Patent Law

J. Nicholas Hoover wrote an article in the June 8, 2009 issue of InformationWeek about the federal government's launch in May of the Data.gov website with 47 data sets.  The goal was to have 100,000 data feeds available to the public in programmable form by the middle of June.  Based on my visit to the site today, it appears they still have a long way to go, but the site currently lists 389 "raw" data sets.

Here is a brief description from the website:

The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Although the initial launch of Data.gov provides a limited portion of the rich variety of Federal datasets presently available, we invite you to actively participate in shaping the future of Data.gov by suggesting additional datasets and site enhancements to provide seamless access and use of your Federal data.

Data.gov includes searchable data catalogs providing access to data in three ways: through the "raw" data catalog, the tool catalog and the geodata catalog. The "Raw" Data Catalog provides an instant download of machine readable, platform-independent datasets while the Tools Catalog provides hyperlinks to tools that allow you to mine datasets.

Access Data.gov to see for yourself.