Examples of data that are already being released in machine-readable form across government.

FORBES: Obama Signs Open Data Executive Order: U.S. Government Data To Be Made Freely Available

Most of it is unstructured and stored in a non-machine-readable form (eg, English), which means that it can be read only by humans.

ECONOMIST: The future: Tomorrow’s Internet | The

Since 1994, however, a group of experts from both sides of the Strait, Hong Kong and Singapore have been working to standardize the rules by which machines in all four areas translate electronic data into a readable form.

CNN: COMMUNICATION

Building on the success of the Green Button initiative which is providing consumers with secure access to their own energy data and has facilitated the voluntary release of energy-use data in computer-readable form to encourage private-sector innovation the Energy Data Initiative aims to harness the power of energy data through a combination of technology and ingenuity.

WHITEHOUSE: Brainstorming With Energy Data