[Product] US Government Interest in Open Product Data

Thu Sep 26 11:34:46 UTC 2013

Dear Colleagues,

The Director of Smart Disclosure (Sophie Raseman) of the US government
recently reached out to Philippe (cc'd - founder of Product Open Data, POD)
and I (Open Knowledge Foundation Working Group Coordinator) and we had the
opportunity to speak with her about POD and this new working group. She was
very receptive and has offered to help us approach US regulatory agencies
about encouraging and support manufactures in releasing data.

The US government is fragmented and there are different agencies
responsible for different sectors but no single body with authority in the
product space. As such, we determined a sensible strategy going forward
would be to create a product matrix, dividing the product space by sector
and then proceeding as follows:

   - Determine Data Needs by Sector: Identify the data needed to empower
   customers in each sector (i.e. Food Sector you might need barcode,
   Nutritional Data, source/geographical data and packaging data whereas in
   the electronics sector you might only need barcode, supply chain and
   recycling data). Priorities data needs.
   - Match each sector to the relevant regulatory agency and existing
   legislation/regulations (i.e. Food and Drug Administration regulation on
   nutritional labelling)
   - Strategically Approach Agencies about Encouraging Open Product
   Data: Sophie will work with us on determining the best agencies to approach
   based the potential of high level political support and agency's
   receptiveness and support for open data

I wanted to send this out to the list and see what others think and also
see if people would interested in *participating in mapping out the product
space*? While it is not necessarily the case the regulatory environment is
as fragmented in other countries as it is in the US, I think that it would
be useful to *lay out some shared notions about what we are talking about
when we say open product data.*

Finally, and I do apologise for the length of this email, we will likely be
starting with the *food and health sector *in the US as there is strong
political will and existing regulations. I know that a number of you are
working on open food data and I would be interested in hearing from you
about the needs and challenges in this sector.

I look forward to working with all of you in growing this initiative and
please feel free to introduce yourself on the mailing list! Tell us who you
are, where you are, and what you want out of this group!

All the best,
Katelyn

-- 

Katelyn Rogers

Working Groups Community Manager  | katelyn.rogers at okfn.org
<https://twitter.com/joebloggs> |
Skype: katelynjrogers

The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>

Empowering through Open Knowledge

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