Erik Wilde Calls the Government's Recovery Data Standards a "Major Step Backwards"

OMB Memo: A High-Tech Step Backward?

Updated guidance on implementation of economic stimulus funds released by the Office of Management and Budget last week is a technological step backward, some Web experts are warning. Unlike the 62-page initial guidance document, OMB Director Peter Orszag's more detailed 175-page April 3 memo does not characterize e-mail-based reporting as an intermediary step nor does it require that Web feeds become the only way for information to flow from agencies, argues Erik Wilde, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Such a system would have helped advance the federal information architecture and assure that the same information sent to OMB from departments could also be consumed by the public, he said in a recent blog post....

"Feeds may not be prohibited by the new guidelines, but they certainly do not help at all to make feeds a reliable or robust source of information," Wilde wrote.

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