News and ideas on open government data from around the web.

• Evan Ratcliff, at Wired, argues that the data that US government websites are starting to publish will be its own economic stimulus package: 

“For every spreadsheet squirreled away on a federal agency server, there are entrepreneurs [..] ready to turn a profit by reorganizing, parsing, and displaying it.”

Another quote:

"It’s not unlike the situation in 1996 when President Clinton began the process of ending the distortion of civilian GPS signals," says David Stephenson, a government transparency analyst and author of the forthcoming book Democratizing Data. GPS went from being a secretive military technology to spawning a $6 billion ecosystem of location-based companies.”

(via the Sunlight Foundation)

• Carl Malamud, champion of several projects to make government information freely available, has launched a campaign to become Public Printer at the US Government Printing Office (GPO).   Malmud argues that the “GPO should work with the rest of the U.S. Government to radically change how we present information on the Internet.” 

• The ‘beta’ version of the UK’s Power of Information Task Force’s latest report has been receiving 100s of comments.  Among the report’s recommendations to the government:

“Invest in innovation that directly benefits the public by ensuring that public sector websites spend about as much on innovation as leading knowledge businesses. “

• A TransparencyCamp will take place in Washington DC on February 28^th.

• The UK group RewiredState is organizing a ‘Hack the Government Day’ in London on March 7th, sponsored by the Guardian.  From the website:

“Government isn't very good at computers.  They spend millions to produce mediocre websites, hide away really useful public information and generally get it wrong. Which is a shame.”

• In Canada, organization continues for:
  • Changecamp Ottawa - twitter hashtag  #changecampottawa
  • Changecamp Edmonton