Description of Data.gov
May 26, 2009
A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to Propublica’s “Gov’s Got Data” here. Data.gov is a data portal created by the US government. Republica reported that there were 47 raw data sets on the site plus another 27 software utilities. Click here for a sample data set.
For me, the most important comment was:
There’s not a lot there yet, but the new federal Web site, which the Obama administration had promised to create, is up and running. The site is designed to be a clearinghouse of data from federal agencies.
Data sets are the type of content that Wolfram Alpha and some of Google’s more sophisticated system ingest to generate value-added outputs.
The challenge is that US government agencies are silos and sharing is often a lengthy administrative process. After all, why share when headcount could be reduced due to the trimming of tasks for an agency. In my experience, government entities want to preserve data, tasks, and services to keep the bean counters from chopping a manager’s staff.
Long slog ahead for Data.gov I think.
Stephen Arnold, May 26, 2009
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
