A Mobility Lab visualization with data from U.S. DOT on bicycle accidents and fatalities in Washington D.C.
Open data integrated at all levels of public transportation presents major opportunities to expand education and ridership.
Daniel Morgan was named the U.S. Department of Transportation‘s first chief data officer in July.
He brought with him years of experience in advocating for open-data policies with the Open Forum Foundation and previously collaborated with DOT on open data while he was with PhaseOne Consulting.
You could say he literally wrote the book on open government. In conjunction with the Open Forum Foundation, he authored The 20 Basics of Open Government. He’ll be attending TransportationCamp DC on January 10, so I sat down with him to chat about his new job and why he’s so excited about data.
Amy Eagleburger: What first drew you to the intersection of data and transportation?
Daniel Morgan
Daniel Morgan: Early on in my career, I had the opportunity to work on supply chain issues, running the gamut from total asset visibility, shipment planning, freight-carrier negotiations, and distribution-network optimization. All of these scenarios are data-intensive and, at times, interesting optimization problems. I had a lot of fun working on those issues and solving my clients’ problems.
AE: What do you find to be the biggest challenge in using this data – is it collection, analysis, or getting policymakers to believe the analysis?
DM: Collecting data has become almost too easy, so the real challenge is in the analysis of the data and the presentation of the results. Analysis and presentation need to be considered hand-in-hand, since the purpose of any analysis is to support a decision – whether in real-time operations or in a policymaking context.
AE: You’re six months in to your tenure as U.S. DOT’s first chief data officer. What are your biggest successes so far?
DM: I am very excited by the progress we have made to build an inventory of all the Department’s data sets, which anyone can find at www.dot.gov/data. We have identified almost 1,500 data sets inside the Department, which is a great start. The first year is focused on building a strong foundation – getting our policies and practices down, and getting buy-in for how we’ll approach the data problem from an enterprise perspective.
AE: At Mobility Lab, we’ve profiled a lot of companies that crowdsource data or promote DYI data collection. How useful is this to policymakers? Is the crowdsourced data enough or is a more systematic study always necessary to confirm findings?
DM: There is a role for crowdsourced data in policymaking, but I don’t think we are yet in a place where it can completely supplant more traditional data sources like systematic studies. We’re starting to see the potential as people experiment with a mix of both, but I think there are still important research questions to ask – for instance, compensating for selection bias in a crowdsourced data set is very important.
AE: With more than 200 sign-ups so far, TransportationCamp DC 2015 is shaping up to be bigger than ever. What topics are you looking forward to exploring with the group? Any off-the-wall ideas you’d like participants to tackle?
DM: I had the privilege of attending the first-ever TransportationCamp in New York, and it’s amazing to see how the event has grown and spread across the country! I am really interested in exploring how we can expand the conversation about open data in transportation, and how we can work together to advance innovative uses of that data.