Confluence Retirement

Due to the feedback from stakeholders and our commitment to not adversely impact USGS science activities that Confluence supports, we are extending the migration deadline to January 2023.

In an effort to consolidate USGS hosted Wikis, myUSGS’ Confluence service is targeted for retirement. The official USGS Wiki and collaboration space is now SharePoint. Please migrate existing spaces and content to the SharePoint platform and remove it from Confluence at your earliest convenience. If you need any additional information or have any concerns about this change, please contact myusgs@usgs.gov. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Community for Data Integration
Space shortcuts

Home

Page tree
Skip to end of metadata
Go to start of metadata

Primary Contacts

Lorna Schmid - EWeb

Dave Govoni - EWeb

Sky Bristol - CSS

Tim Kern - FORT

Description

Project Topic

Tasks

Resources Required

Major Outcomes

Total Funding Needed

USGS Mobile Applications Development Support Framework

Establish and support a USGS Mobile Environment website to provide support of portable hardware devices, application development and application delivery.  The development of a framework to fully support this endeavor will require input and involvement by Core Science Systems, Enterprise Information, Science Quality and Integrity, Office of Communication, Publishing and the mobile community.

  • Coordinate a workshop to bring a small group of experts together to draft the framework to support Hardware/Device Management, Application Development Support and Policies, Guidelines and procedures, and Application Delivery.  Parties include:  Core Science Systems, Enterprise Information, Science Quality and Integrity, Office of Communication, Publishing and possibly other Mission Areas
  • Areas to be explored, supported and developed include, but are not limited to Community of Practice, Code Repositories, Use Cases, Development Cycle Templates, Decision trees for application development, code review and testing processes, security reviews, cross platform requirements, Internal vs. External development requirements, hardware blacklist, etc.
  • Investigate support of "hack-a-thons" or contests (open to both staff and external developers) to facilitate development of applications using USGS data

Proposal is to cover costs for travel and a facilitator (10 3-day trips to one locale).  Management support and follow up meetings will be required in order to ensure success for this critical process.

In Kind Resources -- The group, prior to the meeting, will address and have positions developed for all Department policy issues (TOS, Review, Release, etc). This will include calls and face to face meetings with Department Communications staff and the Solicitors' Office, as well as development of USGS position options (10K in-kind labor).

Having a known and advertised one-stop shop for this information will save many staff hours that would be spent researching options and requirements. 

In order to facilitate and expedite application development across USGS we will establish a single site, or one-stop-shop that is supported by multiple responsible parties.  The site will be built to allow delegated access to update appropriate guidance.  This proposal will support:

  • Establishing a clear understanding of the areas of responsibility across these organizational lines.
  • Organization of a workshop to develop a framework to allow for the information to be well organized and supported.
  • Implementation of the one-stop-shop for mobile development information and support, including a code repository and best practices documentation.
  • If funded, a presentation at the Citizen Science Workshop.

$20,000

Additional Criteria

The results of the meeting will be presented at multiple CDI and related calls and conferences, including the Citizen's Science Workshop.

Methodology (process)

Coordinate a workshop to bring a small group of experts together to develop a framework to suppport Hardware/Device Management, Application Development Support and Policies, Guidelines and procedures, and Application Delivery.  Parties include:  Core Science Systems, Enterprise Information, Science Quality and Integrity, Office of Communication, Publishing and possibly other Mission Areas.

Deliverable and its Measurable Benefit

Establish a One-Stop-Shop for all USGS that will provide, or link to, all the necessary information to manage hardware, support (mobile) application development and application delivery.

  • Areas to be explored, supported and developed include, but are not limited to Community of Practice, Code Repositories, Use Cases, Development Cycle Templates, Decision trees for application develoopment, code review and testing processes, security reviews, cross platform requirments, Internal vs. External development requirements, hardware blacklist, etc.
  • Investigate support of "hack-a-thons" or contests to facilitate development of applications using USGS data

Benefit to FSP/Scientists/Mission Areas

 Supporting a one-stop-shop that provides content and is supported by multiple organizational units will facilitate and expedite application development and support.  Ensuring that a clear understanding of the areas of responsibility across these organizational lines and developing the framework to allow for the information to be well organized and supported will be critical.

Having a known and advertised one-stop shop for this information will save many staff hours that would be spent researching options.

To drive home the benefit of having this kind of a community based environment that can respond to changes in technology stacks, new TOS that may need approval, etc. we'll provide some examples of questions that the Mobile Application Community is already fielding. Questions include:

Native Apps:

  • What is the current status of mobile application deployment via App store and Android Market?
  • Do we need to develop public applications for cross platform use?
  • How are other agencies like NASA (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/iphone/index.html),  NPS and BLM publishing apps?
  • Would we still need DOI approval if the apps are for internal USGS use or for a limited set of users? (E.g., for partners to collect data).
  • What are the impacts of privacy acts for mobile app development (especially, wrt. citizen science)?

Mobile Web Apps:

There is also an extensive list of comments regarding policy, technology and business case review provided by MAD members that need to be addressed. These comments/suggestions/questions are are compiled here.

In kind funding and work leveraged

This project will cross many organizational units in USGS who have responsibility with regard to Mobile devices, application and application delivery. Every staff involved will develop expertise and explore background information on their own time.

Interaction with DMWG

 All products developed by this group will be added to, or linked from, the DMWG web site, and comments from DMWG

Partnerships

Partner with external groups to ensure a holistic approach, such as Microsoft's myscience app, GSA, etc.

Additional Comments

- Collaboration/co-funding/management between CSS, other Science Programs, EWeb, CDI (TSWG-MAD), PDE, OC; data and related web services management by "owners"; website(s) and applications - Public (website, knowledgebase) and intranet (developer resource) components - Developer resources to include data, information, tools, collaboration services Phase I:  USGS developers have easy access to unified data, information, tools, services, and related resources to enable production and innovative, high-quality mobile applications to support both internal science-support and external data/information sharing needs. Deliverables to include:    -- White paper on USGS best/recommended practices for mobile application development and how these practices can conform to government, department and agency policies    -- Internal development and collaboration website    -- Fully supported programming and data management environment    -- Internal collaboration/learning environment Phase II: Third-party apps developers have easy access to unified data, information, tools, services, and related resources to enable production and support of innovative, high-quality mobile applications that use and highlight USGS data and information. Deliverbles to include:    -- "Apps for Earth Science"/"Apps for Natural Science" (?) public website    -- Extranet developer support and collaboration/learning website    -- Contest à la EPA's Apps for the Environment developers challenge <appsfortheenvironment.challenge.gov> to (1) introduce the public website and (2) induce/promote on-going collaborative relationships with third-party developers

U.S. Department of the Interior | DOI Inspector General | White House | No Fear Act
DOI and USGS link policies apply