Data.gov Celebrates First Birthday with a Makeover

The website that currently stores thousands of databases containing federal agency information received a welcome makeover last week as its first birthday present.  Since its launch last year, the Data.gov has sparked a national and global movement amongst governments interested in increasing their transparency.

Launched in May 2009 with 47 datasets, Data.gov has been continually expanded since the inception of the Open Government Directive (OGD).  Under the OGD, published Dec. 8, 2009, executive branch agencies had 45 days to release at least three "high-value" datasets on their websites and register them with Data.gov. These datasets were to be information "not previously available online or in a downloadable format" and were to be published "online in an open format."  On the deadline, the website held about 300 datasets in total but now boasts of a library containing more than 270,000 sets.

In terms of public participation, the website has made striking improvements.  The website prominently features a system by which the public can suggest datasets that should be present on Data.gov.  This feedback mechanism enables agencies to more easily identify the types of information of interest to the public.  If an agency has the requested data, it is more likely to prioritize that information for release.  Datasets that have been posted to the site as a result of public request can be identified by the hand logo seen to the right of this post.  Between May and December 2009, Data.gov received over 900 requests.  Among them, 26% were determined to be actionable, 35% potentially actionable and 16% were already on the website.

Also of interest in the newest phase of the website is the inclusion of usage statistics.  With this data agencies are able to better gauge the interests of the public in determining what data to release next.  The public is also able to better assess how responsive the federal government is being to meeting public interest.  According to the site, data from the Department of Agriculture have been of the most interest to the public with over 430 downloads in the past week.  The most popular dataset in the entire collection is the Interior Department’s Worldwide M1+ Earthquakes database which lists real-time information on global earthquakes during the last 7 days.  It has been downloaded over 100,000 times.

Unfortunately, this website still places its Apps showcase in a secondary portion of the website.  Although it is linked on the homepage, the site overall is not public facing in the truest sense.  The great majority of the public is not going to the website to obtain raw data.  My parents, for instance, are not programmers and would only benefit from the Apps.  A truly public facing website would present the Apps upfront in a way and thereby make the site more usable to the general public.   Further, the Apps showcase is not an exhaustive list of the tools that are available to the public.  For instance, the Environmental Protection Agency provides a "TRI Explorer" to manipulate toxics release information.  Data.gov only links to this tool in a buried part of its website and not in the showcase.

Overall, this new makeover is a good sign of the administration’s commitment to this project to make federal agency data public.  So far, the effort of the administration to utilize this measure as a system to increase transparency and public collaboration has spawned a global, state, and local effort to do so as well.  The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, California, Utah, Michigan, Massachusetts, New York City, and San Francisco have also developed websites on the data.gov model.

 

 

Birthday cupcake image by Flickr user Theresa Thompson used under a creative commons lisence.


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