Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge

sunlightlabs.com

41 points·cjoh··6 comments

There doesn't seem to be that much raw data available yet. A search for all data across all agencies at data.gov only produces 47 results.

Seems like over 50% of that data is also NSGS or NWS data which I believe was previously available in structured format.

Yeah. The data is pretty barebones. But from what we're able to get out of the White House, it looks like there will be more feeds coming out constantly.

As I see it, data.gov isn't so much a source for new types of information -- it's a more approachable and usable clearinghouse for the public datasets already being made available by the federal government.

Putting Gapminder on this site would be a big win! (Gapminder - for a Fact Based World View)

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_be...

http://www.gapminder.org/

The whole government and public institutions, from the president, the governors, to the post office employees, should have their data open and available for every citizen to scrutinize.

All their financial books, payrolls, contracts, purchase orders, everything should be public and available, preferable on the web.

They are our employees, we elect them to manage our country, our resources, our taxes, and therefore they should be held accountable for their actions.

I applaud this effort to bring more transparency to our government.

You know what though, even if government was 100% transparent, I doubt it would matter. Sad, but true.

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