3.4.3: Principles to Consider in Open Government Efforts

Provide a summary of the principles important to Open Government.

Other Information:

This section provides a summary of the principles important to Open Government. • Accessibility: Open Government must include people with disabilities. Federal law requires that programs and resources provide comparable access and equivalent communications to people with disabilities, including alternative methods and formats, unless it would be an undue burden on the agency. • Acquisition: To acquire services in support of this initiative the DOT must follow policies identified in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), and the FAA must follow policies in its AMS. • Confidentiality: Web pages must not publicly display sensitive information of any kind (e.g., confidential business, personally identifiable, financial, acquisition-sensitive, security-sensitive, law enforcement/investigative-sensitive, or information that could enable the public to circumvent the law). Redaction software can be used to remove sensitive information, but only with appropriate controls to ensure the redactions are “locked.” • Employee Behavior/Ethics: When engaged in Open Government initiatives, employees should be mindful that they are representing the interests of the DOT and should act with the highest level of professionalism and integrity and in accordance with Government standards of ethical conduct. • Enterprise Architecture: A complete enterprise architecture (EA) will help to identify the current and future state of the agency and assist in laying out a plan for transitioning to a more open and transparent organization. • Infrastructure: The DOT will determine what the demands on the network infrastructure will be. Some tools require significant bandwidth to use and may require adjustments and funding. • Information Collection: An Information Collection Request (ICR) to and approval from the OMB may be required when collecting information from ten or more members of the public. This activity is governed by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). An ICR can include surveys, focus groups, and other feedback mechanisms. • Intellectual Property (e.g., copyright, trademark, patents, and licensing): New information may be created. The DOT will monitor information coming in to ensure compliance with copyright and trademark law, which includes appropriate attribution to the owner/creator/artist. Copyright protection is not available for any work of the U.S. Government. Providers releasing third party information shall properly attribute to the owner/creator/artist. • Open Formats: The DOT will utilize open formats that are platform independent, machine readable, and made available to the public without restrictions that would impede the re-use of that information. • Plain Language: Transparency means we make information available. Clarity means we make that information easy to understand and use. Plain language is our pathway to clarity. • Privacy: Web pages must not collect Personally Identifiable Information (PII), except as necessary to achieve program purposes, and must not publicly display PII. A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is required for any IT system that will contain PII. A System of Records Notice (SORN) is required for any paper-based or IT system of records that will contain PII if the PII will be regularly retrieved by name or personal identifier. • Quality: Data collected by the DOT for statistical, financial, programmatic, or other such purposes will be subjected to standardized data quality assurance and internal control practices to ensure its integrity and accuracy. Each data collection and maintenance protocol will be documented and routinely evaluated and assessed to ensure its compliance with laws and regulations and that adequate controls are in place and functional. Data quality standards, measures, and clearance processes should be included to ensure the DOT's current and future dissemination of consistent, high-quality, and high-value information and data, consistent with the Data Quality Act. • Records Management: The Federal Records Act requires that all Federal agencies make and preserve records to document their organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions. The use of Open Government tools may create Federal records. Program offices need to be aware that the creation and management of these records are governed by the records management policies of the DOT. • Security: All Federal departments are required by law to ensure that their IT systems are secure. The DOT must ensure that new systems are certified and accredited and meet the regulations set forth by Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards. Also, data sets have the potential to be combined to reveal sensitive information. Thus any data set that is released from the DOT must be carefully reviewed against the “mosaic” of data publicly available to ensure its release does not compromise any sensitive information. • Sensitive Security Information (SSI): Information classified as SSI is a protected form of information, like classified or Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) information. The DOT OST and designated organizational elements, including the FAA, have authority provided by Congress (49 U.S.C. § 40119 and 49 CFR Subpart A, Part 15) to designate/protect certain security information meeting the definition/criteria of SSI. Furthermore, under the FOIA process, SSI information is withheld under exemption three of FOIA. • Terms of Service/Terms of Use: Terms of Service (TOS) and Terms of Use (TOU) establish the agreement between the provider and the Government for use of, for example, social media such as Facebook. Many provider terms of service agreements are not acceptable for Government use unless modified. Even when common terms have been negotiated, legal and CIO review must be obtained prior to use to ensure DOT policies and guidelines are not nullified or superseded by the TOS or TOU. • Web/Internet: Any information posted on the Web must align with the DOT Web policy, which contains information about uses and development standards, links, cookies, banners/disclaimers, terms of service, site mapping, OMB requirements and DOT seal/signatures. Presentation of data will conform to the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act as amended.

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