IV.B: Collaboration Innovations

Continue to collaborate in more traditional ways while we leverage technology to reach a more diverse cross-section of the public

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While technology platforms and standards adoption are key enablers for collaboration and being more open, fair and inclusive, not all of our stakeholders have access to technology to use the new tools. So we will continue to collaborate in more traditional ways while we leverage technology to reach a more diverse cross-section of the public. With technology versus traditional methods in mind, the Agency is actively pursuing initiatives that build on our infrastructure to help us publish high value data sets, encourage innovative collaboration with stakeholders, and encourage increased partner and stakeholder involvement. 1. Collaboration Actions and Mechanisms a) Address Technology Platforms to Improve Collaboration - EPA’s infrastructure will continue to evolve to meet the growing demands of transparency, participation and collaboration. The Agency has a backbone of services that support our ability to share meaningful data sets with various stakeholders. EPA’s Central Data Exchange (CDX) (www.epa.gov/cdx/) enables fast, efficient and more accurate environmental data collaboration with state and local governments, citizens and research groups, industry and tribes and EPA participating program offices. This infrastructure is built on shared services, open data standards and web services that improve data quality. Our infrastructure also provides the Agency with the ability to publish high-value data sets such as TRI data in an increasingly efficient manner. We are committed to pairing this infrastructure with existing reporting toolsets (e.g., Envirofacts, MyEnvironment) as shared investments in the critical infrastructure and service oriented architecture standards. Ongoing investments in data publishing and collaborative toolsets will be evaluated against Agency standards to ensure potential investments in new solutions leverage the existing architecture, are built in open formats that have collaboration/publishing in mind, and abide by established best practices. b) Propose Innovative Methods to Encourage and Promote Collaboration - EPA is evaluating various methods to encourage more inclusive and effective collaboration such as creating a way to recognize and reward collaborative projects. We know that increased adoption of Web 2.0 and social media technologies place a burden on the existing infrastructure from activities such as downloading large data sets or video streaming open meetings. As EPA continues to incorporate more tools to facilitate open government, we will focus on improving infrastructure and ensuring proper security. We have begun to improve our infrastructure performance by using virtualization and through our Wide Area Network (WAN) 2010 Initiative. We are also evaluating recent innovations in cloud computing. We will continue to expand our focus on making data sets meaningful to various stakeholders, capitalizing on technical frameworks that have been created and can now be expanded for new purposes. Initiatives that highlight this focus include making data sets geographically relevant and accessible via MyEnvironment. This solution allows the public to search by neighborhood to learn about local air quality, cancer risk levels, water quality, Brownfields and other factors that determine the overall environmental quality and livability of a community. In an effort to improve access to services, we will create a one-stop resource for application programming interfaces (APIs) and other web services that could be used with data sets. This catalog will allow users to access the web services for possible reuse of existing code when developing new services. The catalog will identify associated XML schema and data sets that could be used with the services. Where appropriate, EPA will determine how to establish a standardized format for some of these services to facilitate public usability. The Agency also has an ongoing initiative to centralize information about various cross-Agency resources, from facilities to substances to environmental terms. These catalogs act as doorways to information across EPA. Different EPA programs may have data about a particular facility; however, that facility may be reported to each program office using a variation of the name. The Facility Registry System (FRS) (www.epa.gov/frs) makes it possible to link the different data about a facility together, enabling the public to find that information. Similarly, substances can be known by a multitude of synonyms. Toluene, phenyl methane and methyl benzene are all valid names for the same chemical. The Substance Registry Services (SRS) (www.epa.gov/srs) has a record for each substance tracked or regulated at EPA, which EPA program is interested in the substance, and the name used by each program for the substance. Through these two registries, and others which can all be found at (www.epa.gov/sor), the public can discover where to find information throughout EPA and, in the future, in the states and tribes. EPA offices are taking steps to integrate these registries into their systems as a way to improve public transparency and data quality. We are also working with our state and tribal partners to ensure the registries support their business needs. The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) is working collaboratively with a broad spectrum of partners to increase access and use of information. Presently, there is a wealth of information related to the Chesapeake Bay stored by state agencies in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., in non-governmental organizations, and within EPA. To ensure better access to this information, the CBP is developing a registry, called ChesapeakeStat, to catalog this voluminous, but dispersed information. 