Data go up, data come down
The Obama administration has started taking down some of the data posted online during the past month through the Open Government Directive.
Agencies sent the Office of Management and Budget nearly 300 data sets to be posted online Jan. 22 at data.gov. According to a story at nextgov.org, an astute staffer at OpenTheGovernment.org noticed in her Excel spreadsheet that the number of databases posted by agencies was dropping.
An official from OMB said some databases were removed for privacy or national security concerns, even though some of them are available elsewhere online.
While it’s perfectly fine to remove data that might have problems, it would be nice if OMB provided a note online explaining what is removed and for what reasons. Transparency is always a good thing, particularly on transparency Web sites!