Federal IT budget to fund mobile apps, cloud computing

The 2011 federal budget for information technology includes $35 million to introduce mobile applications for citizens and agencies.

The money is part of a $79 billion IT budget, a slight decrease from this year's IT funding of $81 billion. Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra said he wants to "tap into the mobile revolution" by helping the General Services Administration  (GSA) to add cellphone apps to the government "store" at Apps.gov.

Right now, Apps.gov offers cloud computing applications for agencies. It features pre-approved services--like word processors and customer management software--immediately and for free.

Kundra has been a vocal advocate of cloud computing since he took his post in the White House last year. Now he is turning some of his focus to mobile services modeled after the success of Apple's popular app store for the iPhone.

Just as independent developers can create and submit new iPhone applications for Apple's approval, Kundra wants citizens to use government data to create mobile apps for citizens.

"You could imagine an application around tracking federal spending and seeing which projects are initiated in your neighborhood," Kundra said in a conference call. "It's not just limited to applications in the federal government."

Kundra last year spearheaded the launch of Data.gov, which gives anyone access to a wide range of government data sets.

"What we've seen since we've launched Data.gov is a global movement," he said. "We want to make a platform. The real value in platforms is actually in the third parties. Think about Facebook--it doesn't go out and create all the content. Third parties do that."

He said he wants developers from outside the Beltway to create mobile applications, just as they have done to create other Web apps.

Kundra's IT budget also includes $70 million in funds for the National Institute of Standards and Technology to establish formal security standards for cloud computing. A lot of agencies have been waiting on official guidelines before charging ahead with cloud computing services because of the current security and privacy concerns.