Last month Socrata announced that we were commissioning an Open Government Data Benchmark Study to assess the state of the nascent Open Data movement. Via that announcement we also invited participation from advocacy groups who are passionate about this subject. We are honored that we have been joined in conducting this study by the Sunlight Foundation, Personal Democracy Forum, Code for America, GovLoop and David Eaves.

The study was to be conducted in three phases, with each phase surveying a different group of stakeholders. The first phase, which was completed last week, surveyed more than 1,000 mainstream American citizens to gauge the impact of the Open Government Data movement on them. The third phase, which begins September 7, 2010, will survey application developers in order to benchmark their experience in finding and integrating public government data in civic applications.

The second phase of the study begins today, and we need your help. If you are a public servant involved in data transparency, would you take the survey? It’s anonymous. In order to offer a complete picture of the state of Open Government Data, the researchers conducting the survey need to hear from people on the inside – both the government leaders and the in-the-trenches workhorses who are bringing the promise of Open Data to life. If you work for state, local or federal government, will you take the online survey?

The third and final phase of the study will start September 7. The final results of this important study on the state of Open Data in government will be available by the end of September, 2010.