Open Data Policy passed through state Senate

A statewide Open Data Policy is one step closer to being a reality.

Both the House and Senate versions of a bill calling for more uniformity in and regular disclosures of state data have passed through their respective chambers. If voted into law, the policy will be “first formalized step towards an open data regime,” as state Sen. Bill Ferguson, who introduced the Open Data Policy, told Technical.ly Baltimore in January.
Listen to testimony in favor of the policy by open data advocates.
According to a spokeswoman from Ferguson’s office, one of the bills needs to still make it out of the opposite chamber in the General Assembly.  “If there are amendments that make the two slightly different, they will be sent into conference committee, which is made up of members of both the house and the senate to find a compromise between the two bills,” she said via e-mail.
The bill was cross-listed in the House by Delegate Kumar Barve, the House chair of the Joint Committee on Transparency and Open Data.