A number of open government sites in the US including data.gov may be terminated due to a lack of funding, according to a report by Federal News Radio.

Data.gov provided the model and inspiration for open government sites across the world, including the UK’s data.gov.uk.

But in a recent bill, the House of Representatives allocated just $2 million to the Obama administration’s e-government fund.

This is way below the $35 million it had hoped for, and a number of sites that may now be taken offline next month. Other sites facing the chop include ITDashboard.gov, which publishes data on federal IT expenditure.

Gartner government IT analyst Andrea Di Maio remarked that these cuts were foreseeable, as the benefits of open government initiatives had not been successfully articulated. "The mistake made by those in charge for open government has been to look at it … as a goal and not as a tool," he wrote yesterday. "Now, with e-gov budget possibly drying out, this approach is untenable."