Even though the
data is public, it is very expensive today. The Copyright Database, for example, costs $86,625 for
the retrospective and a one-year feed (we
harvested this in 2007 as you reported, but
this would be much easier if they simply provided an FTP server and rsync!)
The Congressional Research Service is such a no-brainer. With the exception of
classified information, who can afford the luxury of paying for some of the best
research in the world and then just bury it! Taxpayer dollars paid for CRS reports
and they need to be available.
In this day and age, you can't say a committee hearing is public
if you can't access it on the Internet. Itty-bitty streaming video using some
proprietary client/format just doesn't cut it any more. We ran a pilot
with 4 house committees to show that this is very doable and makes a huge difference
One of the key points was that it is important when government agencies release bulk data, that they do so in the lowest-level format possible. For example, for the Congressional Record and other official journals of government, we want XML plus images, as opposed to just PDF files or other final-form data.
When I spoke with Congressman Honda's staff, they made clear that they'd love Silicon Valley's best ideas for other technological reforms that they can include in future legislation. When you've got a Congressman who's paying attention, that's a great opportunity!
Vivek Kundra, the new Federal CIO appointee, gave two great examples of how release of government data can be an aid not just to government transparency, but can spark entire industries.
Obama needs to STOP creating Panic and realize that Government is NOT the answer. Smart innovators like yourself ARE the answer. Get the money into motivated people like you and we all will prosper.
The target audiences are non-technical (IT) and non-accounting people who would like to understand both a bit of XBRL code and some of the problems that are tackled in order to allow computers to process and communicate accounting data meaningfully.