Open Data Transition Report: An Action Plan for the Next Administration

• • Within the first 100 days of the new administration, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in consultation with the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the U.S. Chief Technology Officer, should provide guidance encouraging all agencies to establish a Chief Data Officer (CDO) and include best practices guidance on the CDO role and authorities. The CDO should be empowered to work across his or her agency, to ensure the organization is treating data as a strategic asset, including identifying where open data can help contribute to each mission priority area.  In each agency:
• • The CDO should serve as senior advisor to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the department head. The CIO should delegate his or her data and statistical oversight authorities  to the CDO.
• • The CDO’s office should have a line item in the agency’s budget, either as part of the CIO budget or as another senior advisory office.
• • The CDO should direct, manage, and provide policy guidance and oversight of agency data personnel, activities, and operations, including: development of agency data management budgets; recruitment, selection, and training of personnel to carry out agency data management functions; and approval and management of agency data management systems.
• • The CDO should promote the use of agency data, including agency-sponsored research data, by:
• • Working to ensure data interoperability and develop policies requiring data sharing, both within the agency through agency grants and contracts;
• • Educating staff about the data they create and the role it can play in supporting their mission;
• • Working with external partners to gauge demand for government data and support industry needs, as appropriate; and
• • Integrating data streams into decision trees to institutionalize data-driven decision making.
• • OSTP should invite all agency CDOs to meet periodically to coordinate federal open data initiatives.

The federal government lacks  consistent resources across departments and agencies to support leadership in implementing open data programs.

In recent years, the Chief Data Officer (CDO) has emerged as a key leadership role for open data programs at all levels of government. The state of Colorado hired the nation’s first government Chief Data Officer in 2009,  and many federal agencies have since followed that model. Private sector companies are applying the same idea. Harvard Business Review began recommending that companies hire a CDO in 2012.

Despite growing recognition of the CDO’s role, only some federal agencies now have a CDO (or a Chief Data Scientist, a different title that often has similar goals). In August 2016, Project Open Data, the government’s centralized resource, listed only eight CDOs out of the 24 departments and agencies   subject to the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990.  Some agencies that have a CDO do not empower him or her to serve as an effective senior advisor. In many of those government agencies, the CDO’s responsibilities orient toward traditional information technology (IT) more than data strategy. Other agencies give the CDO broad responsibilities in principle but do not provide the budget and staff support to help him or her succeed.  

Across the federal government, the role, authority, and responsibilities for CDOs are inconsistent. Responsibilities range from taking care of backend software and infrastructure, to resolving technical challenges, to developing the next great digital service. CDOs can and should play a role that complements the Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) within agencies. In general, CTOs focus on innovation and exposing the organization to new ideas, technologies, and people, while CIOs build citizen-focused digital services, move data to the cloud, and protect against cyber threats.  A CDO should focus on the quality, collection, management, publication, and use of data assets, including agency-sponsored data (e.g., research data).

Agencies with strong CDOs have successfully leveraged their data to solve complex challenges, engaged their data communities, and adopted a culture of data-driven decision making in their agencies. For example, the CDO at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) oversees the Bureau’s governance, acquisition, documentation, storage, analysis, and distribution of data, and has focused on centralizing and standardizing data. The CDO at the Department of Transportation made it the first agency to proactively publish its enterprise data inventory, a catalog of all of its datasets, both public and nonpublic, before the government required federal agencies to create and maintain data inventories.

Many agencies will need to balance the goal of making data open with the need to keep some kinds of data highly secure. The U.S. Department of Energy, for example, manages a wide range of data sources: from the datasets of the Energy Information Administration, which releases data of high public value, to data on nuclear weapons that could compromise national security if it were released. In these agencies, the CDO and his or her office will need to have perspective and expertise in both open data and cybersecurity, two areas with extremely different goals.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy should invite all agency CDOs to meet periodically to advise each other and coordinate their agencies on such matters as consolidation and modernization of data systems, aligning metadata standards, and internal controls.

Open government data needs centralized, expert leadership at the agency level. A cadre of agency CDOs with well-defined responsibilities, authority, and resources can:

1. • Ensure that data plays a more central role in executing the mission of government agencies;
2. • Support high-priority projects across government with relevant data, supporting evidence-based policymaking;
3. • Support high-priority projects across government with relevant data, supporting evidence-based policymaking;
4. • Provide citizens and industry with resources funded by their tax dollars;
5. • Improve data governance and ensure adherence to best practices; and
6. • Realize economies of scale related to data management, creating efficiencies, and helping to ensure consistency.

Additional Reading:

1. • Nick Sinai, “2015: Year of the Chief Data Officer.”
2. • IBM Center for the Business of Government, "The Emerging Role and Merits for Chief Data Officers.”
3. • FedScoop, "Meet Federal Reserve Board's new chief data officer.”
4. • Harvard Business Review, "Your C-Suite Needs a Chief Data Officer.”
5. • Center for Open Data Enterprise, "Briefing Paper on Open Data and Privacy.”
6. • Linda Powell, "Building the Chief Data Officer Toolkit.”