10 Years of Digital Government—A Retrospective
In December of 2004, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued the first Policies for Federal Public Websites. Over the past decade, we’ve seen technology completely transform how government delivers information and services to the public.
On this 10-year anniversary, we’re taking a walk down memory lane to recap some of the pivotal moments that have shaped today’s digital government landscape.
February—Facebook launches (for colleges; opens to the public 2007)
March—Interagency Committee on Government Information (ICGI) convenes to draft Web recommendations
June—ICGI issues Recommendations for Federal Web Policies
July—ICGI becomes the Web Content Management Working Group (predecessor to Federal Web Managers Council)
August—HHS publishes its seminal Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines (foundation for Usability.gov)
December—OMB issues M-05-04 Policies for Federal Public Websites
January—NARA issues guidance on scheduling Web records
February—YouTube launches
September—Web community implements content “lanes” for disaster response (Katrina); First Web Manager Conference at GWU
December—Small Business Administration is the first federal agency on YouTube
2006
April—Intellipedia, the first interagency wiki, launches
July—Twitter launches; USGS provides earthquake info via RSS
August—NOAA creates tsunami simulations in Second Life
December—OMB wiki (future MAX community) launches
2007
January—FirstGov.gov changes its name to USA.gov
May—HHS Womenshealth.gov is first federal agency on Twitter; NASA creates virtual rockets, space stations in Second Life
2008
January—First presidential blog from Air Force One
April—Gobierno.usa.gov tweets in Spanish
November—Web Council issues “Putting Citizens First: Transforming Online Government” white paper
December—Web Council issues “Social Media Barriers & Solutions” white paper; WCAG 2.0 published as a W3C Recommendation
2009
January—Open Government Directive issued; weekly Presidential Address via YouTube begins
February—First federal-friendly Terms of Service (TOS) signed (YouTube)
March—DigitalGov Search relaunches using an open source technology stack; moves to gov’t (not vendor) owned
May—Data.gov launches; USGovernment channel launches on YouTube to consolidate gov’t content
June—IT Dashboard publishes data on IT spending
November—CDC’s H1n1 YouTube video gets 2 million views
2010
January—Plain Writing Act; Social media used to locate Haiti earthquake victims, people text donations
February—National Archives adds historic photos to Flickr Commons
June—OMB issues Social Media guidance memos
July—USA.gov launches Apps.USA.gov to highlight mobile apps across government
August—First Fridays Usability Program conducts first test of Travel.state.gov
September—Challenge.gov launches; USA.gov releases iPhone app
November—HowTo.gov launches; First International Open Data Conference held in DC
2011
February—DigitalGov Search becomes SaaS; grows 500% to serve 1,500 government websites by 2014
March—USA.gov URL Shortener launches
April—Second Customer Service Executive Order issued (first was in 1993)
June—OMB updates PRA guidance to allow Fast-Track reviews
July—Tweetup with @NASA for the final shuttle launch
2012
April—Social Media Registry goes live
May—Digital Government Strategy released (separate content from presentation; improve customer experience w/digital services)
October—WCAG 2.0 accepted as ISO standard
2013
May—Open Data Policy issued
October—NARA issues guidance on managing social media records
2014
January—DigitalGov.gov soft-launches
March—Federal Web Managers Council provides “PRA Barriers and Solutions” recommendations to OMB; Customer Service Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goal issued to improve customer experience
May—First DigitalGov Summit
November— U.S. Digital Services Playbook released
December—U.S. Public Participation Playbook released
What’s your most memorable Digital Gov moment of the past decade? Tell us in the comments.
