4.5.1: Data Transparency
Create a detailed decision tree [to support the] data releasability decision process Other Information:
DOI is a proven leader in the area of data management and open government. From the CIO who serves as executive co-chair to
the Government-wide Data.gov, to the program owners across the Department who see data publication as yet another way to demonstrate
the value of the programs they lead, information is viewed as a critical asset. DOI has brought together its Department and
Sub-agency Data.Gov Points of Contact (POC) into a tightly knit working group to address the challenges and opportunities
associated with publishing datasets to Data.Gov. The group works hard to support DOI but always keeps an eye toward the broader
applicability of their work to the Government-wide community. The Department POC and lead for the group is the DOI Chief Enterprise
Architect who sees this practical side of information management as the next step in the evolution of data architecture. The
DOI Data Releasability Working Group (DRWG) was brought together to assess the current data dissemination process and establish
a standard, comprehensive framework that is consistent with the three Open Government Directive principles (participation,
collaboration, and transparency) and ensures the coordination with key stakeholders to include mission leadership, sensitivity,
privacy, quality, and suitability for release perspectives. To identify and understand the relationships between different
elements of the data releasability decision process, a detailed data releasability decision tree was created. This decision
tree combines elements from the Federal Enterprise Architecture Data Reference Model and the Information Quality Act into
a single view. This view was refined to produce a working version of the process for dataset review and publication that considers
regulatory constraints, open government principles, process optimization practices and identifies areas of overlap between
these components. This decision tree model was adopted by the DRWG and used as the basis to create a standard and highly flexible
work-flow driven approach for the identification, tracking, release and maintenance of high-value data (see Figure 21; full
page version is in Appendix B). The Data Releasability Workflow (DRWF) model was also adopted by the DRWG as a best practice
for identifying and releasing new information to the public via Data.gov for DOI. The GSA Data.gov Submission Checklist was
modified to incorporate the DRWF model and provide a verifiable documentation record of the status of every proposed Data.gov
dataset submission. The modification provides automation functionality to store checklist form data for future use. The new
data releasability framework may include performance metrics to measure the effectiveness (data quality, timeliness, magnitude
of increase in publically available data), which may be used to identify improvement opportunities to the data dissemination
process.
Indicator(s):
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