United States and India launch open government platform on Web
Following through on an agreement, the U.S. and India have jointly released open source code to help governments release data to the public.
The United States and India jointly launched a new Web portal to distribute an open source software applications to help governments manage and release their data to the public, according to an announcement on March 30.
The “Open Government Platform” website will make available code, tools and processes to government agencies and to developers, analysts, media, academia and the public to make government data more transparent and useful, officials said in the news releases.
The source material for the platform is code from Data.gov. Officials from India and the U.S. began collaborating on the new platform in August 2011.
“You'll find here a growing set of open source, open government platform code that allows any city, organization, or government to create an open data site,” reads a statement on the new website.
The first module to be released is the Data Management System, which allows for an automated process to publish data. “Any government adopting the Open Government Platform will be able to download and use the Data Management System code to submit, approve, and update catalog data electronically on Open Government Platform websites and view management metrics reports,” the website states.
The teams working on this project are Data.gov in the U.S. and the National Informatics Centre in India.
The features of the new platform include:
- Ability to publish government data, documents, and processes from multiple departments.
- An internal workflow process for approvals and management of datasets.
- Ability to create community spaces around topics of national priorities.
- Open source architecture to allow software developers to develop applications and new features.