U.S. OPEN DATA ACTION PLAN

May 9, 2014
U.S. OPEN DATA ACTION PLAN

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Licensing

As a work of the United States Government, this document is in the public domain within the United 

States. Additionally, the United States Government waives copyright and related rights in this work 

worldwide through the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
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Introduction

Throughout his Administration, President Obama has articulated a vision of the U.S. Government 

managing information as a national asset and opening up its data, where possible, as a public good 

to advance government efficiency, improve accountability, and fuel private sector innovation, 

scientific discovery, and economic growth. Putting government data online and making it easy to 

find and use—while continuing to rigorously protect privacy—can help American families find the 

right health care provider, identify the college that provides the best value for their money, keep 

their families safe by knowing which products have been recalled, and much more. 

On June 18, 2013, President Obama and other G7 leaders endorsed the Open Data Charter. The 

Open Data Charter sets out five strategic principles:

 Open Data by Default – foster expectations that government data be published openly while 

continuing to safeguard privacy;

 Quality and Quantity – release quality, timely and well-described open data;

 Useable by All – release as much data in as many open formats as possible;

 Releasing Data for Improved Governance – share expertise and be transparent about data collection, 

standards and publishing processes; and

 Releasing Data for Innovation – consult with users and empower future generations of innovators.

The U.S. Government continues to make significant progress ensuring government data is more 

available and useable to the public. Government data is structured information that is created, 

collected, processed, disseminated, or disposed of by or for the Federal government. Examples of 

progress include:

 President Obama’s Executive Order in May 2013 to make machine-readable and open the new

default for government information;

 An Open Data Policy memorandum to Federal agencies directing management of information as an 

asset;

 Project Open Data, a White House initiative designed to share best practices, examples, and code to 

assist agencies with opening data;

 The second U.S. Open Government National Action Plan, published December 2013 which outlines 

select upcoming open data commitments; and

 Additional, useful data sets being published on Data.gov, as well as the release of open source 

software code for Data.gov.
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Building upon these efforts, and as set forth in the Open Data Charter, the U.S. Government is 

releasing this U.S. Open Data Action Plan which outlines new commitments as well as plans for 

enhancements and releases of certain data assets across the categories set forth by the Charter.

Commitments

The United States commits to the following actions in concert with the Open Data Charter and its 

principles:

1. Publish open data in a discoverable, machine-readable, useful way

Data.gov serves as a national catalog for open data sets—the public can find everything from data 

about consumer complaints about private student loans from the Federal Consumer Financial 

Protection Bureau to 911 service-area boundaries from the state of Arkansas. In January 2014,

Data.gov was relaunched using open-source software, having been developed in the open with the 

help of community contributors.

The public can also get information about open government data from each Federal agency. Many 

Federal agencies are developing websites at [department].gov/data to better explain the data assets 

they create, manage and publish. All executive branch agencies are now required to develop a 

machine-readable catalog of their public data at [department].gov/data.json, such as 

www.treasury.gov/data.json, allowing simple software tools to automatically get updated information 

about the latest data available and have access to the same information that Data.gov collects and 

publishes.

Even when government data assets are technically public and available online, there can still be 

barriers to using and understanding them. The U.S. Government will improve the way it describes 

and publishes data sets by better focusing on user needs. Specific actions include:

 The General Services Administration (GSA) Data.gov team will conduct regular usability tests to

observe whether users are able to easily complete the most important tasks on the site and prioritize 

enhancements accordingly;

 All Federal Agencies will now have access to free, regular training on user research and usability 

studies from the GSA; and
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 GSA will launch an Application Programming Interface (API) usability training program to support 

Federal employees in user research to inform when and if an API—used to connect data or services 

to other digital tools—is appropriate, and how to optimize API documentation and features.

2. Work with the public and civil society organizations to prioritize 

open data sets for release

New data sets will be prioritized for release based on public feedback. To make that feedback loop 

possible, each agency will use online feedback mechanisms such as an email address or an online 

platform to solicit input. The public can give feedback and browse listed data sets that could 

potentially be made open but are not yet publicly available for download at [department].gov/data. 

Publishing a list of public data sets that include data that could be made public lets civil society, 

entrepreneurs, researchers, and the general public more easily connect with the Federal government 

employee responsible for a particular data set and explain why its release should be prioritized. 

