The State of The Union of Open Data, a report released by the Data Foundation on Wednesday, finds widespread agreement that progress is being made across a variety of organizations on data standardization, data sharing, and data usage.

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) today released its ninth annual state CIO survey. Since the survey comes just ahead of an election cycle that will likely cause significant turnover among states’ most senior technology officials, NASCIO–in partnership with Grant Thornton and CompTIA–approached the survey in a new way. NASCIO explained that it used this year’s survey as a “means for the current cadre of state CIOs to offer advice to a new generation of technology leaders that may soon be taking office.”

For the last eight years, Grant Thornton has helped the National Association of State Chief Information Officers conduct its annual CIO Survey. Released earlier this month, the annual survey gives CIOs around the country an opportunity to voice their thoughts and opinions on matters of high importance. Graeme Finley, principal of Public Sector at Grant Thornton, gave MeriTalk State & Local a behind-the-scenes look at the survey, as well as his thoughts on this year’s findings.