Canberra, 10 March 2011

(by Ton Zijlstra)

Australian Special Minister of State Gary Gray writes in an article titled "Release of data.gov.au": "The new data.gov.au site has now been released and I invite you to explore, access and reuse the data available on the site. The release of public sector information in the form of datasets allows the commercial, research and community sectors to add value to government data in new, innovative and exciting ways."

This data portal fits into the Declaration of Open Government of mid 2010 and follows on earlier initiatives by Australian public bodies and states to release data. The new portal can now "provide a broader range of agencies the opportunity to similarly release more data online." It already contains several hundred data sets, and points to other existing data catalogues in Australia as well. The Australian government is interested in hearing what applications are being build re-using the data, and provides a form to report your application. Some of these apps are featured on the front page.