Spatial data standards and information policy

Federal information policies, in general, have recognized the importance of open access to the digital data holdings of the government. Such policies have been supported by the Clinton administration's investment in a National Information Infrastructure. Recently, reports by the National Academy of Sciences and by the Vice President's National Performance Review have endorsed the creation of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure that will provide the spatial framework for the geographic data on the information superhighway. The success of such an enterprise will require the development of a suite of spatial data standards and policy tools. Existing standards, development activities, and mechanisms are described. Some of the policy challenges are unique to spatial data.     

Making state agency data more widely useful: the Iowa policy and planning data project

This paper describes the scope, historical development, and accomplishments of the Iowa Policy and Planning Data Project (IPPDP). Inspired both by a mandate for state agencies to share their data resources for greater efficiency and by the research needs of economic development planners, the IPPDP is a cooperative effort of several Iowa government departments and units of Iowa State University. Its original long-term goal, the creation of a data dictionary, was soon set aside; however, substantial progress has been made toward its short-term goal, the development of a prototype online catalog of data files held in state agencies and offices, despite such obstacles as the limited development of cataloging standards and the reluctance of many agencies to commit the time necessary to document their holdings. More recent Project initiatives include a series of workshops to help policy analysts and planners locate relevant information on the Internet and the development of an online information server to make state-collected data readily available to community planners. The IPPDP represents a “virtual library” approach to making government data resources—many of them unpublished—more widely available.     

Resisting by workarounds: Unraveling the barriers of implementing open government data policy

All public values (transparency, accountability, civic participation, and collaboration) of open government could be difficult to achieve without administrators' good implementation. This paper raises concern that perceived risks to OGD accountability lead to undesired strategic resistance. Using a nation-wide government survey data of Taiwanese public servants, this study empirically tests for differences in OGD behaviors between two types of perceived risks (individual accountability vs. organizational accountability). Results find the existence of perceived risks to accountability in the process of data release and positive effects on inducing strategic workaround when implementing OGD policies. These findings shed light on the understanding of practices of open government and contributes to knowledge of administrative behavior.     

The role of policy entrepreneurs in open government data policy innovation diffusion: An analysis of Australian Federal and State Governments

Open government data (OGD) policy differs substantially from the existing Freedom of Information policies. Consequently OGD can be viewed as a policy innovation. Drawing on both innovation diffusion theory and its application to public policy innovation research, we examine Australia's OGD policy diffusion patterns at both the federal and state government levels based on the policy adoption timing and CKAN portal “Organization” and “Category” statistics. We found that state governments that had adopted OGD policies earlier had active policy entrepreneurs (or lead departments/agencies) responsible for the policy innovation diffusion across the different government departments. We also found that their efficacy ranking was relatively high in terms of OGD portal openness when openness is measured by the greater number of datasets proactively and systematically published through their OGD portals. These findings have important implications for the role played by OGD policy entrepreneurs in openly sharing the government-owned datasets with the public.     

Supporting policy-making with social media and e-participation platforms data: A policy analytics framework

E-participation enables citizens to have an impact on policy-making through electronic means. Two of the most popular channels are social media and dedicated e-participation platforms. However, the ideas, comments, discussions of citizens on these two channels generate a lot of data to be processed by political representatives or public agents afterwards. Despite the existence of various techniques for social media analytics, literature is scarce regarding the analysis techniques to mine e-participation platforms as well as the possible combination of insights between the two channels.In order to address these gaps, we design a policy analytics framework to leverage insights from e-participation platforms and social media through relevant data analytics to support policy-making. In order to do so, we rely on the Design Science Research methodology. Through the analysis of four different cities in Belgium (Liège, Mons, Marche-en-Famenne, Leuven), we identify policy-makers' requirements and needs of information from platforms and social media. Then, we explore data analysis techniques to address those requirements. Finally, we design an actionable framework, present it as an interactive dashboard and iteratively test it on the case of Liège. This policy analytics framework supports each step of the traditional policy-making process with appropriate data analytics applied to the two sources.     

