Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information

Worth noting: The White House released the memo on GitHub[1] and used GitHub Pages to publish[2].<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.github.io/blob/master/policy-memo.md" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/project-open-data/project-open-data.githu...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://project-open-data.github.io/policy-memo/" rel="nofollow">http://project-open-data.github.io/policy-memo/</a>

Comments from the Sunlight Foundation: <a href="http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/05/09/open-data-executive-order-shows-path-forward/" rel="nofollow">http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/05/09/open-data-exec...</a>

&#62;4(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and <i>subject to the availability of appropriations.</i>&#60;<p>&#62;4(c) This order is not intended to, and <i>does not, create any right or benefit</i>, substantive or procedural, <i>enforceable at law or in equity</i> by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.&#60;<p>(emphases mine)<p>Don't these provisions take the teeth out of the order?

The White House also posted a blog entry about this with many additional links: <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/09/landmark-steps-liberate-open-data" rel="nofollow">http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/09/landmark-steps-lib...</a>

This is an unsexy directive that could be a profound game-changer for civic society. If you've ever tried to get data from a public entity and had to argue about the particulars of PDF over Excel, this kind of statement is at least a good precedent to work from...some information will still be unparsable, just as much information, period, is still withheld despite transparency laws...but this is a pretty strong statement nonetheless.<p>Edit: I do think there's a large risk of an unintended chilling effect, as well-intentioned as this initiative. The blog post that was linked to later in this discussion talks about how defaulting to machine data will "ensure privacy"...which can only mean that there will be some process to decide which data should be machine data and which shouldn't...and, I think this will inevitably cause some datasets to just not be released at all, if there are large technical concerns in making sure the data doesn't "violate privacy"<p>As an example, a couple years ago the Obama administration took down a public database after a doctor complained that a newspaper was able to use it to track evidence against him in a story:<p><a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/how-complaints-from-a-doctor-caused-the-govt-to-take-down-a-public-database" rel="nofollow">http://www.propublica.org/article/how-complaints-from-a-doct...</a><p>The database contained anonymized data about doctor malpractice records...but of course, if you have a doctor with a particularly long history of malpractice in a s single zip code, it's not hard to connect those anonymous records to an identity. So I think there will be some cases where an agency will decide not to put up data because of the fear that computerized analysis of it will reveal things that they don't want revealed.

Now we need to work on getting all 50 States, and the various county/municipal governments to do likewise...

Specially patents.<p>Require all blueprints to be digitally accessible, with stl or step open formats for 3D shapes and svg for 2D.<p>I continue seeing crappy drawings in new patents. What year is it? 1891? In 1891 they were patents better formatted than today.

Its also useful to have the business of government open and machine readable. In Ireland we have recently had a change in how debate information from our Parliament was published forcing a complete overhaul of the website most people use to keep track of their public representatives. <a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/kildarestreet-com-back-from-the-dead-880278-Apr2013/" rel="nofollow">http://www.thejournal.ie/kildarestreet-com-back-from-the-dea...</a>

I wonder when the White House will be offering an RSS feed of citizens they've executed extra-judicially? Or perhaps a social network graph linking lobbyists and politicians &#38; their staff?