If you take a look at current television commercials or tech blogs, you’ll quickly find a great deal of attention focused on smartphones and the mobile applications (apps for short) that are built on top of them. While traditionally focused on the Blackberry-dominated business user niche, smartphones made the shift to the mainstream after Apple’s introduction of the iPhone in 2007. Since that time the industry has experienced intense competition and tremendous growth year over year. While hardware sales have been brisk, the truly interesting part is that there is an ever growing user base for the mobile apps that these phones run. You’ve seen the commercials for apps that can schedule dinner, buy movie tickets, or find your friends. While many of these apps are focused on personal use, there is a growing niche for apps that interface with local governments.