S

Is There an App for

That?Georgette E. Dumont, MPA, PhD

University of North Florida

Agenda

S Background

S Research stage

S Methodology

S Preliminary findings

S Next phase

Background

S Citizen expectation for mobile technology

S Increases ease of interaction between city and citizen

S Part of the literature to lead to a ‘joined up’ government

S Research question: What, beyond capacity, influences a

municipality’s adoption of mobile apps

Background, cont.

Case study – Jacksonville, FL

S Consolidated government, 1968

S Largest city in area in contiguous US (885 sq miles)

S 11th most populated city in US (2010: 829,000)

S 2013 3rd place ranking in Center for Digital Government’s

Digital Cities

S ITD:

S 64 unique customers with over 300 applications

S 138 employees

S 35 employees focused on projects

S Currently 105 ongoing projects

Consolidated Government

Structure Technology Support

Methodology

S In-depth interviews

S Survey data

S Archival data

Preliminary findings

S Capacity an issue

S Political supports

S Mayor

S City Council

S Staff innovation

S Marketing

S Still primarily a 1-way communication tool

Preliminary findings, cont.

S In-house designed apps, 3

S Jax Ready (2012)

S Jax Happs (2013)

S Jax Ferry (2013)

S 630-city (in progress to be mobile)

S Purchased apps

S Jax Library

S Parker (still in pilot phase)

Jax Ready

Jax Happs

Jax Ferry

630-CITY

630-CITY, cont.

630-CITY, cont.

630-CITY, cont.

Supports

S Collaborative efforts

S Align with Mayor’s agenda

S Outside validation of ITD

S ITD staff innovation

S Plenty of data – too much at times

Challenges

S Make data meaningful to be crowd sourced

S Funding (staff, budget)

S ‘Small footprint’

S Marketing

Guidance

S To increase funding and gain political support,

demonstrated value added to city

S Metrics

S Outside validation

S Mayoral support need to get departments on board

Next phase

S E-survey

S Interviews with department heads: with apps, in app

queue

S Interviews or e-surveys of city council members