Delaware Governor Issues Open Data Executive Order

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The Governor of Delaware Jack Markell has issued a new executive order focused on open data policy. In the order, the governor establishes the Delaware Open Data Council which will be responsible for crafting open data policy and recommendations to be given to the state’s Department of Technology and Information.

The Council shall be made up of members from most major state agencies including Delaware’s Chief Information Officer. Spots will also be open to appointees from the governor’s office.

State agencies will have 120 days from today to craft a list of open data sets and submit them to the Council and the governor. These data sets will then be included in a forthcoming open data portal. It appears from the language in the order that the governor has done his homework despite being somewhat late to the game – data is to be rendered in an open source and machine readable format.

Offices not included within the scope of the report are also strongly encouraged to identify their own contributions to the open data portal.

The order closes with a hint at timeline – Delaware expects to release an open data progress report by the end of July 2016, with a full strategic plan expected by the end of September 2016.

The full text of the executive order is available here.