Open Government Initiative Blog

Law.Gov: Access to the Raw Materials of Our Democracy

Open government seeks to make the workings and information of government more accessible to all. One important aspect of open government is enabling access to one of the most basic forms of government information – the law.  As John Podesta, President of Center for American Progress said during the opening to today’s “Law.Gov” conference:

What it’s about is making all primary materials in the United States more readily available, from water districts, counties, cities, and states all the way up to the three branches of the federal government. It isn’t about building the ultimate web site and putting WestLaw out of business.  What Law.gov aims to achieve is changing how governmental bodies that make the law present their work product – pushing government to meet the basic requirement that the public has easy access to their work product.

Access to the law is vital to ensuring the rule of law. It also has very practical consequences of relevance to our daily lives. As Carl Malamud, organizer of the Law.gov conference pointed out:

If you want to make juice in California, you need much more than a good supply of mangos.… Title 17 of the California Code of Regulations deals with Sanitation in Food Plants. The Office of Administrative Law of the State of California asserts copyright over the California Code of Regulations and contracts with Barclays to publish the document. You can view the provisions on their web site, but I can’t make a copy that looks differently, say one that is aimed specifically at juice guys…. And, of course, you need to be fully familiar with the HACCP regulations, series of detailed standards on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points from the Food and Drug Administration. The HACCP regulations, in turn, incorporate by reference a raft of technical standards such as ANSI/NSF Standard Number 7 for Commercial Refrigerators and Storage Freezers, which is $100 per copy, if you want to do due diligence on your freezer and read the tech spec. These documents are just a start for the serious juice professional.

It is not self-evident that the law is available. As Erika Wayne, Deputy Law Librarian at Stanford Law School went on to describe, eight states assert copyright, which restricts use of the online versions of their codes. At least one state provides access to case law for a fee.  PACER, the federal courts court records online system, imposes eight cent per page cost that several speakers commented on as limiting access to court records. Rather than going to fund PACER, much of the money collected ($129 million) goes largely to fund other courtroom technology, said Stephen Schultze of Princeton University.  If the courts made court records available in bulk form, "they might be able to provide the services for free and, at the same time, enabling third-party innovators to develop new products."

Even when material is free, it may not be accessible and, in addition, private information that shouldn’t be available may not be adequately protected. “Access to the law doesn’t simply mean access to the courtroom,” said Schultze. “We have to make sure that our practices in today’s new technological environment respect our principles with regard to openness as well as privacy.”

A number of White House officials are participating in today’s event because the White House Open Government Initiative is following the law.gov movement closely. We are interested in feedback regarding what the Federal government might do to support access to legal information.

You can follow the proceedings live online today and view the archive here. 

Beth Noveck is United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer and Director of White House Open Government Initiative.

Data.gov: Pretty Advanced for a One-Year-Old

One year ago, data.gov was born with 47 datasets of government information that was previously unavailable to the public. The thinking behind this was that this data belonged to the American people, and you should not only know this information, but also have the ability to use it. By tapping the collective knowledge of the American people, we could leverage this government asset to deliver more for millions of people.

Today, there are more than 250,000 datasets, hundreds of applications created by third parties, and a global movement to democratize data. To date, the site has received 97.6 million hits, and following the Obama Administration’s lead, governments and institutions of all sizes are unlocking the value of data for their constituents.  San Francisco, New York City, the State of California, the State of Utah, the State of Michigan, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have launched data.gov-type sites, as have countries such as Canada, Australia, and the UK as well as the World Bank.

From these datasets, citizens have developed hundreds of applications that help parents keep their children safe, let travelers find the fastest route to their destinations, and inform home buyers about the safety of their new neighborhood.  Never before have people been so empowered with the information they need to make decisions every day.

As I reflect on the 1st anniversary of data.gov, the most important accomplishment is the birth of a community of innovators that is helping change the way Washington works. 

In less than eight months, a team of students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute developed over 40 applications using data.gov.  These applications range from easily searching the roster of visitors to the White House and tracking foreign aid across the world to shining light on the ratio of debt to assets for bankrupt companies.

At the Sunlight Foundation, a community of developers continues to build on the Apps for America contest that brought us innovative apps that allow us to check wait times at airports, demystify the rule making process and empower people with the tools to mash up different datasets to unearth new insights. 

At the World Bank, recognizing the power of prizes to mobilize new and diverse talent, they are encouraging the development of applications that make innovative use of more than 2,000 data sets that document human development worldwide, including health, business, finance, environment, and social welfare statistics.

As we look to the next year, we recognize that the Web itself is evolving into a data platform and how important it is to link data from one agency to another or one country to another.  True value lies at the intersection of multiple datasets and what we are witnessing is a continued movement across the world to democratize data, but more importantly the explosion of applications created by the emergence of a community of innovators. 

So all you innovators out there – what data sets can we try to get out there to help you go further? Tweet your ideas for data we should try to put out with hashtag #datagov, and we’ll see what we can do in year 2.

Vivek Kundra is U.S. Chief Information Officer