The Open Data Imperative: How the Cultural Heritage Community Can Address the Federal Mandate

"Data are a valuable national resource for a variety of stakeholders across all sectors of society. Dramatic advances in information and communication technology have opened up unprecedented opportunities for broad public access, innovative research, and citizen engagement, but this potential can be realized only if data are properly managed and exposed over time. New U.S. government requirements for exposing and managing federally funded research data add urgency to the call for curating data so that they can be used, re-used, and exploited by future generations. These new requirements have significant implications for cultural heritage institutions in addressing the current deficit in the capacity to support the re-use of data over time and across generations of technology (digital curation) and in enabling collaboration based on shared infrastructure."