Data.gov Launches
Here it is: the much-anticipated online catalog of raw data gathered by the federal government, Data.gov. The site appears the same day that the Obama administration formally declares it’s ready for suggestions from the public on how to be more open and transparent.
At launch, Data.gov offers a small, diverse collection of 47 sets of “raw” data. These include spreadsheets of clean air trends, KML files for Google maps of tornado touchdowns, and XML files of patent information, among a variety of other things. The design is clean, easy to navigate, and draws layouts that will be familiar to users of other recent adminstration sites like Recovery.gov and HealthReform.gov. The initital offering is small compared to the large variety of datasets already available directly from federal agencies. But as Marshall Kilpatrick points out at ReadWriteWeb, “the Data.gov site says it was selective about quality and standards when choosing what to include.”
In a January 21 memorandum, the President laid out principles for ensuring that government is transparent, participatory, and collaborative. The memorandum directed the Chief Technology Officer to coordinate recommendations for an Open Government Directive “that instructs executive departments and agencies to take specific actions implementing the principles” outlined—within 120 days. As John Wonderlich of the Sunlight Foundation points out, the directive itself isn’t due today, which marks the end of that window. Moreover, President Obama’s pick for White House CTO, Aneesh Chopra, only had his confirmation hearing earlier this week.
The administration has published a request for public comment on open government recommendations in the Federal Registrar. Submissions are due June 19, but as Alyia Sternstein reports, several questions about how these recommendations will get organized and implemented remain.
As well, Sunlight Labs has been waiting for the launch and unveiled their Apps for America 2 contest to encourage designers and developers to build new tools that capitalize on the data.
Comments on this article
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the Science Progress Privacy Policy and agree to the Science Progress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
