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The federal government needs to manage its data as the asset it really is; an open asset for every American just like roads or natural resources. The intent is that this policy is a broad government wide approach to ensure federal information is collected, managed, processed and published in such a way as to reduce barrier to access by itself, other agencies and the public. Open means there is no barrier to consumption of an information asset.
From financial statistics to agriculture production and from human health to air quality, the Federal Government collects and produces large amount of data. In today’s digital society, government data has become an essential part of daily life – everyday Americans obtain weather information before they leave home and rely on data from the Global Positioning System (GPS) when they get on the road. Just as more and more private companies consider data as a corporate asset, the Federal Government must view government data as a national asset. Towards this end, the Federal Government launched Data.gov in 2009 to publish agency data sets, and today more than 2,500 data sets are available for download.
Despite this progress, vast amounts of government data are still locked in internal data stores. When data is released, it is often published in closed formats that limit data discoverability and accessibility. More critically, open data practices have not been institutionalized in many Federal agencies even as the stores of government data continue to grow. Too often, agencies build systems that are not architected to maximize interoperability and support open data needs. To further unleash the power of government data, it is imperative to establish a government-wide open data policy that institutionalizes and operationalizes open data practices. In doing so, the Federal Government can achieve several important objectives including spurring the economy, increasing transparency, improving service to customers, and saving taxpayer dollars through increased efficiencies.
This Appendix was purposefully developed as gitHub pages so that real collaboration and input could help us make our open data policy better. Please suggest enhancements by editing the content here. We fully intent to make this a living collaboration for continued open data.
This section is a list of definitions and principles used to guide the policy.
2-1 Open data Principles - The standard set of open data principles for the United States Government.
2-2 Open Standards - The United States Government standard definition for open standards.
2-3 Open Data Glossary - The glossary of all things open.
2-4 API Basics - Basic understanding of Application Programming Interface's (API)
2-5 Common Core Metadata - The canonical description of the schema used to list agency datasets and APIs as hosted at agency.gov/data.
2-6 Open Licenses - The United States Government standard definition for open licenses.
This section is a list of ready to use solutions or tools that will help agencies jump start their open efforts. Some of these are real implementable coded solutions, some are more descriptive. In either case these were developed to significantly reduce the barrier to implementing open data at your agency. We made these with the intent of being able to a) taking the tool off the shelf and implementing and b) by placing them on github encouraging a community to form up make these tools better, add tools, and add value to our collective open efforts.
3-1 Database to API - Dynamically generate RESTful APIs from the contents of a database table. Provides JSON, XML, and HTML. Supports most popular databases.
3-2 CSV to API - Dynamically generate RESTful APIs from static CSVs. Provides JSON, XML, and HTML.
3-3 Spatial Search - A RESTful API that allows the user to query geographic entities by latitude and longitude, and extract data.
3-4 Kickstart - A WordPress plugin to help agencies kickstart their open data efforts by allowing citizens to browse existing datasets and vote for suggested priorities.
3-5 PDF Filler - PDF Filler is a RESTful service (API) to aid in the completion of existing PDF-based forms and empowers web developers to use browser-based forms and modern web standards to facilitate the collection of information.
This section contains programatic tools, resources and or checklists to help programs determine open data requirements.
4-1 Chief Data Officer Example - Example position descriptions for a Chief Data Officer
4-2 Data Release Checklist - NEED LINK
4-3 Data Collection Form Validator - NEED LINK
4-4 Open Data Catalog Guidance - The specific guidance for publishing the Open Data Catalog at agency.gov/data page.
4-5 Example RFP Language - NEED LINK
Case studies of novel or best practices from agencies who are leading in open data help others understand the challenges and opportunities for success.
5-1 National Broadband Map - The National Broadband Map, a case study on open innovation for national policy. Produced by the Wilson Center
5-2 Department of Labor Case Study - A department perspective on developing APIs for general use and in particular building the case for an ecosystem of users by developing SDKs.
5-3 Technical Design Examples - NEED LINK
5-4 Internal Enterprise Data Inventory - NEED LINK
5-5 Effective Coordination Case Study - NEED LINK
5-5 Future Department Case Study
For Developers: View all appendices (and source)