dataMontgomery

Data Publishing Technical Standards

Datasets provided by County Department POCs will be prioritized for publishing jointly between the department head and the CAO in accordance with the criteria already provided as a part of the Open Data Policy.  The Open Data Policy can be view online at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/TEBS/Resources/Files/dataMontgomeryDataPublishingTechnicalStandards.pdf,   See below for a couple of important excerpts.

2.0 Data Principles

The guiding data principles for the dataMontgomery initiative are:
  • Complete - All public data is made available. Public data is data that is not subject to valid privacy, security, or privilege limitations.
  • Timely - Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data.
  • Non-discriminatory - Data is available to anyone, with no requirement of registration.
  • License-free – Data is not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark, or trade secret regulation. Reasonable privacy, security, and privilege restrictions may be allowed.
  • Primary – Data is as collected at the source, with the highest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms.
  • Accessible – Data is presented in a meaningful way.
  • Machine Processable – Data can be processed.
  • Non-proprietary – Data is available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control.

3.1.3 Upload Process

There are two methods for upload with one being manual and the other being automated. In either case, TEBS will work with the Using Department to do the actual upload.

A key point with either process is the creation of a design document. The design document will document the transform that must take place mapping the internal County data to the Socrata format. The purpose of the design document is to define a repeatable process that will take the data to the Socrata platform.

The automated process involves using the TEBS Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). The ESB has the ability to take input from a number of data sources with some examples being spreadsheets, email, web services, files and databases. The ESB has a rich transform capability and can take most structured data and transform it into an acceptable input for Socrata. More detailed information on the ESB capabilities can be found in the document Montgomery County Government Enterprise Architecture Technical Architecture [4] in the Service Enabled Domain.