Develop a Machine Readable Government Organizational Chart (US0075)

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The United States Government Manual, published by the National Archives, has provided access to agency
organizational information and charts since the 1940s. To facilitate access to government agencies, the General
Services Administration will work with the National Archives’ Office of the Federal Register to capture agencies’
organizational directories as machine-readable raw data in a consistent format across the U.S. Federal
government. Documentation for this format will be made available so that other government bodies, including
local governments, can also publish their office names, organizational structure, and contact information as
standardized open data. Making this data public and consistently available across the Federal government will
help the public to find the offices and officials that serve them in a simple and straightforward manner.

For details of these commitments, see the report: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/united-states-mid-term-report-2015-2017/

Commitment 23. Develop a Machine-Readable Government Organizational Chart

Commitment Text:

The United States Government Manual, published by the National Archives, has provided access to agency organizational information and charts since the 1940s. To facilitate access to government agencies, the General Services Administration will work with the National Archives’ Office of the Federal Register to capture agencies’ organizational directories as machine-readable raw data in a consistent format across the U.S. Federal government. Documentation for this format will be made available so that other government bodies, including local governments, can also publish their office names, organizational structure, and contact information as standardized open data. Making this data public and consistently available across the Federal government will help the public to find the offices and officials that serve them in a simple and straightforward manner.

Responsible Institutions: General Services Administration, National Archives and Records Administration

Supporting Institutions: Office of Management and Budget, Office of Personnel Management

Start Date: Not Specified ....... End Date: Not Specified

Commitment Aim

This commitment aimed to develop a machine-readable government organizational chart. The chart would describe agencies’ organizational directories (including their office names, organizational structures, and contact information) in a standardized manner across the entire federal government. The commitment also aimed to publish documentation so that other government agencies (such as local governments) can develop similar charts based on existing federal standards.

Status

Midterm: Limited

The government had made limited progress on this commitment at the midterm. In its self-assessment report, the government noted that it was “gathering existing directory data and merging it into a consolidated dataset of directory information.” [344] The IRM researcher was nevertheless unable to corroborate this progress using publicly available information.

End of term: Limited

Based on publicly available information, there is no evidence that the government has made progress on this commitment from July 2016 onward. Completion for this commitment, therefore, remains limited.

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Did Not Change

This commitment did not open government with respect to access to information, due to its limited completion at the end of term.

Carried Forward?

At the time of writing, the US government had not published its fourth national action plan, so it is unclear if this commitment will be carried forward. The government should nevertheless aim to produce the machine-readable organizational chart specified in the commitment. As part of these efforts, the government could specify the means through which the public can directly contact government agencies, to help create more opportunities for public engagement.

[344] United States of America, Midterm Self-Assessment Report for the Open Government Partnership: Third Open Government National Action Plan, 2015-2017, September 2016, 25, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/USA_NAP3_self-assessment-report_20160916.pdf, consulted 1 October 2017.