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Congress approves act that opens US government data to the public
Congress has passed a bill that could make it easier for you to access public data released by the government. The House approved the OPEN Government Data Act on Saturday, while all eyes were on the shutdown, as part of a larger bill to support evidence-based policymaking. It requires that federal agencies must publish any "non-sensitive" info in a "machine-readable" format (essentially in a way that's legible on your smartphone or laptop). The act also insists that agencies appoint a chief data officer to oversee all open data efforts. Having passed the Senate last Wednesday, the bill is next headed to the President's desk.
The US public already paid for the data to be gathered, analyzed, and reported; why shouldn't they be able to freely access it?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 26 2018, @08:35PM (5 children)
And just watch all the agencies now justify publishing everything as a PDF because PDF is "machine-readable".
Hell, you actually need a machine to read a PDF, so it must be machine readable, right?
PS - yes, I know the intent of machine readable was CSV, or JSON, or XML, or some other 'data file' style format. But never underestimate the ability of a Govt. agency to read far into a broad term to try to continue doing exactly what they are already doing (publishing PDF's) or just to try to minimally meet the language of the law, but clearly not the intent.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday December 26 2018, @08:50PM (2 children)
I don't think PDF can really qualify as machine readable. It's quite often display-only as far as computers are concerned unless you make them pretend they're humans and use OCR like we do. It's about the least useful possible file format you can put a document in. Snail-mailing html files on paper tape would actually be more useful if you could find a reader.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 26 2018, @08:57PM
You are not fully 'thinking through' from a Dr Evil standpoint.
You need a machine to be able to 'read' a pdf, so therefore PDF must qualify as "machine readable" because a "machine" is necessary to "read" it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @01:00AM
I don't think machines can read yet.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday December 27 2018, @02:32AM
And that's optimistic. I'll just cut-and-paste my green-site post on the topic:
If I'm being cynical, the biggest poison pill that springs to mind, without even looking at the bill, is the straightforward (un?)intended consequences when this bill hits bureaucratic inertia.
It seems to me like a great way to make the day-to-day bureaucracy encourage secrecy, with no ill-will by anyone making the choice. If you've got a report that needs to be either stamped sensitive and filed away, or published online through the appropriate bureaucratic channels, how much more tempting will it be to just reach for/recommend the stamp? What's the penalty for "accidentally" stamping something that shouldn't have been? For publishing something sensitive? What are the odds of getting caught in either case? It's probably better just to use the stamp, if there's the slightest hint of a doubt.
And just like that, a vast swath of inconveniently useful data is kept out of the public's hands, firmly beyond the reach of a straightforward FOIA request. All in the name of government transparency.
Worse, how do you fight that in the court of public opinion? You seriously want to try to get people united behind promoting open government, by repealing the open government act? Think of the soundbites just waiting to be harvested from any representative trying to arguing for that.
I hope I'm just being too cynical.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @03:16PM
this is similar to what i came to post. even the dumb ass reporter already fucked it up. no, you ignorant fuck. "machine readable" does not mean "you can read it on your islave". that's exactly what the useless sacks of shit in government will do. PDF all the things! disgusting...