Budget for cross-program initiatives, especially sharing data with communities of interest and the public. Standardized data can allow agencies and the public to report once for many purposes, rather than suffering under requirements for multiple and repeated “single purpose” reports. For example, corporate financial reporting in the Netherlands is now considerably more efficient and effective because firms make available real-time data feeds to replace a series of required reports. Closer to home, the D.C. data feeds and federal Data.gov initiatives are releasing government data to encourage transparency and feedback for better productivity and civic trust. To find these cross-boundary opportunities, the budget process must search for them.

One of the U.S. Geological Survey’s unique responsibilities is the monitoring and reporting of earthquakes, which affect the daily lives of people around the world. By mining real-time tweets, the USGS expands its suite of seismically derived information and obtains first-hand accounts of shaking seconds after an earthquake occurs.

Q: Why is this important to the average citizen, someone who doesn’t work for a newspaper?

A: “If people are going to know how their government is operating, what they are doing that affects them, what they are doing on behalf of the people, they have to be able to see the records that reflect that. The documents that are being created, the data that are being produced. Particularly, you look at huge government programs and all the data that come out of that. Those data belong to the people, and they should have a right to see them and then do with them what they want.”

This stuck out to me because we as public administrators often think of only the media, local newspaper, or kooky citizen as requesters of open records.  In reality, “Those data belong to the people.”

Following the three-data-set action, each branch has to create an Open Government Webpage at http://www.[agency].gov/open to function as the “gateway” to activities in that area. The site must also include a mechanism for public feedback about the process, and government agencies must respond to the comments they receive. And within 120 days they have to publish comments on how they plan to improve their openness policies.

That’s good work!