A comprehensive data policy for the District of Columbia government. The data created and managed by the District government are valuable assets and are independent of the information systems in which the data reside.

The Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), within the District of Columbia (DC) government, manages the District’s data program. This includes open data, business intelligence, data curation, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The open data handbook explains the process and steps the OCTO data program undertakes when an agency submits an open dataset. More importantly, the handbook documents dataset rules, metadata requirements, and policies to make data consistent and standardized. This applies to any dataset submitted for publication on DC’s open data portal.

The Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), within the District of Columbia (DC) government, manages the District’s data program. This includes open data, data curation, data integration, data storage, data science, data application development and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The open data handbook explains the process and steps OCTO undertakes when an agency submits an open dataset for publication. The handbook outlines dataset rules, documentation requirements, and policies to make data consistent and standardized. This applies to any dataset submitted for publication on the Open Data DC portal that is classified as Level 0: Open as defined in the District’s Data Policy. For previous versions of the handbook visit https://opendata.dc.gov/pages/handbook.

Open Data Handbook Curation Detailed Diagram. DC’s data submission process involves four steps as depicted in this diagram. Overall, the data analysts guide the data owner and other analysts as needed to run the data through the submission process, with different groups leading each part (see all caps in diagram above). Their application occurs in a unified database infrastructure consisting of a data warehouse and geospatial database. While there are specific processes and guidelines for each database, they share an overall setting where consistency and standardization are promoted and supported for their individual data curation processes.

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