Data.gov
Encyclopedia
Data.gov is a U.S. government
website launched in late May 2009 by the then Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO)
of the United States
, Vivek Kundra
.
According to its website, "The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government."
The site seeks to become "a repository for all the information the government collects." The site would publish to the public any data that is not private or restricted for national security reasons.
The purpose of the site is to establish a set of requirements "that will make it possible to establish a web services infrastructure to expose at least partial representations of these databases as streams of XML
."
The site will bring some of the philosophy of open data
to the government, an approach which the book Democratizing Data states will have benefits including "rebuilding confidence in government and business".
It has been reported that the 2011 United States federal budget
holds a substantial reduction in funding for the Electronic Government Fund, from which data.gov draws its funding; prioritization of systems supported by the Fund could lead to reduction or elimination of data.gov .
For its one-year anniversary, Data.gov launched a redesigned website on May 21, 2010. Its repository has grown from 47 datasets at launch to over 250,000. Jeanne Holm
, formerly the Chief Knowledge Architect at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Knowledge Management team, joined Data.gov as the Communications and Collaborations Lead, James Hendler
, an artificial intelligence researcher at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was named the "Internet Web Expert" and tasked with helping Data.gov exploit advanced Web technologies.
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
website launched in late May 2009 by the then Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Chief information officer
Chief information officer , or information technology director, is a job title commonly given to the most senior executive in an enterprise responsible for the information technology and computer systems that support enterprise goals...
of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Vivek Kundra
Vivek Kundra
Vivek Kundra served as the 1st Chief Information Officer of the United States from March, 2009 to August, 2011 under President Barack Obama. He is currently a visiting Fellow at Harvard University.He previously served in D.C...
.
According to its website, "The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government."
The site seeks to become "a repository for all the information the government collects." The site would publish to the public any data that is not private or restricted for national security reasons.
History and background
On March 5, 2009, shortly after his appointment as the first Federal Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra announced the creation of Data.gov. Kundra said, "Data.gov will publish data feeds, so we'll have a vast array of data".The purpose of the site is to establish a set of requirements "that will make it possible to establish a web services infrastructure to expose at least partial representations of these databases as streams of XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
."
The site will bring some of the philosophy of open data
Open Data
Open data is the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "Open" movements such as open source, open...
to the government, an approach which the book Democratizing Data states will have benefits including "rebuilding confidence in government and business".
It has been reported that the 2011 United States federal budget
2011 United States federal budget
The 2011 United States federal budget is the United States federal budget to fund government operations for the fiscal year 2011, which is October 2010–September 2011. The budget is the subject of a spending request by President Barack Obama...
holds a substantial reduction in funding for the Electronic Government Fund, from which data.gov draws its funding; prioritization of systems supported by the Fund could lead to reduction or elimination of data.gov .
For its one-year anniversary, Data.gov launched a redesigned website on May 21, 2010. Its repository has grown from 47 datasets at launch to over 250,000. Jeanne Holm
Jeanne M. Holm (NASA)
Jeanne M. Holm is the Chief Knowledge Architect at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and she leads the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Knowledge Management team. Holm is project manager for the NASA Portal, an internet project which was designed to provide one authoritative source of NASA...
, formerly the Chief Knowledge Architect at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Knowledge Management team, joined Data.gov as the Communications and Collaborations Lead, James Hendler
James Hendler
James Hendler is an artificial intelligence researcher at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA, and one of the originators of the Semantic Web.-Background and research:...
, an artificial intelligence researcher at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was named the "Internet Web Expert" and tasked with helping Data.gov exploit advanced Web technologies.
Data Evangelist
On August 13, 2010 a position was posted for "Evangelist for Data.Gov Open Government".Concept of Operations Document
The Office of Management and Budget released a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) document (ConOps in Word format, ConOps in PDF format) outlining the vision, architecture and future of data.gov. As of August 31, 2010 the most recent version was 0.7 dated December 3, 2009.Open Government Directive
The US Open Government Directive of December 8, 2009 requires that all agencies post at least three high-value data sets online and register them on data.gov within 45 days.Applications using Data.gov
- FlyOnTime.us – Uses data from the Bureau of Transportation StatisticsBureau of Transportation StatisticsThe Bureau of Transportation Statistics , as part of the United States Department of Transportation, compiles, analyzes, and makes accessible information on the nation's transportation systems; collects information on intermodal transportation and other areas as needed; and improves the quality and...
to find the most on-time flight from one city to another.
See also
- ClinicalTrials.govClinicalTrials.govClinicalTrials.gov is a registry of clinical trials. It is run by the United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, and is the largest clinical trials database, currently holding registrations from over 93,000 trials from more than 170 countries in the...
- Science.govScience.govScience.gov is a web portal and search engine . Using federated search technology, Science.gov serves as a gateway to U.S. government science information and research results...
- Government 2.0
- Open Government InitiativeOpen Government InitiativeThe Open Government Initiative is an effort by the administration of President of the United States Barack Obama to "creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government." . The directive starting this initiative was issued on January 20, 2009, Obama's first day in office.The philosophy of the...
- Data.gov.ukData.gov.ukdata.gov.uk is a UK Government project to open up almost all non-personal data acquired for official purposes for free re-use. Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt are the two key figures behind the project.- Beta version and launch :...
External links
- Data.gov
- Wired How-To Wiki - Open Up Government Data
- A wiki with RDF versions of many of the data.gov datasets hosted at RPI
- datagov.ideascale.com - Official consultation: Evolving Data.gov with You
- Microsoft Open Government Data Initiative
- data-publica.com French Open Data Directory