Notes from the 5/30 OpenGov Interagency Working Group Meeting
Honey, Kristen T. EOP/OMB
Many thanks for those who joined us at GSA yesterday for the 5/30 OpenGov Interagency Working Group Meeting. Your feedback and input are extremely helpful and instrumental as we, together, co-create Open Government successes and the U.S. National Action Plan (NAP) 4.0.
Extra thanks to Alycia Piazza at GSA for these meeting notes (see below) and our GSA hosts/organizers, as well as yesterday’s presenters (presentations attached):
· Will Sullivan, GSA on e-Regulations
· Andre Goodfriend and the State Department VSFS Team on the Virtual Student Foreign Service (VSFS) opportunities open to all Federal agencies.
NOTE TO FEDERAL AGENCIES: (optional) APPLICATIONS for VSFS are DUE by June 10, 2017.
One additional announcement: Our next USG Open Data quarterly meeting with stakeholders will be on Tuesday, June 20th, 11:00am – 12:00pm, at GSA headquarters. Please mark your calendars. More details to come.
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OpenGov Interagency Working Group Meeting – 5/30
Introductions, including White House updates on Open Gov (10 min)
· This is our quarterly stakeholder meeting – open to govt. and non-govt.
Welcome to all the civil society partners that are in attendance. Please feel free to invite others who may wish to join. Anyone can subscribe to the public mailing list: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/opengovtech/dnyjc6-v41Q
· ~2 weeks ago – U.S. govt. shared the 4 month expansion plan –
We are taking advantage of the expanded timeline and submitting the NAP in October. We've also submitted an assessment of how we’ve done in the last few months. To complete the NAP 4 and NAP 3 self-assessment over the next several months, the White House OMB OFCIO and GSA have formed a core team to execute with success.
· May 9 – first submission deadline for agencies to report their annual federal spending in a standardized way on USASpending.gov. The lawmakers called on Treasury and OMB to address five outstanding GAO recommendations – one from January 2016, three from July 2016 and another from April 2017. Feedback is welcome.
o The recommendations call for OMB and Treasury to provide agencies with additional guidance to handle data-quality issues, to establish a set of policies that follow best practices for developing and maintaining data standards and to create a federal program inventory of DATA Act purposes and requirements.
o The recommendations also direct OMB and Treasury to develop processes to determine the complete population of agencies required to report spending data and to measure agencies’ compliance with oversight reviews and DATA Act requirements.
o The lawmakers requested an update from OMB and Treasury by May 22 that details progress in implementing GAO’s recommendations.
· Language in National Action Plan 3 is similar to the DATA Act.
- Government will work on a way to collaborate with civil society on the NAP commitments. Kristen will look into a way to form some of the current ways we submit commenting, for example, analogous to public comments on eRegulations or policy.cio.gov. Should those prove infeasible, Google docs is an option. Feedback and other ideas welcome.
- Kristen will also set up virtual meetings/calls for public feedback and input to co-create the NAP 4. Details TBD -- likely approximately every month, between now and October 2017 when the NAP 4 is to be published. Details to come over the public listserv.
· Contact Kristen at kristen...@omb.eop.gov or kho...@omb.eop.gov with any questions or concerns.
Will Sullivan, GSA 18F on e-Regulations
- discussed the NAP commitment to Expand Public Participation in the Development of Regulations.
By leveraging the Regulations.gov website, application programming interfaces, and the Federal Docket Management System, the the team is developing and piloting applications to make commenting on proposed rulemakings easier and will find ways to promote commenting opportunities. Please see Eregs.github.io
· e-Regulations has been made easier to navigate, features include:
o Sections being broken out;
o List of definitions;
o Changes overtime; and more.
· There is a 30-60 day notice and comment period for when there are new/proposed changes to a regulation.
o This allows the public to engage in conversation with the agency prior to the regulation being finalized.
· To learn more, go to eregs.github.io
· Currently working with OMB on policy documents.
- Please see attached slides or contact Will Sullivan for more information.
