About

Data.gov provides hundreds of thousands of U.S. government datasets and increases the ability of the public to easily find, download, and use these datasets. Data.gov provides descriptions of the Federal datasets (metadata), information about how to access the datasets, and tools that leverage government datasets. An Open Government initiative for the White House, Data.gov has resources for developers and businesses, and access to local data as well.

From http://www.data.gov/about:

Data.gov is the home of the U.S. Government’s open data. You can find Federal, state and local data, tools, and resources to conduct research, build apps, design data visualizations, and more. The Data.gov team works at the U.S. General Services Administration, and data on the site are provided by hundreds of organizations, including Federal agencies. The code behind the site is open source, and we’d love your help making it even better.