Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

Today, the Obama Administration launched the Smart Disclosure Data Community at Consumer.Data.gov, an important step to empower Americans with the data and tools they need to make more informed choices in the marketplace.“Smart disclosure” is the act of making potentially useful data more readily available—both to consumers and innovators.

Last week, more than two hundred people convened at the White House Tech Inclusion Summit—an unprecedented gathering of innovative thinkers from business, government, non-profits, and the tech world seeking to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to learn tech skills–particularly those from underserved and historically underrepresented communities, including women and girls.

Thousands of Americans have connected with the Presidential Innovation Fellows to learn and share ideas about their work—and this Administration’s commitment—to unleash data from the vaults of the government as fuel for innovation. Based on that feedback, they created Alpha.data.gov--an online showcase that tells the story of Open Data.

This summer, citizens in cities across the Nation will join together to improve their communities and governments as part of the National Day of Civic Hacking. Civic Hacking Day is an opportunity for software developers, technologists, and entrepreneurs to unleash their can-do American spirit by collaboratively harnessing publicly-released data and code to create innovative solutions for problems that affect Americans.

The Department of the Treasury recently hosted a Finance Data Working Session to brainstorm new uses and applications of government data that would help empower consumers. At the session, which was convened as part of Treasury’s broader Finance Data Initiative, over 50 entrepreneurs discussed dozens of ideas for new features, products, services, and apps that use government data to help American consumers make informed choices.

Back in September of 2011, in his address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Obama issued a call to action to countries around the world to “break down economic and political barriers that stand in the way of women and girls.” As part of America’s answer to this call, the White House launched the Equal Futures App Challenge – to create apps that inspire girls and young women to become leaders in our democracy.

Today, a committee of independent advisors to the U.S. Government released its first draft of a new National Climate Assessment (NCA)—a 400-page synthesis of scientists’ current understanding of climate change and its impacts in the United States. The Global Change Research Act of 1990 calls for an NCA to be produced at least every four years—the last came out in 2009.

Our Nation’s small businesses employ over 60 million Americans, or half of the private sector workforce. The Obama Administration recently released a detailed action plan to achieve this goal of increasing Federal services to entrepreneurs and small businesses, with an emphasis on startups, growing firms, and underserved markets. This Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goal is designed to improve government performance on important national priorities.

Yesterday, we hosted the first-ever White House Codeathon! The goal of this event was to support the Equal Futures App Challenge, a challenge to create apps that inspire girls and young women to become leaders in our democracy. This challenge is in response to President Obama’s call to countries around the world to politically and economically empower women and girls.

Data sets published by Federal agencies are increasingly being harnessed by private-sector innovators to empower consumers to take control of their financial lives. Recently, Treasury hosted a Finance Data Convening to highlight the variety of features, apps, products, and services that use finance data released by Federal agencies.

Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed new rules governing how wireless broadband providers can share the airwaves with Government users, adopting an innovative model first proposed earlier this year by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) in its landmark report, Realizing the Full Potential of Government-Held Spectrum to Spur Economic Growth. The action comes amidst an array of Administration initiatives aimed at freeing up more spectrum for wireless broadband in order to drive productivity, jobs, and innovation, while also protecting the essential Government systems.

This week, OSTP asked winners and finalists from the 2012 Siemens Foundation student competition in Math, Science, and Technology to tell us why they are pursuing STEM and what it means to them. Here's what they had to say.

Post-Sandy, HUD, OSTP, and several tech companies teamed up to help families in need of alternative housing.

Last week, OSTP Director John P. Holdren joined USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah in launching the Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN) – a groundbreaking partnership between USAID and seven top universities that is designed to harness the ingenuity of faculty and students to help solve global development challenges.