Ellen Herbst
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration,
Head of Open Government Working Group
open@doc.gov
Catrina Purvis
Chief Privacy Officer
and Director of Open Government
Joey Hutcherson
Deputy Director,
Office of Privacy and Open Government
Interact with Commerce on the social media sites you already use every day.
 |
 |
 |
 |
whitehouse.gov/open - Learn more about the President's efforts to increase transparency, participation, and collaboration throughout government.
Recovery.gov - See open government in action by tracking the spending associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Data.gov - Access and discover new uses for the range of data produced by the federal government from one central location.
BusinessUSA.gov - See the "no wrong door" approach for small businesses and exporters.
FOIAonline - See the the start of a new era for the Freedom of Information Act within the Department of Commerce.
Open.commerce.gov Links
Office of the Secretary Links
Department of Commerce Person Finder
Office of the Secretary Report to Congress
Office of the Secretary Speeches and Testimony
On January 18, 2011, in Executive Order 13563, the President directed each agency to review their "existing significant regulations, and consider how best to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome, and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal them in accordance with what has been learned."
In response to this directive, Commerce created and released a preliminary plan for review of its regulations on May 26, 2011. Commerce welcomed the public's comments and feedback on this preliminary plan through July 25, 2011. Commerce published the final version of its regulatory review plan on August 22, 2011, which incorporated responses to public comments and new information about recent accomplishments. Commerce in promoting transparency continues to publish routine status and updates. Commerce has updated the Retrospective Plan Progress Report Table based on progress review of the plan, new information and new developments. Today April 5, 2016, we are publishing our latest updates in the EO 13563 and EO 13610 progress report. The latest report and all previous reports can be found at Commerce Plan for Retrospective Analysis of Existing Rules.
Guest blog post
by Joey Hutcherson,
Deputy, Open Government
On January 21, 2009, President Obama issued the first executive memorandum of his Administration, entitled “Transparency and Open Government.” This memorandum established three guiding principles for the conduct of government activities. Government should be transparent. Government should be participatory. Government should be collaborative.
The Department of Commerce (the Department) is committed to the principles of Open Government, and we are pleased to present this mid-cycle release of the 2015 Department of Commerce Open Government Plan, version 3.5 (the Plan). The Plan is updated annually to ensure the most current status of existing initiatives along with discussion of new initiatives are made available to the public. This release represents its sixth publication and builds on the Department’s long history of information dissemination and the adoption of new tools and technology to enable transparency. This plan features an exciting and new flagship initiative called the “Commerce Data Advisory Council” (CDAC). Its addition, along with key progress updates on Open Government initiatives from our bureaus and operating units (BOU), make this an exciting edition of the Plan. A summary of what is new in this version can be found in the “What’s New” section after the Introduction. You will see that the Department continues to encourage and strive for increased participation and collaboration among its employees, other government agencies, and the American people to build upon our strategic goal of Operational Excellence.
The Department invites the American public to join in as it moves toward becoming a more open and effective provider of government services and information. Please feel free to provide feedback by submitting comments to open@doc.gov.
To read the plan click this link http://open.commerce.gov/open-government-plan
On January 18, 2011, in Executive Order 13563, the President directed each agency to review their "existing significant regulations, and consider how best to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome, and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal them in accordance with what has been learned."
In response to this directive, Commerce created and released a preliminary plan for review of its regulations on May 26, 2011. Commerce welcomed the public's comments and feedback on this preliminary plan through July 25, 2011. Commerce published the final version of its regulatory review plan on August 22, 2011, which incorporated responses to public comments and new information about recent accomplishments. Commerce in promoting transparency continues to publish routine status and updates. Commerce has updated the Retrospective Plan Progress Report Table based on progress review of the plan, new information and new developments. Today August 17, 2015, we are publishing our latest updates in the EO 13563, EO 13610 and the EO 13659 progress report. The latest report and all previous reports can be found at the Commerce Plan for Retrospective Analysis of Existing Rules.
Guest blog post by Katherine Sharpless, Open Access Officer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
When U.S. taxpayers support research efforts at federal agencies, they should have access to the results of that research.
That’s the basic common sense approach that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has adopted throughout its 114-year history. And as the nation’s measurement science and technology experts, NIST scientists, engineers, and other researchers publish about 1,300 peer-reviewed technical articles and about 200 reports each year to share those results.
Companies, non-profits, universities, and other government agencies, in turn, routinely use NIST data, measurement methods, and standards to advance their own research efforts or improve their products and services.
So when the President’s Science Advisor, John P. Holdren issued a memorandum in Feb. 2013 on “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research,” it was in keeping with NIST’s well-established tradition of disseminating its results as widely as possible. NIST has long released its data and research results through not only scientific journals and reports, but also conference presentations, measurement standards, public databases, software, and patent disclosures.
