US President Barack Obama has signed an executive order that requires government agencies to make publicly accessible data open and machine readable.
"Government information shall be managed as an asset throughout its life cycle to promote interoperability and openness, and, wherever possible and legally permissible, to ensure that data are released to the public in ways that make the data easy to find, accessible, and usable," reads the Open Data Policy order.
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In 2009, Obama pledged to make his administration the most open in the history of US government. The administration hopes that innovators, including researchers and entrepreneurs, will be able to examine and use the data to benefit the country.
In a statement, the White House said the move mirrors the decision back in the 1980s to make weather data and the Global Positioning System freely available, which in turn led to more accurate weather forecasting and the development of location-based applications and precision farming tools, all of which benefited the US economy.
"One of the things we're doing to fuel more private sector innovation and discovery is to make vast amounts of America's data open and easy to access for the first time in history. And talented entrepreneurs are doing some pretty amazing things with it," said President Obama.
"Starting today, we're making even more government data available online, which will help launch even more new start-ups. And we're making it easier for people to find the data and use it, so that entrepreneurs can build products and services we haven't even imagined yet."
A similar open data policy was introduced in the UK last year, with the aim of creating an "information marketplace for entrepreneurs and businesses".
