Behind the Scenes with Data.gov

Behind the Scenes with Data.gov

Jeanne HolmEvangelist, Data.gov

20 October 2011

2

Open Government Initiative

• Transparency promotes accountability

• Participation allows people to contribute ideas

• Collaboration encourages cooperation within government and with industry

20 October 2011

3

Creating a Data Ecosystem

1. Gather data – from many places and give it freely to

developers, scientists, and citizens

2. Connect the community– in finding solutions to allow collaboration

through social media, events, platforms

3. Provide an infrastructure – built on standards

4. Encourage technology developers – to create apps, maps, and visualizations

of data that empower people’s choices

5. Gather more data– and connect more people

“A Strategy for American Innovation” published September 2009

20 October 2011

4

US Open Government Action Plan• On 20 September 2011, President Obama

announced at the UN General Assembly…• Contribute Data.gov as a platform

– India and the U.S. creating open source platform– Will allow any country to create open data site

• Foster communities on Data.gov– Health, energy, and law plus new communities in

education, research and development, and public safety

• Launch International Space Apps Competition

– NASA and other space agencies will gather scientists and citizens

– Use data for global challenges: weather impacts on global economy and depletion of ocean resources

– A collaboration website will be created to facilitate citizen participation

20 October 2011

5

Data.gov

• Provides instant access to over 400,000 datasets in easy to use formats

• Contributions from UN, World Bank, and 172 agencies

• Encourage development of innovative applications

• Drive innovation and knowledge use across the globe

20 October 2011

6

Supporting Global EventsJapanese tsunami, earthquake,

and radiation monitoring

Restore the Gulf: Deepwater Horizon

Response

20 October 2011

7

Learn at Data.gov

• Resources for students and teachers

• Examples of how data is being used to develop apps

• Lesson plans and videos• Showcase your science

fair project that uses government data!

20 October 2011

8

Open CommunitiesCommunity

Restore the Gulf ✓Open Data ✓Semantic Web ✓Health ✓Law ✓Energy ✓EducationOceanResearch and DevelopmentPublic SafetyHuman rights + many more…

20 October 2011

9

• Provides developers the tools and raw data formats to develop new capabilities

• Partnership with W3C (eGov Interest Group) and with RPI for research in semantic web

• Connected to other open data efforts across the world

• Data hosted in the cloud• Open source platform• Builds on ontologies developed in

specific areas

Powered Through Advanced Technologies

20 October 2011

10

Easy to Find Data

20 October 2011

11

The Power of Visualizations

20 October 2011

12

K-12 Education

AgenciesInternal Stakeholders

Developers

Citizens

Industry

State, local, tribal

International

Communities: health, law,

ethics…

Achieving Global Leadership in Open Government Data

Green = government Blue = external stakeholders

Funding will drive ability to reach these goals

Academia

Cloud

20 October 2011

• Search• Dataset access• Communities• Geodata visualization

• Cloud-hosted data• Semantic

technologies

Data.Gov Services

13

Open Data for the Economy

• When the Department of Defense released satellite data…private industry created affordable GPS devices

• Data from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) helped build weather-related business

• Opportunities for private sector are limitless

20 October 2011

14

Publicizing Data to Innovators

• Challenges and code‐a-thons (health2challenge.org)

• Many innovator “meetups” and conferences

• Annual health data-paloozas

• Over 139 applications• 50 new businesses• Thousands of lives

improved each day

20 October 2011

15

Creating Apps That Improve Lives: Asthmapolis

20 October 2011

16

Creating Apps That Save Lives: iTriage and Hospital Compare

20 October 2011

17

Creating Apps That Change Lives: Eat Your Vegetables and Food Deserts

• Eat Your Vegetables uses Health and Human Services community health data and shows obesity rates by county

• Food Deserts shows areas with a lack of access to fresh food

• Combined can inform cities and citizens how to change their behavior

• Games like Hungry Hiker helps kids make better choices– Apps for Healthy Kids

sponsored by First Lady Michelle Obama

20 October 2011

18

Use Case: Economic

• Healthtap– Provides free, reliable, and

independent health information through the use of open data and by building the world’s largest medical expert network tailored for young mothers and their children

– Won 2010 Health 2.0 challenge– Success invigorated expansion

and new hiring at HealthTap– Reaches to Data.gov datasets

(along with others)

20 October 2011

19

Real Outcomes = Better Lives

• The data delivered through the 172 agencies participating in Data.gov eases the burden on families in caring for a sick child or seeking medical information

• More importantly, the data as it’s aggregated empowers communities to make changes that improve the quality of life of citizens– ReLeaf plants trees in areas identified by Together We

Breathe as danger areas for asthma sufferers– Cities see hot spots that trigger asthma problems for their

citizens

• Each company in Health 2.0 used government data to innovate and create high-value jobs here in America

20 October 2011

20

Think Big, Start Small, InnovateData.gov Quick Facts May 2009 October 2011

Total datasets available 47 >400,000

Hits to Data.gov 0 >200 million

Apps and mash-ups by citizens and government 0 372 + 1113

RDF triples for semantic applications 0 6.7 billion

Dataset downloads 0 >2.0 million

Nations establishing open data sites 0 28

States offering open data sites 0 31

Cities in North America with open data sites 0 13

Open data contacts in Federal agencies 24 396

Agencies and subagencies participating 7 185

Communities 0 7

Community challenges 0 23

20 October 2011

21

The Path Ahead

• Bring data up and out of government to the public ★• Make data accessible and linked ★★★★★• Provide simple ways to visualize the data• Create communities to understand and apply data• Connect and collaborate with small businesses, industry, and

academia to drive innovation• Develop open source open government data platform with

India for global use and further community development• Share with others to understand global issues

Be the change you want to see in the world– Ghandi

20 October 2011

22

A Global Movement Has

Begun to Provide Transparency and Democratization

of Data

20 October 2011

Don’t see your site? Update via @usdatagov

23

Let’s work together to set the data free!

www.Data.Gov@usdatagov

jholm@jpl.nasa.gov@JeanneHolm

20 October 2011