“Benjamin Franklin once wrote that nothing
can be said to be certain 'except death and taxes.' If Ben were still around,
he might now say: 'except death, taxes, and inconsistent
federal data standards.'’
Kathleen Tighe, Chair of the Recovery Board and Inspector General at the Department of Education notes that the issue of data standards in federal government was first raised in 1965, and revisited in 1974. “Nothing much has happened in the intervening years, however,” she says. “It’s about time to do something.”
She makes the argument that data standards “would permit data sharing among agencies, save lots of money, and vastly improve the quality of information, including details on how the government spends your money.” In its four years of existence, the need for consistent data standards is the most important thing the Recovery Board has learned. If gas stations can have standard nozzles, and diamonds are assessed by the same criteria all over the world, and even baseballs are manufactured to strict standards, government can surely do better.
Tighe's
recommended starting point for data standards in government is a universal
award ID for all contracts, grants and loans. This would be seem to be an
essential part of government accountability. We need a campaign! Recovery Blog
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