2014 presentation for the American Society for Public Administration on municipal adoption of mobile technologies.

1. S
Is There an App for
That?
Georgette E. Dumont, MPA, PhD
University of North Florida

2. Agenda
S Background
S Research stage
S Methodology
S Preliminary findings
S Next phase

3. 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

4. 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

5. Consolidated Government
Structure Technology Support

6. Methodology
S In-depth interviews
S Survey data
S Archival data

7. 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

8. 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)

9. Jax Ready

10. Jax Happs

11. Jax Ferry

12. 630-CITY

13. 630-CITY, cont.

14. 630-CITY, cont.

15. 630-CITY, cont.

16. 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

17. Challenges
S Make data meaningful to be crowd sourced
S Funding (staff, budget)
S ‘Small footprint’
S Marketing

18. 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

19. Next phase
S E-survey
S Interviews with department heads: with apps, in app
queue
S Interviews or e-surveys of city council members