With the launch of a new U.S. City Data Portal housed online by the federal government, a group of the nation's largest city chief information officers are hoping that some day developers will take the records New York City keeps on restaurants and combine it with other cities' comparable data to create new applications that could be of use to both the public and people in government. Read More

Thursday, after spending the day at the International Open Government Data Conference at the World Bank (and co-hosted by data.gov) I left both upbeat and concerned. Upbeat because of the breadth of countries participating and the progress being made. I was worried however because of the type of conversation we are having how it might limit the growth of both our community and the impact open data could have. Indeed as we talk about technology and how to do open data we risk missing the real point of the whole exercise - which is about use and impacts. To get drive this point home I want to share three stories that highlight the challenges, I believe, we should be talking about. Read More

"We think of [the Internet] as something like an abandoned mad scientist’s laboratory, in which various experiments in cognitive processing have been left to fizz and overflow together. Some of these experiments are turning into monsters, others unviable chimeras, others yet interesting hybrids." — Henry Farrell, parsing "The Politics of Open Data" on Crooked Timber. Read More

The League of California Cities said in a statement that it opposes proposed open data legislation in that state because it would "impose new duties and costs on public agencies at a time when they can ill afford them, under the guise of promoting greater government transparency." Read More

Census.gov/developers is now online, and the U.S. Census Bureau is offering developers beta API access to a summary table from the 2010 U.S. Census and to data from the 2010 American Community Survey. This makes it easier for developers to build web applications using Census Bureau data. Nextgov reported earlier this month that this move was on the way. Last month, federal officials announced a new strategy for digital government that calls for all U.S. agencies to provide API access to two "high-value" sets of data. Read More

When John Boehner promised at the start of his turn as House Speaker to make the House of Representatives far more transparent, and to use technology to do it, advocates for an easier-to-understand Congress were cautiously optimistic. But House Republicans are poised to take a move that transparency advocates see as kicking the can down the road on the single most crucial thing the 112th Congress could do to open up the business of lawmaking. Read More