Governor O'Malley Attends First Council on Open Data Meeting, Highlights Efforts to Share Data and Drive State Agency Performance

Press Release

Governor O'Malley today participated in the inaugural Council on Open Data meeting in Baltimore. The 37-member council -- led by the Deputy Secretary of DoIT, Greg Urban and Vice-chaired by the Director of StateStat, Matt Power -- brings together cabinet secretaries, entrepreneurs, experts and business owners from across Maryland to increase the public's access to government information and data resources.

Earlier this month, the Center for Data Innovation placed Maryland in a six-way tie for 1st place for the State's commitment to open data and government transparency. Maryland tied with Hawaii, Illinois, New York, Oklahoma and Utah.

"Access to government data not only increases government efficiency and accountability, but it allows for the open sharing of ideas and solutions that can revolutionize the way in which we govern," said Governor O'Malley. "Today's meeting builds on our Administration's efforts to increase transparency and make Maryland more open and more accountable to residents, businesses and advocates."

During the meeting, the Governor led a presentation on Maryland's Open Data Portal and a demonstration of the State's iMap data mapping capabilities. The group also discussed the overall charge of the group and strategies for achieving them. Governor O'Malley signed Maryland's Open Data Law (SB 644) into law earlier this year. The new law requires the state to make much of its public information machine-readable and searchable. Some of the specific goals for the council include: designing and conducting a statewide data inventory; agreeing on minimum metadata standards and geo-aggregate standards; reviewing data mapping practices; establishing a statewide standard disclaimer and acknowledgement requirement.

The law further establishes the State's efforts to improve open data and codifies two previous Executive Orders issued by Governor O'Malley. Created for the purposes of increasing the public access to data, the Council will encourage all branches of state and local government to use state open data portals and create ones of their own and adopt policies consistent with Maryland's Open Data policy.

Under the new law, the Council must report to the Maryland Legislature on its activities and make legislative recommendations on open data by Jan. 10 of each year.

Since 2007, the O'Malley-Brown Administration's has worked to improve state government management and performance. Governor O'Malley established a state-level version of the nationally-recognized CitiStat program called StateStat. The coordinating office identifies and tracks state agency activities, and measures their performance against the Administration's 16 strategic goals. StateStat began in 2007 with a few select public safety and human services agencies. Today, StateStat "stats" 13 individual agencies each month and hosts a number of cross-agency stats, such as the award-winning BayStat, Re-Entry Stat, Student Stat, VetStat and ClimateStat.

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