Source: alpha.data.govData.gov is on track to getting a .gov makeover right before our very eyes thanks in part to an agile, open approach to development being adopted by the General Services Administration.
A team of presidential innovation fellows are collaborating on a Data.gov redesign effort and have created a working prototype, located at alpha.data.gov.
“Time and again, we were asked why more people weren’t aware of these “Open Data” efforts, their numerous benefits for Americans, and how to get engaged,” write Presidential Innovation Fellows Danny Chapman and Ryan Panchadsaram and White House Office of Science & Technology Policy Senior Advisor John Paul Farmer on the White House blog.
“After hearing this feedback, we had an idea: create an online showcase, highlighting the very best Open Data resources and how they are already being used by private-sector entrepreneurs and innovators to create new products and services that benefit people in all kinds of ways.”
The team will take an agile, iterative approach to development and is soliciting feedback on Twitter via @ProjectOpenData and GitHub.
“As the name suggests, this is an experimental release. Over time, it will grow and evolve to help catalyze future improvements to the design, content, and infrastructure of Data.gov,” write Chapman, Panchadsaram and Farmer.
Chapman served as a fellow for the General Service’s Administration’s MyGov project and Panchadsaram for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Blue Button initiative.
GSA launched Data.gov in May 2009. The source code was made freely available to the public in May 2012. The site is developed in the open source framework Drupal with most of the data being supplied through the open data platform Socrata.
