Author: Harry Sachs
Library System: Washington County Free Library, Hagerstown
Learning Event website: http://grants.maryland.gov/Pages/ConferenceDocs.aspx.
Top 3 things learned:
1) MARYLAND OPEN DATA LAW—Government Transparency
A major focus of the conference was this new law with speakers from the state and federal levels offering commentaries. This law, which went into effect in 2014, requires state agencies to make much of its public information machine-readable and searchable. A 37-member council was created as part of the law with a set list of targets that include designing and conducting a statewide data inventory, agreeing on minimum metadata standards and geo-aggregate standards, reviewing data mapping practices and establishing a statewide standard disclaimer and acknowledgement requirement. This council will encourage all branches of state and local government to use state open data portals and create their own, and adopt policies consistent with state Open Data policy. A national organization recently ranked Maryland in a six-way tie for first place for the state's commitment to open data and government transparency. The state's open data platform (http://data.maryland.gov) is part of an effort to foster government transparency and innovation and help spark entrepreneurial opportunities. The data can be viewed by type or category, such as administrative, budget, agriculture, economic or demographic. Visualization tools allow users to create charts and maps based on the data and embed these into web documents to share with others.
2) USA SPENDING—Tracking What the Federal Government Spends
Required by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, this tool (http://usaspending.gov) is meant as a way of using technology to give the American public the means to track federal government spending with a single, searchable database on federal grants. According to its website, collecting data about the various types of contracts, grants, loans, and
other types of spending at the federal level will provide a broader picture of the Federal spending processes, and will help to meet the need of greater transparency.
3) EARN MARYLAND—Workforce Development Grants Program
EARN Maryland (www.earn.maryland.gov) is a new state-funded ($9 million) competitive workforce development grants program that is industry-led and regional in focus. EARN Maryland aims to address the demands of businesses by focusing intensively on the workforce needs of a specific industry sector over a sustained period. EARN Maryland invests in strategic industry partnerships from key economic sectors in every region. In Western Maryland, the EARN Maryland 2014 Implementation Grantee Partnerships include the Washington County Manufacturing Partnership.
How to implement:
The Open Data Law could be the focus of a future workshop on government transparency and citizen access to data. The Maryland Office of the Attorney General has also recently released this fall a revised edition of the Maryland Public Information Act Manual. Because the law has just been
enacted, the best approach at this time would be disseminating information for public awareness purposes.
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