3. Support innovators and improve open data based on feedback 

The U.S. Government will make it simpler for entrepreneurs and innovators to find, understand, and 

use open government data to develop new products, services, and companies.

There is more than $3 trillion of potential additional economic benefit from open data worldwide, 

according to a recent McKinsey report. Entrepreneurs and innovators are constantly working on new 

and interesting ways to use the public, free resource of open government data. New York 

University’s GovLab conducted a study of 500 companies and organizations that are fueled by open 

data, and is now hosting a series of Open Data Roundtables to bring companies and government 

data owners together. Specific, actionable feedback from these sessions and others has the potential 

to improve descriptions, formats, and accessibility of government data.

Further engagement will include:

 Holding online and in-person customer feedback and engagement mechanisms, including data jams 

(workshops) and datapaloozas (high-profile summits);

 Offering shared services and open-source tools to share and improve open data, such as Data.gov’s 

open-source platform that includes WordPress for content management and CKAN for cataloging 

data, which are made available for improvement and re-use;
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 Facilitating sector-specific feedback sessions with open data users and stakeholders; and

 Launching well-designed incentive prizes and challenges to use open government data in pursuit of 

policy goals.

4. Continue to release and enhance high-priority data sets

In carrying out the President’s Executive Order to make open and machine-readable the new default

for government information, and following the Open Data Policy memorandum to Federal agencies 

about managing information as an asset, Federal agencies are regularly releasing and enhancing 

data sets.

To help with this task, the U.S. Government will recruit a third round of Presidential Innovation 

Fellows to work on a series of Data Innovation projects. Presidential Innovation Fellows are 

entrepreneurs, developers, designers, and other innovators typically from the private sector who join 

government agencies for six to 12-month fellowships and work closely with the office of the U.S. 

Chief Technology Officer. Presidential Innovation Fellows will further scale the Administration’s data

innovation initiatives in climate change, health, energy, education, finance, and public safety. These 

projects include both open data initiatives and “My Data” initiatives. “My Data” initiatives, such as the 

Blue Button (for healthcare) and Green Button (for energy usage), are designed to give Americans 

secure electronic access to their own personal data.

Each of the following projects will be led by a Presidential Innovation Fellow:

 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is working to make its vast weather, 

climate, and Earth observation data holdings more easily available and usable in the cloud to 

unleash the full potential of these resources, spur economic growth, and help entrepreneurs 

launch businesses.

 The Census Bureau collects and produces a wealth of geospatial, demographic, and 

economic data resources, and is seeking to make its maps and geospatial information more 

easy to access and use.

 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration works to make its Earth observation data 

open and machine-readable, and is expanding its climate data to be easily findable, 

machine-readable, and usable by innovators developing new climate-resilience and climatepreparedness tools.
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 The U.S. Department of the Interior is working to make a wide variety of newly catalogued 

government data easy for entrepreneurs and innovators to discover and use, including data 

about tourism and recreation opportunities on the Nation’s public lands and waters.

 The U.S. Department of Labor, in support of the President’s Skills and Training Data Initiative 

and Safety Data Initiative, is working to make its skills and safety information data resources 

more open, machine-readable, and useful for third parties and innovators.

 The Internal Revenue Service is introducing many new digital services for taxpayers, including 

making it easier to securely access their own tax account, make mobile payments, check their 

refund status, or conduct other transactions. The Agency continues to work with its many 

third-party stakeholders to deliver better services in support of tax administration.

 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with the U.S. 

Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Centers for 

Medicare & Medicaid Services, is leading the public-private Blue Button Initiative to expand 

consumer access to electronic health information. Blue Button empowers consumers with 

secure access to their own healthcare information—such as medical records, prescription 

information, medical claims, and lab data—so they can choose to share it with health care 

providers, caregivers, and others they trust.

 The U.S. Department of Energy is working to accelerate the commercialization of National 

Laboratory-generated technologies, in part by making information about those technologies 

easier to find and use.

