Open Government, Social Media,
and Information Policy:
Constraints and Barriers
John Carlo Bertot <jbertot@umd.edu>
Professor and Director
Center for Library & Information Innovation
College of Information Studies
University of Maryland
Introduction

Information Policy

Set of policies, guidelines, laws, regulations that govern
information access, dissemination, and management










Privacy
Security
Procurement
Preservation
Availability
Oversight
Intellectual property
Information quality
Equity of access
Range of instruments




Laws
Memos
Executive Orders
Administrative Code
Introduction

Range of agencies/branches of government









Executive
Congress
Judiciary
OMB
GSA
NIST
GPO
NARA
Often contradictory, conflicting, and barriers

Particularly in the case of new and emerging
technologies


Privacy/cookies
Participation
Key Issues

Technologies, particularly social media
technologies, are evolving and developing at
a fast pace



And their implementations are unpredictable
Information policy is slow to develop and
evolve
Information policies are technology
independent and non-discriminatory
Some Examples

Equity of Access (Circular A-130, Section 8)

Agencies are required to


Provide members of the public who do not have Internet
connectivity with timely and equitable access to
information, for example, by providing hard copies of
reports and forms
Ensure access to content

Using social media technologies as an exclusive channel for
information distribution would prevent users without Internet
and computing access
 Economically disadvantaged, persons with disabilities,
rural communities that may lack access to broadband
technologies
Some Examples

Equity of Access

Section 508, Rehabilitation Act


Requires that electronic and information
technologies purchased, maintained, or used by
the Federal Government meet certain
accessibility standards
Agencies employing non-Federal services are
also required to ensure that persons with
disabilities have equivalent access to the
information on these third party sites as
required in Section 508
Some Examples

Limited English Proficiency (Executive Order
13166)

Requires that agencies provide appropriate access
to persons with limited English proficiency:



Encompasses all “federally conducted programs and
activities,” Anything an Agency does, including using
social media technologies to communicate and
collaborate with citizens, falls under the reach of the
mandate
Agencies must determine how much information they
need to provide in other languages based on an
assessment of customer needs
Social media technologies are not different than any
other technology used by the Federal government
Some Examples

Archiving and Records Management (A130, NARA Web Technologies Guidance)


Regardless of media, the regulations that
govern proper management and archival of
records still apply
Agencies need to determine the most
appropriate methods to capture and retain
records on both government servers and
technologies hosted on non-Federal hosts
Some Examples

Persistent cookies (OMB Memo M-03-22)

Federal websites prohibited from using
persistent cookies and other web tracking
methods


Unless their use has been approved by an Agency
head or designated Agency sub-head, for a
compelling need
When approved in this fashion, Agencies must post
clear notice of the




Nature of the information collected in the cookies,
Purpose and use of the information
Whether or not and to whom the information will be
disclosed
Privacy safeguards applied to the information collected
Fixes

Primarily operational


OMB Memorandum on Social Media, WebBased Interactive Technologies, and the
Paperwork Reduction Act
Indicates that PRA requirements do not
apply to “unstructured solicitations”

Such as those published in the Federal Register
or through social media Web sites, blogs,
media sharing sites, or online message boards
that are hosted on a .gov domain or by a third
party
Fixes

Primarily operational

Procurement and contracting – GSA


Permits the use of third party social media sites
such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
Cookies

Working groups looking at this
Concluding Comments


Need to develop more awareness and
strategies
There is a need to comprehensively review
and harmonize federal information policies




Technical fixes, yes, but…
Look across all areas to create a
comprehensive review and set of
recommended changes
Technology independent guidelines
Need to (re)develop information policy
expertise and champions