Turning government data into private sector products is complicated business by Joseph Marks.
From the post:
The government launched its massive data set trove Data.gov in 2009 with a clear mission: to put information the government was gathering anyway into the hands of private sector and nonprofit Web and mobile app developers.
Once that data was out, the White House imagined, developers would set about turning it into useful products–optimizing Census Bureau statistics for marketers; Commerce Department data for exporters; and Housing and Urban Development Department information for building contractors, mortgage brokers and insurance adjusters.
When necessary, the government also would be able to prime the pump with agency-sponsored code-a-thons and app development competitions sponsored through Challenge.gov, a White House initiative that paid out $38 million to prize-winning developers during its first year, which ended in September.
But turning government data into private sector products has proved more complicated in practice.
Good article about some niche uses of data that have succeeded. Like anything else, you can only repackage and re-sell data that is of interest to some customer.
Question: Is anyone taking published agency data and re-selling it to the agencies releasing the data? Perhaps combined with data from other agencies? With the push on to cut costs, that might be an interesting approach.