Open Data Roundtable meetings have begun, a step in the partnership of government agencies with industry to ensure that the data sets the government publishes directly benefit the economy.
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Read More… from Open Data Roundtables Set Out To Make Data Accessible To Benefit Economy
Entrepreneurs and innovators can now access machine-readable research data in the areas of energy, healthcare, and space from more than 700 federal research and development facilities to assist them in researching, building, and testing new technologies through a major enhancement to the Research.Data.gov portal.
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Read More… from Feds To Post Open Data From 700 R&D Facilities
The Open Government movement has captured the imagination of many around the world as a way of increasing transparency, participation, and accountability. In the US, many of the federal, state, and local Open Government initiatives have been demonstrated to achieve positive results for citizens here and abroad. In fact, the White House’s science advisors released a refreshed Open Government plan in early June.
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Last month, web designer Sean Wittmeyer and colleague Wojciech Magda walked away with a $25,000 prize from the state of Colorado for designing an online tool to help businesses decide where to locate in the state.
The tool, called "Beagle Score," is a widget that can be embedded in online commercial real estate listings. It can rate a location by taxes and incentives, zoning, even the location of possible competitors — all derived from about 30 data sets posted publicly by the state of Colorado and its municipalities.
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The publication of a new report from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) prompts a quick look at the progress of the Obama administration’s US Open Data Action Plan.
That has its roots in the June 2013 pledge made at the Open Data Charter meeting of G7 leaders to publish a roadmap for improving use of open data as well as Obama’s executive order requiring federal agencies to make government data open and machine readable by default.
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Read More… from Open data making progress at state and government agency level in the US
A new report out from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) shows that some progress is being made on its 2009 call for governments to more fully embrace open data. Authors note that state and local governments have, in large part, embraced open data policy and are helping to drive government toward a data driven democracy.
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Mathematician Blaise Pascal famously closed a long letter by apologising that he hadn't had time to make it shorter. Unfortunately, his pithy point about "download time" is regularly attributed to Mark Twain and Henry David Thoreau, probably because the public loves writers more than it loves statisticians. Scientists may make things provable, but writers make them memorable.
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Read More… from Open government: getting beyond impenetrable online data
Before open data, there was FOIA. Beginning in 1967, the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) empowered the public to request access to government documents. Unfortunately, some branches of government quickly began to push back, and within the decade the infamous phrase "can neither confirm nor deny" had been devised to avoid releasing information.
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Read More… from Open source code helps governments share information with citizens
Given all the hype around so called big data at the moment, it would be easy to dismiss it as nothing more than the latest technology buzzword. This would be a mistake, given that the application and interpretation of huge – often publicly available – data sets is already supporting new models of creativity, innovation and engagement.
To date, stories of big data's progress and successes have tended to come from government and the private sector, but we've heard little about its relevance to social organisations. Yet big data can fuel big social change.
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Read More… from Believe the hype: Big data can have a big social impact
Recently, in a victory for open data, both chambers of Congress passed with bipartisan support the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act. The bill now heads to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature. The DATA Act would drastically improve the public’s access to federal spending data by expanding the universe of information the government is required to post online and creating government-wide financial data standards.
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Read More… from Editorial: Federal Data Act is a victory for open government commentary
