As an increasing number of open government data (OGD) portals are created, an evaluation method is needed to assess these portals. In this study, we drew from the existing principles and evaluation methods to develop a User Interaction Framework, with concrete criteria in five dimensions: Access, Trust, Understand, Engage‐integrate, and Participate. The framework was then used to evaluate the current OGD sites created and maintained by 34 U.S. municipal government agencies. The results show that, overall, portals perform well in terms of providing access, but not so well in helping users understand and engage with data. These findings indicate room for improvement in multiple areas and suggest potential roles for information professionals as data mediators. The study also reveals that portals using the Socrata platform performed better, regarding user access, trust, engagement, and participation. However, the variability among portals indicates that some portals should improve their platforms to achieve greater user engagement and participation. In addition, city governments need to develop clear plans about what data should be available and how to make them available to their public.

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During its first 6 years of operation, the cold (-60°C) optical blocking filter of the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), on board the Chandra X-ray Observatory, has accumulated a contaminating layer that attenuates the low-energy x rays. To assist in assessing the likelihood of successfully baking off the contaminant, members of the Chandra team developed contamination-migration simulation software. The simulation follows deposition onto and (temperature-dependent) vaporization from surfaces comprising a geometric model of the Observatory. A separate thermal analysis, augmented by on-board temperature monitoring, provides temperatures for each surface of a similar geometric model. This paper describes the physical basis for the simulations, the methodologies, and the predicted migration of the contaminant for various bake-out scenarios and assumptions.

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