DJ Patil’s four-part focus for federal data

It did not take long for the nation’s first chief data scientist to extoll the virtues of big data to the public.

DJ Patil, fresh off the White House announcement of his appointment, took to the White House’s blog to post how he plans to harness data while in his new position.

“I think the data science community has so much it can offer to benefit the American public that we really have an obligation to do everything we can to return that data back to the user,” Patil said in an audio clip.

Patil also talked about four areas he plans to focus on during his tenure: maximizing the return on federal data, advancing the nation’s leadership on data, working to ensure the long-term stability of federal databases and recruiting top talent to help further the government’s use of technology.

Another focus Patil keyed on is his forthcoming work with the Precision Medicine Initiative, which aims to use data to create new ways patients and clinicians interact with one another and facilitate new biomedical research discoveries. (FedScoop’s Whitney Wyckoff has more on that program.)

Patil has already starting reaching out to Silicon Valley in his new role. Shortly after the White House announced the hire, Patil spoke at the Strata+Hadoop World conference in San Jose, California, taking about how sees the government becoming more data driven in the future.

Watch that full talk below.