Selected Examples of Data Releases 

The United States already publishes a number of data sets in the categories set forth by the Open 

Data Charter (see more on Data.gov). The data sets below are selected examples of expansions, 

enhancements, and releases.
Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Companies Consumer 

Financial 

Complaints

Public

Domain

API, CSV, 

XML

The data currently includes complaint details 

about private student loans, mortgages, credit 

cards, debt collection, bank accounts and 

services, credit reporting, money transfers, and 

other consumer loans. The type of data about 

each complaint includes, among other things 

company name to length of response time and 

result. The upcoming enhancement will include 

new types of complaints and new fields.

August 

2014

Companies Dynamic Small 

Business Search

Public 

Domain

API The government's small business data base 

(Dynamic Small Business Search) will be 

revamped by:

 Improving accessibility to the data, and

 Making the data available for third parties 

through an API.

The improvements are designed to enable third 

parties to create, for example, tools to give more 

context about contractors and suppliers so that 

companies can more easily locate qualified U.S. 

suppliers for their manufacturing facilities, 

ultimately reducing the transaction costs for firms 

working to source products and manufacture in 

the United States.

January 

2015
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Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Crime and 

Justice

Grants Program 

Plan

Public 

Domain

API This action focuses on releasing an API of 

forecasted fiscal year funding opportunities from 

the Office of Justice Programs in the Department 

of Justice. Data available will include funding 

opportunity title and description, program 

type/area, awarding office, expected release 

quarter, actual release date, applicant eligibility 

type, awarding agency point of contact, amount 

available, and average award amount.

December 

2014

Crime and 

Justice

Department of 

Justice Developer 

Hub

Bulk, API The Department of Justice will release a 

developer hub with bulk and API access to data, 

as appropriate.

December 

2014

Earth 

Observation

International 

Surface Hourly 

Data

Public 

Domain

FTP, .txt, 

ASCII

This data includes hourly reports on parameters 

such as wind speed and direction, wind gust, 

temperature, dew point, cloud data, sea level 

pressure, altimeter setting, station pressure, 

present weather, visibility, precipitation amounts 

for various periods, snow depth as observed by 

each of 20,000 stations worldwide.

Ongoing
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Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Earth 

Observation

Hurricane Satellite Public 

Domain

KML, 

netCDF

Improvements made to the collection of visible 

and infrared images collected by U.S. and 

international satellites. This will be useful for 

estimation of hurricane intensity and rates of 

intensification; applications for insurance, and 

construction industries. Improvements included:

 Better data connections to compare and 

connect data sets, and

 More combined data to provide additional 

context.

January 

2014

Earth 

Observation

Landsat Surface 

Temperature

Public 

domain

GeoTiff, 

XML 

metadata 

files

This effort will result in a release of surface 

temperature data from Landsat 8 operational 

thermal infrared sensor, which is used in energy 

models to monitor water use for irrigated lands. 

December 

2014

Education National Center 

for Education 

Statistics’ 

Common Core of 

Data and 

Integrated 

Postsecondary 

Education Data 

Systems

Public 

Domain

API This data set will be released via API. November 

2014
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Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Education Smithsonian 

Cooper-Hewitt 

National Design 

Museum 

Collection

CC0 Open The Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design 

Museum Collection plans to make all digitized 

collections metadata public domain, and digitized 

collection images without copyright or other 

restriction publicly available at the highest 

available resolution for non-commercial, 

educational use.

December 

2014

Education Smithsonian Freer 

Gallery of Art and 

Arthur M. Sackler 

Gallery Collections

CC0 Open The Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur 

M. Sackler Gallery plans to make all digitized 

collections metadata public domain, and digitized 

collection images without copyright or other 

restriction publicly available at the highest 

available resolution for non-commercial, 

educational use.

December 

2014
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Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Education Smithsonian 

American Art 

Museum 

Collection API

CC0 Open After a successful limited release of an API of the 

Smithsonian American Art Museum collection 

and hackathon that resulted in a number of 

working prototypes, the Smithsonian American 

Art Museum is planning a staged release, from 

open metadata, like artist or medium, to an open 

API of digitized collections images without 

copyright or other restriction available for noncommercial, educational use.

December 

2014

Energy and 

Environment

Long-term Energy 

Projections from 

EIA’s Annual 

Energy Outlook

Public 

Domain

API, CSV The U.S. Energy Information Administration 

released this data set via API and bulk files.

