TECHNOLOGY AND THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNMENT

According to a memo President Obama released a day after he took office, "Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their government is doing. My administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use." Notable instances of the administration’s efforts include Recovery.gov, the Web site that tracks funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and Data.gov, a site with the aim of providing high-value data sets from the federal government’s executive branch in machine-readable downloadable formats.