The answer to anything is at our fingertips today.  A quick Google search, a couple keystrokes into Wolfram Alpha, or a few taps on Yelp are able to yield the answer to your most pressing questions or resolve the most trivial arguments.  Even with all these resources, getting information from the government has been a notorious chore generally involving a trip to city hall or the library.  But there is a wide-sweeping trend to reverse this.  Our democracies are starting to hand data back to the people. About one year ago, Data.gov was launched by the Obama Administration’s chief information officer with the mission “to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.”  This was the first site of its kind in the world, sparking the creation of similar repositories of public data by the United Kingdom, Australia, and many others (See a full list of Interational Data websites).  But it isn’t just nations freeing their data — states like California and New York and cities like Seattle and San Francisco have built sites too.

A Semantic Web

While the raw data may not be that useful to the average user, developers are wasting no time creating powerful applications and mashups that anyone can use.  Data.gov showcases some of the best ones: compare obesity statistics by county, airport and airline delays, or just build your own!  These are the kind of applications that are becoming part of the semantic web, where information no longer sits isolated, but it connected and combined to create more powerful ideas.

Make Your Voice Heard!

There are thousands of datasets not available from governments, but what if you can’t find the one you want?  Don’t just sit around waiting!  Most of these sites allow users to request information, because after all, the government should work for us.  I have already put in 2 requests to data.seattle.gov and one has already been approved!  The city already provides realtime 911 fire information, but doesn’t have realtime 911 crime information, which could be valuable to people nearby in making a decision to get out of harm’s way or to help.  I’ve also requested more detailed police precinct information to combine with their historical police data in the hopes of creating an interactive map showing the more dangerous or safer parts of Seattle. This kind of technological progress is fantastic in making our government more transparent and more efficient as everyday citizens can find trends, links, or problems in this vast new sea of data.  I hope that as the average citizen becomes more technologically savvy, we can drive toward the kind of accountability we truly deserve from our government. What kind of data do you want to see from your local, state, or federal government?  Post your ideas below!