March 

2014

Energy and 

Environment

OpenFEMA 

initiative

Open OpenFEMA will regularly release new disasterrelated data in a machine-readable format and 

host workshops to build tools that support first 

responders, survivors, and impacted 

communities.

Initiative is 

Live
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Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Energy and 

Environment

Recreation on 

Public Lands 

Information

This effort will result in a release of data about 

campsites and other recreational opportunities 

on public land.

March 

2014 

Energy and 

Environment

Watershed 

Assessment, 

Tracking, & 

Environmental 

Results System

Public 

Domain

Open This data set will be expanded to include 

information about national hydrography.

January 

2014

Energy and 

Environment

Buildings 

Performance 

Database

Public 

Domain

Open Enhancements include a data table tool that 

allows users to generate and export statistical 

data about groups of buildings by type and 

region, a financial forecasting tool that forecasts 

cash flows for energy efficiency projects and an 

API that allows external software to conduct 

analyses of the data.

January 

2014

Finance and 

Contacts

Natural Resource 

Revenues

Improve usability and documentation of data on 

revenues from natural resource extraction from 

public lands.

April 2014 

Geospatial Wind Turbine 

Details and 

Mapping

Public 

Domain

Open This data will be released as map with an API. March 

2014 
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Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Geospatial CropScape Public 

Domain

GeoTIFF, 

htm and 

.xml, wms, 

wfs, wcs, 

GET, 

POST, 

and 

SOAP.

Released new map layers including river, lake, 

and road layers at national and regional level to 

the geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover 

data.

January 

2014

Geospatial Hurricane Katrina 

Sampling and 

Monitoring

Public Open Released geospatial data about the impact of 

natural disaster Hurricane Katrina.

January 

2014 

Global 

Development

Global Food 

Security

Public 

Domain

XLS The underlying data model will be released, as 

part of the Global Open Data on Agriculture and 

Nutrition, an initiative established to increase the 

quality, quantity, and timeliness of available data 

to support agriculture and nutrition efforts in 

food security. By releasing the model, researchers 

will be able to evaluate the assumptions made in 

analyzing the data set and to also draw their own 

conclusions through changes in these 

assumptions. 

Summer 

2014
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Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Global 

Development

Famine Early 

Warning Systems 

Network

CC0 Open Will be released for bulk download. January

2015

Global 

Development

Foreign 

Assistance 

Dashboard

Open U.S. Government agencies that provide Foreign 

Assistance funds (Development Aid) regularly 

add data about those activities.

Quarterly 

Updates

Government 

Accountability 

and 

Democracy

Federal Employee 

Human Resources 

Data

Public 

Domain

Text Will securely share data about employment status 

through web services to verify employees and 

review dynamic HR data to determine data sets 

that can made publicly available consistent with 

privacy protections.

September 

2014

Government 

Accountability 

and 

Democracy

Federal Employee 

Payroll Data

Public 

Domain

Text Will implement architecture, data quality, and 

usability improvements.

December 

2014

Government 

Accountability 

and 

Democracy

Federal Employee 

Training Data

Public 

Domain

Text Will implement architecture, data quality, and 

usability improvements and add acquisition 

training data.

September 

2014

Government 

Accountability 

and 

Democracy

Federal Employee 

Retirement Data 

Repository

Public 

Domain

XML Will begin production data feeds from Federal 

payroll centers, and integrate data with other 

personnel systems.

December 

2014
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Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Health Adverse Event 

Reporting System

CC0 RESTful 

API, XML 

Download

Previously only available through limited 

quarterly reports and FOIA requests, these 3.9 

million individual reports of drug adverse events 

and medication error reports are submitted 

anonymously by healthcare professionals and 

consumers will be made available in their entirety 

via API and bulk download. They are a critical

tool to support safety surveillance.

June 2014

Health Product Recalls Public 

Domain

RESTful 

API, XML

The Food and Drug Administration will release a 

RESTful API and XML of the public product recall 

data and add data not currently accessible from 

existing resources, such as product identifiers and 

geographic details.

August 

2014

Health National 

Notifiable Disease 

Surveillance 

System

Public 

Domain

API, CSV, 

XML, 

JSON, 

REST, 

SOAP

Notifiable disease data will incorporate

Tuberculosis data as well as combining weekly 

data into more accessible data sets with static 

URLs.

