Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

May 25, 2011

Open government sites scrapped due to budget cuts

Filed under: Data Source,Dataset — Patrick Durusau @ 1:24 pm

Open government sites scrapped due to budget cuts

This isn’t so much surprising as it is disappointing. We now know the priority that “open” government in U.S. government budgetary discussions.

I could go on at length about this decision, the people who made it, complete with speculation on their motives, morals and parentage. Unfortunately, that would not restore the funding nor would it be a useful exercise.

As an alternative, let me suggest that everyone select one or two of the data sets that are already available and do something interesting. Something that will catch the imagination of the average citizen. Then credit these government sites as the sources and gently point out that with more funding, there would be more data. And hence more interesting things to see.

Asking someone at the agencies that produce data could result in interesting suggestions. They may lack the time, resources, personnel to do something really creative but with their ideas and your talents…, well, the result could interest the agency and the public. These agencies are the ones fighting on the inside of the public budget process for funding.

What data sets and ideas for those data sets do you think would have the most appeal or impact?

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