The following information comes from the White House Open Government Innovations Gallery:

Data.Gov

Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council, Office of Management and Budget

Access to Government Data: Discover, Participate, Engage

Launch Data.gov

The Challenge

Data produced by government agencies are often hard to find or are published in proprietary formats of limited utility. As a result, a wealth of information remains untapped by the ingenuity and creativity of the American people.

The Solution

Data.gov is a citizen-friendly platform that provides access to Federal datasets. With a searchable data catalog, Data.gov helps the public find, access, and download non-sensitive Government data and tools in a variety of formats.

The Benefit

Enterprising Americans will be able to create new web applications that help individuals, communities, and businesses access, sort, visualize, and understand public data in new ways. Data transparency can spur economic, scientific, and educational innovation, as well as civic engagement by making it easier to build applications, conduct analysis, and perform research.

Additional Details

Launched on May 21, 2009, Data.gov already provides access to many Government datasets. Plans are in place to add new datasets and to continually improve the features and tools. Future versions will be even better because the system has the capacity to evolve based on feedback from the American public. We look to you to show us what is possible.

For more information, email DataGov@gsa.gov