3.4.2: Sustainable Governance Approach

Establish governance bodies that can absorb some of the responsibilities associated with openness.

Other Information:

A strength of the DOT’s Open Government initiative is that we have several established governance bodies that can absorb some of the responsibilities associated with openness. This is crucial to ensure the sustainability of this effort. The DOT will leverage the strength of its existing governance bodies to ensure Open Government principles are incorporated with our every-day principles. Without a formalized governance structure aligned with the policy framework, the roles and responsibilities associated with the policies will be difficult to enforce. Thus, identifying and formalizing a governance structure is critical to managing and enforcing the policies associated with the Open Government initiative. As required by the Open Government Directive, the DOT has designated two DOT Open Government officials: a senior accountable official (SAO) for financial data quality and a senior official to serve on the interagency Open Government working group established by Executive Office of the President officials. The two DOT officials are listed on the www.dot.gov/open Web site. In addition, there are many DOT governance bodies already in existence that may be able to absorb the responsibility for oversight in the policy segments described above. Where possible, the DOT does not intend to create new governance bodies for Open Government. Instead, the DOT will incorporate the accountability for Open Government segments into the charters for existing and operational governance bodies. The governance bodies accountable for each segment area will be identified as the policy segments are developed. There are several existing bodies that may be included in this sustainable governance structure. This governance and leadership structure will be successful and sustainable only insomuch as employees adhere to the Open Government policy. Employees will not be able to adhere to the policy if they are not properly informed of its existence and trained in its use. The DOT must develop a policy and governance framework that provides guidance to DOT personnel on Open Government principles.

Stakeholder(s):

• Performance Management Council (PMC): The DOT PMC consists of senior leadership from across the Office of the Secretary and the OAs. The PMC is accountable for creating the performance scorecard that DOT executives use to evaluate progress in strategic areas. Open Government performance measures will be considered by senior executive to be incorporated into the organizational excellence section of the scorecard and monitored by this group. This group has unique visibility into how transparency, participation, and collaboration efforts affect mission specific performance measures as well as organizational excellence. Thus, this body is a natural candidate to oversee the strategic direction of the DOT’s Open Government efforts as it monitors the Department’s performance.


• Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council: The CIO Council’s membership consists of the CIOs from each OA as well as the DOT CIO. This group will play a role in any information technology-related policies developed at the DOT.


• Technology Control Board (TCB): The TCB reviews, evaluates, and tests new tools required for the DOT to meet its business needs. Digital methods for Open Government will be technically evaluated based on the same criteria as other tools considered for implementation at the DOT. Thus, this body is being considered as the responsible body for the digital methods segment.


• DOT Data.gov Group: The DOT created a Data.gov group when Data.gov was launched in the summer of 2009. This group has identified and vetted the data sets that have been released through Data.gov in open formats thus far. Therefore this group will be involved in the data transparency aspects of the DOT’s Open Government initiative. However, this group is not currently formally chartered. Thus, a near-term milestone of the DOT Open Government initiative is to formalize a data strategy group, which may or may not be known permanently as the data.gov group.

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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