Public Information Request (PIR) Pilot

Sprint 2.2 Aug 2016 - Nov 2016

The purpose of this document is to describe a project facilitated by the City of Austin’s Open Data Initiative. It contains key contact information, the project scope and charter – which identifies the problem statement, key partners, documents, and success criteria – and links to working documents. Throughout the project, progress and final reports will be appended to provide a comprehensive account of the work and value delivered.

Team Contacts

Project coordinators:

Anne Whitlock - anne.whitlock@austintexas.gov

Project Scope and Charter

Problem Statement

About the problem:

The City of Austin Open Data Liaisons and staff who work with formal public information requests (PIRs) should connect the demand expressed in PIRs to the proactive disclosure of open data. However, the degrees to which the open data portal is currently and could potentially be utilized to satisfy public information requests (PIRs) is currently unknown. Furthermore, data from the PIR system to 1) describe trends, 2) uncover gaps and overlaps with the open data portal, and 3) help the open data team recommend effective and efficient provisioning is not accessible.

Why it matters:

The increased supply of proactively published government data and information on the open data portal should decrease the need for formal PIRs and the accompanying processes. This should reduce the considerable time and cost committed by the City, while improving the customer experience in terms of accessibility, transparency, and self-service.

The approach:

In order to determine the return on effort for this initiative, we plan to:

  • Understand the audiences (internal and external)
  • Identify current obstacles (internal and external)
  • Analyze current PIR data to prioritize proactive discloser

Success criteria

We’ll know this project has been successfully completed when we have:

  • Determined new data sets to publish to the open data portal in order to reduce PIRs
  • Determined current data sets on the open data portal to promote to and educate our audiences about in order to reduce PIRs
  • Define process, metrics, and guidelines for Departments to use to identify data sets that should be proactively disclosed and promoted on the open data portal.

Deliverables

  • Release findings of this pilot, including recommended data sets for publication and/or promotion on the open data portal.
  • Publish process, metrics, and guidelines for Departments to use to identify data sets that should be proactively disclosed and promoted on the open data portal.

Key users/customers

  • Law Department
  • Department PIR SPOC
  • Open Data Liaisons
  • Open government and transparency advocates
  • People wanting access to government information

Key dates

  • August 16, 2016: Sprint Kickoff
  • September 30, 2016: Mid Sprint Progress Report
  • November 21, 2016: End of Sprint Summary Report

Progress Reports

Sep 30, 2016

What’ve done since Aug, 16: - - -

What we’re going to do between now and the project end: - - -

End of Project Report

[end of project report template coming soon]