The second meeting of the Maryland Open Data Council was held Friday, October 3rd at the Governor’s Reception Room at Maryland’s State House in Annapolis. Topics ranged from whether it is still acceptable for local governments and municipalities to charge a fee for GIS data, streamlining state Public Information Act requests, to a lengthy discussion on Montgomery County’s Open Data portal.

Background
“It is the policy of the state that open data be machine readable and released to the public in ways that make the data easy to find, accessible, and usable, including through the use of open data portals.”

The Open Data Act (Maryland State Government Article, Chapter 69, § 10-1401 through 10-1404) established Maryland’s Council on Open Data in April 2014. The act established a council of state and local leaders that would provide recommendations to the legislature about the direction the state should head on matters of Open Data. For more information and a full copy of the law, read the official summary.

First Meeting
The first meeting of the council in August was a chance for members to get to know each other and hear what the vision of the council was from the councils main backer, Maryland Senator, Bill Ferguson. Senator Ferguson likened the open data initiative to the federal government’s disabling of selective availability of the Global Positioning System constellation and its impact on the personal technology market. Just as in that case, where government systems and data were cleared for the public’s free and mostly unencumbered use spawned a wave of technological innovation that we are still riding, the Senator hoped the continued move to put more of the state’s data into the public domain will encourage new innovation locally. Governor O’Malley continued the charge by saying, “Access to government data not only increases government efficiency and accountability, but it allows for the open sharing of ideas and solutions that can revolutionize the way in which we govern.” These ideals serve as guiding principles for the council. Click for a ranking of current open data policies from around the country.

Second Meeting
Friday’s meeting was the first in a series of technical meetings that should lead to some legislative recommendations before the end of this legislative session. The first topic may be of increased interest to the MSGIC community: a possible repeal of § 10-901 through 10-905 “Subtitle 9. Automated Mapping – Geographic Information Systems.” The state’s Department of Information Technology is proposing a full repeal of the aforementioned subsections that if approved may block governmental units from charging for GIS data.

At the meeting, there was generally positive support for such a measure. The law dates back to the 1990s when GIS systems were expensive and governments needed justification to purchase them. Today, GIS systems are lighter weight and are generally more cost effective for governments. When considering the administrative overhead to recover fees, many governments are finding that they save money by not charging any money at all. Mike Scott, Director of the Eastern Shore Regional GIS Cooperative (ESRGC) also pointed to the recent ruling in California where an organization sued a county over its GIS access fees on the basis that they should not be exempt from California’s equivalent to the Public Information Act. The California Supreme Court ruled in the organization’s favor, setting a precedent that extra fees for geospatial may be illegal. Mike suggested Maryland should repeal the law to get ahead of such a lawsuit here in Maryland.

The council seeks comments and any relevant numbers supporting or opposing this repeal.

Other Matters
StateStat intends to streamline the Public Information Act requests for Maryland by creating an online form to submit PIA requests. Some state agencies feared this might increase their workload by making it easier to send in multiple requests (the current system requires a written request). The council will create a subcommittee to further study the issue.

Montgomery County gave a presentation on its own OpenMontgomery program, whereby a process was set up to get agency data out on a public portal. The team was able to accomplish this feat by automating updates and proving the data necessary for inter-agency communications. The program is actually driving innovation within the county by steering information technology infrastructure purchasing toward systems that support automated updates.

Please visit the Maryland Open Data Council website for more information.