DHS Open Government Plan

Yesterday Secretary Napolitano announced the publication of the Department’s Draft Open Government Plan (DOGP), in both a press release and in a post on the DHS blog. Both can be found on the DHS web site. Reader’s of this blog will know that I have been pretty complimentary of how the Office of Infrastructure Protection runs the various web sites that impact on chemical security matters. Having said that (on numerous occasions) I am more than a little disappointed in how much that office has apparently been ignored in the DOGP. First I understand why there may not be ‘Data Sets’ (para 2.4) available from this office; too much of the information collected here is classified or restricted access. I would like to see some generic tabulated data on CFATS participation; things like number of initial Top Screens, SVA and SSPs. Data could be made available on the types of industries reporting and things of that sort without compromising any SSI or CVI information. I was very surprised not to see an NPPD or IP Reading Room (para 3.1.4) discussed in the DOGP nor can I find one on the net. If there were one constructed I would like to see it contain copies of unclassified reports from DHS to Congress on the status of rules and regulations required by legislation. I was also upset to see a complete lack of information about this DOGP on the Open Homeland Security Share Your Ideas web page. This was where we commented last month on what we (the public) wanted to see included in the DOGP. In fact that site still says “Check here on April 7 to comment on the draft plan”. It now seems that comments will not be accepted until April 30th through May 10th (para 3.2.1). Unfortunately, there is nothing on the Share Your Ideas page that reflects that; very confusing. All is not negative; I like the plan going forward for increasing the reply rate and reduce the reply time for Freedom of Information Act requests (para 3.1.6). If the 10% annual reduction in outstanding requests is achieved it will be a significant step forward in providing additional transparency in the Department’s operations. Editing Problem With so many comments about Web 2.0 and utilizing the internet to communicate with the public, I was very disturbed to see the DHS Open Government Plan utilize a web link convention (blue print and underlined) when referring to other parts of the document, but not providing actual links. This is a turn-off to serious netizens and must be more than a little confusing to the general public.

Oh well, enough of these comments for now, I’ll save the rest for April 30th and the start of the official comment period. Everyone interested in homeland security issues should read the DOGP. It is a good first effort.