While you’re not looking

The fun­da­men­tal idea of Data.gov is another bril­liant exam­ple of mod­ern tech­nol­ogy improv­ing our lives rather than just busy­ing our­selves with a bom­bard­ment of choices. It offers pub­lic access to their machine read­able datasets gen­er­ated by the Exec­u­tive Branch of the U.S. Fed­eral Gov­ern­ment. In other words, a search­able data­base of open source code for those who are inter­ested in build­ing and design­ing use­ful apps and widgets.

Embrac­ing of tech­nol­ogy is some­thing the Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment should adapt from the U.S. instead of short-term bud­get sav­ings schemes such as pri­vati­sa­tion of schools, GST and sell­ing our exports to over­seas buyers.

A cur­rent Data.gov chal­lenge has opened. Get dirty, get cre­ative. Have fun and good luck!