34.5. Making Data More Accessible

After assessing gaps in what it offered online, in 2009 Utah introduced a groundbreaking new portal. Like others before it, the new portal introduced many new concepts and services into the pattern for how Utah does business online. Following the lead from Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, Utah was the first state government to create a state data portal with the goal of enhancing access to state-provided data. The data portal provides an aggregation point for users to access the data they are looking for.

There are links directly to XML, XLS, RSS, and other types of portable data as well as to sites that provide query capabilities to offer user-defined data sets and information. The intent of providing data on Data.utah.gov is to make it easier for users both in and out of government to purpose the data in productive ways that benefit the Utah economy as well as government itself. Many in Utah government support the effort to become a knowledge-driven, real-time enterprise. To reach this potential, Utah must be able to connect to its citizens and businesses, not only through social media channels but also semantically, through dynamic, real-time, data-driven connections. If government provides reliable, real-time data, third parties in government and in the private sector can provide new added value in all kinds of ways. The state created a Twitter account as a way to provide updates about the site and new data as it became available. After introducing the new site, the state began receiving calls from around the country about how to go about setting up a similar service, and the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) set up a working group to identify potential best practices and standards that it could share with its members. Initially, this group wanted to focus on concepts such as governance structures while Utah kept insisting on the need to keep things simple and “just do whatever you can.” Government tends to quickly rise to the level of bureaucracy when implementing projects that are viewed as enterprise in nature or as having a significant impact.