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CDT Establishes Open Data Handbook, Data Policy Additions

The California Department of Technology is getting specific on open data, announcing an Open Data Policy, establishing an online Open Data Handbook and offering new policy information on data — all designed to help agencies in their stewardship of public information.

The California Department of Technology (CDT) is doubling down on state-level open data efforts with a series of new online policies and guidelines aimed at helping shape informational work.

On Wednesday, CDT announced an Open Data Policy, made public via Technology Letter 19-01, which established the Open Data Handbook.

"The newly announced Open Data Policy sets a new standard and officializes open data as a policy priority in government operations. All previous open data efforts have been volunteered-based. Having a policy in place provides guidance, standards, and gives departments the permission to start, continue, or enhance their data-driven efforts," the California Government Operations Agency said about the policy.

The handbook sets "guidelines to identify, review, prioritize and prepare publishable data" for public and government access via an open data portal or site. It also offers four principles — directing officials to be "a trusted source"; always reachable; to "foster interoperability"; and to operate in an agile, lean manner.

"Commit to making publishable state data open and freely available in accessible formats for the public to reuse and redistribute," the handbook said in its principles, referring to accessibility.

It also directed departments to conduct "an internal organizational review and approval process" before publishing data to a portal, indicating such a review "could leverage existing governance models" within an agency — and pointing out that data management "is a business decision." And it spelled out a process of four main steps toward making data public, from identification to assessment and priorities through pre-publication to publication.

The guidelines, the handbook said, are designed to offer assistance to a variety of contributors "with the stipulation that organizations look to their governing laws, rules, regulations, and policies in identifying and making available publishable data."

In the letter, CDT also revealed three new sections in its State Administrative Manual (SAM), all of which it said offer "policy information and applicable exceptions."

SAM Section 5160 directs agencies to "manage their data as an asset from the start" and release it publicly so as to make it "open, discoverable and usable."

SAM Section 5160.1, effective July 1, directs agencies and state entities to "build or modernize" IT solutions to maximize "interoperability and information accessibility." The section doesn't require existing IT solutions be modernized but does mandate that data considerations in the section be applied during modernizations that significantly modify existing solutions. These include using machine-readable and open formats for information when it's collected; prioritizing open licenses to avoid restrictions on copying and publishing; and ensuring systems are scalable and ease data extraction in multiple formats.

SAM Section 5160.2 aims at ensuring "fair treatment" of individuals who are "the subject of state entity records" and sets requirements for collection, use and dissemination of information about these people. The agency also revised existing SAM Section 4819.2.

Theo Douglas is Assistant Managing Editor of Industry Insider — California.