The Pennsylvania Governor’s executive order on open data, data management, and data governance, first issued in 2017 and amended in 2019, states that data shall be shared internally and externally, whenever possible unless restricted by federal, state, or other statutes or regulations, or policies, standards or best practices that prohibit the sharing of specific data, in order to foster innovation, cooperation, and transparency. To further support internal data sharing across the state, in 2017, the state created an enterprise data-sharing memorandum of understanding (eMOU), providing a more efficient process to obtain and provide data by, between, and among Commonwealth agencies. When it comes to sharing geospatial data in particular, the Pennsylvania State Geospatial Board has a publicly available data-sharing agreement to facilitate the sharing of data between government entities and non-state data owners, including academia, business, and nonprofits. The impact of data sharing is reflected in the State Geospatial Board’s annual reports on state and local data sharing, COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, and land use and transportation planning.
