Use for questions related to the United States of America or regions within it.
8
votes
2answers
79 views
GitHub license for code written by US Government Employee
When I open a new project on Github, I see a selection of licenses in a drop-down list, which currently looks like this:
None
Apache v2 License
MIT license
Affero GPL
Artistic License 2.0
BSD ...
4
votes
2answers
33 views
What is the difference between US Census definitions of “Urbanized Areas” and “Urban Clusters”?
I am trying to classify US Census tracts as urban, suburban, or rural. The Census Bureau provides a table with counts of people, and classifies them as either urban: urbanized area, urban: urban ...
3
votes
1answer
38 views
Voter Registration data in one place?
So I recently tried to get some voter registration data, especially historical information. The only state I could easily find the information available is Ohio(but only the most recent). It appears ...
2
votes
2answers
71 views
Is there a tool to match zip codes to cities?
I have a data set with zipcodes and would like to do a bulk upload to a tool that will give me the cities each zip is in (US only.)
2
votes
1answer
54 views
How to flag incorrect links to data on data.gov?
Just looking around, and noticed that the CSV dataset that should be a list of all elementary schools in the US, is actually a population breakdown of Canadian provinces.
...
5
votes
3answers
62 views
How and where can I get data on US census block data by city and state?
I am overwhelmed looking through dead ends on the US census website. Could someone that has solved this puzzle tell me where I can get the demographic and shapefile data? Race and income are my ...
3
votes
2answers
32 views
Accessing CATO Deep Bills with Ruby
Has anyone written any Ruby libraries for working with Cato's Deep Bills Project?
5
votes
1answer
37 views
What is the significance of Census ACS columns with line numbers ending in “.5” or “.7”?
In looking at the Census ACS data there are several columns that have line numbers ending in .5 or .7. Their table_ids are duplicates of ones immediately before or after, making some import more ...
1
vote
2answers
53 views
Need clarification: if state or city gov releases data in non-open formats (i.e. book, microfiche), *must* they now also release it in CSV format?
Consider the following not-so-hypothetical situation:
A state or city government has, for many years now, released a certain data set in various "old school" formats, such as a printed book or ...
2
votes
1answer
11 views
What open data institutes in the US are working with the Open Government Partnership?
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a global alliance of countries that are signatory to an Open Government Declaration. The United States is one of the eight founding signatories - I am curious ...
1
vote
2answers
25 views
Linking results from the FCC's TV Query API to the FCC's TV Stations Profiles API
The FCC has at least two APIs related to broadcast station data. One is TV Query, which can return pipe-delimited results like this (keys):
|K02JU |- |TX |2 |DA | ...
3
votes
0answers
29 views
Public access laws used for real-time data?
In a question about real-time gunshot data from Will Koper, he mentioned using public records laws to access it.
... which makes me wonder if anyone's even aware of FOIA or various state public ...
5
votes
0answers
45 views
Real-time gunshot detection data?
Was curious whether anyone had successfully obtained access to streaming data from any municipality that uses a "shots fired" detection system like this one.
According to their own documentation, the ...
5
votes
2answers
57 views
Is there an open database of elementary, middle, and high schools in the United States?
Is there an up-to-date and regularly maintained open database of elementary, middle, and high schools in the United States?
I'm looking for both public and private schools. Names alone would be a ...
3
votes
2answers
31 views
Availability of APHIS Data as API or bulk dump
Currently the Animal Care Information System Search Tool located at (http://acissearch.aphis.usda.gov/LPASearch/faces/CustomerSearch.jspx) provides visitors with the ability to perform a number of ...
2
votes
1answer
36 views
Linking FCC documents from ECFS to the Federal Register
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) publishes documents from rulemakings on its Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS). These documents include filings from 3rd parties as well as ...
3
votes
2answers
39 views
Are there good examples of requiring open data in RFPs?
The recent U.S. Executive Order on open and machine-readable data requires the U.S. government to begin developing ways to integrate open data into procurement and grant-making.
Are there good ...
4
votes
2answers
59 views
Where can I find Census county flow data?
I've been banging my head on this, and I'm just not having a lot of luck.
I've been using the Census' American Fact Finder to try and find it, but I'm not seeing it.
What I need is to be able to ...
2
votes
2answers
37 views
Additional Detail from IPEDS Data Source
I have used NCES IPEDS data in the past, but this recent release seems to have instituted a change. In looking at the NCES college navigator site for a particular institution, I notice that they now ...
0
votes
1answer
26 views
What level of government/governing agency determines the terms of use for transportation map/gis data in the U.S.?
In the work I do I often need various pieces of geographically-based information concerning public roadways and public transportation. It seems to me (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that this ...
1
vote
2answers
60 views
Is there an open listing of companies that use open data?
Open government data can be fuel for private sector innovation. -- as GPS and Weather data demonstrate. Is there a list of companies in the U.S. that use open government data?
1
vote
2answers
41 views
Which, if any, U.S. Federal Government agencies offer a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for their APIs?
Are there any examples of U.S. Federal Government agencies offering service level agreements (SLAs) for their APIs?
3
votes
2answers
69 views
Data Source for Speed Limits
I am not even quite sure how this data would be organized. But I am looking for a data source for different speed limits in the US correlated to street name.
6
votes
2answers
71 views
Where can I find U.S. train traffic data?
I'm trying to get a general idea of railroad traffic along particular segments of track—whether it's abandoned, whether it gets one train a month, or 100 trains a day. Is there a source of such data? ...
5
votes
1answer
82 views
Is there a site where USA road traffic historical data would be available?
Is there a site where USA road traffic historical data would be available? For example, whether the usual traffic jam on Bay Bridge in Maryland on Memorial day weekend was worse in 2012 vs. 2011?
