The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a statement today announcing a preview of the new design for Data.gov called Next.data.gov. According to OSTP, “the upgrade builds on the President’s May 2013 Open Data Executive Order that aims to fuse open-data practices into the Federal Government’s DNA.”
You can see the old Data.gov above.
The visual redesign is heavily influenced by Google+ and the backend improvements sound interesting to users who are curious about the data collected.
OSTP is launching the new site as a beta and is collecting user feedback through Quora and Twitter as well as creating pull requests.
The highlights of the update to the site are:
- Leading with Data: include streams that show examples of how data is used and allows communities “to communicate how its datasets are impacting companies and the public”
- Powerful Search: search engine with suggested search terms and index publicly available datasets.
- Scaleable and Open Source: built with WordPress (content/community sections) and CKAN (data catalog)
- Building Next.Data.Gov Together: “Going forward, expect regular design and software updates.”
The community drive that the OSTP is pushing is interesting. With PRISM still in the minds of many people, this action by the White House may be appreciated or make users even more skeptical about the use of data.
[Source: Office of Science and Technology Policy]
