1st Open Government Directive Deadline Due

Today marks the first deadline of the Open Government Directive for agencies. It seems like just yesterday we were discussing the launch of the directive on December 8^th, 2009. The deadline due today is that each agency must provide at least three high-value data sets open to the public.

A high-value data set was defined as accurate, timely, and comprehensive. They must be downloadable and easy to use. However, according to NextGov reports, “Employees at the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments said mid-level managers are pushing back against implementing the directive because of concerns about security and privacy, as well as cultural resistance.”

Privacy and security outweigh the benefits of transparency and openness for some agencies. Also, there have been some complaints from agencies that they have not been given enough time to come up with the first deliverable. However, today’s deadline will most likely remain in place.

According to NextGov, OMB spokesman Tom Gavin said, “While we don’t expect to extend the deadline, there is also no cutoff to the addition of data to the site. When Data.gov launched in the summer, it had 47 data sets. That has gown to more than 118,000, with significant new data about to be published.”