Connecting geodata in and among governmental agencies - A discussion among program managers, community and agency personnel

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has taken initiates to promote Open Data, Open Science and Open Government (  

http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/initiatives#Openness and http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf). At the conclusion of the GeoData2014 workshop (http://tw.rpi.edu/web/Workshop/Community/GeoData2014) held in June 2014, workshop participants suggested that discussion on opening and connecting governmental data should be continued at the ESIP 2015 winter meeting. A key point discussed was that a governmental agency should avoid being a ‘silo’ in the development of implementation plans in response to mandates issued by OSTP. Instead, agencies should be allowed to develop individual plans then organize comment periods where all plans are vetted together and identification of common methods can be identified and exploited or ideas can be shared on implementation in individual agencies. Some follow-on topics for discussion proposed at GeoData2014 were:

• Clear guidance (from who to who?) on how to handle exceptions to the general mandate that come out at the same time as the mandate.

• Explore mandates that are less prescriptive on implementation details are how likely they are to be more successful and longer lasting. What does a clear view of what success looks like, when does it needs to be complete, and why it is valuable?

• Do mandates tied to funding tend to be more successful.

• How to link mandates to usability tests to gauge success of implementation.

• How do we identify the costs associated with NOT implementing a mandate.

We propose a pair of sessions at ESIP 2015 winter meeting:

(1) Compare plans submitted in response to the OSTP requests, i.e. share content and ways to increase collaboration/coordination of the existing plans and their overall effectiveness;

(2) Invite program managers, community and agency personnel for discussion on these topics.

ORGANIZERS: Peter Fox, Xiaogang Ma, Linyun Fu, Chris Lynnes, Cyndy Chandler, Ruth Duerr, Erin Robison, Vivan Hutchison

USEFUL LINKS:

(1) GeoData 2014 workshop website: http://tw.rpi.edu/web/Workshop/Community/GeoData2014

(2) Google Doc for the organization of this session: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sRznPb1Pqourjx_xejEZYousEKTf3Nt70X8jz_KZvlU/edit#

(3) Google Spreadsheet for inviting panelists: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qcJ08OqdZKMju-eLRQZ94xoE8XAGSbYGX-31cTgXdaU/edit#gid=0