A small but growing number of state officials are warming to the idea of greater transparency and open access to raw government data, following a budding trend across the country. 

In the latest example, state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, wrote to numerous Texas agencies, urging them to post "high-value" databases online in open-standard formats, a move he says could prompt the public to develop tools to explore them. "Texas has the opportunity to regain its leadership role in the area of transparency — without the need for agencies to design expensive applications through which the public would view that data," he ...

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