Budget

Are you a data evangelist?

Agency issues RFI looking for the right person from the public or private sector. The position includes outreach to user communities and identifying new technol...

Federal News Network Staff

August 18, 2010 3:11 pm

2 min read

By Jason Miller
Executive Editor
Federal News Radio

Are you a data evangelist? Do you believe openness and transparency are among the greatest benefits of the Internet revolution?

If so, then the General Services Administration has a job for you.

GSA issued a request for information Aug. 13 looking for a person from a government agency, academia, non-profit or commercial firm to work on data sharing, the semantic Web and Data.gov.

“They will work daily with the Data.gov team and become known for providing expertise in the area of evangelizing knowledge dissemination and the development and use of Data.gov, gaining a greater involvement of agencies to expose high value datasets and the involvement of other stakeholders such as the open government community and the mash-up programmer communities,” the RFI states.

“The Data.gov team is in need of an additional resource person to work with agencies and others to produce high value data sets and make them available in a way that is very usable for the public use developers.”

The RFI details four capabilities this person must have:

Extensive outreach and communications skills to bring excitement to the program;
Extensive experience in designing and implementing open government systems;
A proven research record for identifying and developing new technologies;
Managing a complex data environment, including classified data.

“The role requires unique ability to use rigorous research methods and apply those to developing and implementing some of the largest open government systems in the world,” the RFI states.

“Their extensive work with multiple parts of the government brings an understanding of the multitude of policy issues inherent in the release of information key to Data.gov’s current focus.”

The candidate also must have access to multiple people and organizations, and have experience leading outreach efforts to educate the public about specific data issues.

“The role will be providing expertise in the area of knowledge dissemination and evangelizing the development and use of Data.gov gaining a greater involvement of agencies and other stakeholders such as the open government community and the mash-up programmer communities,” the RFI states.

“The person will create excitement and drive around the program. This will allow practical field application of leading edge technology issues with a very important stakeholder.”

GSA wants candidates to submit three pages describing their experiences by Aug. 20.