What’s new about the memorandum and NIST’s specific response through its Public Access Plan is a strengthened commitment to comprehensive digital access to NIST scientific and technical research products. The plan describes NIST’s intention to make freely available—in publicly accessible repositories—all peer-reviewed scholarly publications and associated data arising from unclassified research funded wholly or in part by NIST.
Within the constraints of its mission and funding, NIST will also promote the deposit of scientific data collected through unclassified research free of charge in publicly accessible databases. (Some exceptions to the policy will remain, for example, for certain types of Standard Reference Data where licensing actually may enhance dissemination.) NIST’s Public Access Policy articulates the roles and responsibilities of NIST staff for ensuring public access.
NIST already has more than 35,000 of its journal articles and publications indexed on its website, including many in full text. Nevertheless, NIST plans to partner with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its existing PubMed Central (PMC) repository system to improve the ease of use, analysis, and comprehensiveness of its collection. NIST currently plans to provide public access to the full text of its scholarly research without charge no later than 12 months after publication, although NIST reserves the right to shorten or extend the embargo period.
NIST’s Public Access Plan includes data management plans (DMPs) and an Enterprise Data Inventory (EDI). NIST generates data management plans that document plans for storage, archival, and accessibility for NIST’s numerous types of data. The EDI is a catalog of datasets with a user-friendly front end to enable NIST scientists to easily enter metadata about their datasets and an export capability to facilitate feeding that metadata into data.gov, where the public can discover it.
To enhance its ability to store, exchange, and disseminate its research data to external stakeholders and the public, as well as to share it between NIST technical staff and their immediate collaborators, NIST is making foundational improvements to its data management infrastructure. There are four prongs to this initiative:
1) Analyze data management practices across NIST organizational units, document procedures, and build out flexible and extensible tools to support data management plans and the Enterprise Data Inventory;
2) Create a robust data management framework for data of all working levels by extending cloud-based storage and network connectivity and deploying easy-to-use interfaces for the management of NIST data;
3) Pilot development of a NIST public access data portal with improved interfaces, with particular focus on supporting Standard Reference Data; and
4) Accelerate the identification, assessment, authorization, and deployment process for widely used software tools that support data exchange and research collaboration.
Providing access to NIST research results has always been a priority. With the digital tools now available and under development, it’s time to make sure the public can find those results easily and quickly and be able to use them.
The VIIRS satellite sensor alone currently produces over 2 terabytes of data daily, and the launch of the next-generation GOES-R satellite in 2016 promises to add another 3.5 terabytes each day. (Photo by NASA/NOAA)
Blog Post by
David McClure and Maia
Hansen
On April 21st 2015, NOAA and the Department of Commerce announced that they had entered into Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) with Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, IBM, Microsoft, and the Open Cloud Consortium. Under these agreements, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its collaborators will research and explore new ways to enable the use of NOAA data, furthering the Department of Commerce's goals of improving decision-making by government, industry, and citizens; growing the economy; and creating jobs. The CRADAs provide a cooperative research environment where the collaborators and NOAA can work together with the help of data alliances, representative ecosystems of value-added providers and data customers that are organized around each participating cloud provider and share an interest in the use of NOAA’s data. A previous blog: "NOAA’s Data Heads for the Clouds," describes the business model in greater detail.
Each of the CRADAs signed with the five anchor collaborators is identical. By working under the shared language of this CRADA, NOAA establishes a level playing field that both protects the public’s interest in the data, which is a public good created with tax dollars, and allows private sector competitors to work in parallel to reduce the technical barriers and cost of efficient access to NOAA’s vast data portfolio. A copy of the CRADA can be found here.
In its text, the CRADA creates a framework within which the collaborators can explore and test the technical, business, and operational challenges of expanding data access. The CRADA contains NOAA’s standard research agreement language, which forms the skeleton of this framework, as well as defining the specific goals of the collaboration and the guidelines within which NOAA and the collaborators can innovate to achieve these goals. The CRADA is designed to allow the collaborators, their data alliances, and NOAA to focus on harvesting the public and private benefits locked up in NOAA’s data, without unnecessarily limiting or predefining the solution space. NOAA shares the excitement of the open government data community about what might emerge from this research project.
Maia Hansen is a Presidential Innovation Fellows based at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and David McClure is a NOAA employee in the Office of the Chief Information Officer.
Blog by
Joey Hutcherson, TPM, PMP, CIPP/G
Deputy Director, Office of Privacy and Open Government
The national and economic security of the United States (U.S.) depends on the reliable functioning of critical infrastructure. To strengthen the resilience of this infrastructure, President Obama issued Executive Order 13636 (E.O.) – Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, dated February 12, 2013.
