Enhancing Efficiency and Fueling Economic Growth through Open Data

Today, May 09 2013, the White House issued an Executive Order outlining the rules for government data to be well managed and is made accessible to the public. This is a great step towards Open Data, and towards the democratization of science. Bust science out of that Ivory Tower! We already know that ground-breaking achievements can be made by those outside of the knowledge silos, and opening up data will allow us to continue to see new and innovative breakthroughs that the originators of the data could not have foreseen.

This ties back in to the current requirements for data management, as proposed by major funders (such as the NSF, NIH, and NEH), and the OSTP’s memo on increasing public access to federally funded research, announced on February 22 of this year.

The White House also released Project Open Data, which is a “collection of code, tools, and case studies” which will offer the community a series of resources to facilitate education and adoption of open data practices. And anyone can contribute, so don’t be shy! Collaborate and help make the world a better place!