
used at a PC, with possible availability of light versions for mobile device. User interaction with
this group of applications takes place through use of a keyboard, stylus with menu selection,
and possibly natural language interfaces.
o Applications unsuitable for FMWC; cannot meet the challenges of mobility since they typically
require substantial memory, higher processing power, and larger screen sizes. It is the
complexity of the FMWC environment that prevents these applications from being ported and
not the nature of the applications as such.

Source: University of Washington, Computer Science Department
It is evident that emerging FMWC applications pose unprecedented opportunities and challenges in the
work and task domains, as well as significant transformations in the work environment social networks.
Mobile City Bregenz
As the first mobile city in Austria and one of the first few in Europe, the Mobile City Bregenz aims to
provide innovative products and services to its citizens and tourists using advanced mobile
technologies. The city has implemented a broadband infrastructure based on UMTS and HSDPA to
support the development and operation of services (http://www.openlivinglabs.eu).
The Mobile City event
The Mobile City is an annual event founded by Martijn de Waal and Michiel de Lange to bring together
technologists, providers and researchers in locative and mobile media, urban culture and identity. The
physical, geographical city with its neighborhoods and highway interchanges is overlaid with the ‘virtual
space’ of wireless networks of GSM, GPS, CCTV, UMTS, WIFI, RFID, etc. (http://www.themobilecity.nl/).



Conclusions

Advances in wireless communications and networking technologies open up unique opportunities for
advancing our communal way of life. In particular, government agencies mandated to serve citizens
become a lot more enabled to operate more effectively in providing tax payers a much broader
spectrum of services, affording them higher levels of convenience at lower cost. While all government
sectors are equal stakeholders in reaping and presenting the benefits of mobile government
applications, we chose to focus on m-‐health and mobile cities as they tend to be two application fields
that directly interact with the most vital lively activities – living well. There are a myriad of applications
along an extended development lifecycle that will gradually contribute to all kinds of health
management, maintenance, and treatment programs. On the other hand, mobile city initiatives and
programs are rising to provide residents with online administrative services at their hand hold and guide
them through with access to innovative locomotive information and rural communications. The Internet
has been bringing eGovernment to the desktop and later to the laptop, which is considered a portable
rather than a mobile device. mGovernment extends the concept that is still in development by
disbanding location and state of movement from access to services and information. While technology
is leading, it is for service developers, providers, policy makers, and regulators to bring life to mobility.

Resources

Mobile Government Consortium International, http://www.mgovernment.org
Mobile Government: 2010 and Beyond, Mobi Solutions Ltd, http://www.mobisolutions.com, Jan. 2010
Pierre Rossel, Matthias Finger, and Gianluca Misuraca, “Mobile e-‐Government Options: Between
Technology-‐driven and User-‐centric,” The Electronic Journal of e-‐Government Volume 4 Issue 2, 2006
Ibrahim Kushchu, Impact of Mobile Technologies on Government, Mobile Government Lab (mGov) Lab
http://www.mgovlab.org, May 2004
Robert S. H. Istepanian, Constantinos S. Pattichis, “M-‐health: emerging mobile health systems,” Springer,
2006
Yang Xiao and Hui Chen, “Mobile telemedicine: a computing and Networking perspective,” CRC Press, 2008
Hans J. Scholl et Al., “Seattle’s Mobile City Project,” University of Washington
L. Gorlenko, R. Merrick, “No wires attached: Usability challenges in the connected mobile world,” IBM
Systems Journal, Vol. 42, No. 4, 2003
Mobile City Bregenz, European Network of Living Labs, http://www.openlivinglabs.eu


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white paper by Technology Digest

Overview of Mobile Technology

Mobile Applications for Government

M-‐Health and Telemedicine

Source: IEEE Computer Society

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Mobile Government White Paper Summary

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white paper by Technology Digest

Overview of Mobile Technology

Mobile Applications for Government

M-­‐Health and Telemedicine

Source: IEEE Computer Society

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M-‐Health and Telemedicine