Congress as publisher: Politics,institutions, and policy

Since the beginning of the federal government, Congress has functioned as its publisher — the manager and director of government printing operations. Initially performed by private printers through lucrative contracts, production was statutorily vested in the Government Printing Office (GPO) in 1860 to assure efficient, economical, and quality printing. Over the past century and a half, however, changes in technology, law, and constitutional relationships have eroded arrangements for the public printing system. Information products printed by GPO in the past may now be agency-generated and made directly available to the public through agency Web sites or social media, with the result that congressional general management of the publication system is seemingly decreasing, at least in terms of GPO workload, publication accountability, and document sales. While it is unlikely that Congress will reduce or vacate its publisher capacity anytime soon, some adjustment of the scope of that role and related management capability may appropriately be in order.     

Government information policy research: Importance, approaches, and realities

Information policy research is a critical tool in the arsenal of library and information science researchers. As developments occur in information access, use, technology, and management, information policies require more attention and research. The article describes the nature of government information policy and policy research, characteristics of policy research, and examples of research methods and approaches that can be used. The differences between textbook-based policy research and how policy research might be implemented in action are also discussed, as are the inter-connectedness of information policies and ways to describe impacts of information policies. The article recommends that researchers and professionals give greater education, training, and professional association attention to using policy research on a day-to-day basis.     

Creating a smart nation: Strategy,policy, intelligence,and information

In an age characterized by distributed information, where the majority of the expertise is in the private sector, the concept of “central intelligence” is an oxymoron. The greatest threat to both national security and national economic competitiveness is ignorance—uninformed decision making. Intelligence communities are slowly discovering that they should not send a spy where a schoolchild can go, and that spies are not harnessing the vast distributed intelligence of the private sector. Unfortunately, the culture of intelligence in most countries believes that its uniqueness rests on secrets rather than thinking—on producing secrets rather than informing policy. To survive in the 21st century, every nation must become a “smart nation” and engage all of its citizens—every citizen must be a collector, producer, and consumer of intelligence—and, thus, create the Virtual Intelligence Community. To integrate and make the best use of both open-source intelligence and traditional classified intelligence, each nation must establish a National Information Strategy which addresses connectivity, content, coordination, and computational security.     

Economic policy essay: Vertical integration,monopoly, and the first amendment

Tension between regulation of communication media and First Amendment values is explored by identifying conditions in which vertical integration by media monopolists into content provision will lead to changes in content. The author argues that although a profit maximizing monopolist is likely to raise prices, no predictable bias in content provision emerges, whether or not the monopolist is vertically integrated. More severe consequences attend integration by individuals or firms with non‐profit related motives or who expand into content markets to evade profit regulation.     

Collaborative knowledge construction in digital environments: Politics, policy, and communities

How individuals share information with respect to politics and policy in networked research environments is an area ripe for interdisciplinary study. In this analysis, I explore some of the more current and salient research findings from several disciplinary literatures (communications, computer science, organizational behavior, information science, and public policy) to examine how current research perceives the influence of technology-aided communications on policy-making conversations. I suggest that a community-centric view, which takes into account online and offline group affiliations and their related power dynamics, is just as important as an individual-based unit of analysis. This understanding points to directions for the thoughtful creation of digital resources that appropriately reflect and support inter- and intra-group knowledge-sharing behavior.     

On making public policy with publicly available data: The case of U.S. communications policymaking

A fundamental principle of public policymaking should be that public policy must be made with publicly available data. This article develops this position and applies it to an assessment of the current state of communications policymaking, a policy area in which controversies surrounding the transparency of policy research and the accessibility of policy-relevant data have been both common and extremely contentious in recent years. This article provides a detailed assessment of the challenges confronting greater transparency and accessibility of communications policy-relevant data, as well as a detailed set of proposals for improving the current situation, in an effort to build towards an environment in which public policy is made with publicly available data.     

