U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Publishing Data in Data.gov Karen Klima Data.Gov Briefing for ITEM May 26,

“Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset.” President Obama January 21, 2009

Agenda 3 Data.gov Background USGS Data.gov Strategy Data Access Coordinator and Contract Information Way Forward

Part of President Obama’s Open Government Initiative (Presidential Memorandum “Transparency and Open Government”, dated 1/21/2009) 4 A government that is:  Transparent  Promote accountability  Provide information for citizens on what their government is doing  Participatory  Agencies encouraged to provide citizens opportunities to participate in policy making  Agencies encouraged to solicit ideas from citizens how to improve those opportunities  Collaborative  Use innovative tools to enable collaboration across and at all levels of government

Part of President Obama’s Open Government Initiative (Presidential Memorandum “Transparency and Open Government”, dated 1/21/2009) “ Information should be disclosed rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use” Explicit goal of Data.Gov:  Allow public to easily find, download, and use federal datasets and tools Implicit goal of Data.Gov:  Drive executive agencies to better organize, prepare, and steward their data; be more responsive and transparent to both public and private interests 5

The Issues 6 There are over 24,000.gov web sites – difficult to navigate Public must understand the federal organizational structure to find datasets on key topics – many isolated portals, clearinghouses, applications Data unavailable in “raw” machine downloadable formats – locked in legacy systems, abstracted and presented as maps and other visualizations, or bound to documents Web sites not designed for new generation of technologies on the web

 Break down stovepipes to increase access to data  Instant access: Data themselves are only one click away  Data that can be manipulated and mashed-up  Encouraging development of innovative applications  Tools that provide access to complex databases  Widgets Sub-Goals of Data.gov 7 In the context of open and transparent government, Data.gov creates a one-stop online website for free access to data produced or held by agencies across the Federal government – Federal CIO Council

USGS DATA.GOV STRATEGY 8

Value to USGS -Channel to new markets for our data -Broadens access by public and private sectors -Innovative “mashups” -Potential to foster new research relationships -Catalyst for improved data management within USGS 9

USGS-Data.Gov Strategy Present: Ad hoc publishing of USGS data to Data.gov as required Short Term: Establish interim USGS data publishing process for Data.gov to improve efficiency and encourage participation Longer Term: Develop well-integrated, standardized internal data publishing process for USGS to inventory, harvest, and share its data with others, including Data.gov 10

USGS Data.gov Points of Contact Karen Klima and Rob Dollison Represent USGS at DOI and Data.Gov meetings On behalf of the USGS Chief Information Officer, coordinate USGS response to DOI and Data.Gov policies and requirements Transmit USGS data sets to DOI for publishing in Data.gov Review and coordinate Data.gov customer s and feedback Lead USGS Data.Gov Advisory Group 11

Data Access Coordinators Route and track external dataset requests Assist Program Managers in identifying high value datasets Screen and evaluate dataset requests and assign responsibility for metadata preparation Oversee (monitor) metadata preparation by data owners Assist/facilitate input of metadata into Data.gov “Dataset Management System” Monitor long-term maintenance of published metadata Serve on USGS Data.gov Team 12

Data Access Coordinators 13

Data.gov is a beginning; a step forward on the path to build a more transparent government. Data.gov gives researchers, stakeholders, business and the public the data they have already paid for, so they can reuse it for their own purpose. The amount of data is growing and the site will continue to develop over time. However, Users Want….. Additional machine readable formats, web services/API to directly access and use the data MANY more datasets! The Data.gov Solution: putting the pieces together

USGS-Data.gov Publishing Support 15 USGS Data.gov Community Workspace: USGS Data.gov Community Wiki: Data.gov Dataset Management System: Data.gov:

BACKUP 16

Suitability Checklist Suitability applies specifically to USGS datasets proposed for publication and access through Data.gov. All datasets and tools must conform to the following criteria : 12 Approved for publication in compliance with the USGS Fundamental Science Practices Made available to the public with no access restrictions and at no cost Full compliance with the relevant elements of the Data.gov data policy All “geodata” metadata conforms to the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Content Standard for Geospatial Metadata USGS is the authoritative source of the dataset Data is a product of the Federal government, currently available on a Federal Agency website Data steward and/or authoritative source for data maintains version control and meets applicable record retention requirements Dataset is not bound by restrictions over its end use Metadata includes a preferred citation for use by end users to acknowledge that data was retrieved from the USGS Any reasonable cautions or caveats relating to the safe or appropriate use of the data should be included in its metadata - disclaimers should also be posted on primary web access point

“High Value” Criteria Managers and Data Coordinators will use these qualitative criteria to identify and target USGS data sets with high value for Data.Gov: Supports Secretary’s priorities (i.e. climate change, alternative energy, water challenges, or national heritage) Importance and alignment to the USGS Science Strategy Potential utility in contributing to the creation of novel and useful third-party applications and services Low risk for misuse (e.g., “mosaicking”) Potential societal impact (e.g., safety and security, education, economic) Breadth of coverage (National vs. Local) General appeal in both the public and private sectors (“wow factor”) 13

Proposed Interim Data Publishing Process Governance Roles: Data.Gov Points of Contact Data Access Coordinators USGS Data.Gov Advisory Group Nominate Who: Any USGS employee or the public via Data.gov Evaluate Who: Data Access Coordinators for originating Program Select Who: Program Manager From Originating Program Publish Who: USGS or GOS POC with Office of Communication review Assign Who: USGS Data.gov POCs or Data Access Coordinators Tools: Screening Checklist “High Value” Ranking Criteria Performance Management 19

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1. CDI and ELT approval (May) 2. Establish Data.gov Advisory Group and Data Coordinators (May) 3. Release of All Hands Memo and website (May) 4. Kick-off Interim Data.Gov Process (May-June) 5. Ongoing development of long term Data.gov policy Next Steps 21