2. Sample Projects - In the area of collaboration, EPA is undertaking some new projects. Sample projects include: * EPA’s Watershed Central Web site (www.epa.gov/watershed) offers a wiki environment for local watershed managers to collaborate with others, share management plans and compare notes on tools of the trade. EPA uses this site to make managers aware of funding and other resources. The wiki adds value to the Agency's general web presence on these topics by enabling a dialogue and discussion among the watershed groups and by allowing them to upload documents. * EPA recently joined a cooperative effort called EcoCar, a consortium of government, industry and academic leaders dedicated to advancing clean, efficient automotive technology. The consortium hosts EcoCar, The Next Challenge, a three-year competition among 17 universities in the United States and Canada to redesign and reengineer a 2009 Saturn VUE to minimize fuel consumption and emissions. * Clean Energy – Clean Climate (CECC): EPA’s Region 6 (located in Dallas, Texas) plans to create an online, interactive tool to help states, local governments and tribes keep the CECC strategy current as technological and scientific information emerges. Successes will be shared with other regions. * EPA will be highlighting creative uses of our data, and will establish a process to collaborate with the community, by building a community of interest, to identify opportunities for new innovative ―mash-ups‖ for our data. * EPA works in collaboration with our state and tribal partners on the National Environmental Information Exchange Network (NEIEN) (http://exchangenetwork.net/index.htm), discussed above. One of the recent innovations established through this network is the Homeland Emergency Response Exchange (HERE) (http://www.herenetwork.org/). This capability provides a rapid and easy way to pinpoint and assess potential threats such as hazardous substances and vulnerable resources. Wherever possible, explanatory information has been included to provide some context to the variety of data presented. HERE supports a broad assessment of the immediate, and potential reciprocal threats that need consideration in many emergency scenarios for emergency responders and emergency operations centers. Now, a "slimmed down" mobile version of theHERE Client has been released to allow first responders an additional way to easily access information while in the field from their mobile telephones. The mobile version requires no installation, and allows a responder to access information about nearby potential threats (such as sites with hazardous chemicals) and provides contact information so they can click to call site representatives to help evaluate and contain a situation. To access the mobile version from your phone: m.herenetwork.org/. The HERE application is based on Exchange Network security and exchange privileges between the current state partners (Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio) and is available to other regional areas. Visit the HERE site to learn more about this capability. * Another example of EPA-state partnership is illustrated by the creation of MassAir by the State of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. MassAir was created based on the principal that the public has a right to know about the environmental conditions in their community. To reduce costs and increase efficiency, Massachusetts integrated its air quality data internally and used the NEIEN to automate data quality assurance processes and provide real-time air quality data to the public. This innovative solution can be seen at: http://public.dep.state.ma.us/MassAir/. * EPA has established an effort with NatureServe to access threatened and endangered species and location information. NatureServe is a non-profit organization that collects information on species, plants, and ecosystems from 50 states, Canada, and Mexico and the Caribbean. The agency has integrated this information into a major EPA application to support the National Environmental Policy Act and NEPAssist, an innovative tool which facilitates place-based environmental review. We established an interagency agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Interior, to provide access to this critical data source. Other Federal agencies can also access NatureServe data and services through our vehicle. Of course, we could not really collaborate without a working relationship with our partners, the public and other stakeholders. EPA regularly identifies new ways to reach out to and include the public in our education and decision making processes. The SunWise Program, which aims to teach children and their caregivers how to protect themselves from overexposure to the sun, has teamed up with the SHADE Foundation on a poster contest that asks kids to suggest ways to prevent skin cancer and to raise sun safety awareness. 