Jerry Johnson, GIO of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, spoke about Data.gov, outlining the intent and the progress at the Senior Executive Seminar of the ESRI International User Conference. The overall intent of the initiative is to break down the access to all the data, first with simplified access that makes it possible to find data beyond knowing the mission and availability of each individual agency. While data is the primary role for search and discovery without visiting the 24,000 different .gov website, it’s the applications that the open data enables where the value lies. Similar to how the commercialization of GPS provided great business value, similar value is seen to be derived from more open geospatial data.
The Data.gov site has actively been cataloging government data, but has also been working on many other fronts. Enabling visualization on the Data.gov site has been an important initiative so that some rudimentary analysis can take place through the site. The visualization capability provides a means for mashups of different data sets, but also enables a better understanding of the utility of each individual data sets. Spatial search is a functionality that is coming to the site soon. So is some form of semantic web capability with a view toward collaborative modeling where citizens help inform the model and the decision outcome.
Johnson commended the geospatial community for being instrumental in making the Data.gov initiative a success so far. With the new capabilities that Johnson outlined, it looks that the community will reap great rewards from this involvement. Open data is about engagement and enablement of users and communities, and new business processes and business opportunities will come from this shift.
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Given some of the issues raised by Sean Gorman, James Fee and others about data.gov and ‘no download button’ I’m curious what’s being done to provide data in a multitude of formats. While you are on the ground at UC this week it would be cool if you could get some insight into those issues. Just an idea (I’m sure you are busy enough already). The issue certainly relates to the ability to invovate on top of the data.
It’s a good point, and I’ll work to find an answer.