Evolving Data.gov with You Agency Next Steps

The system should have a way to add "notes" about the data. This could include specific things that should be watched for (for example, the assumptions that the data was collected under, or the methology used to collect it)...it's not much use to use the dataset "tax data for 1999" in a mission critical application if the methology was to "ask 10 people what the tax rate was in 1999"

Likewise, there should be ways... more »

Create a page that highlights applications that are making use of data from data.gov. The examples should be real world (not demo's) sites that currently are making use of the data. They should range from simple to more complex. The public should be able to submit their sites to list. Possibly to encourage the use of the data prizes should be given out for the "best" sites, chosen by the goverment, or by public voting.... more »

You should list the types of data requested by the public and the number of votes for each type.

Should be able to filter by area of country, as well as include data (with appropriate notification) from cities, towns, and states.

 

There should be a standard way for cities, towns, states to incorporate their data into data.gov.

The agency posting the data should assert that it has performed certain quality gates/checks on the datasets it is publishing.

I just downloaded one dataset provided as a spreadsheet and one of the columns is:

"Contructor"

Either that is a weird term or it is an error and meant to say "Contractor". Looking at the data (which is a bunch of acronyms) it is probably the latter.

Did whoever published the dataset check... more »

In light of some of the recent issues in the environmental community:

It may be good to have a list of datasets that the government has/uses that can't be released and the reasons why.

Ie. we can't release dataset x because it contains dataset y which we purchased from company z (and due to contractual/legal reasons we can't release dataset y).

Another example would be data that is provided from other countries... more »

With reference to the role of the agency CIOs as set forth in the draft CONOPS, it would be good if agencies published their segments of the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Data Reference Model (DRM) on their Web sites in XML format conforming to a finalized version of XML schema (XSD) for the DRM. http://xml.gov/draft/drm20060105.xsd Doing so would enable automated aggregation of the governmentwide DRM and faciliate... more »

First -- Find a Napoleon's corporal to review and revise the words used in all information shown on your new website. Discard all made-up words, such as dataset and replace with words that can easily be understood by the dumb corporal. As it now stands, the contents of the website sound like a horror story of acronyms and weird words.
Second -- eliminate the "choose category" and "tags" boxes completely. Surely someone... more »

* Publish document retention policies
* Publish a list of all data sets (public or otherwise)
* Publish a list of all reports generated by the agency, when they're generated, by who, and whether they can be publicly obtained
* Publish all documents made public under FOIA in one place
* Publish agency's annual budget requests to OMB
* Publish a list of all senior staff, with their titles, responsibilities, and contact... more »

Federal Register notices currently provide full text narratives for proposed and final rule changes, mixing current and proposed (new) rules with historical text and information. My idea would be for the Federal Register to provide color text for each proposed and final rule impacting the CFR. By putting new or modified amendments in red text, for example, it would be much easier for the reader to distinquish between... more »

This may have been already suggested or implemented. In order to view trends of certain collected statistics it may be worthwhile to use metadata to link similar or related surveys taken over time. This would allow users the ability to not only see past trends but also build projection models. For example, airport delays may have a seasonal peak and additionally linked to periodic weather fluctuations.

From what I see... more »

OMB M-10-06 requires agencies to publish open gov plans. (Objective 3.a) http://xml.gov/stratml/crane/OGD.xml

 

It also requires agencies to publish in open formats. (Objective 1.b) ANSI/AIIM 21:2009, Strategy Markup Language (StratML) is such a format for strategic plans.

 

Agencies should publish their open gov plans in StratML format and the Data.gov site should aggregate and facilitate access to them.

One of the ways that the open-source/crowdsourcing idea could be used to create greater government transparency would be to include the federal budget. The basic page would show the CBO or OMB projections for revenue/expenses and allow the user to adjust future economic growth/inflation/healthcare inflation to see what it would do to the federal budget deficit/surplus.

The next addition would be to include federal... more »

I have spent 20+ years executing enterprise applications, systems and acrhitectures with leaders like IBM, SAP, and Informatica.

One constant in all projects I have led is the need for effective change management and program governance. I would like to see a coordinated change management initiative with change champions in all impacted agencies governed by a central program management office for messaging, quality,... more »