Hard truths behind the fight to run government like a business - Inkstick

"Beyond program performance, the Obama Administration also embraced the non-government benefits offered by the data at the government’s disposal as a service to American citizens and the commercial sector. Through powerful policy statements like the Open Data Executive Order and Open Data Policy, the creation of data.gov, the ongoing open-source efforts of Project Open Data, and its eventual embrace of the DATA Act, the previous Administration demonstrated its belief in the emergent saying, “data is the new oil.” The Administration offered publicly available data to improve the public’s oversight of the government and to be harnessed by businesses and individuals who could find an innovative purpose for it. The Evidence-Based Policymaking Act would build on that by including the main components of the OPEN Government Data Act, which seeks to cement the government’s ongoing open data efforts into law while providing much-needed technology and training for the federal workforce to grow these efforts – investing in the government’s human capital the way businesses have for decades....Evidence-based policymaking that relies on facts and data is critical to oversight and effectiveness – but policy based on emotions and politics all too often drives this generation of political leaders, to the detriment of our governance and our shared security."