Kundra talks about a new day for government data

Following the release in early December of the Obama administration’s Open Government Directive, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra has been opining about what it all means, mostly repeating the usual stuff about transparency and accountability.

Here’s a new twist I haven’t seen before, however. He talks about how Data.gov, the government’s portal to agency data, will help establish a whole new industry devoted to using government data. He believes there is a “huge market” waiting to be unleashed that will use technology to slice and dice that government data into innovative products.

Maybe this is all the same thing as transparency and accountability, but if so maybe he should make that clear to agency officials. Making data available so that people can access it and use it more easily is one thing. Making it the basis for a whole new industry -- with all that means for meeting standards and other commercial requirements -- is something else.