Home Events What Can Be Done to Protect Endangered Government Data?

What Can Be Done to Protect Endangered Government Data?

by Joshua New

The federal government has made significant strides towards making vast amounts of government data freely available to the public, and businesses, researchers, civil society groups, journalists, and many others have put open data to good use. However, recent events suggest that some open government data may be at risk. For example, in February 2017, the Department of Agriculture abruptly blocked public access to an animal abuse database used by businesses across the country; in March 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would no longer ask questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to National Survey on Older Americans Act participants, sacrificing a valueable opportunity to collect data about pressing intersectional social issues; and in October 2017, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released its annual report on crime statistics with 70 percent fewer data tables than the prior year’s report.

As part of Endangered Data Week, the Center for Data Innovation will host a panel discussion about the risks to open government data, especially in agencies that are underfunded and understaffed, and what can be done to protect this data in the years to come.

Date and Time:

  • Tuesday, February 27, 2018, from 9:00 to 10:30 AM.

Location:

  • Center for Data Innovation, 1101 K St NW, Suite 610, Washington, DC, 20005

Speakers:

  • Gavin Baker, Assistant Director, American Library Association
  • Daniel Castro, Director, Center for Data Innovation
  • Paul Farber, Managing Director of the Penn Program in the Environmental Humanities
  • Patricia Kim, Co-Founder, Data Refuge
  • Denice Ross, Public Interest Technology Fellow, New America
  • John Thompson, Executive Director, Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics (COPAFS)

The event will be live-streamed on this page. Please return to this page on the day of the event. Follow the conversation on Twitter using #datainnovation.

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