The new Open Government Directive requires agencies to come up with three data sets within 45 days. This means something different for each agency, especially the CIA. While many of the federal government agencies have already begun implementing different parts of the directive, the CIA is still in the process of reviewing the document.The directive wants the CIA to put declassified documents, which are the CIA Record Search Tool (CREST) on the web, as well as noncopyrighted analyses of foreign news. Right now CREST is only accessible from the computers at the National Archives and Records Administration building. The titles of the documents are on the CIA website, but not the complete documents. According to NextGov reports, the CIA has not decided yet if they are going to put these documents on the Web. CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf stated, “We’re reviewing the directive to determine whether it requires us to transfer this already publicly available to a Web-based technology platform.â€
This content is extremely extensive and there are more than 10 million pages of documents. In the past these documents have not been put on the web in the fears that it could be taken and put into a form that could somehow reveal classified information. However, from NextGov reports, Jeremy Bigwood, who is an independent researcher at the National Archives building and helps citizens use Crest, does not think putting the documents on the Web could in anyway harm U.S. security. The agency plans on continuing to review the directive for the time being to determine what their next steps are going to be.I
