USAID releases first-ever open data policy to improve global outcomes - FierceGovernmentIT

"The U.S. Agency for International Development recently issued its first-ever open data policy, providing guidance for systematic data collection, structure, use and dissemination to help accomplish its mission. Angelique Crumbly, assistant administrator for USAID's management bureau, and Brandon Pustejovsky, chief data officer, write in an Oct. 15 blog post that the policy – known as Automated Directives 579 (pdf) – is important because it can help the agency and its partners 'draw from an increasingly robust, data-rich environment to create these breakthrough insights and solutions in support of our mission well into the future.'  They say the policy does four main things:  [1] Create a 'Development Data Library' for agency-collected and -created data as well as information supplied by partners. [2] Mandate that staff and partners provide machine-readable, non-proprietary datasets that are generated through agency funding to the library. [3] Establish a data-tagging protocol in line with the 2013 executive order issued by President Obama and open data policy from the Office of Management and Budget. [4] Outline a data-clearance process to make sure that as much data is publicly available as possible with the appropriate privacy and national security protections ..."