The Obama administration 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, according to a story in The Washington Post.
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.
Under a Dec. 8 White House directive, each department must post online at least three collections of “high-value” government data that never have been previously disclosed.
“There’s recognition that public equals online,” said Ellen Miller, executive director at Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit group focusing on the use of technology for greater government transparency.
Miller said the effort represents “a sea change in government’s attitude,” with newfound support for the idea that government data belongs in the hands of citizens instead of locked away in the basement of a federal agency.
All the new data collections will be added to the government’s Web site, data.gov.
Photo by Data.gov.