syssec_red_book

19 Digital Government: Building a 21stCentury Platform to Better Servethe American PeopleThe “Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to BetterServe the American People” report outlines a digital strategy for thefederal government in the United States to embrace new technologies,in a coordinated fashion, to better serve its citizens. Data and services should,as they say, be available “anywhere, anytime, on any device” in a secure fashion toencourage innovation. The roadmap outlines three major goals to be reachedby the following four guiding principles: an information-centric approach forthe data, a shared platform for consistency and to reduce costs, a focus onthe needs of the users of the data, and, finally, an emphasis on security andprivacy.19.1 Identified PrioritiesAs identified in the roadmap, the exponential development of technology haschanged how businesses perform in the private sector. Such advances shouldalso influence how government agencies operate and serve data and servicesto citizens. By using the effectiveness of modern IT solutions, it is believed thatbetter digital services can be built, using fewer resources. However, adoptingnew technologies may also pose a number of challenges.For example, the roadmap introduces a conceptual model for digital services,with an information layer, a platform layer, and a presentation layer.Previously, systems made by the government have focused on a specific usecase with a tight coupling between the information and the presentation, i.e.,the presentation of data from this database should be tailored to a web pageon a computer. By decoupling the information from the presentation, thepresentation can be done on any device. Furthermore, by letting the data bemachine readable, extensions can be built both by government agencies as wellas entrepreneurs to better serve the citizens. The security of the end devicebecomes less important if one concentrates on securing the information itself.