NASCIO Report: Government Data in Demand … By Government

Despite California’s reputation for being a leader in technology, the topics of open data and transparency have run hot and cold.

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In the hands of the public, open government data is giving businesses and citizens an unprecedented opportunity to innovate and drive the “app economy” in places like San Francisco. The demand for data is also growing within government, leading to more agencies opening their data vaults and sharing across departments, according to a report issued Thursday by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers.

 
“One of the most significant outcomes we’re seeing is the sharing of data across state agencies and across jurisdictions,” said NASCIO official and Minnesota CIO Carolyn Parnell.
 
In California, State Controller John Chiang and Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Peter Gravett on Thursday announced a joint venture to combine data from their respective agencies to identify 95,000 California veterans that have more than $36 million in unclaimed property and cash being held by the state of California.
 
“This includes [our] latest partnership between CalVet and my office to return tens of millions of dollars to California’s veterans,” said Chiang in a press statement.
 
Despite California’s reputation for being a leader in technology, the topic of open data and transparency has run hot and cold in California.
 
Back in 2009, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger created, by executive order, a transparency website containing detailed information on the workings of state government.
 
In 2011, Gov. Brown vetoed AB 172 that would have codified the site into law. Assemblyman Mike Eng, who sponsored AB 172, saw two other transparency bills (AB 1899 and AB 756) shot down as well.
 
In April, California State CIO and Department of Technology Director Carlos Ramos announced the state is getting ready to launch a new open data portal. “[W]e’re going to be releasing an open data website, where we’re going to make other sorts of government data available for free, online for folks to use. The cool thing about that is that it’s going to leverage cloud technologies,” said Ramos during a speech at the Digital Access Summit hosted by TechWire.
 
This data was originally published by Techwire
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