STATUS REPORT
Agencies will likewise continue their collaboration with outside parties to develop new uses for government data. For example, DOT, EPA, and HUD will work with good-government groups, technologists, and citizens in late 2011 to host a "code-a-thon" designed to look for new practical uses for agency data related to creating more sustainable and livable communities. This effort will convene good-government groups, data mining experts, and the agencies to do concentrated work over a short period of time to create new practical uses of raw data that DOT, EPA, and HUD have made available.
Other agencies will also continue to collaborate with outside parties to find new practical uses of government data. For instance, HHS will build on the substantial progress it has made in connection with its Open Health Data, a flagship initiative of HHS's Open Government Plan, by working with the private sector to develop new uses of raw government health data that promote public health in tangible ways. For another example, EPA recently initiated a major new challenge to data entrepreneurs to develop innovative environmental applications of EPA data.
Updating Federal Web Policy
In part as a result of agencies' open government efforts, agency websites have become a primary if not dominant means by which the public gets government information. It is therefore crucial for government web sites to provide information in an easy to access and usable manner. The current policy governing federal agency websites, OMB Memorandum, M-05-04, "Policies for Federal Agency Websites," was issued in 2004. To take into account recent advances in technology and the way the public uses the internet, OMB will be reviewing and updating this policy over the next year.
Classification, Declassification, and Controlled Information
Agencies will also continue to implement Executive Order 13526 by reviewing, standardizing, and tightening their classification standards, overseen by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)'s Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO). Pursuant to the Order, agencies with original classification authority will complete comprehensive reviews of their efforts by June 2012. In the interim, agencies will issue status reports on their progress, as prescribed by ISOO, in late summer 2011 and early 2012. At the same time, the National Declassification Center will continue to oversee the declassification of hundreds of millions of pages of classified government documents. NARA will also oversee agency implementation of Executive Order 13556, limiting agency use of non-classified restrictions on government documents. As prescribed by Executive Order 13556, agencies will focus on streamlining categories of such restrictions, and submit proposed categories to NARA, ultimately leading to a public registry of standardized government markings. All of these efforts will require sustained efforts by NARA, ISOO, the National Declassification Center, and not least of all agencies themselves over the next several years.
Greater Public Participation in Rulemaking and Retrospective Review
Agencies will promote transparency, participation, and collaboration in still other ways as well, for one example by continuing to promote greater public participation during the agency rulemaking process and the retrospective review of those rules. On January 18, 2011, President Obama issued Executive Order 13563, reaffirming the framework for White House review of
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