Analysis of Ten Most Wanted Submissions |
On June 28, 1999, CDT and OMB Watch put out a call to the public requesting their suggestions of categories of unclassified government information that would be valuable to the public if posted and regularly updated on an agency's Web site. The call went to Internet activists, reporters, researchers, librarians, government employees, and ordinary citizens through Internet mailing lists and "Wanted!" posters on the World Wide Web.
By August 1, over 196 responses (individual emails) were received yielding a list of 280 requests (documents sought). Since individuals were able to submit responses anonymously, it is impossible to give an exact breakdown of the requestors (individuals making requests). However, we can determine that the requests came from a wide range of sources, including: 46 from the research community, 30 from government employees, 23 from librarians and library organizations, 22 from students, 13 from reporters and 27 from people that simply identified themselves as citizens.
As would be expected from such a general call and such a high response rate, the requests were extremely varied. However, the requests generally fell into six categories:
Since each of these categories is of potential interest to both policymakers and the public, we have a qualitative analysis of each.
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In our initial call for requests, we mentioned Congressional Research Service as an example of documents that we believe should be available. While some may say that this biased the number of requests for CRS reports, we believe that it would have been the most wanted category of documents, regardless, for a couple of reasons: Requestors were passionate about getting this information — We received requests for CRS information from seven researchers and four librarians. Some mentioned specific CRS documents that they were trying to track down or that would be generally beneficial to their community. We received requests from three government employees, including at least one Capitol Hill staffer who said: "Every citizen should have the same access to CRS material as I do." Legislation has been introduced on this issue — Senator McCain (R-AZ), along with co-sponsors Senators Leahy (D-VT), Lott (R-MS), Abraham (R-MI), Robb (R-VA), Enzi (R-WY), Lincoln (D-AR), Feingold (D-WI), and Sessions (R-AL) introduced the Congressional Openness Act (S. 393), which would make CRS documents available online. This bill has increased public attention to the issues of access to congressional information and access to government information in general. Representative Shays (R-CT) and Representative Price (D-NC) have a similar bill in the House (HR 654). |
Selecting the "Ten Most Wanted" from the 164 entries was difficult. Early on, we decided not to make the list a simple popularity contest. The majority of candidates were documents and databases that were mentioned by only one respondent, but we did not take this to mean that other individuals would not want access to the same information, for a few important reasons:
Our "Ten Most Wanted" list reflects additional considerations:
Contact was made with all of the agencies that held documents considered for inlcusion in the final "Ten Most Wanted" list. The agencies were given the opportunity to show that the information was already available online; to give an explanation of why the information was not online; or to convince us that this information would not be a good candidate.
Numbers of Requests
Frequency of Requests
Of the 165 Ten Most Wanted Candidates:
Agencies requested
The 165 Ten Most Wanted candidates identified 30 different agencies. Here is a listing with the number of requests next to the agency name:
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The remaining requests were for documents across several agencies or for data sets still under investigation at the time this report was published.
In some cases, we did not indicate a missing document set on the Ten Most Wanted list because the agency seemed to have dissemination plans for the future. For example, while the maps of the US Geological Survey (USGS) were some of the most frequently requested documents, the agency was able to show that it has a plan for making this information available. Included in this plan, USGS has outlined ways to address some of the cost issues in innovative ways as they integrate the vast amount of the agency’s information online. While this does not fully answer all of the concerns about USGS, it evidences an understanding that the information needs to be publicly available online. We will continue to monitor their progress.
