The document discusses the goals and progress of Data.gov, a US government platform that provides access to government data. It aims to 1) gather data from agencies and make it openly available, 2) connect developers, scientists and citizens to find solutions, 3) provide infrastructure based on standards, and 4) encourage apps and visualizations using the data. Since 2009, Data.gov has grown from 47 to over 400,000 datasets and driven the creation of hundreds of applications and visualizations that have improved lives. The document outlines plans to further open data internationally and drive innovation.

1. Behind the Scenes with Data.gov
Jeanne Holm
Evangelist, Data.gov
20 October 2011

2. Open Government Initiative
• Transparency promotes
accountability
• Participation allows
people to contribute ideas
• Collaboration encourages
cooperation within
government and with
industry
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3. Creating a Data Ecosystem
1. Gather data
– from many places and give it freely to
developers, scientists, and citizens
2. Connect the community
– in finding solutions to allow collaboration
through social media, events, platforms
3. Provide an infrastructure
– built on standards
4. Encourage technology developers
– to create apps, maps, and visualizations
of data that empower people’s choices
“A Strategy for American
5. Gather more data Innovation” published
– and connect more people September 2009
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4. US Open Government Action Plan
• On 20 September 2011, President Obama
announced at the UN General Assembly…
• Contribute Data.gov as a platform
– India and the U.S. creating open source platform
– Will allow any country to create open data site
• Foster communities on Data.gov
– Health, energy, and law plus new communities in
education, research and development, and public
safety
• Launch International Space Apps Competition
– NASA and other space agencies will gather
scientists and citizens
– Use data for global challenges: weather impacts on
global economy and depletion of ocean resources
– A collaboration website will be created to facilitate
citizen participation
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5. Data.gov
• Provides instant access
to over 400,000
datasets in easy to use
formats
• Contributions from
UN, World Bank, and
172 agencies
• Encourage
development of
innovative applications
• Drive innovation and
knowledge use across
the globe
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6. Supporting Global Events
Japanese
tsunami, earthquake, and
radiation monitoring
Restore the Gulf:
Deepwater Horizon
Response
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7. Learn at Data.gov
• Resources for students
and teachers
• Examples of how data is
being used to develop
apps
• Lesson plans and videos
• Showcase your science
fair project that uses
government data!
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8. Open Communities
Community
Restore the Gulf ✓
Open Data ✓
Semantic Web ✓
Health ✓
Law ✓
Energy ✓
Education
Ocean
Research and Development
Public Safety
Human rights
+ many more…
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9. Powered Through Advanced
Technologies
• Provides developers the tools and
raw data formats to develop new
capabilities
• Partnership with W3C (eGov
Interest Group) and with RPI for
research in semantic web
• Connected to other open data
efforts across the world
• Data hosted in the cloud
• Open source platform
• Builds on ontologies developed in
specific areas
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10. Easy to Find Data
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11. The Power of Visualizations
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12. Achieving Global Leadership in
Open Government Data
Funding will drive ability
to reach these goals
Communities:
Citizens health, law,
ethics…
Developers K-12
Education
• Search • Cloud-hosted data
• Dataset access • Semantic
• Communities technologies State, local,
Academia
• Geodata visualization tribal
Data.Gov Services
International
Cloud
Internal
Industry Stakeholders Agencies
Green = government Blue = external stakeholders
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13. Open Data for the Economy
• When the Department of
Defense released satellite
data…private industry created
affordable GPS devices
• Data from NOAA (National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration) helped build
weather-related business
• Opportunities for private sector
are limitless
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14. Publicizing Data to Innovators
• Challenges and code‐a-
thons
(health2challenge.org)
• Many innovator “meetups”
and conferences
• Annual health data-
paloozas
• Over 139 applications
• 50 new businesses
• Thousands of lives
improved each day
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15. Creating Apps That Improve Lives:
Asthmapolis
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16. Creating Apps That Save Lives:
iTriage and Hospital Compare
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17. Creating Apps That Change Lives: Eat
Your Vegetables and Food Deserts
• Eat Your Vegetables uses
Health and Human Services
community health data and
shows obesity rates by county
• Food Deserts shows areas with
a lack of access to fresh food
• Combined can inform cities and
citizens how to change their
behavior
• Games like Hungry Hiker helps
kids make better choices
– Apps for Healthy Kids
sponsored by First Lady
Michelle Obama
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18. Use Case: Economic
• Healthtap
– Provides free, reliable, and
independent health information
through the use of open data
and by building the world’s
largest medical expert network
tailored for young mothers and
their children
– Won 2010 Health 2.0 challenge
– Success invigorated expansion
and new hiring at HealthTap
– Reaches to Data.gov datasets
(along with others)
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19. Real Outcomes = Better Lives
• The data delivered through the 172 agencies
participating in Data.gov eases the burden on families in
caring for a sick child or seeking medical information
• More importantly, the data as it’s aggregated empowers
communities to make changes that improve the quality
of life of citizens
– ReLeaf plants trees in areas identified by Together We Breathe
as danger areas for asthma sufferers
– Cities see hot spots that trigger asthma problems for their
citizens
• Each company in Health 2.0 used government data to
innovate and create high-value jobs here in America
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20. Think Big, Start Small, Innovate
Data.gov Quick Facts May 2009 October 2011
Total datasets available 47 >400,000
Hits to Data.gov 0 >200 million
Apps and mash-ups by citizens and government 0 372 + 1113
RDF triples for semantic applications 0 6.7 billion
Dataset downloads 0 >2.0 million
Nations establishing open data sites 0 28
States offering open data sites 0 31
Cities in North America with open data sites 0 13
Open data contacts in Federal agencies 24 396
Agencies and subagencies participating 7 185
Communities 0 7
Community challenges 0 23
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21. The Path Ahead
• Bring data up and out of government to the public ★
• Make data accessible and linked ★★★★★
• Provide simple ways to visualize the data
• Create communities to understand and apply data
• Connect and collaborate with small businesses, industry,
and academia to drive innovation
• Develop open source open government data platform with
India for global use and further community development
• Share with others to understand global issues
Be the change you want to see in the world
– Ghandi
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22. A Global
Movement Has
Begun to Provide
Transparency and
Democratization
of Data
Don’t see your site?
Update via @usdatagov
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23. Let’s work together to set the
data free!
www.Data.Gov
@usdatagov
jholm@jpl.nasa.gov
@JeanneHolm
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