A Federal Mandate To Open Up 2A Federal Mandate To Open Up 2

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With the release in December of President Obama's Open Government Directive, the requirement for "opening" government processes and databases has shifted from planning to implementation. Federal agencies face an aggressive timeline for releasing data, engaging the public in new ways, and publishing the steps they will take to promote transparency and public participation in government.

The directive, released on Dec. 8, lays out 45-, 60-, 90-, and 120-day milestones that federal agencies are expected to meet. Two deadlines have already passed, and the others are rapidly approaching. As a first step, agencies had to release three "high value" data sets. Then, by Feb. 6, they were required to launch Web sites to inform the public of their open government activities, and the White House was due to introduce a Web dashboard for assessing their progress. By April 7, agencies are to publish their overall plans for complying with the directive.

There are signs of progress, but also plenty of bumps along the way. Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, in a December interview, recalled how he initially met resistance when seeking to release certain healthcare data from government databases. "It's not done, can't do it," Kundra said he was told. And there were technical issues in surfacing data that had long been squirreled away.

Now, however, the Department of Health and Human Services is moving "full throttle" in developing and executing an open government plan, says CTO Todd Park. "The Open Government Directive put an injection of energy and White House support behind things that we think are critical," says Park, who's now spending more than half of his time on these efforts.

HHS has established a working group, headed by Park and acting assistant secretary for public affairs Jenny Backus, to develop its open government plan. Park is mindful that open government projects must align with his agency's broader mission. In one example, an online "health map" under development will let citizens, employers, and others better understand the healthcare systems in their local communities and how they compare with systems elsewhere. HHS has been working with McKinsey & Co., the nonprofit State of the USA, and the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine to work through which data sets to release, and how.

Part of the challenge is getting stakeholders on board. "You have to ask, 'What's the behavior model? How do we trigger awareness?'" Park says. HHS plans to engage business and community leaders to raise its chances of success.

What determines success in open government? The release of data sets and launch of "gov 2.0" Web sites with collaboration and other social media tools are only part of it. "The ultimate measure of success should be improvement in the fundamental efficiency and effectiveness of government," says Park.

But Park counsels patience in the early going. As required, HHS posted new data sets on Data.gov last month, including a list of animal drug products, two summaries of Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals data, insurance contacts for Medicare's prescription drug benefit, and summary data on Medicare claims. Yet some of that data is still buried in zipped Excel spreadsheets on HHS's site, rather than in machine-readable XML form on Data.gov. "It'll be a process of constant, ongoing iteration and improvement," says Park.

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Chief Of The Year: Federal CIO Kundra

Federal CIO Vivek Kundra
is recognized for his vision for overhauling the government's lumbering IT operations and for opening its databases in keeping with the Obama administration's open government initiative.

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