Title: Data.gov: Selling the Government and Democratization of Information
Author: Alix Vance
Source: Scholarly Kitchen
Publisher: Society for Scholarly Publishing
Date (published): 25/05/2010
Date (accessed): 02/06/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Last Friday marked the one-year anniversary of the Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative (OGI). The occasion was honored with a cupcake and candle on the landing page of the newly re-designed Data.gov site and a widely disseminated announcement from the White House... Data.gov includes more than 250,000 datasets, up from 47 made available at launch. The impact of the OGI is not confined to the United States. At present, six nations outside the U.S. are also developing open repositories of government data...
The message from the Obama Administration is that the OGI signals a sea change for government information that will:
- Spawn a global movement to democratize access
- Enable global linking of data
- Foster innovation and transparency via the creation of “community developed” applications
...
Professionals will find or create the means to build utilities from these emerging global repositories of government data that will:
- Enable comparisons of data that has historically been unavailable, siloed, and non-standardized
- Deliver tools that surface previously hidden relationships between data points and suggest relational meanings
- Aid users develop new hypotheses and research entry points
Whether this translates to empowerment of the general public — or strictly adds to the use of charts and graphs in presentations and articles by researchers and in the media, which pass by the general citizenry — is an open question.
...
Pending questions:

Will the technology community remain fiercely committed to using open data to serve the public good?
Will commercial interests predominate?
Will the level of commitment and interest in the objectives of a global data program continue without institutional incentives?
Does the Administration have its own plans for making this type of information digestible for the general public?

Title: Open Data is Civic Capital: Best Practices for "Open Government Data"
Author: Joshua Tauberer
Publisher: Joshua Tauberer
Date published: 20/07/2009
Date accessed: 22/07/2009
Type of information: research document
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
This document is a best practices guide for governments embracing the notion of "open data". It discusses why open government data is beneficial to society, i.e. how it is civic capital, and what kinds of technological considerations must be made when making government data open. The document is intended to be read both by web managers, who may wish to skip the final Recommendations section, and by government web developers.
...
Open government data is a valuable public resource for its ability to fuel innovation in areas far beyond the mandate or resources of government. Several examples were listed above that benefit public health, safety, business and the economy, and especially civic engagement, transparency, accountability, public trust, and digital inclusion. These benefits come from the ability for computers to sort, search, and transform data into new purposes that can't often be predicted before they are discovered.

Contents:
Introduction
Open Data as Civic Capital
How Open Data Is Useful
Recent Trends within the United States Government
Trends on Other Countries
Why Data Format Matters
Machine-Processable Information
The Ramifications of Data Formats
Best Practices
A Path to Achieving Best Practices
What is Open Government Data?
On The Openness Process
Related Guidelines for Web Pages & Databases
Conclusion