OMB has issued a memo directing executive departments and agencies to begin putting into action principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration set forth in a White House memo on transparency and open government issued in January.
The memo sets deadlines for required actions but also asks agencies to begin taking a number of steps right away.
It calls on agencies to publish information online in an open format that can be retrieved, downloaded, indexed, and searched by commonly used web search applications, and it says they should proactively disseminate useful information rather than waiting for specific requests under FOIA.
Within 45 days, each agency shall identify and publish online in an open format at least three new high-value data sets and register those data sets via Data.gov, the memo said.
It said that within 60 days, each agency has to create an open government webpage located at http://www.agencyname.gov/open, to serve as the gateway for agency activities related to the open government directive and shall maintain and update that webpage in a timely fashion.
Those web pages need to feature a way for the public to give feedback on the quality of information and input about what information is desired – and the memo directs agencies to respond to that input.