The E.O. directs federal departments and agencies to establish, expand, or prioritize a number of activities to improve cybersecurity for the U.S. critical infrastructure, including the development of a framework (the “Cybersecurity Framework”) to reduce cybersecurity risks to critical infrastructure and to assist organizations responsible for critical infrastructure services with managing cybersecurity risk.
Section 5 of the E.O. requires department and agency Senior Agency Officials for Privacy and Civil Liberties (SAOP/CL) to incorporate privacy and civil liberties protection into all activities performed under the E.O., and to conduct assessments of those activities based on Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs) and other applicable policies, principles and frameworks.
For the reporting period August 1, 2013 to September 30, 2014, the Department of Commerce’s (DOC) Chief Privacy Officer (CPO)/ Senior Agency Official for Privacy (SAOP) completed a privacy assessment examining the “Cybersecurity Framework” development activities performed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
The DOC CPO/SAOP submitted the DOC Assessment of Commerce activities under the E.O. to DHS to incorporate into the DHS E.O. 13636 P/CL Assessment Report.
On April 9, 2015, DHS published the DHS E.O. 13636 P/CL Assessment Report. The DOC assessment is Part V (page 122) of the 2015 report. The report can be found at http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/2015%20EO%2013636%20Assessment%20Report-FINAL04-10-2015.pdf.
The 2014 DHS E.O. 13636 P/CL Assessment Report can be found at http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/2014-privacy-and-civil-liberties-assessment-report.pdf. The DOC assessment is Part V (page 92) of the 2014 report.
Blog by
Joey Hutcherson, TPM, PMP, CIPP/G
Deputy
Director, Office of Privacy and Open Government
Department of Justice (DOJ) kicked off Sunshine Week with a celebration of FOIA Professionals on March 16, 2015. DOJ presented three awards to Department of Commerce (DOC) employees. One DOC FOIA Professional was recognized with a Lifetime Service Award and two DOC FOIA Professionals were recognized with an Outstanding Customer Service Award. The Lifetime Service Award was presented to Ms. Brenda Dolan. The Outstanding Customer Service Awards were presented to Ms. Roberta “Bobbie” Parsons and Ms. Harriette Boyd.
Ms. Dolan was recognized for 22 years
of distinguished civil service as a FOIA professional in the DOC. As the Departmental FOIA Officer, Ms. Dolan’s
contributions to ensuring efficient FOIA administration are exceptional and
remarkable. She ushered the Department’s FOIA processing capabilities into the
21st century by transitioning it from manual paper-based FOIA processing to a
FOIAonline. It provides an end-to-end workflow, electronic records, and
automated reports. She leads Departmental response to numerous voluminous
FOIAs, including some which produced over 30,000 responsive documents. Ms.
Dolan has exceptional professional competence and is cornerstone in the
Department’s administration of FOIA.
Ms. Roberta Parsons who is responsible for processing DOC Office of Secretary (OS) FOIA requests which are for the immediate OS. Ms. Parsons’ was recognized for outstanding customer service and her attention to detail which has enhanced the OS response to the requester community through clear explanation of the OS FOIA process and by improving the quality of the responsive documents. Ms. Parsons’ ability to assist requesters with modification of requests enables DOC personnel to locate responsive documents with a reasonable amount of effort, which often reduces associated fees. Ms. Parsons has enhanced the OS capabilities in responding to FOIA request significantly improving the requester experience.
Ms. Harriette Boyd provides outstanding customer services in the processing of requests received from the public. Her effective assigning/tasking and initiation of requests across the Department has reduced the timeframe required to respond effectively to each requestor. Her tenacity in managing, coordinating, and collaborating internally and externally enables the DOC personnel to locate the documents required to respond appropriately to requests. Her outstanding ability to narrow the scope of the request has often resulted in the reduction the fees to the requester. Ms. Boyd is the critical element in reducing the response time, and improving overall effectiveness in FOIA processing.
Department of Justice, Acting Associate Attorney General, Stuart F. Delrey and DOJ Director Office of Information Policy, Melanie Ann Pustay, presented the awards to DOC employees. On stage representing the Commerce senior management with the awardees were Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration, Mr. Fred Stephens, Commerce Chief Privacy Officer and Director of Open Government, Catrina Purvis and Deputy Director Office of Privacy and Open Government, Mr. Joey Hutcherson.
On January 18, 2011, in Executive Order 13563, the President directed each agency to review their "existing significant regulations, and consider how best to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome, and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal them in accordance with what has been learned."
