I just finished watching a rerun episode of Tough Love on VH1 and I know some of you will think this is a bit odd, but the show led me to some thoughts about how to give the Data.gov project some focus and priority.

You’re probably wondering what Data.gov has to do with eight beautiful women looking for marriage and long-lasting love, but believe it or not, the show and Data.gov have a lot in common.

In this particular episode of the show, the “boot camp” director was focusing on communication skills. He made it very clear to the ladies that communication is very important in making a good first impression with a would be suitor. In the show he counseled the ladies that if they wanted to make a good impression, the ladies would need to:

• Listen carefully to what their date is telling them about what’s important to them;
• Make the conversation about “them” on first contact and avoid bragging about yourself; and
• Resist the urge to reveal too much information about their own respective private lives.

While I will avoid speaking to the validity of this counsel as it applies to love, I would like to suggest that these three rules are also quite relevant in our efforts to have a more transparent, open and collaborative government.

Along these lines, I offer the following three suggestions for Data.gov’s first (transparent, open and collaborative) date with America:

1. Ask the public (and Congress) what they specifically want to see on Data.gov and the forthcoming dashboard; all apologies to Aneesh Chopra and Vivek Kundra, but I do not believe (as they spoke in the December 8th webcast) that citizens really care much about things like average airline delay times, visa application wait times, or who visited the Whitehouse yesterday. I particualry suggest they work with Congressional Oversight Committees to make Data.gov a tool that Congress can (and will) use.
2. Make Data.gov about demonstrating the good things that Federal agencies do that directly impact the general public. It’s no surprise that most agencies do a poor job of explaining to citizens what they do. I suggest reviving the OMB Performance Assessment Rating Tool (PART) Program (which appears to have died on the vine with the new administration) and use the performance measures in the Program Results/Accountability section to better communicate the relevant value these agencies deliver to citizens.
3. Focus Data.gov data sources and the desire for openness on the critical few measures and metrics that matter to the public. Avoid the urge to just “get the data posted” – not many people will care about how many kilowatt hours of hydroelectric power the Bureau of Reclamation is counting, how many FOIA requests the Department of Justice received, or the Toxic Release Inventory for the Mariana Islands. Information sharing is most successful when it is directly relevant with the person (or agency)with whom you are sharing.

I’ll let you know if the next episode is as enlightening as this was.

r/Chuck

A few concerns I have include:

1. None of the Data.gov principles in the CONOP address the “real-world effects” we hope to achieve through data.gov–from an operational programs perspective. All seven principles in the CONOP address “internal” activities (means). We need to address success in terms of what citizens will realize through the Data.gov effort.

2. The entire Data.gov effort appears to be driven out of context from any government performance planning and evaluation process. Shouldn’t the need for data transparency be driven by specific strategic management questions?  Where are the links to the President’s Management Agenda? Agency strategic plans?

3. There are more than 200 Congressional Committees with varying degrees of oversight of over a similar number of agencies in the Executive Branch. How will Data.gov impact Congress’ efforts to monitor (oversee) agency performance? What will happen when there is a disparity between a) what an agency says it’s doing, b) what oversight committee(s) say they are doing, and c) how the public views that agency’s performance based on data posted on Data.gov?

4. Transparency, Participation and Collaboration (TPC) are the buzz words of the month, but what does that really mean?  The opening sentence of the CONOP states “Data.gov is a flagship Administration initiative intended to allow the public to easily find, access, understand, and use data that are generated by the Federal government.” Do we really expect the general public to access and analyze the data at Data.gov? If so, do we really understand how the public will want to see/access the information? More importantly, are we (agencies) fully prepared to digest and respond to received public feedback?

5. Who will pay the agencies to support data transparency? Do we really understand the burden involved in achieving open government? The last thing federal agencies need is another unfunded mandate.

6. Finally, how do we know the data that’s made accessible via Data.gov is good data (correct)? The GPRA required OIG review and certification of agency data published in annual performance reports. What can we expect in the way of quality from near-real-time access to agency performance data? Will we require the same data quality process for data feeds posted on Data.gov? Will agencies be funded to do it right? 

I provide similar commentary on this issue and an analysis of the recent Executive Order in a December 17th blog posting here: http://www.nowheretohide.org/2009/12/17/open-government-directive-another-ambiguous-unfunded-and-edental-mandate/

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for open government, but let’s do it right. Let’s give the techies a couple of days off and let’s take a good hard look at the non-technical issues that could really hurt this effort if they’re not properly addressed.

Your comments and thoughts welcomed.