Looking for datasets to open: An exploration of government officials' information behaviors in open data policy implementation

In recent years, more and more government administrations around the world are participating in open data policy implementation. Government officials who are charged with implementing this new policy usually need to look for related information for deciding what datasets to open to the public. Accordingly, a research gap exists in understanding government officials' information behaviors in implementing open data policy. By using a qualitative approach to conduct semi-structured interviews with government officials who have extensive experience in implementing open data policy, this study explores government officials' information behaviors in searching and selecting datasets for open data publication. Specifically, this research investigates government officials' information needs, the employed information sources, and the intervening variables that influence their information behaviors. While open data is an ongoing policy implementation, government officials' information behaviors form an iterative cycle where information needs continually occur, information seeking activities are conducted by using a variety of information sources, and the obtained information is used to satisfy information needs. The findings and discussions of this study are expected to provide insights of government officials' data search and selection to practitioners and to enrich the current literature of open government data.     

Predicting policy: exploring news attention to policy issues in electoral debates

Despite news fragmentation, declining levels of voter knowledge, and waning interest in U.S. politics, debates attract mass audiences, reduce barriers of learning, and offer a greater focus on policy issues than that typically found in campaign news coverage. Nonetheless, debates are routinely driven by the same commercial, for-profit news journalists who routinely emphasize strategic campaign issues (e.g. the horserace) at the expense of policy content. As moderators, journalists have been scrutinized for the agenda they set in electoral debates. Using a multiyear dataset that treats debate questions as the unit of analysis, this quantitative content analysis explores news routines in the context of mediated debates while isolating media characteristics predictive of news attention to policy matters. The data show that journalists working for local news outlets and those working for commercial outlets are more likely to emphasize policy issues. Implications for debate sponsorship and campaigns are discussed.     

Federal government information policy and public policy analysis: A brief overview

The information policy of the federal government of the United States has been evolving for well over 200 years, with antecedents in the British, colonial, and Confederation experiences. Having a variety of themes, (e.g., accountability, records management, accessibility, security, and privacy), it is a policy of complexity, both in terms of interrelationships among its themes and political dynamics, which is to acknowledge that all three branches have contributed to its substance, and that balance among competing forces has been neither easily realized nor maintained. Moreover, it concerns values of particular importance for a democracy, such as realizing a government that is accountable to the citizenry and protects the security of the nation. It continues to evolve, adjust, and change due to a variety of factors, new political environments and information technology being among the foremost. Policy analysis, discussed here in several dimensions, may be applied to understand not only information policy of the past and the present, but also what might be modified, adjusted, or created anew for the future. Ultimately, in all instances of policy analysis application, the end result, hopefully, will be more informed decision making.     

Risk,affect, and policy support: public perception of air pollution in China

Air pollution is a critical environmental problem that has spurred great public concern in China. This study examines how issue salience, environmental value, risk perception, and affective response influence information seeking, objective knowledge, and policy support related to this issue. The recent release of a controversial environmental documentary on Chinese social media, Under the Dome, also prompted us to explore the impact of exposure to this documentary on Chinese social media users’ information seeking and policy support related to air pollution. Results showed that risk perception and negative affect influenced information seeking and policy support both directly and indirectly. Also, exposure to the documentary moderated the effects of key variables on information seeking and policy support. However, contrary to our expectations, no significant relationship was found between information seeking and objective knowledge. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings were discussed.     

Enthusiasts, deregulators, guardians, and skeptics: Contrasting policy viewpoints on the National Information Infrastructure

Passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and events leading up to it, brought to public attention a proposed National Information Infrastructure (NII) that would connect homes, businesses, universities, schools, and government offices. The policy discourse surrounding the Act reveals a variety of perspectives among stakeholders, including the Clinton administration, federal agencies, Congress, telephone companies, the computer industry, broadcast and cable TV companies, educators, and other interest groups.While there are many reports and commentaries on the NII, few authors have tried to characterize the political viewpoints behind the public discourse. This article reviews more than 80 NII-related documents, published from 1988 through 1997, and classifies their views and authors according to a two-dimensional typology by policy analyst William Dutton. Comparisons are made between those advocating Public versus Market leadership in NII development, and between Promotional and Restrictive statements regarding NII policy.