The Case of the Mexican Mobile Government: Measurement and Examples

Abstract

The mobile government has become a reality in a large majority of countries around the world. However, the use of mobile apps (small software programs for use on mobile devices) to link government Websites and information is a recent trend that is becoming of interest to citizens and public officials. The uses, advantages, and disadvantages have recently become a study field for several scholars around the globe. The mobile government is not new for e-government scholars; however, the explosion of apps and the increase of smart phones have created a new trend in the mobile government field. In order to understand these phenomena in the Mexican society, the authors have gathered data from different sources: government departments, business enterprises, and citizen organizations. Based on this information, they analyze the impact of apps across the country and suggest a classification method that can be used for a better understanding of this new field. In this chapter, the authors discuss five small case studies, which they consider good examples to follow by different government organizations. To accomplish this objective, they divide this chapter into seven main sections. After the introduction, the authors provide a literature review, describe the method of study and classify the apps, discuss the findings with the model application, present the case studies for government apps, discuss ideas for future research on government apps, and then in the final section, they present final remarks and conclusions of the investigation.