In response to this directive, Commerce created and released a preliminary plan for review of its regulations on May 26, 2011. Commerce welcomed the public's comments and feedback on this preliminary plan through July 25, 2011. Commerce published the final version of its regulatory review plan on August 22, 2011, which incorporated responses to public comments and new information about recent accomplishments. Commerce in promoting transparency continues to publish routine status and updates. Commerce has updated the Retrospective Plan Progress Report Table based on progress review of the plan, new information and new developments. Today March 20, 2015, we are publishing our latest updates in the EO 13563, EO 13610 and the EO 13659 progress report.
Categories: Press Releases, America’s Data Agency, Commerce Data Advisory Council, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
News Media Contact:
Office of Public Affairs, 202-482-4883
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker today announced the members of the new Commerce Data Advisory Council (CDAC), who include 19 of the best and brightest private and public sector thought leaders on data management and dissemination in the United States. The Council will help guide the Commerce Department’s data revolution, which aims to foster innovation, help create jobs, and drive better decision-making throughout our economy and society.
“As ‘America’s Data Agency,’ we are working to unleash more of the Commerce Department’s data to strengthen our nation’s economic growth,” said Secretary Pritzker. “I am thrilled with the experts representing a diverse range of sectors from across the United States who have agreed to serve on our Data Advisory Council. Together, they will help us make our data easier to access and use, and maximize the return of data investments for entrepreneurs, government, businesses, communities and taxpayers.”
Click here for the list of Data Advisory Council members.
Commerce Department data inform decisions that help make government smarter, keep businesses more competitive and better inform citizens about their own communities – with the potential to guide up to $3.3 trillion in investments in the United States each year. The 19 members of the Commerce Data Advisory Council (CDAC) will provide Secretary Pritzker and the Department’s senior leadership with guidance on areas such as data management practices; common, open data standards; policy issues related to privacy, latency, and consistency; effective models for public-private partnership; external uses of Commerce data; and, methods to build new feedback loops between the Department and data users.
Members were chosen to ensure representation from the entire spectrum of Commerce data including demographic, economic, scientific, environmental, patent, and geospatial data. The leaders come from the information technology, NGO, non-profit, and academic communities, and from local governments—individuals who appreciate the range of data that the Department of Commerce distributes and the full lifecycle of data collection, compilation, analysis, and dissemination. They offer a balanced perspective and varied expertise to ensure meaningful dialogue and guidance on how the Commerce Department can realize its vision as America’s Data Agency.
The Data Advisory Council will be housed in the Commerce Department’s Economics and Statistics Administration, and members will serve two-year terms. To learn more about Data Advisory Council, visit: http://www.esa.doc.gov/content/commerce-data-advisory-council-cdac.
The International Trade Administration
(ITA) is the premier resource for American companies competing in the global marketplace.
With its mission to strengthen the competitiveness of U.S. industry, promote
U.S. exports and business investment in the United States, and ensure fair
trade through the rigorous enforcement of our trade laws and agreements, ITA is
continuously improving its outreach to stakeholders, clients, and the general
public.
ITA’s efforts to promote exports and business investment support President Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI)/NEXT, SelectUSA, and the nation’s sustained economic growth. The President’s Open Data Initiative is a critical element of ITA’s efforts to help U.S. companies compete and win in global markets. Providing actionable information to U.S. companies, foreign buyers of U.S. goods and services, and foreign investors in projects that create jobs in the United States is a key strategy within the Department of Commerce’s Strategic Plan.
During the past year, ITA has continued to increase the amount of trade-related data that is directly accessible to the public via the ITA Trade Developer Portal (TDP). The TDP is a collection of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow software developers to create web and mobile applications using information produced by ITA and other U.S. government trade promotion agencies. The data and information accessible here is targeted at helping U.S. small businesses export and expand their operations into global markets.
The TDP includes access to information about trade events, market research, locations of domestic and international export assistance centers, business opportunities, and interesting trade news and articles. In November 2014, ITA added to this list by launching its newest API, the Consolidated Screening List. The Consolidated Screening List consolidates nine export screening lists of the Departments of Commerce, State and the Treasury into a single data feed as an aid to industry in conducting electronic screens of potential parties to regulated transactions. ITA encourages developers to integrate trade data and information into their Web and mobile applications and business processes to help U.S. companies compete overseas while creating jobs at home.
During the next few months, ITA plans to: enhance APIs that focus on business opportunities; add new APIs, such as tariff information for goods and services covered under Free Trade Agreements, and frequent questions asked by exporters; continue outreach efforts to U.S. companies; and implement feedback from our customers.
In addition to growing the inventory of publicly available datasets through the TDP, ITA will also launch new tools that will enable users to generate reports detailing the size, challenges, and opportunities of specific export market segments by product type and/or country. These tools will make it much easier for potential exporters to quickly identify areas with best opportunities, by giving them access to market intelligence based on intimate knowledge of each market gleaned from ITA industry experts and ITA trade specialists in the United States and working on the ground in 75 countries around the world.
