By utilizing citizen-empowered software programs, local governments are hoping to improve accessibility and create a new way of accessing data.  By allowing citizens to vote on what data sets they want to be released to the public, governments are taking it a step further in an effort to make the process of data-sharing more transparent.

Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco and an early proponent of the open data movement, says that the open-data efforts will "change the way citizens and government interact, but perhaps most important, it's going to change the way elected officials and civil servants deliver programs, services, and promises."

Over at Data.gov, the federal government has approached Web developers to create more useful ways of using the data that has been collected.  The effort to make government data public started in the 1960's, but today's technology has opened the door for an open data movement.  The White House is about to make data disclosure an official policy for federal agencies and local governments are jumping on board as well.

There are concerns over the amount of information that is being released and whether or not governments will be forthright enough to hand over data that casts them in a poor light. Others fear that people might misinterpret what the data is telling them. There are issues over the rights to data and how far local governments have to go in order to provide "the data flow for entrepreneurs."

Local Governments Offer Data to Software Tinkerers