Public Intelligence: How It Can Work

I’ve been contemplating the notion of “public intelligence” in the context of government transparency.

Public documents and data play a lead role for both government and non-governmental organizations alike. They create an Internet data space that offers information about public concerns, while at the same time providing this information for public use with added analytical capabilities that transform documents and data into public business intelligence.

Examples of online public data initiatives range from distribution of an XML-formatted version of the U.S. Federal Register to the provision of government operational data at sites such as USAspending.gov and Recovery.gov and dissemination of government-compiled demographic and economic statistics via powerful query, mapping, and data visualization interfaces at American FactFinder and similar sites…

… more at http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=773&doc_id=183259