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Data Mantates should focus on the WHAT's not HOW's

idea

What is the idea?

Had this idea while resopnding to another idea;

 

There's a growing tendency for people to focus on phrases or ideas like make data available via "SOAP, or XML formats".

What should really happen is less a focus on _HOW_ data is delivered (although that's an important followup) and for politicians and data savvy people to talk about _WHAT_ is delivered.

e.g. I want to see a spec that says "Every gov. entity at a department accounting level needs to show year-to-year operating costs, total headcount, and break out spending for services (internal vs. eternal) and operation costs (energy, fleet and fuel)"

Something like that with probably more detail like "calculate these numbers with such-and-such methodology and you must also report the Standard Deviation".

The "HOW" should be a small footnote, e.g.

"This data should be made available 16+ hrs a day including the hours of 9-5, 7 days a week via multiple formats including but not limited to XML and JSON"

Why is it important?

Going forward consistency on the metrics seems more important then consistency in the format. Computers and programmers are great at munging data that's available in many formats.

However, if one department spending # is calculated differently then another department's, then no amount of WSDL, SOAP, XML or JSON will help.

Submitted by wjhuie (IT Engineering) on Apr 27, 2009

This idea is now closed to further comments.

Current number of stars: 3
based on 5 votes
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7 Comments

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Ugh, sorry for misspelling the title. If only I could spell and we could edit our posts! :D

Comment from wjhuie on Apr 27, 2009
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This seems to not show up on my "ideas you've submitted" page.

Comment from wjhuie on Apr 27, 2009
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Great comment (misspellings and all).

There are many excellent ideas on this site which address the aggregation, presentation and communication of information, but the most critical component to the Recovery Act program is transparency and accountability of our tax dollars being allocated, committed and spent and the associated results.

Without systems enforcing procedures and processes associated with construction contracting, change management, invoicing, competitive bids, field reporting etc, consumers of the Recovery.gov cannot be certain that information on the site is valid.

See Recover Act Project Information We Can Trust. There are several program management and reporting software providers in the commercial and public market today which would help.

Comment from mkrichman at Meridian Systems on Apr 28, 2009
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This comment deleted. Please read our moderation policy.

Comment from mkrichman at Meridian Systems on Apr 28, 2009
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Thanks mkrichman!

I think your idea of Trusted Project Information is crucial. It's time for a gov. we feel we can trust and of course as people talk standards I think there's far more variability in the finance departments then there are in the formats!

I take projects like this site as good signs of progress but I'm familiar with how difficult is can be to follow through with consistency in large organizations.

So here's hoping with fingers crossed that if they focus on the right details and let the others shake out that we can get the initial consistency we need and deserve !

Comment from wjhuie on Apr 28, 2009
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This idea reinforces the need for semantics, via a terminology method, before the syntax of data structures, and long before a technology is applied.

Comment from RoyERoebuck at One World Information System on Apr 30, 2009
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What your describing pertains to a specification and 'standards' definitions. I also agree that this governement standards specification will not happen overnight and will mature over time. This is a long process but based on other IT standards, well worth the effort. You should really discuss this with the existing standards groups that have years of experience on not only establishing and creating a standard but also how these standards and their committees should be run.

Comment from kkrems at Olocity Corporation on May 01, 2009