Commerce Department Mulls Enterprise Data Strategy for 2024 Release

The Department of Commerce is drafting an enterprise data strategy that seeks to improve its inter-agency data sharing and boost U.S. competitiveness in emerging technologies, according to Oliver Wise, the department’s chief data officer. 

Expected for release in fall 2024, the strategy also aims at strengthening the semiconductor industry’s supply chain under the CHIPS and Science Act, Wise said. In addition, the new policy will tackle Chinese competition and aim to maintain U.S. leadership in the global artificial intelligence-based arms race, Federal News Network reported.

The department’s massive database is another focal point for the new strategy to enable informed decisions on rural and urban investments, as well as climate resiliency. According to Wise, the database needs sufficient geospatial capacity “to see it all together in one place on a map.”

He further disclosed that the department is looking at innovative technologies to pursue its data democratization goals. A new working group of commerce AI and data management professionals in the department is developing a publication on the department’s data sets in machine-readable format, Wise said. He also noted that the working group is coming up with “machine-understandable” data sets identifying the information as authoritative and coming from the department.