Press Release 12-148
NSF Reaches Out to the Public on Federal Government-wide Digital Strategy

Agency asks citizens to help prioritize its data sets for expanded access

The Digital Strategy aims to enable more efficient and coordinated delivery of digital information. Credit and Larger Version

August 8, 2012

NSF is working to make agency data and services more useful and dynamic, key goals of the recent Digital Government Strategy, and is seeking the public's input to decide what information should be first in line for expanded openness.

The Digital Government Strategy, announced on May 23, 2012, sets forth a bold plan to give citizens and an increasingly mobile federal workforce access to high quality, digital government information, data and services, and also build an information technology (IT) infrastructure that supports digital government in the 21st century. Ultimately, the Digital Strategy aims to enable more efficient and coordinated delivery of digital information across all federal agencies.

Starting today, NSF is asking the public to help it prioritize which data sets, or digital collections of information, to open more broadly through the use of interactive search and display functionality. The foundation has set up a new website, nsfdigitalstrategy.ideascale.com, to allow everyone to vote for collections of information that are under consideration for expanded access. Broader access would be achieved through the use of technologies known as APIs. An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a type of code used by one computer or device to access or retrieve information from another computer or device. Web developers can use APIs to join previously unrelated data from disparate online sources, enabling government information to be viewed and "mashed up" in new and innovative ways.

The public can provide feedback on which NSF data sets it considers to be of highest value until Aug. 22.

Additional information about NSF and the Digital Government Strategy, including updates on data set priorities will be available on a new website, NSF Digital Strategy.

-NSF-

Media Contacts
Maria C. Zacharias, NSF (703) 292-8454 mzachari@nsf.gov

Related Websites
NSF Digital Strategy-Vote for Information Sets: http://nsfdigitalstrategy.ideascale.com/
NSF Digital Strategy: http://www.nsf.gov/digitalstrategy/

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2012, its budget was $7.0 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $593 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

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