Government web sites should focus on RSS, not redesigns

A new paper from researchers at Princeton University suggests that government agencies should abandon the dream of developing fancy or usable web sites, and instead focus on providing raw public data such as regulatory decisions, campaign finance data etc. in open, structured formats such as RSS and XML. This raw data would be made freely and publicly available to anyone who wanted it and could be used for any purpose.

Another paper called “Hack, Mash, and Peer” explains the basics of structured data formats and argues that releasing raw data in open, structured formats would make government agencies more transparent and accountable.

We at Feedity envision pain-less creation and distribution of data in a structured format. We provide a scalable hosted service for custom RSS generation, for pretty much any webpage/website. Our on-demand service facilitates rapid data extraction and content delivery in the form of RSS feeds for news or general information.

Organizations, Web developers, and government agencies, can instantly start leveraging the benefits of our Web service. For more details, please visit our website, or contact us for any other enquiries.

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7 Comments on “Government web sites should focus on RSS, not redesigns”

  1. That Guy says:

    Exactly what I do. I noticed the gap – all levels of government here in Canada focus on touristy-websites, but getting information for residents is difficult to non-existent.

    Take a look at http://www.bureaucrat.ca which provides RSS feeds of government jobs in Canada; “Don’t fight the power, be the power”!

    Another is http://www.govtender.ca which provides RSS feeds of government tenders, RFPs and contracts.

    Other sites of mine that fill this void? http://www.copjobs.ca focuses on police jobs in Canada, http://www.govsurplus.ca focuses on government surplus in Canada, http://www.collegework.ca focuses on community college jobs in Canada…and more to come.

    If they don’t, I do!

  2. Abhishek says:

    Nice one. i give presentation to redesign government website almost once every week to different departments. i never thought of this aspect even though i am pretty much familiar with RSS and XML. this will be my focusing point from now on. Thank you very much for this.

  3. […] has been a common consensus among the data liberators that government web sites should focus on RSS, not redesigns. What’s exciting to see with the new US government, is its keen interest in opening up all […]

  4. Prarunduh says:

    Neat article – hope to definitely come back soon.

  5. […] Government web sites should focus on RSS, not redesigns […]


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