In case you missed it, the open data revolution is here, and it’s magical. Back in 2009, we witnessed the creation of data.gov, the digital home for all U.S. government open data. In 2014, the Digital Accountability and Transparency (DATA) Act passed, requiring all federal agencies to transform their spending information into open data. Fast forward to 2017, we continue to see developments in open data. Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer invests $10 million in building USAFacts, and the DATA Act passes a historic milestone—all federal agencies are now reporting their spending data. This is a historic moment in time for our government as well as our citizens—and we should celebrate it. But more than that, now’s the time we need to ask ourselves—with all this open data now available, what do we do with it?