3. How the Public Uses EPA Data The public and other stakeholders often take EPA data to use for reports or combine with other data for mashups to tell a story. One way to facilitate these mashups is to standardize data elements in the data sets that EPA is making available on Data.gov and other locations. There is a federalwide effort to standardize data elements used in information exchanges. EPA will crosswalk the data elements in our data sets to the federalwide standards to identify commonalities. Making the crosswalk information available to the public will facilitate easier mashups of EPA data with data from other agencies. Public uses of EPA data span a broad range of users and information, including: * Sites that provide the public with EPA data to aid understanding of the environmental conditions in their communities include: * This We Know (www.thisweknow.org). * Data Masher (www.datamasher.org). * Forbes magazine combined EPA data with outside data to compile an independent analysis of toxics in urban areas for Forbes.com. * SciScope, developed by the research office at Microsoft, is a research project to integrate data from different sources and to provide the information on a map. SciScope brings together water data, including EPA’s STOrage and RETrieval (STORET), which collects water quality monitoring data (www.epa.gov/storet/), water data from the U.S. Geological Service’s (USGS) National Water Information System (NWIS) (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis) and data from several states. The integration of the data is further supported by EPA's Substance Registry Services (SRS), which enables cross-walking between different substance synonyms (www.epa.gov/srs). * Oreck Corporation has created a mobile device application that provides users with the status of their local air quality. The data in the application comes from EPA's Air Quality Index (AQI), which provides a yardstick for determining the degree to which a geographic area is clean or polluted for five major pollutants: ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. * Since 1989, the Right-to-Know Network (www.rtknet.org) has provided free access to numerous environmental databases and resources from EPA data sources. The information available on RTK NET enables users to identify specific facilities and their environmental effects, find permits issued under environmental statutes, and identify civil cases filed – all from a single Web site. We are maintaining our Open Government Web site (www.epa.gov/open), and by April 30, 2010, we will include a section that asks the public to share innovative ways EPA data are being used. We intend to recognize the most innovative uses of EPA data, as determined by public vote. EPA will work through groups such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and our partners to reach those who do not have electronic access. 4. Input from the Public on Ways EPA Can Increase Openness and Transparency - EPA’s OpenEPA public engagement Web site was one of the most active and heavily visited of all federal agencies’ sites since its launch on February 5, 2010. Each week we looked at the ideas posted on the site receiving the greatest number of votes from the public. We received over 200 ideas and 360 comments on the OpenEPA Web site (www.epa.gov/open) with suggestions on a variety of topics. We will monitor and review public input quarterly, and provide a running status on our www.epa.gov/open/ Web site. To date, we identified ideas on which we could take immediate action and ideas that we could incorporate into open government activities. Examples of top vote-getting ideas and our responses include: * Idea: Provide webcasts of live public meetings on proposed regulations and make video archives of these meetings and other Agency rulemaking videos available. (This idea was also a top vote-getter on the United States Department of Agriculture public engagement site.) * Response: A Video Archive for rulemakings was just launched on (www.regulations.gov). The eRulemaking Program is also investigating the feasibility of supporting live webcasts on the site. * Idea: Keep the Open Forum open to continue public dialogue. * Response: We are! We are still taking ideas and comments at (www.epa.gov/open). * Idea: Establish a Geospatial Information System (GIS) data library for all shape files used on the EPA Web site. * Response: EPA’s GeoData Gateway, a library of geospatial information, including shape files and other data formats, is available to the public through GeoData.gov and Data.gov. Within the next few months, the public will be able to access the GeoData Gateway directly from (www.epa.gov). Appendix C provides a preview of this innovation. * Idea: Evaluate the lifecycle costs of products and practices. * Response: As a starting point for addressing this idea, we are developing a Green Product Information Web site. This single site will be available in the next few months and will inform consumers about the impacts of products on the environment, including energy efficiency, water conservation, sustainable design and toxicity. * Idea: Post the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) inventory on the EPA Web site. * Response: We did! The TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory, which contains more than 84,000 industrial chemicals that are manufactured, used or imported in the United States, is now available at (www.epa.gov/oppt/newchems/pubs/invntory.htm) and (www.data.gov). Until now, this information has only been available by purchase from the National Technical Reports Library or other databases. By adding the TSCA Inventory to the Agency's Web site and to Data.Gov, we are greatly increasing the accessibility of the information to the public.

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