The U.S. Government Accountability Office has recently written about their propensity for data visualizations like charts and graphics, while also inviting viewers to look through some of their archives.  One example:

Throughout GAO.gov we now have about 40 interactive graphics, mainly focused on topics related to the federal debt and the federal, state, and local fiscal outlooks. This content is highly relevant to public debates, and is now in a format that people can easily see, explore, and use on computers, tablets, and smartphones.

Head over to GAO.gov to check them out.

With the rise of big data, there have been increasing concerns about data transparency and usability.  GovCon drew our eye to three ways in which data transparency is creating change for businesses and consumers.  A particular innovation is the utilization of QR codes for creating a method of giving consumers access to knowledge while acknowledging the concrete limitations of physical package.  QR codes:

Linking the physical label to a website allows the manufacturer to post an infinite amount of additional data on the chemicals, production processes, safety standards and handling of the products.  This would provide a robust “chain of responsibility” for every product we are considering purchasing.

To build trust and confidence in the cloud, evolution from existing platforms and architectures is key. At the same time, however, decision-makers should embrace the widest possible view of what constitutes IT architecture, taking physical constraints into account at every level.

Key finding from a paper at Gigaom that tackles "how organizations can benefit from aspects of technology that lie beyond the corporate boundary — that is, the cloud — without being hampered by sometimes-artificial technological, organizational, and financial constraints."  Read the rest here.

Government is at the very beginning of the third major shift in computing paradigms with the cloud, following the ages of mainframe and client-server computing ... The global market for cloud services is estimated to be $158 billion this year, growing to $244 billion by 2017. However, federal government spending on the cloud is currently only a small percentage of this, with around $3 billion of its annual $80 billion IT budget spent on cloud services.

Scott Renda, the Office of Management and Budget's cloud computing and federal data center consolidation portfolio manager.  Via GCN.