April 2014

Health Structured 

Product Labels 

Public 

Domain

RESTful 

API, XML 

Download 

Will be released for the first time and made 

available via API. With Structured Product Label 

data, for example, you could make tools to more 

easily identify which specific products have been 

affected by a recall.

Summer 

2014
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Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Health The National 

Health Interview 

Survey

Public 

Domain

ASCII This data set, which covers health status and 

conditions, disability, access to and use of health 

services, health insurance coverage, 

immunizations, risk factors, and health-related 

behaviors will be expanded to include a 

representative sample of Native Hawaiian and 

Pacific Islanders (NHPI). Having a representative 

sample makes it possible to understand NHPI 

health problems, strengths, and needs

Summer 

2015

Health Medicare 

Reimbursements 

Public 

Domain

CSV, XLS, 

JSON

Historically, a permanent injunction, issued in 

1979, prohibited the government from disclosing 

annual Medicare reimbursements paid to 

individual physicians under Medicare. In May 

2013 this injunction was lifted. As a result, this 

data set was the first time CMS publicly released 

information about how physicians and other 

health care professionals in the Medicare 

program are paid.

April 2014
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Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Health National Sample 

Survey of Nurse 

Practitioners

Public 

Domain

SAS and 

ASCII

For the first time, this anonymous survey data will 

be available on nurse practitioner practice 

patterns including: specialties, services offered, 

billing arrangements, relationships with 

physicians, impact of legal restrictions on 

practice, and job satisfaction.

Spring 

2014

Science and 

Research

Interactive 

Chemical Safety 

for Sustainability 

Dashboard

Public 

Domain

Open This dashboard was released in beta. December 

2013
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Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Science and 

Research

Lab Data 

Clearinghouses

Several Federal labs have adopted common data 

standards and host a central repository for 

scientific data in a given field, taking into account 

the need to separate proprietary data from 

public data. Clearinghouses such as the Secure 

Transportation Data Project and the Buildings 

Performance Database address these challenges 

by aggregating proprietary data into nonproprietary data clusters and stripping personally 

identifiable information and proprietary 

information from data points to make some of 

this data available to the public. By the end of 

2015, additional clearinghouses will be formed 

and will help enable research and business use 

while protecting personal information and nonpublic proprietary commercial data.

March 

2015

Statistics Energy 

Production and 

Consumption for 

the United States

CC0 Open These historical (50 years to present) U.S. energy 

production and consumption statistics will be 

released via API and bulk files.

June 2014
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Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Statistics The Longitudinal 

EmployerHousehold 

Dynamics

Public 

Domain

Open This longitudinal database of linked employeremployee microdata covers more than 95 

percent of U.S. private-sector jobs. Today, access 

to certain microdata is only granted to qualified 

researchers on approved projects and at 

restricted sites. This database will expand 

segments of data to be available online for public 

use while continuing to protect privacy.

September 

2014

Statistics U.S. Coal Statistics CC0 Open This data about coal production, mining, imports, 

exports, and shipments to electricity plants will be 

released via API and bulk files.

March 

2014

Social Mobility 

and Welfare

Courses and 

Curriculum 

Developed 

Through the 

Trade Adjustment 

Assistance 

Community 

College and 

Career Training 

Grant Program

CC BY API This data about education and career training 

programs that can be completed in two years or 

less, and prepare program participants for 

employment in high-wage, high-skill occupations,

will be available to the public on an open, online 

open educational resources repository.

June 2014
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Data Category Example Data Set License Format Further Activity or Enhancement To Be 

Completed 

By: 

Social Mobility 

and Welfare

Agricultural 

Census

Public 

Domain

QuickStats 

API, XLS 

The full agricultural census data set will be 

released, which can help the public evaluate 

changes to the American agricultural sector and 

food production over time.

May 2014

Transport and 

Infrastructure

Alternative Fuel 

Station Locator 

and 

Downloadable 

Data

CC0 Open Will be updated based on feedback received at 

data summits.

September 

2014

Transport and 

Infrastructure

Travel Warnings 

and Travel Alerts

Public 

Domain

API U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular 

Affairs will release a new API to share travel 

warnings and alerts.

Fall 2014