Data.gov celebrated its second birthday Saturday and now has more than 389,000 data sets, a stark increase from the 47 it had when the site originally launched.
“Innovators from across the country have been busy putting these datasets to work,” Federal CIO Vivek Kundra wrote on the White House blog. “So far, hundreds of apps have been created that include helping parents keep their children safe, assisting travelers find the fastest route to their destinations, and informing home buyers about the safety of their new neighborhood. “
“This emerging ‘app economy’ not only gives rise to innovative applications, it also helps us crack down on wasteful and redundant government spending,” he writes. “For too long, the government has relied on armies of consultants, a fragmented infrastructure, and customized, one-off applications, spending billions of dollars to share information within government and with citizens. By mobilizing citizen-developers and leveraging the Data.gov platform, we can do more for less.”
Kundra added that the tenants of data.gov has spread globally as 16 nations, 29 states and 11 cities and several international organizations have begun open data platforms.
“In the coming months and years, we will see an explosion of apps based on the Data.gov platform which will disrupt our current thinking of how we procure technology solutions and how we deliver services to citizens,” Kundra said.
