David McClure calls the General Services Administration’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies (OCSIT) “a little sparkplug igniting innovation all across government.”
Indeed, OCSIT’s just-released 2012 annual report, “More for Mission,” serves as a 51-page catalogue for the office’s multi-pronged push for innovation in technology in the federal government. Keep reading →
The future of the federal statistical system in an era of open government data was the subject of the recent Association of Public Data Users Conference (APDU). It gave me the unique opportunity to pose three questions about the ironic state of federal statistics to an august panel of experts.
The panel included: Connie Citro, Director of the Committee on National Statistics, National Academy of Science; Robert Groves, Director, US Census Bureau (until recently when he became the Provost at George Washington University, that allowed him to speak freely as you will see below); and Shirin Ahmed, Assistant Director for Economic Programs, US Census Bureau.
My three questions were:
Q: Why, when the current administration has spoken so much about data, hasn’t the federal statistical community leadership (e.g. OMB Chief Statistician Kathy Wallman) spoken up?
Answer: Because she is only an SES (Senior Executive Service member) and not a political appointee. (Connie Citro)
Q: Why didn’t a data agency like the Census Bureau get the job of hosting and managing Data.gov?
Answer: It fell victim to (former federal CIO) Vivek Kundra’s federal IT program and federal IT and statistics live in two different worlds. (Robert Groves)
Q. Why doesn’t the federal statistical community maintain FedStats.gov when my analyses shows that it still has better quality data and metadata than Data.gov does?
Answer: The current administration and political candidates are not talking about statistics and there needs to be a statafacts web site for this. (Robert Groves)
It is important to understand both the history of federal statistical data and the perception that statisticians have of open government data to understand the different worlds of the federal IT, Data.gov and the federal statistical communities FedStats.gov
I thought Connie Citro expressed it best with the title of her presentation: “The Federal Statistical System – A Crown Jewel, But Its History Makes It Harder to Meet Today’s Challenges.”
Shirin Ahmed articulated one of the key problems: There needs to be a legal basis for statistical agencies to share data and passage of the Data Synchronization Proposal by Congress will help.<
Then, Census Historian Margo Anderson, co-author of Encyclopedia of the US Census asked: Haven’t We Been Here Before? Historical Perspectives on the Federal Statistical System.
Anderson described the evolution from our basic founding principles to know who we are, to how are these data critical for job creation, poverty alleviation, and policy making. She described how the federal statistical system has periodically attempted to integrate administrative and operational records into the statistical system and how open data proposals before us now are different from the past.
Open data includes operational and administrative data used now by public agencies for statistical purposes. It’s changing the world of data users and producers alike.
Statisticians refer to their data as design data (data from survey’s designed to capture data that can answer questions with statistics with confidence levels) and open data as data that just turns up and becomes “big data” because it has no end, which a survey does, like the every 10 year census that lasts several months and then is done until ten years later.
So in answer to the question about bringing these different worlds of data together: Yes we have been there before, but it is definitely different from the past and in the words of Margo Anderson: “it is both brash and exciting.” Keep reading →
After my recent SafetyData.gov review, (“Long On Text, Short On Data Tables”), I was resolved to review the new Energy Data.gov Beta Web Site and check some of the claims presented at the White House’s Energy Datapalooza held earlier this month.
I decided the best place to start was the Energy Datapalooza fact sheet because it did not contain any links to actual energy data. Energy Data.gov says “data and insight are combined to facilitate public discussion and awareness of our Nation’s energy activities.”
So I tried to match the facts to the substance using a knowledge base found elsewhere. Here’s what the fact sheet contained – and what I found:
Administration Announcements
White House officials brought together dozens of senior government leaders and private sector entrepreneurs Monday, including Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu, to demonstrate how energy data is fueling new products and services aimed at promoting greater energy efficiency in America.
The “Energy Datapalooza“was the latest in a series of White House-sponsored events designed to showcase innovative applications using government data – this one focused on the energy sector – hosted by Federal Chief Technology Officer Todd Park. Keep reading →
As open government gains favor and reaps benefits for the federal workforce and citizens, Data.gov continues to build a Google-style universe based on the concept and expand its mission globally.
From launching new virtual communities to gather data on pertinent subjects and partnering with city governments to offering a free open source version of its data portal internationally, Data.gov’s reach continues to grow beyond it’s Washington roots. Keep reading →
Federal professionals have uncovered crucial terabytes of data that are now serving as the latest tool for entrepreneurs to create innovative mobile apps aimed at improving safety amid America’s streets, highways, railroads and consumer products.
Safety professionals across government “all want to set our data free,” said Jo Strang, the community leader for safety.data.gov, and the chief safety officer for the Federal Railroad Administration. Keep reading →
It’s not easy following Todd Park, the federal government’s chief technology officer, and his breathless on-stage enthusiasm for promoting technical innovation in government and the virtues of collaboration.
Park clearly found an avid proponent, however, in Seth Harris, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor, who made a persuasive case last week in describing the inherent logic for government and the private sector to work jointly in turning information into useful tools for the American public and the U.S. economy. Keep reading →
Data.gov Evangelist Jeanne Holm is doing something never before tried in the federal government – creating a virtual world via social networking tools rather than face-to-face meetings.
That world is a compilation of issue-oriented web-based communities providing previously unavailable or hard-to-reach government data. Holm’s effort offers the federal government an example of a new way of working, without management silos and the tedium or expense of on- or offsite meetings. Keep reading →
The federal government’s vast collection of searchable data has begun to feature information from city databases as part of the effort to increase transparency, promote efficiency and spur innovation.
Now, city officials and developers will work together to help improve the information available to city residents via the new ‘Cities’ Community as part of Data.gov. Databases are currently available for Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Seattle, according to Jeanne Holm, GSA’s data.gov evangelist. Next up: Santa Cruz, Calif., Louisville and Atlanta. Keep reading →
FedStats.gov provides links to government data at http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/
Data.gov has been around for about three years now and is touted as the prime example of the Open Government Data Initiative based on its growth in number of data sets and communities using them. However, there have been two activities that have been around much longer, with more high-quality data sets, and a larger community, namely FedStats.gov and FedStats.net, which deserve continued attention in the government data community.
I was part of the FedStats Team that built FedStats.gov and led the FedStats.net Team. (You can read more about that team in a related story.) We received the Gore Hammer Award for that work to “Reinvent Government.” While Data.gov has helped focus attention on available government data, I see trying to reinvent that reinvention without the expertise that we had across the government at that time. The Data.gov Agency Points of Contact are not the same as the Federal Statistics Community. Keep reading →