Questions:
· Once you get the comments, I see you can sort them, how long can you retain them?
o They are held indefinitely
· Is there a backup process?
o No, due to the risk of PII being tampered with
· How will this system complement/relate to regulations.gov?
o Using the same data, different user experience - a 2.0 sort of experience, as we do not have the means to replace regulations.gov
· If errors are identified, can they be corrected in a timely manner?
o Yes, errors will be picked up and agencies can be contacted to have those errors corrected
Andre Goodfriend and the VSFS Team, U.S. Department of State
- on the Virtual Student Foreign Service (VSFS) applications open to all Federal agencies – (optional) APPLICATIONS DUE: June 10, 2017
Could you use extra help? Feeling the effects of budget constraints and hiring freezes? The Virtual Student Foreign/Federal Service (VSFS) is the solution. For the past seven years, U.S. college students have remotely assisted 30+ Federal agencies at no cost through a digital internship. Don’t miss out!
Submit a project (or two) on vsfs.state.gov between May 1 and June 10. Then sit back and get ready for a new wave of energy and enthusiasm coming your way. Students apply in July, interviews are in August, you make your selection by August 31, and work begins in September and continues through April/May. Students spend ten hours per week working remotely on the unclassified projects – no badge or desk needed.
New to VSFS? Check out our FAQs. VSFS is open to all federal agencies!
· The VSFS program allows college students to work on projects that advance the work of government on a variety of fronts. Projects include, but are not limited to helping counter violent extremism, strengthening human rights monitoring, developing virtual programs, etc.
· Each year, federal employees submit project requests and students apply to three VSFS projects - this year’s deadline to submit projects is June 10.
· This effort started off at the State Dept. – today, anyone with a .gov or .mil email can submit a project.
· Many students aren’t able to come to Washington for an internship – VSFS has an 8 month virtual internship.
· 35 agencies involved to this day!
· No cost to any agencies to participate – students are with you between September, April and May.
· About 150 projects submitted to date.
Q&A discussion with everyone (20 min)
· Would folks here in Civil Society be open to more frequent touch points?
o Yes
· International action plan:
o Is there a working group on the open contracting group to Open Gov?
§ Will look into it and follow up (Alycia Yozzi, GSA is looking into this)
o Is there is a system you suggest we use to comment on the National Action Plan?
- Kristen Honey will follow up with this group.
Additional Action items:
· Next meeting will follow up with White House on Open Data and Data Driven Support for local communities.
· NEW -- Please mark your calendars: USG Open Data quarterly meeting with stakeholders now scheduled for Tuesday, June 20, 11:00am – 12:00pm, at GSA headquarters. Details to come through the public mailing list: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/opengovtech/dnyjc6-v41Q
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Additional information from VSFS:
Colleagues,
Could
you use a few extra hours of help? Feeling the effects of budgetary and hiring constraints? Beep, beep – make way for the Virtual Student Foreign Service (VSFS)! For the past seven years, U.S. college students have assisted dozens of federal agencies at
no cost through a digital, remote internship.
From data visualization to graphics creation, online content, usability testing, reports, app development, research, design, blogging, accessibility, and other aspects of your job, VSFS is the answer. Submit a project (or two, or three) on vsfs.state.gov between May 1 and June 10. Then sit back and get ready for a new wave of energy and enthusiasm coming your way!
Students apply in July, you interview and select in August, and work begins in September and continues through April/May. Students spend ten hours per week working remotely on your projects – no badge or desk or clearance needed. Last year, 4,000 students applied to 750 positions and we expect more interest this year.
The website is easier than ever to use and project submission is now a breeze. Login (or register if you are a new user) with your .gov or .mil email address at vsfs.state.gov, and add your project. You can also see (and search) all of the current and previous year projects on the site – get inspired!
Hop on,
Team VSFS (Bridget Roddy, Nora Dempsey & Asha Beh)
Office of eDiplomacy | Information Resource Management | U.S. Department of State
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Questions about U.S. Open Government or Open Data? Please feel free to contact:
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Kristen Honey, PhD, PMP
Senior Policy Analyst
Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer
Office of Management and Budget
Executive Office of the President