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In an era of major budget cuts, cost was the issue most often cited by the agencies and government officials in explaining their failure to create Web sites or post certain sets of information. In some cases, this may be a valid concern and it was taken into account in selecting the final ten. Yet, sometimes exactly the opposite is true: putting information online will save the government money. Of the agencies on the "Ten Most Wanted" list that mentioned cost as an issue, only CRS had a public estimate of how much it would cost taxpayers. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) did a preliminary cost estimate confirming CRS’ claims and estimated the cost from between that ranged from $1.8 to $7.1 million. However, our subsequent inquiries and reports from the Government Accounting Office (GAO), the Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) prove that many of the basic assumptions in the CBO’s report are unfounded. The CBO began with the assumptions that:
The experience of the GAO, an agency that also creates reports at the request of Members of Congress, would lead to a completely different set of conclusions. GAO began putting up all of its reports in October 1994 through GPO Access and in 1996 decided that it would be cost effective to begin providing the reports on a GAO Web site directly to the public. Despite the fact that citizens can order the first printed copy of GAO products for free directly online, the actual number of copies that GAO has printed has gone down from 1.2 million a year to 800,000 a year. Meanwhile 150,000 to 200,000 copies of every report are being downloaded online. Although this number does not represent the total number of people looking at each report, since some people download the same report more than once, there are obviously more people seeing these reports than ever before. GAO sources also say that the agency has seen no increase in requests from Congress to create reports and no increase in phone calls from the public about the reports. This also does not take into account the more difficult to gauge savings that Congressional offices are experiencing now because constituents can browse through GAO reports including the staff research time saved. While there may have been some initial start-up costs to put the data on a GAO Web site, there is no question that GAO has saved taxpayers money over the long term by putting all reports online. GPO has documented similar savings. GPO’s 1997 Report to Congress has a section titled "GPO Access Benefits and Savings from Dissemination of Electronic Information," which found that: The dissemination of electronic information through GPO Access has provided both tangible and intangible benefits, as well as real cost savings for the GPO. While it is not possible to calculate these benefits and savings for all of our products, CBDNet presents an example of this trend. CBDNet has provided cost savings both to the public and throughout the Government. When the Commerce Business Daily was distributed only in paper, it cost $2.2 million a year, and distribution was limited to those individuals who could afford a subscription. Prior to CBDNet, agencies paid $18 per notice submitted to CBD. Now agencies who submit notices electronically are only charged $5 per notice. It is estimated that this electronic submission option is saving the Government, on average, over $130,000 per month, or over $1.5 million per year. These financial savings and the many other benefits mentioned previously have made CBDNet a huge success. GPO sources have also told us that demand for paper products has diminished as the information has gone online. GPO‘s1999 report to Congress is expected to provide even more details of the cost savings agencies can reap by providing the public electronic access. The IRS has also documented a fall in the demand for paper products as their downloads of forms has increased from less then 4 million in 1996 to over 63 million this year. This translates into direct savings since, by the agency’s figures, it costs about $3 to mail an IRS paper product and less than a penny to provide it online. For agencies concerned about potential short-term costs, GPO Access is willing to place agencies' information online. In fact, GPO sees online services as central to its public mission. They provide server space, Web design, database work, and more. The price would be lower than the short-term costs associated with an agency putting information online in house with the added benefits of permanent public access. While this option does not give agencies all of the long-term benefits, it does offer a solution in times of difficult budget cuts and it ensures the public's right to know will not be undercut. |
Requests for General Openness
We received 31 requests for greater government openness and increased access to information online. These requests fell into two specific categories:
Suggestions on how to make agencies more accountable — Several respondents shared specific thoughts on how to get more information online. For example:
"Every agency that has data should create their own Top 10 variables and post them as a time series going back at least 20 years in an easily accessible place on their website."
and
"a master online, searchable, bibliographies, (including at least one publication number) of: all studies, publications, reports, and other 'work products'. that was produced inhouse or outsourced (grant, contract, inter-agency agreement, and/or cooperative agreement)."
"As a government documents librarian at a small public college in the poorest state in the nation, I can tell you that there are thousands of essential government documents that are not available on the web. I am checking available links against the SuDocs List of Classes to evaluate our collection and finding that there is little consistency in site maps, publications lists, and other tools for finding what is available from agency to agency even within the same executive department..."
and
"I think anything that is supposed to be public information should be available online. I fail to understand how some information, though supposedly public, can be restricted and available only by going through one's representative. This is compliance?"
The fact that 31 people wrote in without a specific document in mind emphasizes the overarching public concern with the lack of access to government information.
Information Already Available Online
State and Local Information
We limited the "Ten Most Wanted" list to federal government documents. However, we received 11 requests for state information. Requests ranged from "county and city budgets" to aerial maps of certain locations.
Classified and Other Miscellaneous Requests
Many requests were for historical documents that have piqued the nation’s curiosity, for example, John F. Kennedy assassination records and investigations into possible alien landings in the U.S. Most of the non-classified records in these subject areas are available online.
Another large percentage of requests were for large collections that do not currently exist, for example,
Other requests raised various concerns. For example, one request suggested that military service records should be put online. These records are in many different locations, would be expensive to data process, and could cause significant privacy concerns among the nation’s veterans.