DOINews: ONRR: DOI-GSA Collaboration Key to Innovative EITI Data Portal

DOI's Office of Natural Resources Revenue worked closely with the GSA's 18F Program to develop an innovative data portal to become a compliant country in the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Among those who were instrumental in developing the data portal are, from left, Michelle Hertzfeld, innovation specialist with GSA's 18F Program and a former Presidential Innovation Fellow; Judith Wilson, project lead, USEITI Secretariat; Chris Mentasti, USEITI program analyst; and Jon Swedin, ONRR program analyst.

Above is a screenshot of the new data portal that allows users to view how the government receives revenues from energy production on federal lands. The interactive pilot data portal is part of the U.S. implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a global, voluntary partnership to strengthen the accountability of natural resource revenue reporting and build public trust for the governance of these vital activities. The data portal can be accessed via: https://usesiti.doi.gov/.

The new data portal currently displays revenue data from the DOI's Office of Natural Resources Revenue. The above screen shot also allows users to see where energy revenues received by the federal government are disbursed to various federal and state accounts. The interactive data portal can be accessed via the web at https://useiti.doi.gov/.

The new pilot data portal went live during the Dec. 11, 2014, meeting of the USEITI Multi-Stakeholder Group held in Washington, D.C. The Multi-Stakeholder Group, which oversees U.S. implementation of the global EITI effort, comprises representatives from government, industry and civil society. Above, the Multi-Stakeholder Group views a demonstration of the new interactive data portal.

When the United States began the effort to become a compliant country in the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, leadership at the Department of the Interior and DOI's Office of Natural Resources Revenue realized the magnitude of the task at hand.

Understanding that part of the challenge would be finding inventive ways to share complicated data with the general public, they took advantage of a new White House initiative: the Presidential Innovation Fellow program.

Through this program, DOI hired Michelle Hertzfeld to a one-year rotation. Hertzfeld's background included data sharing, front-end web development, and user interface design. That experience uniquely qualified her to visually tell the story of DOI's natural resource revenue data.

During her time at ONRR as a Fellow, Hertzfeld spent her days learning about the EITI initiative, the natural resource sectors, and DOI's many datasets. She created several mockups to show different ways in which DOI's revenue story could be told to a variety of users.

Through collaboration with DOI executives, managers and subject matter experts, along with stakeholders throughout government, the natural resource industry, and civil society, these mockups became more robust. By the end of Hertzfeld's PIF rotation, she had become an invaluable member of the EITI team, and DOI kept her involved in the ongoing process through GSA's 18F program.

18F focuses on the interaction between government and the people and the businesses it serves, and their motto is “we make easy things easy; and hard things possible.” Hertzfeld and her 18F team immediately started working to transform her mockups into a fully functional, interactive data portal that would tell the story of DOI's natural resource revenue data and help satisfy requirements of the United States' EITI candidacy application.

The 18F team worked closely with Judy Wilson, Chris Mentasti and Jon Swedin, who work at ONRR, to ensure the data portal was accurate and that DOI's data was properly represented.

As part of this process, the ONRR team and 18F identified “user personas” that described the types of people who would eventually use the portal, and they reached out to people that fit each of these personas. This user feedback was crucial to designing a data portal that would satisfy the needs of a wide audience.

In addition, the team used agile development methods to create the site. In this process, requirements and solutions evolve throughout the development cycle. This promotes continuous improvement, learning, and flexible response to change. During two-week “sprints,” the development team made requested changes to the portal, and then convened with stakeholders to review improvements and gather input for the next sprint.

After countless hours of planning, collaboration, and development, the data portal successfully went live on Dec. 11, 2014, and feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

The 18F and DOI team aren't resting after their accomplishments; instead they're jumping back into the agile development process to prepare the data portal for an expanded role in 2015. While the portal currently contains natural resource revenue data from ONRR, there are plans to include similar revenue data from the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. Eventually, the portal will be a one-stop shop for all natural resources revenue data managed by DOI.

DOI and 18F are encouraging people to use the site and provide feedback and suggestions for improvement. Please check it out: https://useiti.doi.gov/.

By: Jon Swedin, program analyst, ONRR
Jan. 14, 2015

Related Links:

DOI Office of Natural Resources Revenue
DOI News Release on EITI Data Portal