President Barack Obama issued an executive order today that aims to make "open and machine-readable" data formats a requirement for all new government IT systems. The order would also apply to existing systems that are being modernized or upgraded. If implemented, the mandate would bring new life to efforts started by the Obama administration with the launch of Data.gov four years ago. It would also expand an order issued in 2012 to open up government systems with public interfaces for commercial app developers.

"The default state of new and modernized Government information resources shall be open and machine readable," the president's order reads. "Government information shall be managed as an asset throughout its life cycle to promote interoperability and openness, and, wherever possible and legally permissible, to ensure that data are released to the public in ways that make the data easy to find, accessible, and usable." The order, however, also requires that this new "default state" protect personally identifiable information and other sensitive data on individual citizens, as well as classified information.

Broadening the “open” mandate

The president's mandate was initially pushed forward by former Chief Information Officer of the United States Vivek Kundra. In May of 2009, Data.gov launched with an order that required agencies to provide at least three "high-value data sets" through the portal.

However, the data sets initially published through Data.gov were in a vast assortment of formats and were entirely static "dumps." There was a great deal of resistance from agencies initially, in part because the new requirements came without any funding to produce the open sets from systems that were largely built on a patchwork of legacy systems and custom-formatted data. In August of 2010, the Obama administration created the position of "Data.gov evangelist" to push forward publishing efforts; the position was given to Jeanne Holm, former chief knowledge architect at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

After the departure of Vivek Kundra, new federal CIO Steven VanRoekel took point on open data, pushing to expose live government data rather than static data sets. Last May, the White House ordered agencies to create public APIs that could be used by government and private developers to tap in to data and make specific “applicable Government information open and machine-readable by default.” At that time, VanRoekel said in an Office of Management and Budget blog post, "To make sure there’s no wrong door for accessing government data, we will transform Data.gov into a data and API catalog that in real time pulls directly from agency websites." This February, the Obama administration pushed open requirements forward on the scientific front and moved to make more federally funded research data available to the public to preserve "digitally formatted scientific data" for public use.

But these orders, and the efforts by federal IT leaders, have thus far not opened up much of the core of federal data to daylight. With the new executive order issued today, the Obama administration is pushing the goal posts back further for agencies in the hopes of greater IT efficiency and transparency—and of creating an ecosystem of businesses that turn mashups of government data into a profitable business.

Three months to launch

The order calls for the Office of Management and Budget to issue an Open Data Policy and sets a three-month timeline for it to be incorporated into the performance goals for all the government agencies affected by the order. Independent agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission, are "requested to adhere" to the order.

Within 30 days of the publication of that policy, the order requires VanRoekel's office and Federal Chief Technology Officer Todd Park to publish "an open online repository of tools and best practices" to help agencies integrate open data standards into their systems. Within 90 days of the issuance of the policy, it will be integrated into the Office of Management and Budget's rules governing the way agencies purchase IT systems and services.

Just how effective this order will be in the face of the government's ongoing budget crisis is unclear. With sequestration cutting back many programs, there's little maneuvering room for agencies to make significant changes to the systems that this order would affect.