In an age when information has become one of the most valuable commodities in the Nation, the U.S. Census Bureau sits in the enviable position of producing some of the most highly sought after data in the Nation. The Census Bureau is respected by experts as a world class data producer; however, the rapid evolution of Web 2.0 solutions, online culture, and the expanding expectations of the Census Bureau customers have created a gap between the high‐quality products the Census Bureau produces and the ability to disseminate them effectively. Since its inception, Census Bureau operations have focused primarily on the timely and accurate collection of impartial survey and administrative data. The primary consumers of its information were initially other Federal agencies, states, and local governments, but over time have expanded to politicians, academics, journalists, business people, and the public. While the Census Bureau data collection processes have steadily improved over the years, the adoption of dissemination processes for sharing the results of Census Bureau data collection has not kept pace for two primary reasons:

1. Overall the Census Bureau staff has defined organizational success as the creation of clean valid datasets and has given significantly less priority to dissemination. This inward focus resulted in a “stove‐piped” organizational structure optimized for data assembly but lacking the centralized governance structures and resources necessary for dissemination success in the Web 2.0 information world.
2. The explosion of new information solutions including mobile phone technologies, data visualization and sharing tools, and social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) has resulted in a pace of innovation completely unprecedented in world history. The active user base for Census Bureau data has diversified considerably both in terms of who they are and in how they access information. Today’s Census Bureau is no longer an organization that must generate final data suitable for consumption only by civic leaders. Census Bureau data are now consumed by a broad Web audience with different interests around formats, timeliness, and complexity.

With rapid changes brought about by the Internet and these rising expectations around information dissemination, the Census Bureau launched an initiative in September 2010 to address the gap between their current dissemination practices and emerging best practices, some of which are demonstrated within pockets at the Census Bureau and similar government organizations. This document presents a set of recommended best practices targeted specifically at the Census Bureau goals for improvement. Recommendations are based on the results of a web discovery process consisting of a structured review of Census.gov and 11 relevant external sites, 22 Census Bureau staff interviews, and literature research.