A number of state agencies are not updating complete information to datasets uploaded to the state’s open data portal.
According to a dataset on open data reported by agencies, which was updated on the Connecticut Open Data Portal on August 9, three agencies—the Department of Mental Health and Addiction, the Department of Aging and Disability Services, and the Department of Agriculture—currently have no datasets on the platform.
The portal was created in 2014 through an executive order issued by former governor Dannel Malloy with the recognition that “timely and consistent publication of public information and data is an essential component of an open and effective government.”
The executive order directed executive branch agencies to propose initial data sets to submit to the portal within 90 days of it going into effect. Each agency’s data officer is also required to work with the portal’s chief data officer to identify additional data sets for publication.
Of the 35 agencies that submit data to the portal, which includes executive branch agencies, the legislature, the University of Connecticut, and a category for “other agencies,” 24 of them have submitted nine or fewer datasets.
The Department of Public Health (DPH) has the most datasets on the platform, at 97.
Nine agencies, including the Department of Agriculture (DOA), the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), and the Office of State Ethics (OSE) have one dataset on the portal.
Of those nine agencies, only six have datasets that are completely up to date. The remaining three—the DOA, the DMV, and the OSE—have not updated the sole database hosted on the portal.
Twelve agencies, including the Office of the Secretary of State, the Department of Corrections, and the Connecticut General Assembly, have datasets that are 100 percent up to date. Of those agencies, only one has more than 6 datasets on the portal—the category for “other agencies,” which has 24 datasets.
Four agencies, including the OSA, the DOA, and the Department of Aging and Disability Services, are missing information on the frequency with which they are updated from all of their datasets. 16 agencies have this data in all their datasets on the portal.
Other categories missing from datasets by various agencies include tags, categories, and descriptions. Of these, no agency is missing categories from 100 percent of their databases. The Office of Higher Education, which is missing categories in 80 percent of its databases, is the highest ranked. Only five agencies are missing categories from their uploaded datasets.
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