UK ahead of US in government transparency!

UK Launches Open Data Site; Puts Data.gov to Shame

Written by Marshall Kirkpatrick / January 20, 2010 11:57 AM /
"A new website dedicated to making non-personal data held by the U.K. government available for software developers has launched today with the help of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.Data.gov.uk is being slammed with traffic but six months after the U.S. government opened its Data.gov site the U.K. site already has more than three times as much data than the U.S. site offers today.

At launch, Data.gov.uk has nearly 3,000 data sets available for developers to build mashups with. The U.S. site, Data.gov, has less than 1,000 data sets today."

--- Kilpatrick, Marshall (2009). UK Launches Open Data Site; Puts Data.gov to Shame. ReadWriteWeb. Retrieved January 22, 2009 from: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/uk_launches_open_data_site_
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Competition is good for the consumer so a rivalry among governments to open up their data will benefit the public and the librarians who gain access to the treasure trove. - Luis

"Government posting wealth of data to Internet"

AP / Yahoo!
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jan 22, 7:31 am ET

"WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Friday is posting to the Internet a wealth of government data from all Cabinet-level departments, on topics ranging from child car seats to Medicare services.

The mountain of newly available information comes a year and a day after President Barack Obama promised on his first full day on the job an open, transparent government. ...
All the new data collections will be added to the government's Web site, data.gov."

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The wealth of information that is becoming available to us every day is unparalleled in history. No one is better equipped to organize this mountain of data, make it searchable, and guide the general public plus specialized researchers in navigating it than librarians and information professionals. The weight of this resource call us to orient ourselves toward managing 'public data.' - Luis