The primary goal of Data.gov is to encourage the public to freely participate in repurposing data without restriction, leveraging it and creating new social and economic value.  Federal agencies include the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration and many others.  Data.gov publishes the data in a more findable, usable and interoperable format and provides tools for easy downloading.

Data.gov started with 47 datasets at launch on May 21, 2009.  As of May 21, 2011, on Data.gov’s second anniversary, the datasets available have grown exponentially and consist of:

1. • 389,697 raw and geospatial datasets
   

2. • 977 government apps
   

3. • 236 citizen-developed apps
   

4. • 51 mobile apps
   

5. • 172 agencies and subagencies that have uploaded datasets