5
votes
4answers
75 views
Sources of political voting records at the county level?
Is there a database of which party (Democrats/Republicans/Other) won which county/zip code in a U.S. presidential election? Even better would be a panel of these data. If no public database like this ...
4
votes
1answer
92 views
US Government API Usage
I'm unable to find very much data about the usage of APIs from United States federal agencies. Which APIs that have been released have the highest traffic number in terms of queries, and/or ...
4
votes
2answers
57 views
Is there data on the types of cars bought and turned in during the “cash for clunkers” program?
I'm interested in determining what sort of cars were traded in and what sort of cars were purchased through the cash for clunkers program.
Does anyone know where to find that data?
I would hope it ...
1
vote
2answers
84 views
Ownership of US county property tax/assessment data?
I'm in the process of building a not-for-profit site that will aggregate current and historical property tax data for all counties in the United States and serve it via a REST API. A problem I've ...
2
votes
1answer
41 views
Does any US Government agency (like FDA) publish a list of approved food products and ingredients?
For example, consider a category of "bread", it is approved by different Government agencies and are the ingredients specifically included on all products? Do any of these agencies maintain a list of ...
3
votes
1answer
32 views
Open and proprietary data in determining federal funding eligibility
For federal grant applications, specific geographical areas and populations often have to meet minimum qualifications in order to demonstrate a need that allows them to apply for a grant (e.g. median ...
3
votes
4answers
108 views
Appealing a “Mosaic Effect” restriction?
The U.S. Government Policy on Open Data Memo directs agencies to take into account the "mosaic effect."
Theoretically, it seems like the mosaic effect could justify the restriction of almost any ...
3
votes
1answer
54 views
What finance data sets would be particularly useful to release?
The U.S. government publishes a range of finance data sets (see, e.g., www.Treasury.gov/financedata). What additional data sets that the government already collects would be valuable if released in ...
4
votes
4answers
92 views
Is there a list, database or API that contains the URLs for United States city and town websites?
I'm looking for a database of URLs for every official city and town website. Ideally this list would be up to date and maintained. Freebase has some of the results and we have every city and town in ...
6
votes
3answers
89 views
Is there a better public version of USA's Social Security Death Master File?
USA data on death can be obtained via Social Security as SSDI (death index) and SSDMF (death master file).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Death_Index
One site http://ssdmf.info offers ...
7
votes
6answers
102 views
What would be particularly useful basic APIs for the US Federal Government to offer?
There are already certain basic APIs for census tracts, school districts, energy costs, a range of geo data, zip codes, etc.
What I'm wondering is what would be other fundamental web services that ...
4
votes
2answers
50 views
Where can I get bulk access to IRS 990 filings for US non-profits
There's another question about a list of all nonprofits, and this answer is kind of buried in the answers to that one. Also, this question came up today on the NICAR-L mailing list. It's a common ...
4
votes
3answers
41 views
What are the sources of data on Data.gov?
I was browsing through the datasets on the website, and datasets like "Tax Year 2007--" caught my attention. At first I thought it might be Census data. However, if you look at the "About" tag for ...
4
votes
2answers
75 views
What is the plan for the US Government's Data.gov?
The US Government recently announced an intent to upgrade Data.gov. What are the specific technical plans to do so?
8
votes
2answers
49 views
What is the governance of the US Government's Project Open Data?
The US Government just launched Project Open Data on GitHub, which includes best practices, free tools to accelerate adoption of open data practices, and common core metadata for the federal ...
8
votes
4answers
137 views
What new open data do you need from the U.S. government?
Data.gov provides ~400,000 datasets from 180 federal agencies. However, I know you are interested in more data and more specific data than what is already included. What additional topics, formats, or ...
5
votes
1answer
26 views
How do United States federal agencies release data?
I'm interested in the process of how an agency, like the EPA, GSA, or Department of State, finds a dataset they wish to release, selects it, and how they go about releasing it to the public. How do ...
0
votes
1answer
26 views
Is there a list of Chemical Weapon Industry Facilities/Funders?
This question was recently asked on NICAR and got crickets:
Can anybody point me in the right direction for data on state or regional presence (or lack) of chemical weapons industry ...
3
votes
2answers
36 views
Is there an API or global source for US ballot information?
I'd like to be able to query to discover what's on the ballot - from local measures to Presidential elections.
Is there a source that combines all of this data? Or is there a standard that's ...
3
votes
1answer
36 views
Is there a centralized schedule of data release dates for U.S. federal agencies?
Is there some centralized or streamlined source of data release schedules for major U.S. government agencies? Something that combines sources such as the BLS Schedule of Data Release, ACS Data Release ...
6
votes
6answers
122 views
What is the best way to request machine readable data from a FOIA request?
Maybe there is no way to request a specific file type but what is the best way to request a file (paper or digital) that can be converted easiestly?
5
votes
1answer
49 views
What is the appropriate way to timestamp/determine recency of given data set?
Certain U.S. federal grant applications require the use of "recent" data, e.g.
data used to support the application should come from recent (i.e.
within the past 5 years) published source
Is ...
4
votes
4answers
92 views
What is the best source for finding what businesses have opened/exist/closed in a given geographical area?
Is there a a standard source for finding out what businesses (with brick and mortar locations) exist in a geographical area (particularly in the U.S.)? This doesn't necessarily have to be a ...
3
votes
1answer
31 views
Database with the historical prices of most popular products in U.S.?
Is there an open database that would contained the historical prices of the most popular products in U.S.? At best with the product classification, so that it would be possible to make analysis, how ...
18
votes
5answers
295 views
Should I approach an agency unofficially before FOIAing them?
Are there drawbacks to FOIAing (Freedom of Information Act, either federally or equivalent state/local laws) an agency? For example, can it lead to an adversarial relationship?
