Is the new open data directive transformative, or will bureaucratic inertia win out? - KMWorld Magazine

"Making federal government data available to the public in useful formats is a daunting knowledge management challenge. But federal CIO Steve VanRoekel and CTO Todd Park remain steadfast in their efforts to make open and interoperable the default setting for federal data. It will require a cultural as well as IT procurement transformation. In May 2013, the White House released an executive order titled 'Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information.' The order was accompanied by a new open data policy document from the Office of Management and Budget and an online repository of tools and case studies called Project Open Data. President Obama's order states that 'government information shall be managed as an asset throughout its life cycle to promote interoperability and openness, and, wherever possible and legally permissible, to ensure that data are released to the public in ways that make the data easy to find, accessible and usable.' The policy requires federal agencies to create an enterprise data inventory and a public listing of that inventory, and to make data sets available to the public whenever possible. People whose work focuses on government transparency responded enthusiastically. The consensus seems to be that this could bring a sea change in how the public accesses government information if agencies are required to comply. The White House released positive comments from several open government advocates. 'For too long, valuable public information has been locked away in file cabinets and poorly designed IT systems,' said Sean Moulton, director of Open Government Policy at the Center for Effective Government. 'Today's policy points a new way forward and takes concrete steps to make public information open by default' ..."