Study On Open Government Data Policiesof United States

Open government data is a representation of people’s right to know. Meanwhile, it has a robust and positive way in advancing openness and transparency as well as improvement of government services. U.S open government data policies has been modified and improved for more than 200 years. The core policies of open government data include <First Amendment of 1789>, <Freedom of Information Act> and <Privacy Act>. With the development of new technology and widely use of Internet, electronic data became the main form of government figure. Providing the increasing needs of open data under new circumstance, federal government had passed < Quality of Open Data Act>, <Electronic Freedom of Information Act> and <Open Government Data Act of 2007>. U.S open government policies involved bringing government closer to the people and involving people in government by helping them to understand government better and participate when they so desired. Improving the quality of government decision making, improving advice to government, removing waste and unnecessary expenditure and helping to fight corruption were seen as objectives. This thesis focuses on U.S. government policies and aims at providing useful information for Chinese government open data policy making.