There exists software inside the government that is working to integrate all government data on the fly (yes, machine-readable mark up, reads data on its home server, etc), but is buried inside the Census Bureau and thus lacks funds. TheDataWeb.org

Can I ask, PRECISELY how this is supposed to save money? Ripping out the proprietary packages (e.g., SAP, Peoplesoft/Oracle) currently in use in the government would cost TENS OF BILLIONS. Tell me PRECISELY how an ROI is generated on those billions? Nebulous "citizen innovation" doesn't do it. Okay, the citizens now have data. How does this recoup the billions? Can we think about this for a sec?

As for privacy, simply don't make available sensitive information. Open, here, does not mean "make everything available." It means those things you do make available, and those things that _should_ be available, make them available in a open (available, parse able, free of charge) _format_. The access to the data should, of course, be free as well.

Calle, that's the whole point. It matters little what the actual "standard" is or even that it's "standard" between government entities. If we simply have OPEN specs then any programmer can simply and easily transform it into ANY other OPEN standard. Again, open means exactly what you described it should mean.

Totally agree with the comment about The Sunlight Foundation http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/ and here's an interesting podcast with them over at IT Conversations http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3841.html

I support this only if the formats and languages used are *truly open* -- that is, their specifications can be easily obtained without having to pay anyone else or even having to ask for anyone else's permission. Just like the English language.

I support this only if the formats and languages used are *truly open* -- that is, their specifications can be easily obtained without having to pay anyone else or even having to ask for anyone else's permission. Just like the English language.

If we're going to talk about Openness and standardization, then we should also talk about ODF. Open Document Format is an OSI standardized document that many governments are adopting to archive their records. More at http://www.odfalliance.org/. If you're worried about MS Office compatibility, Sun has a plugin http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin/

For far too long, the government has used the media as a tool to control large groups of people by creating political propaganda. The American people could use such data to their advantage such as finding the truth and bringing it to the American people through forms of blogging and journalism. The government will feel a new obligation to be truthful.

For far too long, the government has used the media as a tool to control large groups of people by creating political propaganda. The American people could use such data to their advantage such as finding the truth and bringing it to the American people through forms of blogging and journalism. The government will feel a new obligation to be truthful.

This seems to follow the same general trend as other suggestsions:
-open access research
-100% free sw
-open standard/device/os
-open election code
Maybe they could all be counted as a single "open gov't policy" suggestion.

As a publisher who makes a lot of use of government data from FOIA requests (http://www.pegasusnews.com/politics/), I know the biggest issue is getting standardization between jurisdictions. This proposal would reduce the load of FOIA requests on govt offices, enable more investigative journalism and transparency. Top priority.

While I think this sounds like a good thing to do, I do not feel this is important enough to be a top priority item. I'm sure there are more important issues that should be addressed first.

For an example of how powerful open data and statistics can be there's a wonderful talk on TED from 2006 (there's another talk the following year if you're interested too):
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html
Hans Rosling presents the dynamic use of statistics and open data buried in UN databases and makes it free. It's a great video.

I hope "structure this data" means adding machine-readable markup, and keeping docs at sensible stable locations, so people can easily write programs to search them, annotate them (not on the originals), etc. Transparency good, machine-readable transparency better.

DCdawg: so you are saying that executive agencies used the money that Congress already spent on this to pay for contractor "money pits" who "couldn't do the job." I assume that those contractors were held to task by their contracts, or is it the case that the administration was too incompetent to even draft a contract to insure performance?

This is a very common complaint. But when it comes time to do it, the agencies never get enough money to rework existing programs to be able to work with open standards. Contractors who claim they can help are money pits who hire unqualified people who cannot do the work.

If you want open government, write your member of congress and tell them to fund it. Without funding, nothing gets done!

Personally I'm in favor of Atom instead of RSS, but overall I agree with this suggestion.

sll

Wow, this would be perfect for a project I'm working on -- a site that focuses on economic indicators. Do it! :)

Also, case law should be available free on the web; even State case law.