data.gov, Vivek Kundra, Sunlight Foundation get props at NYTimes

You might get tired of me repeating it, but big stuff's happening in Washington, historic stuff, and the NY Times re data.gov gets it:

When he was information technology chief for Washington, D.C., Vivek Kundra delivered huge caches of information to the Web for public use — from controversial hourly pay rates of city contractors to the daily pickups of road kill. We hope he does the same and more, now that Mr. Kundra is chief information officer for the federal government.

With little fanfare, the Obama administration has begun its first agency feeds onto Data.gov, a new Web site. Mr. Kundra promises to release vast amounts of raw data there, so taxpayers can see what’s going on more instantly and clearly, and, ideally, come back with suggestions on how to fix government problems.

The public will also need to do its part, watching closely and responding creatively. The Sunlight Foundation, an independent watchdog group, is already starting a contest to invent Web applications that capitalize on Data.gov’s offerings. Mr. Kundra says he cannot wait for the first “democratized” feedback.

Comments

[Jonathan Callahan]

I am as excited about Data.gov as the next data junkie. But, having worked with government data for 15 years at NOAA, NASA and the EPA I am confused by what improvements Data.gov has to offer. I have a long post with my concerns at:

http://mazamascience.com/blog/?p=12