Web Developers

DataDotGove Has A Long Ways To Go

Posted by on May 21, 2009 | 2 Comments

There should be an image here!If the current incarnation of the US government is excited about Data.gov, then perhaps that excitement ought to be followed up by some content be posted to it? Just a thought.

When one considers that a rival, non-governmental supported project has managed to provide internal XML feeds, in addition to vastly more data to scour through, it seems like Data.gov is not all that it’s cracked up to be.

Will this change anytime soon? Perhaps, but if history has taught us anything, it will be the private sector that beats out the government in the area of performance, as we have seen in the linked examples above.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bruce-Dick-Siefkes/579300588 Bruce Dick Siefkes

    i live in rural MN and can only get DSL and it is slow most other countries can get a 20 plus for what i pay. i have relatives in Holland and Germany they love there faster speed..

  • kevin sexton

    The problem is that “what you pay for” is “up to” x speed. It’s basically the limit on your speed. You are paying not for a connection at a speed, but paying for a higher limit. There is an explicit denial of any guarantee of speed. With high speed internet being either a monopoly or near monopoly, some standards are needed. There should be a minimum speed guaranteed a certain percentage of time, so that you can make a claim and get a refund if it’s too slow too much of the time. The reason I qualified that with percentages is that providers will insist that circumstances and loads outside their control can slow things down. Right now, you could be slowed down to dial up speed for a few weeks, and have no legal recourse. Maybe customer service would issue a credit, maybe not. On caps, they need to be explicit, up front, with an easy to find meter, email notification at percentages of the cap, and consistent enforcement, or they need to not exist at all.

    How I’d like to buy my internet would be to buy a certain minimum speed, and have, if the load on the provider is below capacity, have no limit on speed. This would allow for things like very fast backups and downloads if done on off-peak hours.