White House Launches More Open Data Initiatives

The Obama administration has launched a series of open data initiatives to make information across a variety of areas such as health, energy, climate, and public safety more accessible to federal agencies and citizens, a top White House official said.

These projects are an outgrowth of the administration's ongoing Open Government Initiative, which is using open data standards to make the vast amounts of government data more accessible, Nick Sinai, deputy chief technology officer for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, explained at a recent government/industry symposium on data transparency.

To help federal agencies carry out President Obama's May 2013 executive order on open data, the White House's Open Government Initiative website discusses the administration's approach to open data and also provides free code and software to help agencies implement the executive order, Sinai said, adding that these efforts go beyond making data "liquid" at the point of dissemination. "It's really about using information as a strategic asset." Continue>>>
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