From Radar.Oreilly.com – The government releases a boatload of scientific data: "the White House responded to a We The People e-petition that asked for free online access to taxpayer-funded research. As part of the response, John Holdren, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, released a memorandum today directing agencies with 'more than $100 million in research and development expenditures to develop plans to make the results of federally funded research publically available free of charge within 12 months after original publication.'”
From OpenSource.com – A scientist foresees more open boatloads of scientific data on the horizon: "PLOS, and later PeerJ, are pioneering new approaches to scientific publication, along with efforts such as altmetrics to redefine metrics applied to scientific output and career progression. The Insight Journal was created as a platform for reproducible papers describing software algorithms with the core principal of ensuring reproducibility of computational methods. New services such as figshare make data, figures, and tables citable work, and promote sharing and reuse through liberal licensing."
From OpenSource.com – A neuro-hacker explains why we need those boatloads of scientific data: "For research, open is just more true. In this world, it seems like everyone and everything has an agenda. When it comes to research, an agenda that conflicts with the truth of that research is just plain evil. Too many people lie and fudge research because it means more money, fame, etc. So if it's not open, we can't grow as a society or even as a civilization. We need research to be open, or else good ideas will get lost in the marketplace in favor of quicker, cheaper, faster, shinier ideas that aren't necessarily better or 'the right thing.'"
From TheAtlanticCities.com – A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators moves to help neighborhoods: "A new bill introduced today in Congress could change all that. The Brownfields Utilization, Investment and Local Development Act of 2013—or BUILD Act for short—would help local governments and other entities clean up and revitalize brownfield sites. Brownfields cleanup drives economic growth while giving local governments the flexibility to pursue projects they need the most. The BUILD Act has bipartisan support—noteworthy in and of itself in this Congress—and its sponsors hail from a broad array of states, each with their own brownfield challenges."
From Streetsblog.org – A bunch of bikers converged in the capital: "For the second year running, the Women’s Bicycling Forum kicked off the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC. About 300 people attended, and Streetfilms got to take their pulse on the state of bicycling for women and collect some suggestions about how to grow the number of women who ride. Here’s a sampling of what we heard, set to cycling scenes in a dozen cities throughout the U.S."
From TheAtlanticCities.com – A new tech start-up makes open data more efficient: "The recent push from cities to release open data is great for residents, but it can be a boon for municipal governments, too. … Enter CityScan: a start-up that integrates public information on local codes with advanced street-mapping technology to perform the regulatory oversight cities often can't manage with their own small staffs. The company has a unique access agreement with Nokia-owned NAVTEQ, a map developer that drives more or less every mile of road in the United States collecting data through an imaging technology called LIDAR — light detection and ranging — capable of creating incredibly precise maps. By matching up LIDAR results with open permit data, CityScan can spot gaps in local licensing revenue or major safety hazards."
