Um, no, we should not give the government room to screw up. The government does not exist to innovate. Nor does it exist to create "products". It exists, to quo

Um, no, we should not give the government room to screw up. The government does not exist to innovate. Nor does it exist to create "products". It exists, to quote the U.S. Constitution, to: "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" Frankly, I'm surprised to see this coming from Sunlight Labs. The point of open government data is not to innovate or develop products, it's to: a) Give back to the people property which is rightfully theirs. Datasets developed by the U.S. government belong to the people of the United States, excepting in the cases where it doesn't (national security, personal privacy, or otherwise legally restricted). Even then, there's usually a sunset provision at which point the data should be made publicly available upon request. b) Provide transparency and promote the smooth functioning of participatory democracy. c) Support accountability in government.