Data advocates and health-care officials converged in downtown Sacramento, Calif., this week to discuss the latest open data initiatives and public health projects at the third annual Health and Human Services Open Datafest. The two-day event, held March 16-17, was led by the social impact organization Stewards of Change. It highlighted, among other announcements, updates on the nation’s progress to put agency expenditures online through the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act). Since the law’s passage in 2014, the Treasury Department and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have undertaken the weighty task of standardizing how agencies report spending data. Damon Davis, director of HHS’ Open Data Initiative, said the work has united agencies as they add the data into the beta site for USAspending.gov.
Other news included updates on California’s work to pilot a statewide open data portal, San Francisco’s use of open data for decision-making, and the work of Waste Not OC, which uses data to redistribute excess food in Orange County to residents in need. If the event follows like last year, footage and updates from the sessions will soon be available on the Stewards of Change website.
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