Thanks…r/Chuck

1. We fully understand why we want it and are clear about what we are really asking for;
2. We understand the burden involved in achieving open government and that we fund the agencies to do it right;
3. We are clear about the performance questions that we want the [transparent] data to answer;
4. We have an understanding for how the public will want to see/access the information; and
5. We are fully prepared to digest and respond to received public feedback .

After reading the 3,185 words of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Open Government Directive (with attachment), I am very sorry to report that IMO none of the five critiera (conditions) listed above have been met by the language contained in the document. From what I read:

• It would appear that no one in the approval chain asked any hard questions about the language–much of the language used is very vague and leaves a lot of room for interpretation (or misinterpretation);
• There is no mention of how agencies will be funded to build the capacity to meet the additional workload that the requirements of the memorandum are certain to cause.
• The focus of the document to “get agency data on the web” and “solicit (direct) public feedback” appears to be totally out of context of any other strategic management, performance assessment, or planning framework.  This appears to ba an end-run around other oversight committees and organizations, like Congress. Will Federal agencies be able to deal with direct feedback from hundreds or thousands of citizens? I am reminded of the old adage “be careful what you ask for”…;
• The document tells agencies to “publish information online in an open format that can be retrieved, downloaded, indexed, and searched by commonly used web search applications;” however, this can be satisfied in many ways–.txt, .csv, .doc, .pdf, .html,.xml, etc.–some formats will make it very cumbersome for the “public” to view, analyze and understand the data.
• Finally, the memorandum sets what I believe to be some very unrealistic expectations from both a performance and timeline perspective. For example, how can agencies be expected to review and respond to public input from the web when these same agencies are already overwhelmed with their current day-to-day tasks?

Here are a couple examples to ponder:

On Page 2 – “To increase accountability, promote informed participation by the public, and create economic opportunity, each agency shall take prompt steps to expand access to information by making it available online in open formats”

• Nowhere in the memorandum are the terms “accountability” or “informed participation” defined
• What does “create economic opportunity” really mean?
• It would appear that this mandate circumvents established management processes for holding Federal agencies accountable for efficient and effective performance? (OMB,GAO, Congress)

On Page 3 – “Each agency shall respond to public input received on its Open Government Webpage on a regular basis…Each agency with a significant pending backlog of outstanding Freedom of Information requests shall take steps to reduce any such backlog by ten percent each year.”

• What do the mean by “respond to public feedback on a regular basis?”
• All feedback? Some feedback?
• What does “regular basis” mean? Within 24 hours? Weekly? Annually?

If we really want Federal agencies to be more “open” with their data and information, we must be willing to commit the effort required to:

What are your thoughts and comments on this issue?

Thanks…r/Chuck

I’m paraphrasing a bit, but he basically indicated that the state, local, and private sector organizations in his state told him that they “DO NOT want to have to log into multiple portals” to stay informed about criminal and terrorism threats to their state’s  infrastructure.” 

When you take a closer look at the “Portal-mania” that exists, it seems that every agency and multiple programs within a single agency has to have their own portal for accessing the information and analytic tools that agency or program provides; here’s a quick list of ones I am familar with, (feel free to email me the names of others you know about):

1. DHS HSIN State and Local Community of Interest (SLIC)
2. DHS Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS)
3. DHS Automated Critical Asset Management System (ACAMS)
4. DOJ Regional Data Exchange (R-DEx)
5. DOJ National Data Exchange (N-DEx)
6. DOJ eGuardian
7. DOJ Law Enforcement Online (LEO)
8. DOJ InfraGard
9. DOJ National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW)
10. DOJ National Criminal Intelligence Resource Center (NCIRC)
11. DOJ Regional information Sharing System (RISS)
12. Private Sector CyberCop
13. [State] Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS)
14. …add to this Department of the Treasury, Department of Transportation, and other federal agency portals
15. …and about three-dozen other databases and private sector websites

This is nutz! Dedicated portals are so 1990′s…we should be able to use the same technology I used to create this website and blog (WordPress and four different plug-in widgets) to make information and advanced analytic capabilities available to Fusion Centers and other public safety users.  I would like to challenge the agencies and programs listed above to make the information and capabilities they offer available  through widgets, web-parts, and gadgets that Fusion Centers and other intelligence/information sharing users can integrate into THEIR portal of choice. 

Whether it’s SharePoint, Oracle, or IBM Websphere, state, local, or private sector organizations should be able to pick and integrate into THEIR selected portal environment from the portal list above the information and capabilities that they need to do their job–they should not have to access the multiple, stovepiped portals as they do today.

I’d like to know what you think about this…Thanks..r/Chuck Georgo