As governments open access to data, law lags far behind; ABA Journal, 3/17/16

Lorelai Laird, ABA Journal; As governments open access to data, law lags far behind:

"From municipalities to the White House, governments are launching open data projects—but the judicial branch is falling behind.

Such was the opening, frustrated message of “Public Service Legal Technology in the Data.Gov Era,” a Thursday-morning panel at ABA Techshow.

Adam Ziegler of Harvard Law School’s Library Innovation Lab hammered home the message with a quick tour of government data projects. The federal government has data.gov, a website that offers publicly available data on many topics related to executive branch agencies; 18F: a series of projects from the General Services Administration; and the U.S. Digital Service, a White House project seeking to streamline government services. The White House even has a page on GitHub, a website that allows programmers to post and collaborate on their work.

“We are in an era of amazing progress in access to government data,” said Ziegler, a programmer and former attorney. But “where are we with the law? Almost nowhere, unfortunately.” The nonprofit U.S. Open Data assessed publicly accessible legal information in every state—and found poor accessibility almost everywhere.

Ziegler’s lab is doing its best to change that with its ambitious “Free the Law” project with Ravel Law, which will scan Harvard’s entire 40,000-volume collection of U.S. case law."

Steel City Codefest Shows the Potential for Open Data; 90.5 WESA, 2/4/14

Marnie Schleicher, 90.5 WESA; Steel City Codefest Shows the Potential for Open Data:

"Pittsburgh's second Steel City Codefest is almost here. The second annual 24-hour technology competition aims to create relevant and useful apps for the Pittsburgh area...

Open data has been made available in cities and counties across 39 states, according to Data.gov. This has given rise to numerous apps across the country."

Report: Open Data Could be $3 Trillion Boon; FEDweek, 12/30/13

FEDweek; Report: Open Data Could be $3 Trillion Boon: "Standardized, machine-readable information, much of it government-generated has contributed to a push toward leveraging "big data" to gain new insight and drive innovation, and a recent report from McKinsey suggests seven sectors in particular could combine to generate over $3 trillion in additional value from open data. Open data (like that increasingly being made available at data.gov) is "giving rise to hundreds of entrepreneurial businesses and helping established companies to segment markets, define new products and services, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operations," according to the report".